Denying Christ Lessons Learned from Peter - Mark 14:66-72
Thomas Baber
Summary
Human pride and self-confidence, even in believers, inevitably lead to dramatic spiritual failure and profound guilt, as our flesh is weak and prone to deny Christ when relying on our own strength. However, genuine faith in Jesus Christ, coupled with a healthy distrust of self and diligent prayer, provides the only path to restoration, forgiveness, and strengthening. God's grace alone, not human merit, enables us to overcome our inherent weakness and bear faithful witness, even after severe denial.
Transcript
0:00Please open your Bibles to Mark chapter 14. We'll be looking at verses 66 through 72 today. Let me just read these words as we get started. 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 Jesus the Nazarene. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. And he went out onto the porch. The servant girl saw him and began once more to say to the bystanders, This is one of them. But again he denied it. And after a little while, the bystanders were again saying to Peter, Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too. But he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man you are talking about. Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And he began to weep. Well, Mark has taken us into a new theme. He's introduced something here, and it is the persecution, or how to stand strong in the face of persecution. If you look back to chapter 13, if you will remember, Jesus has told his disciples what is going to happen. This is just a A couple of days before, as they were coming out of the temple, he goes through this large section of Scripture about the coming days and what it's going to imply and what it's going to mean for his disciples. And he says in 13:9, Be on your guard, for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my namesake as a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached through all the nations. So it's going to be through this mechanism of standing before authorities, persecuted before governors and rulers, that the gospel is going to go forth. And our Lord is going to lead the way. He's not sending his disciples to do anything that he isn't going to do, and he is going to do it first. And so what we have in chapter 14 is the trial. We looked at the trial of Jesus, or the trial of the Son of God before the Sanhedrin. And then right after that, he's going to be tried by Pilate before the Roman authorities. In the mixture, or in the middle of this, is another kind of trial that's going on, and this is the trial of Peter. And it's very interesting how Mark puts these two together. He compares and contrasts. He shows us what a successful sufferer for Christ, or in this case, the king himself, looks like. And he also shows us what a failure looks like. And he wants us to draw these important conclusions and understanding. He wants us to learn from Peter's failure. And we are to learn. If you look at verse 53, they were in the garden of Gethsemane. They were praying, or Jesus was praying. The disciples kept falling asleep. They came and arrested Jesus in verse 53. And they led him away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders, and the scribes gathered together. And then there's this snapshot of Peter, verse 54. Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest and was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire. And then the next section is this trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. And then Mark again focuses the camera on Peter back in the courtyard. So we go from the courtyard to the Sanhedrin back to the courtyard. And I want us to look at these denials that we find in the courtyard of Peter, and I want us to learn three lessons from them. It's a very interesting picture, just even setting up this passage that here is Peter there warming himself by the fire, trying to blend in with those. Who came and arrested Christ? Is that on a picture for us? Just as the outset, trying to blend in, trying to step in with those who hate Christ, and try to just inconspicuously go along with him. Well, that's the setting. Peter is there warming himself by the fire in verse 54 while the trial is going on upstairs. And just to give you an understanding of how these things were set up, there is this courtyard, this priestly complex, which no doubt Annas lived there and Caiaphas, the current high priest. Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas, a very wealthy, a very prestigious priestly family. And they had this complex, this housing complex, that would have been like a large rectangular complex with a gate to the street and a corridor that went down into a big courtyard. And it is here in this courtyard that the scene takes place. Probably a couple of levels. There are Jesus is being tried upstairs while Peter is down in the courtyard. So we're going to, this morning, just walk through the three denials of Peter with the intention to learn three lessons from Peter's denial. So we'll just start going through. It's going to start looking at the three denials of Peter. We'll look at the first denial. And this is Peter before a servant girl, just one girl and Peter. Verse 66. 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 Jesus the Nazarene. So here's the servant girl. She sees Peter kind of at a distance, probably sees him, then all of a sudden, something triggers in her mind, and she takes a longer look at him, kind of fixes her eyes upon him, and her memory starts drawing the conclusion: this is one that I saw in the temple with him. I mean, Jesus and his little band from Galilee had created quite a stir, certainly the talk of the priestly family, and she had recognized Peter. Now, Peter is over there warming himself at the fire, but the light from the fire is lighting up his face. And so she's able to zero in upon him and say, You are one of him. She accuses him as being one with Jesus the Nazarene, probably with a note of derision. Oh, you're from up there. Up north. These are the southern group. They were the northern group. She exposes Peter's charade. There he is, just trying to pretend to blend in, and she calls him on it. You are one of his. Well, this exposure. Kind of caught Peter off guard. Look at Peter's response in verse 68, but he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. And he went out onto the porch, and a rooster crowed. So in just a very quick statement, he denies Jesus totally. Two verbs. The first verb, I do not know what you're talking about, theoretical knowledge, nor practically, I have no idea who he is. In other words, both theoretically and practically, I have no idea what you are talking about, woman. And so he gets up and says, I'm moving away from this fire. I'm heading over there to the porch. The porch was the entryway right at the end of the corridor into the courtyard. It would have been a little dark, a little bit more dark, a little bit more inconspicuous, where Peter could still see at a distance what was going on, but hopefully remain inconspicuous. It's interesting to see Peter's movement from the light to the dark. And as he does, he moves further and further away from Christ. He's come as far as he's going to come. And now you start seeing that receding and departure. So the first denial of Peter was a private one, a one-on-one, a denial before the servant girl. A nobody. Let's look at the second one. Denial number two.
9:05And this is Jesus before the servant girl and a few of the bystanders. So there's people standing by. And this is a more public denial. The servant girl, 69, saw him and began once more to say to the bystanders, this is one of them. I mean, this is first-century face recognition software at its best, right? Who needs face recognition software when you've got a servant girl running around? Aha! There you are. I see you. I know exactly who you are. And there she is. And this time she talks to the bystanders. So they're hearing what's going on. This is one of them. He is one of the group. He is one of those that we've been talking about these few days. He is identified with this Nazarene. It's one of them. And this certainly made them, the way they viewed these disciples, they were an outcast group. Their identification with Jesus marked them. It tagged them as a group that was to be threatened or a threatening group. In fact, you see this in John chapter 20 and verse 19, as the disciples had shut the doors and they were locked for fear of the Jews. So association with Jesus was labeled them as a threatening group, suspect. We'll look at Peter's. Response, verse 70, but he denied it. But again, he denied it. Public denial. So you can see the progression of his denial is getting more intense. Now it's not just with one girl, it's with the girl and several of those around. And the verbal implies a duration. That is, he began denying it. It was more than just a single statement, but a continual denial. The bottom line is the bystanders weren't buying it, and so he was denying. It's an ongoing thing. These denials took place probably over from somewhere between 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock in the morning, somewhere around those hours, maybe even 5. But several hours passed by there. Now let's look at the third denial, verse 70. And after a little while, the bystanders were again saying to Peter, Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too. Now this time, Peter denies Jesus before a group of bystanders. This bystanders group is growing. So this is a more public and even a more intense denial. See the progression here. Now, you can look and see what the bystanders were saying. They were saying the very same thing that the servant girl was saying. You are one of them, and you are a Galilean. Again, contempt, scorn. You're from Galilee. And they knew this, as Matthew points out, as he started talking to the servant girl because his accent gave him away. In fact, one of those bystanders that was saying you were one of them was cousin or a brother of Malchus. Remember who Malchus was? He was the one who Peter cut the ear off. He was the servant that Peter cut his ear off. So it's kind of like I was up here Friday night and I was with a bunch of the kids. And there was one kid that was very upset. And he was upset because his cousin was picked on by an older kid. I mean, he was really upset. And I'm like, well, point him out to me. He goes, oh, I'll show him to you. He knew very well who he was. And he was very upset because this person had hurt his cousin. Of course, his cousin was having a ball and was having a, you know, he'd gotten over it pretty quick. But the point is, when someone cuts the ear off your brother, you kind of zero in and know them, or if it's his cousin. Same thing here. So you've got this guy sitting around the curve. Yeah, I know. You cut my brother's ear off. I know exactly who you are. Look at Peter's response. But he began to curse and swear. I do not know this man you are talking about. Now, Peter has done something that he never thought he was capable of. He crossed a line that never in his wild. Dreams did he think he was capable of. And there's a new aspect here of Peter's denial. And look at, there's two things. He began to do two things, to curse and to swear. The word for curse is ananthema, ananthema, to declare cursed. So he, and it's in the active voice, so he is cursing something.
13:55Ananthema. Paul uses the word in Galatians 1, 8, and 9 to talk about a divine curse being upon those who teach a false gospel. May they be ananthema. That's language coming out of Peter's mouth. Ananthema. He's also swearing. This isn't to be understood as profanity. Now, he may have used profanity. I don't know. But what this is, this is swearing. It's like saying, I swear upon a stack of Bibles. I swear upon everything holy and upon everything good. I do not know this man.
14:32In fact, there's a real debate on the first word. What is he ananthemizing? Is he ananthemizing himself? Is he cursing himself? Or is he cursing Christ? If he's cursing himself, it's like Peter is calling down curses upon himself. In fact, even the ESV, the very way they translate this, is to say that he called curses down upon himself. The problem is, that's not what it says. It simply says, Says, he cursed in the active voice. He cursed. In this case, and there's good reason to understand that this may very well be what he's saying, it would be like, remember Ruth, when she was told by Naomi to go back, she said, Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts me from you. So, in this sense, what Peter is saying, listen, may I be cursed forever, cut off from God, and may I fill the full force of his wrath if I am not telling you the truth that I have no idea who this man is.
15:41Or did he actually curse Jesus? Even some of the translators don't like the idea that Peter may very well have said, may he be cursed by God. Which is it? Well, I think it involves number two. I think both are in view. Certainly, he did two things: he cursed and he swore. The second part, he swore, he took an oath. And that certainly means when you swear on a stack of Bibles, you're saying whatever curses are in the Bible are due to me if I am not telling you the truth. Kind of like in a court of law. But he also cursed. He cursed something. And the reason I fall that I think he cursed Christ here is simply because it's in the active voice. If he cursed himself, I would expect a middle voice, like I am calling down curses on myself. That puts him in the middle voice. But the active voice is used here. And under this situation, he is saying he actually did that which a later tormentor of Christians named Pliny was informed that real Christians could never curse Christ. And he was one who tormented Christians, tortured them. And the one mark of a true Christian is that they would never curse Christ. And yet, what I think Mark is telling us is that Peter's words were severe enough that he said, May he be ananthema. I swear to you, I have no idea who this guy is. That's the intensity of the denial. Either way you look at it, it is a profound, unequivocal, total rejection of Christ. Peter never thought he was capable of this. It's interesting that he denied Jesus without even using his name. Didn't even want to mention his name. I do not know this man. Keep in mind, this is the disciple that said, You are the Christ. And now he is saying, I don't know this man.
18:01What a change. What a change. Peter had crossed a line that he never thought he was possible of. And at that moment, the rooster crowed. Look at verse 72. Immediately, a rooster crowed a second time. Luke records that the Lord turned and looked at Peter. They probably removed him from the court, you know, moving him from one area in the courtyard to the next. And there he would have been, spit all over him, bleeding, black and blue. And says, at that moment, their eyes met. And Peter remembered. Rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And he began to weep. Peter's denial was complete, and his memory was perfect, and his guilt was severe. His self-deceiving heart had been revealed. He had been exposed for what he was really capable of. Very important lesson when you need to learn. But it's a very unusual sentence in the Greek that describes his guilt.
19:19It's like he throws himself down. Certainly, he throws himself down, but the word here speaks in terms of the pounding surf. And Mark uses this in Mark. Chapter 4 and 37, where he talks about the wind and the waves that were breaking over the boat. They were pounding on the boat, one after another, wave after wave, like wave after wave of guilt, just hammering upon Peter. The second verb is also very, it's an ingressive aorist verb that speaks about he went into a new state, and that state was a state of severe weeping, a state of severe weeping. Matthew uses this term to speak about the weeping that took place in Bethlehem after Herod had slaughtered all the male children. Matthew 2:18 reads like this: A voice was heard in Ramah weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. And here is Peter, as Luke records, weeping bitterly. He went out and wept. That pounding guilt reduced him to intense and deep and severe mourning, guilt to crush. So those are the three denials laid out for us right there. Question becomes: why did Mark include this? And why did he tell this the way he did? Well, Mark wants us to learn from this. And so I want to look at three lessons that Mark. Naturally, come out of this. Three lessons. First lesson we need to learn from Peter's denials is: number one, no matter who you are, you can quickly fall. No matter who you are, you can quickly fall. Look at Peter in 14:29. Peter said, Even though all may fall away, yet I will not. I don't care what these other bozos do, I don't care who you think they are, but Jesus, you're wrong on this one. Even if they all leave, I am not going to deny you. I am not going to fall away. And then again in verse 31 of 14, he says, But Peter kept insistently saying insistently, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. You're wrong, Jesus. Think of the bold assertion. Think about how much there is not a man that we've come across in the history of the earth that has more resolve to follow Christ even to the death. That's where he is. Very proud, very confident. And yet look at the depth from which he fell. Look at the height he was. And in just a few hours from making this boast, here he is on his face dealing with some of the most severe guilt imaginable. He didn't even make it to the courtroom. You know, probably in his mind, he was thinking, okay, yeah, I'm ready to go for you. Let the courts assemble, let the crowds come, I will stand before you, and I will declare that you are my Lord, and I will never deny you.
22:40No, it wasn't even before a formal tribunal. He denied Christ before a bunch of nobodies. He wasn't even being tried for death. Just a bunch of nobodies, afraid to identify with Christ before a bunch of nobodies. He went from, you are the Christ, to not even knowing this man. The interesting thing is, Peter was a believer, and he was the best of them. He had forsaken all. He had followed him. Why did he fall so dramatically and so quickly? The answer is very clear, and Mark wants to make sure you get this. Pride, self-confidence. He thought he had the reserves within himself to do all that was necessary to fulfill Christ's obligation or to be obligated to Christ. He thought he could do it all to follow him. Kind of sounds like the Jews, right? When they received the covenant, oh, yes, we will obey all of it for sure, no doubt whatsoever. And God says, no, you won't. Kind of like Peter here, with that same spirit. Yeah, I've got the reserves in me to do whatever you ask me. Me to do. And I'm going to follow you on that basis. Look at what a miserable failure he was going forth like that. Self-confidence, self-assertion, self-promotion. Here he is talking about what place should he have in the kingdom. He was certainly among those who are debating who was the greatest just a few hours before.
24:25You see, even as believers, even though we have been born again and our spirits have been renewed and we have been awakened, yet we still live within the prison of this flesh. And the residual effects of the desires of this fleshly life need to daily be put aside. And we're no match for the power of our flesh, even as believers. The power is not within us, is relying solely and depending upon Christ, upon His Spirit. You see, pride is the cancer in our flesh. That's it.
25:01Even when it's laced with the best of intentions, and here's Peter with the best of intentions of all. I'm going to follow you to your death. That's a good intention, but I'm going to do it in my own strength for my own glory. There was a mixture of that in there. You see, pride is the cancer of our flesh. It is the depravity of depravities. You know, you remember the temple had a holy of holies? Well, pride is the unholy. Of the unholies about us. That self-assertion, self-confidence, self-pride, self-promotion. And I can tell you, we live in a society, do we not, that is anything but humble. I mean, from the cradle to the grave, we teach in our secular system that the power is within you, strength is within you. You can be whatever you want to be. The goodness is in you, the power is in you.
26:05Love yourself, assert yourself. You can be anything you want to be. You go. This is what we teach. This is what we understand. What we call a good self-esteem, God calls pride, sin. And it is the unholy of unholies. Proverbs 16:18 says, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. James 4:6 says, God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. 1 Corinthians 10:12, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. Pride is a cancer. And no matter who you are, know that you can quickly fall. Second lesson we can learn from Peter's denial is that no matter who you are, you need to watch and pray. You need to watch and pray. If there's one deficiency, Of Peter, you see in chapter 14, it's his continual refusal to obey, to stay and watch and pray in the garden. Three times fell asleep, three times he denied. And there is a correlation that I think Mark is making. Three denials. You see, I think it's very important that you and I understand the depths of our human depravity. Contrary to being good or the housers of good, Scripture is very clear: we are the housers of evil. This is what pollutes the earth: are the thoughts and the evil intentions that come out of the heart of man, and that every aspect of our being is touched by this depravity. It doesn't mean that you're as bad as you could be, but it does mean that every aspect of your being has been touched by sin. And even though we've been born again, yet we still are incarcerated, if you will, or imprisoned in this flesh. And so we must learn how to put that off, but to understand we are going to battle. We still are going to battle with the desires of our flesh and to understand the pollution that they cause in the earth. And why is that? Well, our souls have been redeemed, but we're still waiting for our bodies to be redeemed. But what's important here is that you and I develop a healthy distrust of ourselves.
28:30That's what Mark is bringing to our attention. Instead of loving yourself, or instead of asserting yourself, there needs to be a healthy distrust of yourself. You need to understand what you are capable of. The only difference between you and some of the most vilest failures in history is that you haven't had that opportunity. You weren't put in that situation. You weren't put in that temptation. But had you been there, you would have failed. Don't think that we're any better than Peter.
29:04What biblical theology teaches us is we must have a healthy distrust of ourself. We are not worthless. Christ made that very evident. We are worth the very Son of God to Him. Extremely valuable. But not because there's good residing in us. Scripture is very clear. Because of His mercy, because of His grace, because of His love. All in Jesus Christ. It's there. We need to understand what we are capable of, and we need to run from every vestige of self-confidence. Don't even joke about how great you are. Let that just be put aside.
29:46Remember what Jesus said to the disciples in Gethsemane? Keep watching and praying because the flesh, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You need to understand the weakness of your flesh, and you need to watch. You need to pray. You need to take seriously Jesus' words. Who says that, and as for Peter, and Peter later in his life wrote 1 Peter 5:8 and said, Our adversary prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He learned this by hard experience. But Jesus prayed for Peter.
30:22In Luke 22, 24, there was a dispute about who the greatest disciple was going to be. And in that context, Jesus said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed that your faith will not fail. There's the key in all this: faith. That is, faith not fail. And I think Jesus tells us what's ahead for his people. In 13:9, he says, This is what's going to happen. And I do not think that the church in America has been sifted like the church has been in other countries. And part of the modus operandi for being a true witness in a nation is standing before the courts and the magistrates and being willing to be persecuted for the truth and standing up. It's only there that the testimony really is convincing. It's certainly when Jesus says, Yes, I am the Son of God, and you will see me coming in the clouds with all power, all authority, that we can say, Okay, yeah, that's a true testimony. He doesn't say it on a mountaintop with a bunch of disciples. Around him. He says that in the crucible where he's going to be killed for it. That's a true testimony. You see, there's only one safe place, and that is close to Jesus. And we stay close to Jesus by watching carefully his words, watching carefully our heart, and staying in prayer. You know, the safest place that night was for Peter just to go with Jesus. Go stand right next to him. That's the safest place, and I don't care if he's before a tribunal or what. That is always, no matter what, the safest place to always be. And it's through prayer and watching that we stay close. 3. Important to understand that no matter who you are, you can be restored. In the context of Mark's gospel, the famed persecutions under Nero. Very severe. Some date the gospel to right around the time of the persecutions, Nero. Some date it during the persecutions, some right before.
32:31I think the reality is that the growing hostility and mounting persecution of the church at Rome was growing in intensity even in the 50s and early 60s, and certainly in full epic proportions during Nero's persecution. And it was during this persecution that both Peter and Paul were martyred. So the growing hostility was certainly being felt. And that's where Mark introduces this. Theme of enduring or standing up under persecution. And he shows us what bearing witness to the truth looks like. He shows us a complete failure, and then he shows us a complete success. Jesus Himself, first before the Sanhedrin, second before the Roman rulers. See, one of the biggest controversies in the early church was what to do with those who denied Christ, what to do with those who had cursed Christ, what to do with those who had betrayed fellow members. Should we take them back in the church? Can they be restored? Some wanted to parade them around and make sure that they made a very public, open repentance before they could be brought back in the church, and others thought, no, they could just come in quietly. That it's denying Christ is just like a sin, no other. I think it's in this context that Mark is holding up Peter as an example to say, yes, no matter who you are, you can be restored. Even Peter cursed Christ and was restored. It's interesting to see that after Judas's betrayal, he's gone from Mark's narrative. Same with Peter. After his denial, he's gone from Mark's narrative. He's gone. With the exception of one statement in verse 16, 7 at the end, you remember when women go out there and Jesus says, Do not be amazed, or the man, he says, you're looking, do not be amazed. Be amazed. You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and who? Peter. That he is going ahead to Galilee. And that's really how the gospel ends. Go tell his disciples and Peter. Restoration. Promise of restoration. Of course, a more vivid restoration is found in John 21, which Dustin read earlier. But one of the things that I believe that Mark is doing here, one of the chief purposes of Mark's gospel was to encourage a very severely persecuted people who are breaking and cracking and denying and falling into the temptation. And he is writing to them to encourage them.
35:25Have faith in Christ. This is the message to keep. Have faith in Christ. The difference between Judas and Peter is profound. What is the difference? Both completely ruined. Judas felt remorse and went out and killed himself. Peter felt remorse and was restored. What was the difference? Peter had faith. Judas did not. And after all it is said about he saw what Jesus said, Judas didn't understand the goodness of Christ. He never had faith in him. Everything Else may fail, but your faith will not fail if it is genuine. And that's the only kind the Bible speaks about. Peter's faith didn't fail. His confidence, his courage, everything about him failed. But he still knew who Jesus was, and he remembered Jesus, his words. And as a result, he was restored, restored to fellowship. Later, Peter was crucified upside down for his faith. He didn't feel like he was worthy to be crucified like his Lord was. But he asked to be crucified upside down. What a change.
36:43You see, I think this is one of the chief messages of Mark's gospel. No matter who you are or the degree of your failure, have faith in Jesus. Have faith in Jesus. He forgives. He restores. And then he strengthens. Have faith in Jesus. I remember Thomas Cranmer, the great reformer, once Archbishop of Canterbury, had written several wonderful doctrines of the Reformed faith, was forced to recant, and he did recant in writing. And then upon his final recantation, he stood up in the assembly and he said, I recant my recantations. And if I am to go to be burned, My hand will be burned first. And sure enough, as the fires came around him, he held out his hand, the very hand that wrote the recantations, and it burned first and consumed him. What changed? His faith in Christ restored. He strengthens the message of Mark: Have faith in Jesus. You're dismissed.