Sermon Tone Analysis

That you may Believe and have Life #46

John 18:12-26

 

The pathway to Denial is the title for my message today.

We know that Judas has betrayed Jesus; but as Jesus is arrested and goes on trial, Peter faces his darkest day in scripture.

He denies Jesus … well I’m ahead of the story, so, let’s read it

 

READ JOHN 18:12-26

 

Denial, Peter never imagined that he would be there.

A few verses previous he was wielding a sword.

Now he is not willing to admit that he even knows Jesus.

How did Peter get there?

Have you ever been in Peter’s shoes?

Have you ever denied that you were a Christian?

Have you ever denied that you believe the Bible?

Have you ever distanced yourself from the faith that you believe secures your eternity?

Have you felt distant from you faith

Perhaps you haven’t come right out and denied but perhaps you have been in a place where you were distanced from the Lord, His People, His Word

 

Maybe you are there now …

 

I want us to see three things that lead us toward denial and then I will answer the question, /“If I’m there, how do I get Out, how do I get back?”/

There are three things that work together or separate in leading us to denial.

All three of these were true of Peter

 

The first is …

 

1.

Pride

 

Def – /the quality or state of being proud; an inordinate self-esteem/

 

Aquinas says that pride was first revealed when Lucifer attempted to set his throne on high in independence of God … the fallen devil put cravings to be gods into Adam and Eve and the result was that man was infected with pride through the fall

 

Do you remember what Peter had said.

John 13:37 /“Lord, why can’t I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.”/

John doesn’t give us a full picture of what was going on.

But, there was a battle of pride going on.

Luke gives us a more full account.

In Luke 22:22 Jesus said one was going to betray him.

They began to question who might be that one.

But immediately a dispute rises about which one of them was the greatest 22:24 – Jesus counters that with a call for whoever thinks they are greatest to BE the greatest SERVANT.

Then he singles out Peter in

verse 31-32

/Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers/

 

Yet Peter showed his pride in verse 33 – /Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death”/

 

Jesus has revealed to them that he is about to be betrayed, and instead of being concerned about whether they might be the one, they try to defend themselves by arguing over which is the strongest.

They want to defend their own strength to prove their lack of weakness

 

1 Corinthians 10:12 says /if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!/

 

ALL of the disciples deserted Christ in his greatest time of need.

The only one at the cross was John.

In their pride they defended their own greatness in the Kingdom

Defending your own greatness in the Kingdom of God is the one of the worst kinds of pride.

It is evidence that you are Not where you need to be in the kingdom.

(“don’t they know how faithful I am”)

 

The apostle Paul is one that we would consider perhaps the greatest figure in the New Testament apart from Christ, and yet he called himself the least in the Kingdom

But, what of these disciples?

They defend their greatness.

We need an accurate assessment of where we are in Christ if we are not going to move down the pathway to denial

 

Lest we think this is only an issue with Peter, where are the other disciples and what was their intention?

Matthew 26:33-35 /Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared “even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

And ALL THE OTHER disciples said the same/

 

If the disciples, having lived with Jesus for three years could come to a place where they denied him, then any of us have the capacity.

Don’t let your pride convince you that you are too strong, or too right, or too committed, or too humble, or too anything else

 

An interesting thing about Pride …

Pride is a tool of satan in the midst of the Revelation of God

It’s amazing how satan will come when God is revealing himself to you and try to convince you that God doesn’t know what he’s doing, that God is not good, or that his word is not reliable

 

In Matthew 16:16 – Peter confessing the God-given revelation that Jesus is /“The Christ, the Son of the Living God.”/  … and then Jesus began to explain about how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of the priests, and be killed, and raised on the 3rd day.

And in PRIDE … peter took him aside and rebuked him … /“NEVER LORD!” … “this shall never happen to you.”/

What pride to think that we know better than Jesus

What pride to think that God needs our counsel.

Jesus identifies the source … and says to Peter /Get behind me, Satan!

You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”/

And the next words of Jesus are famous but now make great significance in context

Mk 16:24/ – If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me/

 

Pride is a deadly thing

God reveals himself to us and we think we know better or we don’t like the direction or don’t want the discomfort

 

If we are going to check ourselves today, we need an accurate assessment of where we are in Christ Jesus

We need to go before him and say what the disciples did in the upper room /“Lord is it I”/ …

 

Lord do I stand in arrogance?

or am I kneeling before you in humility

 

the Next thing that can lead down the road to denial is …

2. Fear

 

In his pride he never thought he could be in the place where he was

 

He never could have imagined Christ being taken from him

 

But now that the inconceivable was reality, could it happen to me too?

The problem with fear is that is skews our perception of the situation.

Fear makes us believe we are alone, unable, uninformed, and unloved

 

We’ve looked at fear before.

But fear will also take us down the road to denial

 

Look at how fear affected Peter.

He felt like he was alone.

It appears all the disciples except John and Peter had fled

Peter followed to see what was going to happen.

John hada connection with the High Priest’s family and get’s Peter in … in his mind, Jesus was a done deal and Peter was all alone

He believed that he was unable to face the task because he was alone

He believed he didn’t know what was going on or what would happen and what to

He believed that these that hated Christ also hated him and no one there loved him

 

But OH the Love of God.

Jesus had predicted that Peter would be sifted.

He predicted that this night satan would come against him and yet that he WOULD get to the other side

He was showing Peter his love

 

Oh though, he thought he was uninformed – Jesus had told him over and over that this was going to happen.

He had said that this was the VERY REASON that they were coming to Jerusalem.

The only thing that should have been surprising was the when, not the what.