Below in the Courtyard

INTRODUCTION

{Begin by reading Mark 14:53-72}

While Jesus was led to the high priest, Peter followed at a distance, right into the courtyard.

While they were seeking to put Jesus to the dead, below in the courtyard Peter was sitting with the guards.

While Jesus faced cold violence, below in the courtyard Peter warmed himself by the fire.

While Jesus was being condemned, below in the courtyard Peter was being confronted.

While Jesus remained silent, below in the courtyard Peter said, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

While Jesus admitted who he was, below in the courtyard Peter denied who he knew.

While Jesus admitted who he was, below in the courtyard Peter denied who he knew.

While Jesus heard the charge of blasphemy, below in the courtyard Peter heard the rooster crow.

While Jesus was tried, below in the courtyard Peter lied.

While Jesus stood, below in the courtyard Peter fell.

While

While the guards received Jesus with blows, below in the courtyard Peter heard the crows.

While they mocked Jesus, saying, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” below in the courtyard Jesus’s prophecy about Peter’s denial proved true.

[TS] There are three IDEAS that I want us to think about in relation to this passage...

The first idea is the idea of proof.

If we were inventing a religion we wouldn’t invent Christianity.

We wouldn’t come up with God - the all-powerful Creator who allowed his perfect creation to be ruined by the pinnacle of his creation, man.

We wouldn’t come up Jesus - very God of very God who steps into sinful creation as a man in order to redeem fallen creation by dying on a Roman cross.

We wouldn’t come up with the disciples - the principle teachers of Christianity all of whom abandoned Jesus before he went to the cross.

And we surely wouldn’t have come up with Peter - the leader of the early church after Jesus ascended to the Father; the very same one who denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times as Jesus went to the cross.

Nothing in this story of Peter’s denial is a credit to Peter.

The first idea is the idea of contrast.

We are meant to contrast Jesus’s faithfulness before the Sanhedrin with Peter’s faithlessness in the courtyard.

After Peter was broken by his sin and restored by Jesus as an Apostle, he knew that it wasn’t his faithfulness that counted because he didn’t have any! He knew the only faithfulness that counted was the perfect faithfulness of Jesus.

The second idea is the idea of warning.

We tend to overestimate our faithfulness to Jesus. Peter surely did. It caused Peter to ignore Jesus, to give up praying, to act wrongly, and to deny Jesus.

The third idea is the idea of repentance.

When the rooster reminded Peter of Jesus’s prophecy, Peter broke down and wept. He thought about it. He saw the eyes of Jesus. He recognized his pride and his fall.