Wasted Grave Pt. 3: Reaction is a Wasted Response

Intro

When was the last time you did something stupid? When I was a kid, I lived with my grandparents. My grandpa had a bunch of (Slide 1) ink stamps. He seemed to collect them… Or just never get rid of his old ones. You know those stamps? So one day during Spring Break, I got bored. And as a kid, you probably would’ve called me a devil. I was mischeviously destructive. So I decided to take his stamp and after stamping a couple pages, I looked around and saw (Slide 2) our white wall. The wall was so shiny and my brain wondered, “What would happen if this stamp touched that nice shiny wall?” Let me tell you guys, these intrusive thoughts haven’t stopped since I became an adult. So what did I do with this intrusive thought? I softly (Slide 3) laid the stamp on the wall. A nice little mark of my grandfather’s name Professor Reverend Elliott Baker is now proudly displayed for all to see on this wall. Then I thought to myself as I looked at it, “that stamp mark looks lonely by itself.” So what did I do? I started to (Slide 4) stamp a line across the entire wall all over my house. You can imagine the reaction when my grandparents noticed. I was forced to repaint over every single thing. That action was extremely stupid.

Transition

(Slide 5) We all do stupid things. Sometimes they’re a minor stupid thing, sometimes they’re a major stupid thing. You’ve joined us for week 3 of our Easter Series, Wasted Grave, where we’re going to look at someone who did something really stupid. His name is Peter. There’s going to be three acts in this story. The first will be his Precarious Position, then his Persistent Patterns, and finally, His Restoration after Regret. (Slide 6)

1. Peter’s Precarious Position

Luke 22:47-54

So at this point in our story, Jesus has gone to the Mount of Olives to pray. He’s so overwhelmed to the point of death. Then while He’s in this garden at night, Judas, one of His followers and a friend, betrays Jesus by getting him arrested. Jesus is now about to be bound up. (Slide 7) Peter, who was right there has the brilliant idea to draw his sword and attack this large group of people. Now does anyone know what Peter’s original job was? He was a fisherman. Not a soldier, a dude who fishes. So as he goes to strike, he swings and cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant who’s name is Malchus. What’s funny here, is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke just say that one of the disciples did it. John snitches and goes, “Peter did it.” John was the youngest of the disciples… What a youngest sibling move. Now you can imagine that Peter wasn’t aiming for the ear. He was gunning for the head. Now let’s pause. Jesus is being arrested after being betrayed, something He predicted would happen. Imagine you’re Peter. You are totally acting on impulse right now. Peter is acting out of fear and confusion. This impulse will only land Peter in much more trouble. This leads to our big idea for the night (Slide 8) Reaction is a Wasted Response. Notice here how Peter reacts, and how Jesus responds. Peter’s freaking out, Jesus is calm. Jesus processed and came up with a response to this situation, Peter reacted. (Slide 9)

2. Peter’s Persistent Patterns

So Jesus is now arrested. The disciples are fleeing in terror. Peter decides to follow Jesus at a distance to see what’s going on. We’ll read together from Luke 22:56-62 (Slide 10)

Luke 22:56–62 CSB

When a servant girl saw him sitting in the light, and looked closely at him, she said, “This man was with him too.” But he denied it: “Woman, I don’t know him.” After a little while, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too.” “Man, I am not!” Peter said. (Slide 11) About an hour later, another kept insisting, “This man was certainly with him, since he’s also a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. (Slide 12) So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

I want to bring you to the ancient world of Israel in the first century. At the time, a woman wasn’t respected in society. They were pretty low. Servants were also seen as low and not worthy of respect. The Greek word here also assumes that the girl is young. Children weren’t respected at that time either. So here you have a young servant who’s a woman. She’s probably on par with a beggar on the streets in that world. Yet Peter, a man, a disciple of Jesus Himself, panics and again, out of fear and confusion, reacts. Moving forward again, two more people claim that Peter is a follower of Jesus. Peter denies Jesus a total of 3 times. The final time, Jesus actually looks at Peter and Peter sees Jesus and realizes what he’s done and how earlier, we would learn that Jesus would actually predict that Peter would do this. Then Peter would leave and weep bitterly.

Bringing It All Together

(Slide 13)At this point, Peter has probably hit his lowest low. He gets told he’s wrong by his mentor and one of his closest friends, and then to top it off, he denies having any affilitation to Jesus 3 different times. And THIS is the guy who would later be one of the main leaders of the church? We read in Proverbs 14:17a (Slide 14) “A quick-tempered person acts foolishly...” We all have moments like where we act foolishly because of a quick emotion based decision. Times where we make mistakes and times where we react poorly. (Slide 15) I myself was at the Vancouver Christmas Market a couple years ago with my wife. While we were there we bumped into a very famous and influential Canadian who is known to not like Christians. When I bumped into him, the very first instinct I had was to hide my cross earring and run away. Why did I do that? I was a youth pastor, I was a Bible School student. I was an apologetic nutcase who loved getting invited to debates against atheists and proudly proclaiming the rationality of God, Christ, and the Resurrection. So why did I hide it? That moment I wish I could’ve stood there and looked at this guy and at least said hello. Maybe even shake his hand although he and I have completely different views on God, Christianity and the Church. That moment taught me that I wasn’t as good of a Christian as I thought I was. When I don’t plan things out or think things through, I run on instinct and my instinct never goes inline with what God wants. That moment changed my life. Ever since that day, I’ve made it a personal mission never to hide what I do or who I am ever again. I was humbled and later changed. Similarily, that moment for Peter, changed his life. We’ll see that after Jesus ascends into heaven, Peter no longer does the stupid things he used to do. (Slide 16) Reaction is a Wasted Response. (Pause and then Slide 17)

3. Peter’s Restoration after Regret

At this point, you might be remembering a time you did something stupid, whether it was stamping a wall, or maybe out of fear, anger, confusion or pure instict, you reacted poorly. Well I want to offer you some hope here. After Jesus resurrects, He and Peter have a moment in John chapter 21. (Slide 18) Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him. Each time a symbol of when Peter denied Jesus. He was offering Peter redemption for each wrong he had committed. Jesus reinstates Peter. If you were here a couple weeks ago, we learned that Judas took his own life in his regret of his wrongdoings. In Peter’s case, he turned back to Jesus. Peter accepted Christ’s forgiveness. Peter would then go on to lead the early Church and through his actions, even though he would be crucified upside down, billions of people would come to know Jesus Christ. Moving forward, Peter didn’t react, Peter would respond. Reaction is a wasted response. (Slide 19)

Conclusion

So as I close and invite the band back up , when was the last time you actually accepted Christ’s forgiveness. Have you been holding onto the guilt of the things you’ve done? Are you letting your past control your present and future? When did you last have a heart to heart with God? As we take some time to respond, the band will be playing a song. If you want to sing along to it, great. But don’t feel like you have to. If you just need to sit, talk to God, cry with God, if you need prayer, pray with someone around you, we also have leaders at the back for you. You don’t have to sing. Rather, take a moment to talk with God.

Have you ever done something without thinking?

2. What decision did Peter make when Jesus was arrested?

3. How did Peter react when he was identified as a follower of Jesus?

4. What does Peter's denial of Jesus represent in terms of human frailty?

5. Have you ever reacted in a moment of fear or confusion like Peter did?

6. What steps can you take to respond thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively in difficult situations?