Deny vs Know

Intro

Have you ever gone from being super sure of something to acting in a way totally contrary to that in just a few minutes?

In such a way that, afterward, you scratch your head and wonder what just happened?

That is what we are going to see this morning in the life of Peter

The Series

Last week we jumped into our series, The Last Day, looking at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life moving from dinner with his disciples in the Upper Room to his death on the cross

And we started with a weighty passage looking at Judas’ betrayal of Jesus - both when Jesus foretold it in the Upper Room and then the actual betrayal just a couple of hours later

With that we looked at the nature of betrayal and the hurt that it causes

Weighty precisely because we have likely all experienced deep betrayal and most of us have betrayed someone else deeply

And we certainly all betrayed Jesus in our sin

And yet we were reminded that we are not Judas

For all our sin and betrayal, we are loved by God and the power of the cross is greater than the power of our betrayal of God

This morning we move from betrayal to denial

Specifically, Peter’s denial of Jesus on that very same evening

Let’s read from John 18, verses 15-18, and then jump down and read verses 25-27

Scripture Reading: John 18:15-18

John 18:15–18 ESV

Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

Scripture Reading: John 18:25-27

John 18:25–27 ESV

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

Pray

Transition

If you were here last week, you heard me say that in this series, we are going to ping pong back and forth between the words of Jesus in the Upper Room and their near immediate fulfillment mere hours later

Today is part of this, but we are starting with the fulfillment - the story of Peter denying Jesus that we just read

Last week we saw that relationships are the forum both for the possibility of betrayal and the potential of love

And this morning we want to see from God’s Word the antidote for denying Jesus is through knowing Jesus

This is more insightful than it initially sounds

If I asked each of you, “Do you know Jesus?”

Many or most of you would say, “yes”

Wouldn’t Jesus’ disciples - maybe Peter especially - have said the exact same thing?

“Of course we know you Jesus. We have been both your disciples and your friends for 3 years now!”

And yet, if we flip back to John 14 we see Jesus say:

John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

But let’s hold that thought and not get ahead of ourselves

Instead, let’s first look at the 3 denials

Peter’s Denial

Here’s the scene: Jesus had just been arrested and they start to parade Jesus off to the first in line of sham of legal encounters

Peter and another disciple follow Jesus but Peter gets stopped at the door and not allowed through

That other disciple goes out and talks to a servant girl to get Peter in to the courtyard

Now as we look at these encounters, it becomes abundantly obvious that Peter is not thinking clearly here

First, the servant girl who just let him in the door at the request of another one of the disciples asks if he a disciple of Jesus

Nope

Second, we learn this from Matthew’s encounter, he is asked again and they said his accent gave him away!

I was in Sarasota for 3 weeks and used the word “bury” and someone came up and asked if I was from Philly

That one word gave me away

Nope

And third, we need to back up a few verses

John 18:10 “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)”

So without going down the road of that event, check out verse 26 again

John 18:26 “One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?””

A relative of the guy whose ear he cut off just, like, I don’t know, an hour before!

Nope

And then the rooster crowed

Back to the Upper Room

Rough night all around

Judas just betrayed Jesus and had him arrested

Now Peter denies even knowing Jesus

But let’s back up to the Upper Room and pick up where we left last week

John 13:31–38 “When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”

Now we looked a little last week at this new commandment that Jesus gives to love one another

But I read those verses again because I want to be sure that we follow the conversation

Jesus says that “Where I am going you cannot come”

Peter fixates on that instead of the idea of loving one another and asks where Jesus is going

To which Jesus, again, states that where he is going, they cannot come… at least not yet

Peter, bold as ever, asks why he can’t follow now and that he is willing to lay down his life for Jesus

To which Jesus simply replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”

From Willing to Lay Down Life to Denial

So let me ask a question: How did Peter go from willing to lay his life down for Jesus to denying even knowing Jesus that fast?

It’s a valuable question because it can serve as a useful mirror for us to look at our own hearts and our own inclination to follow or deny Jesus in any moment

Temperament

Peter appears to have been a ready-fire-aim kind of guy

He wants to act and that pulls him to the extreme

Listening vs Talking

Check this out at an earlier event

Mark 9:5–6 “And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”

Here’s a freebee for you: If you don’t know what to say, the answer is probably don’t

Or, since I haven’t referenced The Chronicles of Narnia in a few weeks, “Listening’s the thing at present. Not talking.”

Peter probably needed to do a little more listening and a little less talking along the way

Emotional State

Given everything that has happened over the last few hours, it’s easy to see how Peter would be distraught, cloudy, not thinking clearly

He panicked

Distracted by the “Other” Theological Questions

Instead of the ordinary path of learning to love God and love others more

Distracted by the more unknowable

Not that asking where Jesus was going is necessarily a bad question

Wasn’t wrong to ask Jesus where he was going

But pulls him away from the core of the command of Jesus

In pursuit of the interesting theological question, it is so often easy for us to miss the simple

Here, Peter and the disciples are being taught to love one another as he has loved them

Imagine, for just a moment, if Peter had instead asked, “Jesus, how can we love one another like you have loved us?”

There are a lot of theological questions that are interesting, but distracting

I wonder what would happen if we laid aside some of the distracting theological questions and sought to live into the love we have received from God and to love others out of that

Missing the Plan of God

Lastly, Peter, even after all these years, seems to have missed the plan of God

John 13:37 “Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.””

While the offer to lay down his life for Jesus is a valiant one, it is also misguided

The plan of God was not for Peter to lay down his life for Jesus, but for Jesus to lay down his life for Peter… and for you…. and for me

With which of these do you resonate?

Are you like Peter, acting before thinking through the consequences of your actions?

Do you miss the teaching of Jesus because you are talking instead of listening?

Are there emotional moments where anxiety and panic set in and cripple you?

Do you, intentionally or unintentionally, pursue deep theological questions or rabbit trails to keep you from the simple task of faithfully following Jesus into each moment?

Have you missed the plan of God to die for sinners like you and instead busy yourself with trying to prove your courage to Jesus?

Yes, Peter shifts from one extreme of offering to lay down his life for Jesus to denying even knowing Jesus really quickly

If we leave it there, then we will joke about Peter and never look in the mirror ourselves

And we will miss how easy it is for us to respond the same way

Maybe you’ve never been confronted with some version of “we saw you with Jesus”

But you have deflected when people ask why you go to church

Or maybe you have dug deep into a theological study to avoid your own heart’s need for the gospel

Maybe there was a friend, a relative, a co-worker in front of you that needed the hope of Jesus, but you bit your tongue

May this be an invitation for each of us to see when we are prone to deny Jesus in big or small ways

And then to turn our eyes back to Jesus

Scripture Reading: John 14:1-14

John 14:1–14 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Know Jesus

Those verses can seem like a big shift from the conversation about denying Jesus

But there are 2 important considerations here for us

First, these are the very next words after Jesus tells Peter that he is going to deny him

It is Jesus who connects these concepts, not me

Second, the antidote for denying Jesus is to know Jesus more deeply

5 times in those verses we are told to “believe”

7 times we have the word “know” or “known”

So here is my question: What are we to “know” and “believe”?

Because in these verses, we find beautiful insight into the character of God, the plan of God, and the promises of God

The Character of God

God is Trinity

Notice how Jesus moves back and forth talking about the Father and himself… and if we jump down to verse 17, which Paul will look at next week, the Holy Spirit

To see Jesus is to see the Father

To know Jesus is to know the Father

To know Jesus is to be indwelt by the Spirit

Father, Son, Holy Spirit - 3 persons, 1 God

God has authority

Jesus talks about working not from his own authority, but that of the Father

God acts for his own glory

The Son acts for the sake of the glory of the Father

The Plan of God

The way to God

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The path to God the Father is through the Son

He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life

What is the plan of God?

That sinners come home to God the Father by the way prepared by the Son by his death on the cross

And this is the only way to God

Which immediately causes us to pause and ask: Have you come to know and believe in Jesus as the only way to God, the very plan of God to forgive you of your sins?

Greater things

Then we get a really crazy verse 12

John 14:12 ““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

Certainly, what this verse can’t mean is that we will do empirically greater things than Jesus

He is the one who made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the prisoner to go free

He is the one who died for the sins of the whole world

So what could this mean?

While we can’t do greater in scope, we, the church, do greater things by number and by scale as we take the gospel to all the nations of the earth

Part of the plan of God is for the people of God to take the story of the greatness of Jesus to the world

The Promises of God

And finally, let us see the promises of God for us

Jesus is, even right now, preparing an eternal home for you with himself

He will come back and then we will get to go and be with him forever

This is not a cross-your-fingers and hope thing, it is the sure promise of God for those who know and believe in Jesus!

Conclusion

I think there is a reason we look at Peter and shake our heads so often

It’s not just the silly, dumb things he does

It is, if we are honest, because we can see ourselves so clearly in Peter

We talk when we should shut our mouths and listen

We deny Jesus when we should be pointing people to him

We act out of emotions, letting anxiety and fear grip us

The antidote to denying Jesus is to know Jesus

To know and believe that Jesus is God the Son

To know and believe that he and the Father are one

To know and believe that he sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us

To know and believe that we are his

Pray