Road to the Cross (pt.4) Sacrifice vs Sacrifice

Good morning everyone, I am so excited to be here this morning, and I am excited that the snow has been melting most of this week. I can’t tell you what a joyous site it is to see the water pouring down off of the roof as the snow is melting away. It is just one of the best feelings in the world. Then of course there equally amazing feeling of having the opportunity to stand up here and lead the most amazing and loving and caring group of people in Northern Illinois, and possibly in the entire world. Those of you that are joining us online, I want to welcome you to our virtual home and I want to encourage you to jump into the in person worship as soon as you are able. Im telling you, you just don’t know what you are missing out on.

Have you ever promised you were going to do something and then fell far short of actually doing it? I mean, like you emphatically made a commitment to someone promising that you would always, or you would never, or you would absolutely, or some other thing that you are committed to. I know I have likely done that, I know I have definitely seen that, and so I think I can understand what happens. Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, there was a young child. This young child fell in love with a dog at his friends house. Well as soon as this young child came home the next day he begged his parents for them to get a dog. He promised to take care of the dog, and to take the dog for a walk and fed it and clean up after it. The parents wouldn’t have to do anything…I PROMISE. Now fast forward about 1 week, and the young child has forgotten to give the dog food, and has not taken his for a walk, and really doesn’t do all that much for the dog anymore. Of course this child loves the dog, but his promise is very quickly falling apart as he watched his mom fill the dog dish from a distance. You see, this is story that I am sure we can all relate to in some way. This is a story, that maybe you can relate to as the child, or maybe you are the parent in this story…or maybe you have lived long enough to be both.

I know for me the dog’s name was Tex and my friend needed to get rid of this dog and so they gave him to me, and Im pretty sure I begged quite a bit for Tex to come home with us, and finally my parents caved, and shortly after than they did the majority of the work caring for Tex. Sure, I played with Tex, but I quickly broke my promise of taking care of Tex and not allowing my parents to do any extra work at all. Now this is an important story, because I was genuinely sincere when I made the promise. I actually did intend on doing everything for Tex, the problem is that I just didn’t have the follow through or commitment to fulfill that promise. I am sure that some of you likely have been in the same boat before. Maybe it was with a pet, maybe it was with a job, maybe it was with your commitment to Christ. This morning we are going to look at a story and remember a man that made a commitment, and I believe he genuinely meant what he said, but today we are going to see that he simply did not have the commitment or follow through to actually be able to fulfill the promise that he made. I hope that as we look at this story that maybe we will see a place in our lives that we need to strengthen our own commitment so that we are able to fulfill the promises we make.

OK, so we have been in Mark now for a few weeks and this week we will continue and we will actually finish Mark chapter 14. I would like to ask you again, to bear with me as we see some things maybe from a little bit of a different perspective. You see, this is the final Markan Sandwich we are going to experience today, and I hope that as we look at the center of this sandwich we are able to compare that to the outer story and it will remind us of our own hearts the commitments we have already made.

Let’s start off looking at Peter again in

Mark 14:53–54 ESV

And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire.

Peter distances himself from Jesus (vs.53-54)

Now, I really should briefly remind us all of the previous events that have taken place here. You see, this is happening at night. Well, earlier that evening Jesus was sitting with the disciples Jesus introduced the new symbolism of the Lord’s Supper. Then they all went out to the Mount of Olives and Jesus speaks with them and tells them that they will all fall away. Well, Peter made a pretty intense commitment to Jesus right then. This is a commitment that they rest of the disciples all echoed, but Peter claimed it the loudest.

Mark 14:31 ESV

But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.

Well it seems that just a few hours later, they would in fact all fall away. Well, Peter made an emphatic promise to Jesus when he said “I will not deny you!” Now we see him, again, just a few hours later following Jesus from a distance. He has already attacked the chief priest servant attempting to protect Jesus physically, and Jesus rebukes him for that. Now, he is trying to see what is going on, but he doesn’t want to get to close, in case someone recognizes him.

Does this sound like anything that you or I would do? I mean, let’s attempt to put ourselves in Peter’s shoes for a moment. Would be be willing to make a promise like this to Jesus, and then just a few hours later pretend you never said that? That doesn’t sound like something you or I would ever do does it? Oh wait…Ok, well let me ask you a question…Have you ever made a commitment on Sunday morning and then by Sunday afternoon you completely forgot about it? Have you ever made a commitment to live a life for Christ and then Monday at work completely did the opposite? Maybe you are here this morning and you are better than most of us, and you can honestly say that you have never made a commitment to Christ and then not followed through with that commitment. Of course, I guess that would mean that you have just never actually made a commitment to Christ have you?

Look, I’m not trying to be hard this morning, but I know how difficult it is to make a commitment to reflect Christ to others and bear witness to him, and then you get around everyone and you kind of just go along with the crowd…you laugh at the jokes, you turn your head to the language, you pretend to ignore the inappropriate conversations. You don’t want to rock the boat, and so you convince yourself that you should just fly under the radar. Well that is exactly what Peter is doing here.

I want to keep our focus on Peter for a few minutes, so let’s skip ahead to

Mark 14:66–72 ESV

And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Peter Denies Jesus (vs.66-72)

So when we looked at Peter earlier we saw that he was following from a distance in order to try and fly under the radar. Now, we see how and when Peter denies Jesus...he is hanging out with the people that were likely there at the garden when Jesus was arrested. Think about how awkward Peter looks in the courtyard of the high priest, trying to mingle with the henchmen who probably just arrested Jesus. I mean that is a far distance from “I will not deny you!”

Let’s take a look at how much Peter will not deny Jesus… First we see that Mark has brought us back to Peter realizing that he was in the courtyard down below where Jesus was being interrogated. We will get to Jesus’ story in a moment. We have Peter downstairs in the courtyard warming himself by the fire. Next we see that a servant girl of the high priest sees Peter and accuses him of being with “the Nazarene”.

Now remember, Peter had a desire to be inconspicuous, that is why he was following from a distance, trying to go unnoticed. Well, that has just blown up on him hasn’t it. It is at this time, that he could have remembered his commitment to Jesus and said, Yeah, I know him…were friends. Instead, what he does is deny knowing what the girl is even talking about. “I neither know nor understand what you mean!” Now, this is frankly ridiculous, everyone in that courtyard would have known what was going on, and who Jesus was. That would have been like someone coming in here right now and saying, “Hey, you know Pastor Billy?”, and you responding… “What? I don’t know what you talking about…Pastor Billy, who is that?” This is how silly Peter would have looked, and there is no way anyone was buying what he was saying. The thing is that its even worse than looking silly though. You see, the way this reads, I neither know him, nor understand what you mean, this is communicating something more. Mark uses two different verbs when he is talking about knowing here. The first term he uses is a theoretical knowledge. The second term is a practical knowledge. The thing is that Mark is showing us that Peter’s first denial is a total denial: in both theory and practice.

Now after this encounter he is trying to avoid more conversation so he moves from the fire, and goes over to the door, moving further from Jesus, preferring a change of location, instead of a change of heart. However, just like for us today, running away doesn’t fix anything, does it? No, actually the girl just followed him. This time she got the help of the others in the area by saying, “this man is one of them.” Of course Peter deny’s this again. I mean look at verse 70 we see that Peter denied it. However, there is something a little deeper in the original language that I would like to share with you. You see, the word used for deny is used in an imperfect tense. This means that it is a verb that is not complete, it is still happening. That is the sense of an imperfect verb. This verb in this tense indicates a bit more of an extreme denial, a bit more of an extended denial. Something like, “No, I don’t know him, who is that, Im not sure Ive ever heard of that name, yeah you must have the wrong guy, why are you bothering me about this person, I don’t even now who it is...” Basically, for the second time, Peter went off.

But, you know, things don’t just disappear because we deny them do they. No, now the crowd is involved and they all agree with this girl, and now the crowd get involved in confronting Peter. Oh my, Peter does not respond well to this situation now. Remember, he wanted to go unnoticed as he just watched from a distance what was going on. This girl started bothering him and now she has others around him bothering him, and he just wants to be left alone…Look at his response in vs. 71...

Mark 14:71 ESV

But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

Ok, so this looks pretty bad, right? I mean he invokes a curse on himself and begins to swear. Now, swearing is a little different then than it is now, however, it has the same aggressive tone to it. Now, the NIV translates this by saying he began to call down curses. What does this bring to mind other than he is cursing and swearing by Gods name. He is not cursing the crowd, but swearing by curse that he doesn’t know who this person Jesus actually is...

Then…the rooster crowed...and Peter remembered...

Now we see what it looks like to fail keeping promises, and fail at .......Let’s turn over to this story about Jesus and see how these passages impact each other.

Mark 14:55–65 ESV

Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.

Jesus Before the Council (vs.55-65)

Ok, so that was good and now we see that Jesus is before the council and they are questioning him. Actually, they are also tried to find testimonies of witnesses so that they can have cause to put him to death. Remember, the Jewish law is that there has to be witnesses of 2 or more people to agree, and they are having problems making that happen. This is hard for them to do, because the things they are accusing Jesus of are untrue. What is funny is that even when they are trying to lie, they cannot agree on a way to discredit him. Even in the midst of those that are attempting to kill Jesus, he cannot be discredited…Isn’t that amazing!

Now, there is something pretty amazing that Mark shares with us in the midst of this interrogation. In vs. 58 we see that some claim that Jesus said he would destroy the temple and in three days bring it back. That is a beautiful picture of what is about to happen. Jesus is about to willingly give his life and allow it to be killed, and then in three does, he will return…Mark shows us this and reveals that Jesus has replaced the Temple as the place where God meets his people. Jesus is the gateway now, not the physical temple that was built by man.

Now, I want you to look at the calm that Jesus is asserting in the midst of this situation. He is simply standing there and allowing them to say what they will say. Then he takes a calm moment and confirms his identity here. Jesus, earlier in the evening stepped into the role of the suffering servant, and here he is taking another step of suffering in that role.

Jesus confirms his identify as the Messiah. That is really huge here. You see, he has not embraced the title of Messiah before, but now is different. Now, Jesus uses the name of God, “I Am”, to reveal that he is in fact the Messiah. Now, Jesus fully embraces publically the role of the suffering servant. Immediately those around him begin to spit on him and beat him while making fun of him as a prophet. Now his role in the public eye has changed.

So the final question we must ask is how do these stories really connect? I mean, we have Peter that is denying Jesus, and we have Jesus that is confirmed as the Christ, the Messiah. How do we...

Connect the Stories

Well, this question took me a while to be honest with you. I went back and forth between various commentaries and reading and rereading trying to understand this connection. Then something hit me…You see, the confession of Jesus contrasted with the denial of Peter uphold Jesus as the model for the Roman Christians to follow when questioned about their faith. Stay strong, be truthful, remain faithful. You see, here we have Jesus on trial, and Peter is on trial. Unfortunately, Peter failed in his trial while Jesus was triumphant. This gives us hope today that in any situation where our faith is challanged that there is a way . We are reminded though, that we cannot uphold our commitments ourselves, but there is one that was able to stand up and resist temptation. There is one that was able to stand firm in the midst of adversity. There is one that was able to withstand the suffering by serving all, even serving to the point of death. That is the one that we must run to…that is the one that we must cling to....that is the one that we must not deny.

This morning I want to encourage you to take a moment and have a conversation with God recommitting your life to him. Repenting of those times that you don’t exactly stand firm for him. Repenting of those time that you deny him with your actions, and commit to living for him moving forward. This morning if you are here, or you are listening online and you have never taken the step to learn about who Christ is and what it means to rely on him, then I want to invite you to send me a message and let’s connect this week. Don’t wait another week to start following Christ. Take that emotional step to trust, and allow the strength of Christ to carry you forward. So, send me a message, email, phone, text, carrier pigeon, I don’t care, but lets talk. If you are not comfortable talking to me, then we have elders, there are elders wives, we have others around, or the person that brought you here would love to talk to you about the opportunity to begin trusting God, not just with your eternity, but with you life today as well...

—Prayer—