Sermon Tone Analysis

Bible Reading

Introduction

We come this morning to a text of Scripture that is a vivid example of the frailty of man.

I’ve entitled my sermon this morning: “When the Strong become Weak”...

The example in Scripture that is before us is that of the Apostle Peter, who not a few hours before these events unfold, was swearing to Jesus that he would never ever deny Jesus, and that he would give his very life for Jesus, even when all others failed.

A few hours later and he’s gone directly against his sworn promise to Jesus.

One of the beautiful things that we find in the Scriptures is that the Bible doesn’t hide the failures of men.

Just about every person in the Scriptures that is presented to us, even the great “heroes” of Scripture, have their failures and shortcomings, and these are revealed to us in Scripture.

In the Scriptures, we see real people, living real messy lives, and yet God’s grace and mercy working despite their failures.

Examples...

Noah… a righteous man in God’s sight, obedient to build an ark by faith, but then after the flood has subsided, he lies naked and drunk in his tent

Abraham… the great father of the faith, lied about his wife, calling her his sister and giving her over to political leaders to become their wives - not once, but twice!!

David, a man after God’s own heart… committed adultery, and then murder

All of these are just some of the exapmles in Scripture of those who we would consider great people, and yet who were frail, and succumbed to the effects of sin.

Only one man in the Scriptures stands firm in every circumstance, and lives perfectly without fault - and that is Jesus.

And that is exactly the point!!

He is our only hope!

1. Fear Leads to Denial (vv.66-71)

And so in our text this morning, we find the three times that Peter denied Jesus Christ in front of a group of people.

As we consider these three denials this morning, I want us to not rush to stand in criticism of Peter, and to think that we would have done otherwise.

If any of the apostles were bold and valiant, fearless in many respects it was this man Peter.

It was Peter who asked Jesus if he could walk out on the water to Jesus, and actually proceeded to do so.

It was Peter who boldly confessed that Jesus was the Christ (Mark 8:29)

It was Peter who had drawn the sword when that massive mob had come to arrest Jesus, and had lopped off the right ear of Malcus, the Servant of the High Priest.

So let us remember that Peter was not timid in nature.

Context

As we come to this passage this morning, just to remind us, what has happened is that Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

That arrest included members of the Jewish Temple Police, as well as a regiment of Roman Soldiers with a commanding officer.

They had arrested Jesus and taken him to the home of the High Priest, where he was being put on trial in front of the High Priest.

This was a mock trial that was taking place where they were trying to find grounds to have Jesus put to death.

And as Jesus had been led to the home of the High Priest, we read last week that Peter had followed from a distance, and had also gone into the courtyard outside, warming himself by the fire along with the guards.

1.1.

Peter's First Denial (v.66-68)

This leads us to consider Peter’s First Denial of Jesus.

In verse 66 we read:

The Oriental Houses or the houses of those well-off in society would look down into their own interior.

The rooms of the house were often built around a central courtyard, and would sometimes be slightly elevated, and you’d be able to look down from the rooms into that courtyard area.

To get to this courtyard, there would be a gate, with an arched passage-way that led into the courtyard.

In that passageway, which was the entrance way, there would be a room for the guard of the gate to stay in.

So, Peter is now in this courtyard, next to the fire, surrounded by a host of guards, as they all warm themselves by the fire on a cold spring night - sometime in the early hours of the morning.

And as they do this, one of the servant girls of the high priest, as she walks past the fire, sees Peter, with the light from the fire lighting up his face.

Verse 67...

“The man who had been warming himself by the fire suddenly discovers that matters are becoming “too hot” for him.”

[1]

This was not some event where Peter was all alone, and someone identifies him.

The tensions surrounding the arrest of Jesus were palpable.

There was a clear animosity towards Jesus and no doubt anyone who would choose to support Him and follow Him.

Recall the account of the disciple / follower of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - fled naked when they tried to grab him...

As Peter stands by the fire, surrounded by the guards also warming themselves, it’s this bold servant girl that comes up and puts him right in the spotlight.

Her words are: “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus.”

They convey the sense of contempt in the words that she says.

You recall when Philip called Nathanael to come and follow Jesus, he said that they had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

Nathanael’s response was: “Nazareth!

Can anything good come from there?” (Jn 1:46)

With Nathanael, it was an honest question...

But for the servant girl, she was convinced that nothing good can come from Nazareth, and that in particular, this Nazarene was no good!

Well here is the servant girl, speaking of Jesus in the contemptuous way, not by name, but based on where He comes from.

Well, Peter is obviously now very concerned that one of these guards, or perhaps another group of rabble rousers will somehow attempt to arrest him also, and perhaps put him on trial.

And so he responds in the manner recorded in verse 68:

Here is Peter’s first denial of Jesus.

He denies knowing Jesus, and he denies having associated with Jesus.

If this servant girl could recognise him here, perhaps he may even be recognised by others…?

He might even be recognised as having been the one who cut off the ear of Malcus.

In a panicked state, he outright denies Jesus.

There wouldn’t have been much thought and thinking through what he was doing - this was a reflex reaction from Peter.

This was self-preservation!!

This is the natural response that we all have according to the flesh when we are accused of something that we don’t want others to know about!

I’ve seen such reactions over and over in interactions with people as I’ve conducted workplace disciplinary hearings.

A person is questioned, and the first response is an outright denial of any wrongdoing.

But over time, as the evidence begins to stack up against them, eventually they will begin to acknowledge their wrongdoing (sometimes!!)

And so this is almost a “natural” reaction by Peter, where he is genuinely concerned for his own safety, and he takes this step of denying Jesus in order to protect himself.

Furthermore, we read that he then goes away from the fire, and goes to the entryway.

1.2.

Peter's Second Denial (v.69-70a)

But this moving away from the fire doesn’t put a stop to people’s suspecting him of being with Jesus.

In verse 69 we read:

In Mark’s account, he speaks as if this is the same servant girl that had identified him previously.

One commentator writes:

“Like a guilty conscience, the servant girl accuses Peter a second time.”

[2]

As he moves away, she later sees him again, and again is convinced that he is a follower of Jesus.

But this time, she announces to the crowd that was standing there: “This fellow is one of them.”

Here is a direct accusation against Peter, made to the groups of people standing around.

Again, Peter is fearful, and answers in the negative.

In verse 70, we read that “Again he denied it.”

The tense of the verb “denied” here is imperfect, meaning that Peter “went off” on an extended denial.

This was not merely a word “I don’t know him” - rather he was defending himself with an extended denial.

1.3.

Peter's Third Denial (v.70b-71)

The third denial of Peter begins in verse 70b:

“After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.””

With Peter having been identified, and him going off on this extended verbal denial of him being a follower of Jesus, he rouses the further suspicions of those around him due to the way in which he speaks.

He spoke with an accent that demonstrated to those around him that he was not a local of Jerusalem.

In Matthew’s account of this, he records:

When Mark records in his Gospel that they said to him that he was a Galilean, they made this observation because of his accent, or his dialect.

The Galilean dialect was somewhat different to that which was spoken in Jerusalem itself, and thus Peter now stands with a group of people around him who are convinced that he is a disciple of Jesus.

With a deep sense of fear for his safety, and given that he’s already stated that he doesn’t know Jesus, but these rowdy crowds are persisting in accusing him, he takes things up a notch as he denies Christ one last time.

Verse 71...

We must not miss the extent to which Peter goes as he attempts to rid himself of any association with Christ.

Two things he does, both of them serious in nature.

Firstly, he begins to call down curses on himself.

We must understand that in that day, calling down a curse upon yourself was not insignificant - it was serious.

To suffer under a curse for the Jews meant to be “cut off” - you were isolated from interaction with people in daily life.

The curse was a severe form of punishment, and was used as very effective deterrent to wrongful behaviour.

Essentially, the curse would have been made before God.