Denial
Notes
Transcript
Anyone remember this amazing place? I have talked about it before…
Anyone have the blockbuster card? Anyone still have it?!
If you were alive during the 90s this was the best place in the world?
I mean everyone loved blockbuster and not just that but it was a company that grew so fast and became so strong that by the late 90s the company would bring in 5.9 billion dollars
They employed 84,000 people nation wide
they had 9000 stores and growing
And if you would have asked anyone in the late 90s if blockbuster would be popular in 2024 we would have said of course!
How could something like that go bad?
And you probably know this but there is only one blockbuster left in the town of Bend, Oregan
And there are a lot of reasons for it, some people say its because they did not embrace streaming
In fact they actually had the guy that founded Netfliz pitch his idea to Blockbuster (before starting Netflix) and the board litterly laughed him out of the room
Others said there business model was set up poorley
Some said they were to harsh with late fees
But most people said it was a lot of small choices that led them from this placee where they were thriving to a place where they are now only surviving.
And the reason I bring this up is because this week we are looking at a follower of Jesus named Peter.
And if you knew Peter He was someone (that probably a good word for his relationship with God was intense).
I mean He was a strong follower of Christ.
He walked on water,
Jesus would take Peter with Him to different things that He would not bring other disciples on
Last week we saw (while this was not a good moment for him) Peter cut off a guys ear because he saw him as a threat to Jesus.
But whats interesting is this week, we see this person that we often view as a spiritual giant, fall… and fall hard.
And I think this brings up a really good question “How is it possible for someone like that to be so close to Jesus but fall so far away.
And probably a better qustion is for us “How is it possible for us to have moments in our walk with God where we are on fire for Him, but then find ourselves in places where we go wow, I am not even sure what I believe.
TAnd I think if we were being completely honest there are times where we can ourselves where we move from our walk with God is thriving to barely surviving.
And so this morning we will just be diving into John 18:12-27
And before we dive into this let me just catch you up if you have been with us.
Because we have been in this series called Journey to the Cross
And really we have been looking more in depth at the last week of Jesus’s life
And last week we looked at a pretty dark part of scripture where Jesus was betrayed and captured
And you can kind of feel the hevieness of last weeks passage continuing today.
And so we are going to start in verse 12-14 of this passage, because it says this:
12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.
So it starts with these soldiers bounding Jesus and they are taking him to the Annas and to the high priest
And its interesting because you might remember a few weeks ago we looked at the passage where Jesus entered the temple and people were selling sacrafices and Jesus does what? He flips the tables.
And this got people angry, and one of the people would have been Annas and the high priest.
Because they would have been the ones who would have profited from these sales.
And so you can picture them hearing about Jesus and all of his miricles and then Jesus coms in and destroys this nice business they had in the temple where they were wrongly profiting from peoples sacrifices.
And there is a little bit of fear right?
Because this Jesus guy is really disrupting things.
And not just this but the Romans would have viewed him as a trouble maker and so this got the Jewish leaders nervous because if Jesus was aassociated with them the Romans had the power at this time to destory the temple if the Jewish people were not staying in line.
So you can think about the fear they had hear:
They are scared to loose power
Sared to loose the temple
Sacred to loose the control they have
And beefore we dive into the main part of the passage we are into, I just have to say this:
Because so often we do what the high priest and his father in law are doing here.
We allow our fear to motivate us
Whether it is a fear of losing comfort, power, control, or something else.
Our fear motivates us more then where Christ is leading us.
And what ends up happening is we do what the high priest is doing and we find a way to try and control it rather then lean into what God is calling us to do.
And here is what we need to get our reation when God is leaading us somewhere can either be we need to buckle down and control our life, or it can be we say “Here you go God…This is your life not my own.”
Its almost like does anyone have a truck?
Its almost like if I borrowed your truck.
And you would probably give me an outline on how I can use the truck right?
And so Jeff sees me later that day just doing donuts in the church lot and off roading with it.
He would go “hey, I want my truck back thats not why I gave you that.
And I would have an option here.
I could give Jeff his keys back, or I could gun it and drive away.
And I think a lot of times in our lives God has given us these amazing lives and so often we use them in ways He hasen’t called us to.
And God comes to us lovingly, and instead of going I am sorry, we go I am not loosing this!
And we forget whose it belongs to.
I mean what are the areas where we are holding onto power or comfort or maybe even just something we know is wrong, rather then reliying on Jesus.
Because the first thing we need to do is hand God the keys before anything else can happen.
And lets get into the main part of the passage because look at the next few verses (Verses 15-18):
15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. 17 “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” 18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
So they take Jesus to the high priest court,
And as they are taking Him you can see in verse 15 Peter is following, but one detail that we are told in Luke (Where He tells the story from another perspective) is that he was following from afar
Hwe was no longer right next to Jesus, but he was far away watching and doing this thing where he did not want to be associated, because He was fearful of what the Romans would do to him if he was associated with Jesus.
And I think this is a strong point right here, because when we follow Jesus as a distance whether its because we are in fear or maybe just disengaged, you know there is a problem.
Its kind of like a lot of you know this over the past 2 months I have had 8 issues with my car (its a lot of fun)
And you know one of the biggest ways I find out there is an issue?
My Dashboard lights start to flash at me.
And I can ignore them and watch the car explode or I can go what should I do about this?
I want us to understand this because I think if we are honest in a lot of our lives, there are probably some flags that yeah we are following Jesus, but it is defenitly at a distance.
I mean we come to church on Sunday but if we are honest we don’t live out any of it.
We have addictions, but its its not causing a ton of damage (that I can see), so it can hang around
God calls you to give up a certain part of your life, but your comfortable and that sounds not so comfortable
And I am not telling you this to make us feel bad, but I think we have to ask ourselves whaat aare the signs that we are following at a distance (like Peter), rather then following up close.
Because sometimes following close gets a little uncomfortable,
And I love this next part because they bring Jesus to the court and you will notice another disciple was following Jesus and He is following closer to Him physically.
And it says that he went in to the high priest court where they brought Jesus.
But then Peter got locked out because he followed so far behind.
And so this other disciple had to go ask the servant to let him in because Peter found himself phyically so far away from Jesus.
And here is what I want us to get, because Peter is physically far awaay from Jesus but He is definetly spirituaally far isn’t he?
But whaat I love is while Peter is far another, disciple brings him closer to God.
And I really want us to understand this because this is one of the reasons why for our walk with God to thrive, we need community with the body of Christ.
And I know you are thinking… well your a pastor… Of course you want that!
But heres the thing, I look around this room and there are a group of people that are different.
You have different interest,
You have different ways God has gifted you
We all have different backgrounds and stories
Different ages,
Some of you are bears fans, others packers
But with all seriousness itss a group of people that are so different but we all come together in community to worship God.
And we grow so much closer to God and eachother when this happens, because, I know this is going to be hard to imagine, but occasionally I make mistakes… I know shocking…
But when I do what beautiful is to be a part of a body of believes that lovingly bring me back (closer to God)
And when we catch ourselves doing this whole Peter thing (Where we follow from a distance), its an amazing thing when we have someone else who is following Him to bring us back to Him.
I want you to catch this because Peter comes enters the high court where Jesus was about to be questioned
And as He enters the court, the servant girl that holds the door ask Him. Aren’t you one of this mans disciples?
Keep in mind the guy getting asked this question is the guy that a few hours ago cut off a person ear to defend Jesus
And now this servant girl, (who would have been so low in society) (I mean she is the persson that gets the door)
And Peter goes, I am not one of His disciples.
You know sometimes where there are big things in our life that come up we are good at going I will take aa stand and be faithful to God.
But then so often what trips us up are those small moments, that might not seem very insignificant, but matter so much.
I am just going say this small white lie, because its easier then talking about the issue with my spouse
I am just doing this… Who cares,
Its almost like the book, if you give a mouse a cookie. Anyone remember this book.
I read this to Liams class the other day and the premise of the book is if you give a mouse a cookie, he wants a glass of milk, if you give him a glaass of milk, he will probably want this and eventually the mouse ends up with like a private jet or something ridiculous,
But heres the thing because so often we go oh well, its just this… But then we do this, and this nums us where now we are open to this.
And before we know it we catch ourselves in a place that we never thought we would be in.
And this is what happens to Peter, because Jesus has now been brought into the high court and is being questioned, hit,
and He see the disciples and the disciples can see Him.
And lets jump to verse 25 because you will notice Peter denys Jesus 2 more times. it says:
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” 26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
So Peter deny’s Jesus two more times and I love other gospel accounts of this because by the third time Peter is getting really defensive.
In fact in the Bibles literaal language Peter drops what would have been our equivalent of an explicit word and He goes I do not know that man!
And in Luke the third time Peter denies Jesus, we are told Jesus looks at Peter.
And you can picture Peter going, I never thought I would be here.
In fact Jesus told him, that he would deny him three times, before the rooster crows
And as Peter denys Jesus they here the crow and other gospels tell us that Peter weeps bitterly.
You know this is a pretty rough place to end, isn’t it.
Peter is in a place He never thought He would be, and Jesus in the worse moment of his life, has the closest person deny that he even knows him.
And I want to rap it all together, because maybe this morning you are following from a distance, maybe you are in a place you never imagined yourself in, here is the beautiful part of this story,
Because after Jesus is crucified and risen Peter is out fishing with the disciples, and Jesus appears on shore.
And when the disciples realize this is Jesus they begin to paddle in, but Peter does something different, because Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to Jesus.
As we close maybe this morning you need to jump out of the boat, and come to Jesus.
I because Peter, does not wait around, but He goes I need to see Jesus.
And so I am going to pray for us and maybe as we sing this last song we can just open up this space to be receptive of where God iss wanting us to be.
Will you pray with me.