Sermon Tone Analysis

*GET OUT OF THE WAY!*

 

*John 18:15-27*

 

Victory out of defeat.

They say everybody loves a winner.

But I=ll tell you what I think people love more than a winner.

They love to see the person who, as the old Timex watch commercials use to say,* **A**Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.**@*

Perhaps the most beautiful example of that truth in all of Scripture is Simon Peter, who failed the Lord miserably, as we will see in John 18.

 

Peter denied the Lord and proclaimed that he never knew Him.

And yet, Peter made the greatest comeback in all of history.

He bounced back from his failure to the powerful preacher of Pentecost and one of the pillars of the first-century church.

So I want to examine first Peter=s failure, that we might be warned by it and avoid failing the Lord.

Then I want to talk about Peter=s recovery from his failure, that we might be encouraged to realize that failure is never final when we walk with the Lord.

*THE CAUSES OF FAILURE*

 

What happened to Peter?

What would cause this man who was so close to Jesus, who no doubt loved the Savior with all of his heart, to stumble in his faith and commitment and deny the Lord?

Lets examine our text concerning Peter=s experience on the awful night of Jesus= betrayal and arrest and of Peter=s denial.

*John 18:15 ** **Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus.

Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, (NIV)*

 

Peter didn=t just fall into his night of denials by accident.

Jesus had prepared him for it by telling him earlier that same night,

 

*Luke 22:31-32a "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

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

(NIV)*

 

*Peter**=**s Self-Sufficiency*,* Self-Reliance*, *and Self-Confidence*

 

*Peter**=**s Self-Sufficiency*

So Peter was warned.

But one of Peter=s perpetual problems was that he trusted himself to much.

He was self-sufficient.

He thought his spiritual power was self-contained.

In this case he overdosed on self-confidence.

\\ We know that because of another incident that happened on this same night, during the Last Supper.

Jesus and his disciples were reclining around the table in the Upper Room when Jesus said; Matthew 26:31a

 

*Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me,*

 

Peter reacted immediately.*

*

* *

*Matt.

26:33 ** **Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."

* 

Peter was saying ALord, I can see where these other guys might cave in.

But not me.

I would be the last guy on earth to turn You in.

I think Peter really believed that.

He was utterly confident that he would never betray the Lord.

But he didn=t know the treachery of his own heart.

The Bible says,

 

*Jeremiah 17:9 9  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?*

* *

Peter loved Jesus, but he was not prepared for the darkness of the night he would face.

And he was not aware of the darkness of his heart.

Self-sufficiency set him up for his failure.

This is a danger we all face.

The Scripture says.

*1 Corinthians 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!*

There is a potential for evil in every one of us.

Let any of us take his eyes off Jesus Christ, begin to neglect the spiritual disciplines, and trust in his own strength, and given the right circumstances, failure, always lurking in the shadows, will leap out and overtake you.

That is what pride will do to the Christian.

Peter said he would never deny Christ.

He boasted in his faith, but his faith failed.

When we are most aware of our spiritual weakeness, that=s when we=re the strongest.

Jesus said,

 

*Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.*

Happy are those who understand their spiritual poverty.

It is when we think we are the strongest, when we think we=ve got it all together and we drop our guard spiritually, that failure knocks us off our feet.

Then we are humbled.

\\ *Peter**=**s Self-Reliance*

 

Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane that night and said,

*Matthew 26:38b **A** Stay here and keep watch with me."*

Then He went a little farther into the garden and prayed with agonizing tears and sweat oozing through the pores of His skin.

While Jesus agonized, expecting these disciples to pray, Peter and the other two fell asleep.

Peter was so close to Christ in the moment of His anguish he could hear His sobs and see His tears glistening in the moonlight.

Yet because of his self-reliance, Peter was prayer less.

Jesus taught us to pray,

 

*Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.*

* *

Every day we face incredible temptations and illusions from Satan.

To be victorious over these temptations we must be on our faces before God.

We are no match for Satan on our own.

To rely upon our spiritual power is insanity in the face of the *A**roaring lion**@** who roams about seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8).*

You and I are no stronger than our prayer life.

When we begin to neglect prayer and the discipline of our devotional life with God, that is when self-reliance sets in.

Why don=t we pray the way God has commanded us to pray?

Because we figure we=ve got it all together.

Everything seems to be in place.

Things are going our way.

In our self-reliance we begin to depend upon ourselves and just embark upon a new day or new week, never dedicating and delivering it to Christ.

When this happens, we are set up for fall because we stop praying.

It happened to Simon Peter, and it can happen to you and me.

Prayer, on the other hand produces power.

We are enabled and energized by the power of God in prayer as we express our trust in Him and surrender our will to His will.

We are made strong to face any temptation or test that comes.

\\ *Peter**=**s Self-Confidence*

 

Another reason Peter failed was what I=m going to call self-confidence.

When Jesus was arrested, the disciples fled.

The fear was too much for them.

The crowd began to gather for the trial, and Peter decided to follow.

He was confident he could hang around outside the courtyard of Annas while Jesus was inside facing His torturers, and yet not be found out.

*According to John 18:16-17 but Peter had to wait outside at the door.

The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

** **"You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter.

He replied, "I am not."*

Now Peter could have stepped inside the courtyard without denying Jesus at the door.

First we see him just walking with the crowd on the periphery.

Then we see him standing with the crowd.