Introduction:
Two Things to Avoid When the Pressure is On: (John 18:12-27):
- Avoid the Extremes .
- Avoid Compromising the Truth.
Matthew 10:32-33 - So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to John 18.
00:06-00:08
John 18, are you there?
00:09-00:20
Many, many, many years ago, Aaron and I were foster parents, and we had a five-year-old foster son that we signed up for rec soccer.
00:21-00:31
And because I played soccer in high school and college, they said, "Will you help coach the team?" I'm like, "Why not?" Coaching five-year-old kids soccer, right?
00:32-00:33
Woo-hoo!
00:33-00:38
Well, when you're coaching these teams, you don't stand on the sideline with a clipboard.
00:38-00:39
Do you know how you coach these teams?
00:40-00:46
You're on the field with them, running with them, coaching them on the fly.
00:46-00:48
That was how you coached these teams.
00:48-00:51
And yes, I was a lot thinner then, but that was how you coached these teams.
00:52-01:00
But before our first game, there was another parent, a mom who was another coach, and her son played goalie.
01:01-01:15
And before the first game, she pulled me aside, she said, "I just gotta warn you." I can't remember the kid's name, but she's like, "Little Joey here, he gets rather upset when we get scored on.
01:16-01:31
I'm just gonna warn you." I'm like, "Well, nobody likes to get scored on, right?" Like, "He's five." Like, "Okay, thanks for that." Well, sure enough, game starts and the other team comes right down and scores on us.
01:33-01:36
And little Joey loses his mind.
01:37-01:40
And I don't just mean it's like, oh man, bummer.
01:40-01:47
He was crying and screaming and he was trying to rip his shirt, but he wasn't strong enough to do it.
01:47-01:54
So he's like, (yells) He's just like, he is throwing the most unholy fit I've ever seen.
01:55-01:57
I'm like, it's one nothing, right?
01:57-01:59
Like, we got time.
01:59-02:01
Well, he's throwing this fit, right?
02:02-02:08
And I'm watching him and all of a sudden, it occurred to me, I'm like, where's my foster son at?
02:09-02:11
Because he wasn't with the team.
02:13-02:15
Like, where's our foster son?
02:15-02:20
And I looked down on the other end of the field and he was down celebrating with the other team.
02:21-02:22
(congregation laughing)
02:22-02:29
There was this huddle and he was hugs and high fives "Good shot!" He was just like celebrating with them.
02:29-02:37
So if you get this scene, I'm standing in the middle field because that's where the coaches were, and I'm watching little Joey here completely lose his mind.
02:37-02:38
(yells)
02:39-03:01
And then I'm looked down at the others like, "Yay, yay, yay!" And I'm looking, (yells) and I'm looking, "Yay!" And I'm just like, "Are these guys on the same team?" And they're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" Well, the reason I'm telling you this story I was in the middle of this incredible contrast, to say the least.
03:03-03:09
And when we get to this section of John, he's doing the same thing here.
03:09-03:13
And this section is a very unique format here in John.
03:14-03:16
He's telling two stories at once.
03:18-03:40
And you might wonder, "Well, why does he keep bouncing back and forth?" and he's talking about Jesus' trial and Peter's denial, and Jesus' trial and Peter's denial, and he's sort of like me on the soccer field, like, "What is going on here?" He's making a contrast, you see, between Jesus' faithfulness and Peter's sin.
03:41-03:44
And that's why he's telling these two stories at once, alright?
03:46-03:49
So let's look at chapter 18, verse 12.
03:52-04:00
It says, "So the band of soldiers last week where we left off, Jesus, betrayed by Judas, hundreds of soldiers showed up.
04:02-04:10
So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.
04:11-04:17
First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year.
04:18-04:26
It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
04:27-04:28
Now stop there for a second.
04:28-04:29
This is the first scene.
04:29-04:32
Now Annas was technically not the high priest.
04:34-04:37
He was, but he was removed years before this due to corruption.
04:40-04:46
But here's the thing, in the Old Testament, back in Old Testament times, When you were the high priest, you were high priest for life.
04:47-04:57
But the Romans really weren't on board with that because they thought if somebody was high priest for life, they would get this massive following and get too much power, and Rome couldn't have that.
04:57-05:00
So they made it sort of a rotating position.
05:01-05:06
And Annas actually at this point was the power behind the throne.
05:07-05:17
He had five sons who served as high priest over time, and currently his son-in-law was high priest.
05:17-05:23
It was like this, you could say family of politicians, right, like the Bushes, right?
05:24-05:25
It was kind of that thing.
05:25-05:30
But they still called Annas the high priest because it's, you know, like the president.
05:30-05:35
Once somebody is the president, you call him the president for the rest of his life, even when he's no longer serving as the president.
05:36-05:43
I'm telling you all this because, you know, you see Annas is sort of referred to as the high priest, but then it says Caiaphas is the high priest.
05:43-05:44
You're like, well, which is it?
05:45-05:52
Well, technically it was Caiaphas, but Annas was really the power behind the scenes, all right?
05:53-05:55
And then John here reminds us back in chapter 11.
05:55-06:10
You remember when Jesus raised Lazarus and then the council got together and they're like, look, we can't have this because there's gonna, this revolution is going to start behind this Jesus guy, and the Romans are going to come, and they're going to remove us from our place.
06:11-06:33
You remember at the time Caiaphas, the official high priest, spoke up and he said, "Look, if we have to like kill one man to prevent everybody else from suffering, that's probably smart, right?" And he made what one commentator called an unconscious prophecy that John reminds us of here.
06:33-06:35
He says it's better that one man should die for the people.
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He didn't even know what he was saying.
06:38-06:46
But it's rather appropriate, isn't it, that the high priest here is initiating the death of the sacrificial lamb of God.
06:46-06:50
All right, so cut to the next scene, verse 15.
06:50-06:54
It says, "Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple.
06:55-07:01
Since that disciple was known to the high priest, He entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest.
07:02-07:05
But Peter stood outside the door.
07:07-07:13
So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in.
07:16-07:36
The servant girl at the door said to Peter, "You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves.
07:36-07:41
Peter also was with them standing and warming himself.
07:42-07:49
Okay, so you remember when Jesus was taken, the disciples all fled, but Peter and another disciple came back.
07:49-07:50
And you're like, who was the other disciple?
07:51-07:55
And for a whole lot of reasons, I believe it was John.
07:55-07:57
And there's a whole lot of reasons.
07:57-07:58
I'm not going to bore you with the details.
07:58-08:02
If you want to know the details, buy me Chick-fil-A or Starbucks and I'll tell you all of them.
08:02-08:07
But here's one reason in particular, in this context I believe that it's John.
08:07-08:11
It says this disciple had connections to the high priest, right?
08:12-08:17
And John's mom was Salome, who was related to Mary.
08:17-08:18
They're sisters, right?
08:19-08:24
And Mary was related to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's husband was Zechariah the priest.
08:25-08:33
So there was a family connection there for sure with John and the high priestly family.
08:33-08:36
So I think he's talking about John.
08:37-08:37
All right?
08:38-08:39
So Peter waited outside.
08:41-08:46
John went and talked to the servant girl who was watching the door and brought Peter in.
08:47-08:51
And we see here Peter's first denial.
08:53-08:55
Now, I found this extremely interesting.
08:56-09:08
It's something you don't really see in the English, but in the Greek, the way that she asked the question was the way you would ask a question if you were anticipating a negative response.
09:08-09:09
Do you know what I mean by that?
09:10-09:15
In other words, you know how you ask a question when you assume the answer is no?
09:16-09:16
Do you know what I mean by that?
09:18-09:19
When you assume the answer is no.
09:19-09:21
Like, perfect example here.
09:21-09:34
"If I said to you, 'You don't want the sermon to end now, do you?' Now, do you see how I asked that?" I'm like, "I'm assuming you're going to say no." Well, that is the sense in which she asked this question.
09:35-09:46
As he was coming in, she's like, "You're not with Jesus, are you?" "Expectant." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "Oh, that's what I figured." That's the way she asked the question.
09:46-09:52
And as we know, Peter made his first denial.
09:54-09:57
Interestingly, it says that there was a charcoal fire.
09:57-09:58
Why is that an important detail?
09:59-10:02
That is a hugely important detail I'm going to tell you about in a couple months.
10:03-10:04
So mark that down.
10:04-10:11
But the reason it's an important detail in this context, is a charcoal fire talks mainly about heat without light, right?
10:12-10:14
And the point is, it's hard to identify in the dark.
10:15-10:16
And that's what was happening here.
10:16-10:24
People were around this charcoal getting warm, and because it was dark, Peter was just trying to blend in, right?
10:25-10:26
It was dark, nobody's going to look at him.
10:26-10:31
He's going to blend in, and he's stuck.
10:32-10:32
He's stuck.
10:32-10:40
He's like, "I can't be here, but I can't leave." That's where John leaves us here.
10:41-10:42
Okay, back to the trial, verse 19.
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It says, "The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
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Jesus answered him, 'I have spoken openly to the world.
10:56-11:00
I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.
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I have said nothing in secret.
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Why do you ask me?
11:06-11:09
Ask those who have heard me what I said to them.
11:11-11:12
They know what I said.
11:14-11:28
When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand saying, "Is that how you answer the high priest?" Jesus answered him, "If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong.
11:31-11:39
But if what I said is right, why do you strike me?" Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
11:40-11:49
Okay, so here, in this scene, Annas is obviously trying to prove that Jesus was forming some secret revolution.
11:50-11:54
He was asking about specifically his disciples and his teaching, like, "Tell us what you're really up to.
11:55-12:00
What are you really up to?" And that certainly would have been enough to get the Romans' attention.
12:00-12:01
That's what he's trying to do here.
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Everything about this trial is so illegal on Annas' end, and Caiaphas' end.
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It's so illegal.
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It's illegal to force someone to incriminate themselves, right?
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Like our Fifth Amendment, that's where we get that.
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It's illegal to take somebody and question them like that, trying to get them to incriminate.
12:23-12:25
And that's exactly what Annas was doing.
12:26-12:36
But the huge illegal act here on Annas' part was when you brought somebody like this, you had the burden of providing the witnesses, right?
12:38-12:42
And that is why Jesus said what he said. Understand that.
12:42-12:52
Jesus wasn't being like intentionally provocative, or like passive-aggressive, or like wholly cantankerous. He wasn't being any of that.
12:52-12:58
Jesus was pointing out to them, "Well, you know, legally, you're supposed to have witnesses.
12:59-13:01
And if you check the record, I've spoken openly.
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So there should be plenty of witnesses.
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I mean, if you want to do this legally, there are lots of witnesses out there.
13:14-13:16
Jesus was pointing out what they were doing was completely illegal.
13:19-13:23
Well, it says that Jesus was struck.
13:23-13:25
Is that how you answer the high priest?
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that was actually the first strike on Jesus.
13:30-13:30
Many more to come.
13:32-13:43
Jesus just responds, "Well, hey, point out my wrong, but if I'm right, why did you hit me?" And Jesus is pointing out again His innocence in light of their illegal activity.
13:44-13:45
Jesus was innocent.
13:45-13:51
He said, "You're just not doing any of this legally." And then it says He was taken to Caiaphas.
13:52-14:00
And John doesn't give us the details of locations, but likely this was probably just across a courtyard in the same building.
14:02-14:08
Likely Annas and Caiaphas occupied rooms in the same building and it wasn't along John.
14:09-14:12
Alright? Back to Peter, verse 25.
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See how John's just bouncing back and forth?
14:17-14:18
You see why here, right?
14:18-14:21
Verse 25, "Now Simon Peter was standing and worming himself.
14:23-14:49
So they said to him, "You also are not one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not." One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked him, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
14:50-14:55
Okay, so we're back in the scene with Peter, still stuck, still waiting, still hiding.
14:57-15:05
Which is ironic because we go from Jesus saying, "I have nothing to hide," to Peter, who was actually literally hiding.
15:07-15:12
And he was asked two more times, which note, that's a chance to redeem yourself, right?
15:15-15:17
But here's something a little bit different.
15:17-15:24
the way these questions were asked, different than the servant girl watching the door.
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The way these were asked implies the one asking was assuming an affirmative response.
15:31-15:36
Meaning the way these questions were asked were done in a way that you assume that the person is going to say yes.
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A little different, right?
15:38-15:40
You understand what I mean by that?
15:40-15:44
It'd be like if I said to you, you like Mission Mahi, right?
15:46-16:03
And he'd be like, "Yeah, see that's the way these questions were asked here." Like, "Yeah, you're one of his." And then Malkus' relative, like, "Dude, didn't I see you in the garden with him?
16:03-16:15
Like, obviously, yeah." When you see the pressure just keeps building and building and building with Peter and the stakes keep getting higher and higher.
16:15-16:16
Did you notice that?
16:17-16:33
Because we went from servant girl at the door to standing around the fire with these guys to one of Malkus' relatives who probably wasn't happy with Peter's actions.
16:35-16:47
So it builds and builds and builds and Peter's like, "I am not with Jesus!" And at once a rooster crowed, just like Jesus said, the rooster would crow.
16:48-16:51
Jesus predicted this back in chapter 13, verse 38.
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Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me?
16:56-17:01
Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you've denied me three times." Remember that?
17:04-17:11
Now again, John's point in telling us the story the way he did, obviously he's showing us a contrast.
17:12-17:22
We have Jesus on trial, and we have, I guess in a more informal sense, you could say Peter's on trial.
17:24-17:26
Both of them were cornered with questions.
17:28-17:34
Both of them would be in what we would call high pressure situations, right?
17:34-17:39
Even though I don't think anyone would argue that Jesus' situation was a lot more higher pressure, right?
17:40-17:48
standing before the Jewish religious leaders and all these soldiers versus standing before the girl that's watching the door.
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Yeah, Jesus was under a lot more pressure, but we could see a parallel that they were both being interrogated.
17:58-18:00
But they both handled it completely different.
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I mean, let's be honest, nobody likes being put into these situations, right?
18:07-18:11
You're called out, you're brought to the carpet, You're sweating it out under the lights.
18:13-18:17
But there is one really good thing about being in these situations.
18:19-18:26
You're like, "I can't possibly imagine something good about being in these situations." Well, there is something great about these situations, and that is this.
18:29-18:30
They show you who you really are.
18:33-18:37
These situations show you who you really are.
18:38-18:42
You see, Peter, he thought he was strong.
18:45-18:46
Until he had to be.
18:49-18:51
I mean, didn't we see that throughout the Gospel?
18:51-18:55
Peter was so strong when he was with Jesus and the boys, right?
18:56-18:57
He's with the boys!
18:57-19:04
He's like, "Yeah, yeah man, I would die for you!" And they would deny him, but not me.
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And he was so strong with the boys.
19:10-19:12
But we see Peter on his own here and he crumbled.
19:13-19:14
He just crumbled.
19:16-19:20
And like Simon Peter, get this, because you know what I found out about Peter?
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Christians love to just point their finger at him like, oh, he's such a, what a, what a.
19:26-19:29
We are more like him than we want to admit sometimes.
19:32-19:36
And I think Christians, we're all like Peter in this way.
19:36-19:40
We have a failure to recognize our own weakness.
19:40-19:45
We are so good at pointing out everybody else's weaknesses, we are lousy at noticing our own.
19:48-19:54
And this event showed Peter where his weakness was.
19:56-20:03
And when you face real adversity, We're going to find out what you really believe.
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Like if I stood here today and said, "Do you believe that God is a provider?" You would be like, "Amen, I believe God's a provider.
20:13-20:20
"Preach it, brother, I believe that." Well, we'll find out if you really believe that when you have need and what you do about that.
20:22-20:26
Do you believe that showing forgiveness and grace is Christ-like?
20:26-20:27
Do you believe that?
20:28-20:33
Like, "I believe there's nothing more Christ -like than showing grace like Jesus.
20:33-20:38
I don't think there's anything more Christ-like than that." And I'd say, "First of all, why are you talking with that accent?"
20:39-20:39
(Laughter)
20:41-20:54
And second of all, I would say, "Well, we'll find out if you really believe that when somebody wrongs you, when somebody is clearly wrong in the way they treat you.
20:54-21:04
We'll see how big of a fan of grace you are then." And I guess as we talk about Simon Peter, I have to ask, are you unashamed of Jesus?
21:05-21:09
I mean, really, as a Christian, would you say, "I am unashamed of Jesus Christ.
21:10-21:16
I don't care who knows that I am a follower of Jesus Christ." Are you unashamed of Jesus?
21:19-21:21
Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?
21:22-21:32
When you are in the face of opposition, When you're in a situation where you're surrounded by people who aren't such big fans of Jesus.
21:33-21:36
See, Peter was great with the boys because they were all big fans of Jesus.
21:37-21:49
But when you're surrounded by people who aren't, and you're tempted to shrink back, and maybe not be such a blatantly outspoken Christian, we'll see.
21:52-22:00
We'll see that maybe you find yourself having a little more sympathy for Peter than you did when you were sitting and listening to a story about Him in church.
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We're just like Him, guys.
22:06-22:09
The pressure situations show us who we really are.
22:12-22:23
So, here, while we are tuned in to God's Word, I just want us to commit ourselves to avoiding the two mistakes that Peter made.
22:24-22:38
And really, we can sort of sum up Peter's weakness with just looking at these two mistakes on your outline.
22:39-22:41
Two things to avoid when the pressure is on.
22:42-22:45
Two things to avoid when the pressure is on.
22:47-22:51
Initially my outline heading said under pressure.
22:52-23:09
I'm like, "I gotta change that, because I know people in this church are gonna be sitting there going, 'doon, doon, doon, do-do-doon, doon, doon, doon.'" "Pressure, pushing down on me, pressing down on you, no man asked for." And I don't want you to think about that.
23:09-23:10
So I changed it.
23:11-23:13
I changed it so you wouldn't think about that, see?
23:14-23:15
I'm always thinking.
23:20-23:25
"Pressure." Two things to avoid when the pressure is on.
23:26-23:28
Number one, avoid the extremes.
23:29-23:31
Avoid the extremes.
23:34-23:39
Now, this point is actually going to take us back to last week's passage, and I need you to follow with me on this.
23:40-23:42
But you know, remember the scene in the garden?
23:42-23:45
If you weren't here, you really need to listen to that sermon but remember the scene in the garden?
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All the way to trial.
23:51-23:53
Jesus was always in control.
23:53-23:55
We've noticed, we saw that, didn't we?
23:55-24:03
He was always in control, standing before hundreds of armed guards, standing before the high priest and more guards, slapping them around.
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Jesus was always in control.
24:06-24:13
And when we go from garden to Peter's trial, he was never in control.
24:16-24:23
And when you get back to verse 10, Again, just to kind of review, here's Peter and there's hundreds of guards.
24:23-24:24
We talked about that.
24:24-24:31
We don't know exactly how many, but it's safe to say there were literally hundreds of guards and what was Peter's response?
24:32-24:39
He pulls out his sword and takes a swipe at one of them, Malchus who ducks and he gets his ear and Jesus ends up healing him.
24:39-24:41
We find out in the other gospels.
24:41-24:54
Okay, so we have Peter who just a few minutes before this scene, he pulls out a sword and he's gonna take them all down, right?
24:55-24:59
Just one ear at a time, I'm gonna hack them to pieces and I'm gonna take them down.
25:00-25:05
We went from that to, now I'm afraid of door girl.
25:08-25:09
Did you see that?
25:10-25:11
Did you see that?
25:11-25:15
And I look at this and I'm like, is this the same guy?
25:16-25:19
Like, wait a minute, did Jesus have two Simon Peters in the group?
25:20-25:21
Is this the same guy?
25:24-25:32
One minute he's got the sword and he's going right after them, and the next minute he's scared to death of a little girl.
25:33-25:37
How did he go from one extreme to the other?
25:37-25:45
And the truth is I have seen this so many times in ministry and in the church, and I bet you have too.
25:47-25:50
Some of you right now know exactly what I'm talking about.
25:52-25:58
People that are so fired up for Jesus that they'll take down the army by themselves.
25:58-26:03
And the next minute, they are a turtle in the shell.
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I've seen this so many times.
26:08-26:24
In the early days, before the church launched, there was a man from Pittsburgh who reached out to me and he's like, "I'm gonna be your right-hand man." He literally said, "I'm gonna be the Aaron to your Moses and I wanna get baptized and I wanna do." And then he just completely flaked out before launch.
26:25-26:41
And you're like, "What happened to him?" "I don't know, he ghosted me, he just vanished." I knew another guy who had come to Christ And he was so good at going after Christians.
26:43-26:48
Because he came to Christ and he'd go after Christians, and he'd be like, "I can't believe you guys are watching a movie.
26:49-27:02
That's two hours you could have spent studying the Bible, and you wasted it watching a movie, and you call yourself a Christian?" And you know, fast forward, and that guy's life, not long after, and he's not walking with Christ.
27:04-27:05
You know people like that?
27:06-27:16
like John the Baptist one second, and the next second they're just like Peter here.
27:18-27:24
And again, before we point fingers too hard, I noticed in my own life that I'm not exempt.
27:26-27:30
I'm not exempt from the tendency of the extreme swings.
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I'm not.
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You're not either.
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so fired up for Jesus one minute, and the next minute you're spiritually despondent.
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We all have that temptation in us.
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You know, you're like, I'm gonna start a prayer group, and it's going to, this prayer group is going to change the city.
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In your first meeting, two people show up.
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You're like, I give up, I quit.
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I'm done, nobody around here loves Jesus.
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Or you're like, I'm gonna witness at work.
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You know what, there's a lot of people at my work that don't know Jesus, and God has me there as a missionary, and I'm bringing 'em all to Christ.
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And you go out there, and the first person you share the gospel with does not repent in sackcloth and ashes, and you're like, I'm done.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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Have you seen people like this?
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Because I've seen a lot of this in my life.
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You're like, "Well, how does it happen?" I'll tell you exactly how it happens.
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Because look, zeal, right?
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I'm all about zeal.
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We had a whole sermon about zeal a couple of years ago.
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Wasn't that a good one?
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Wasn't that a good one?
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I'm just kidding.
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I'm just kidding.
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I'm reminding you what it's like to ask a question where you expect the answer to be yes.
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But we did, you can find it online.
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But we had a whole message about zeal, and I'm all for zeal, but how do you go from, how do you go from, "I will take a sword and hack through the entire army," to, "Oh, please don't talk to me, don't ask me any more questions, little girl." How do you go from there?
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Here's exactly how that happens.
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It's when your zeal is flesh-fueled, not faith-fueled.
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That's how that happens.
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It's when your zeal is flesh-fueled, not faith-fueled.
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Do you notice this other disciple?
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He's not named, but I'm pretty sure he's John, so I'm gonna call him John.
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Do you notice this other disciple?
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He walked right in.
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Number of times denying Jesus, zero.
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And I think that's why he specifically mentioned in this account.
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I think it's our way of seeing, this is John saying, "Look, Simon Peter, you can follow Jesus without hiding by the charcoal, And you don't have to be Conan the Barbarian either.
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Avoid the extremes.
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And there's a lesson to be learned for us.
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Like Jesus, our zeal has to come from God, not the flesh.
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If you're looking to get zeal from the flesh, you're going to be up and down.
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But when your zeal comes from God, see there's the contrast with Jesus, steady and consistent throughout the whole ordeal because his faith was in his Father.
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Not the bipolar type faith that Peter had because the zeal is from the flesh.
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So I would just caution us, listen, let's avoid the extremes.
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Avoid the extremes and make sure your zeal comes from God, not your flesh.
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And finally today, avoid compromising the truth.
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Avoid compromising the truth.
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You know, Peter had no reason to deny, right?
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He had no reason to deny Jesus.
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Peter was not in any danger.
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You're like, well, how do you know that?
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You weren't there.
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Correct, but John was there, and John was a disciple, and John wasn't harassed, and John wasn't threatened.
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Peter could have just joined him the whole time, but instead Peter did it his way, and he didn't even learn from his mistake when he denied Jesus in front of door girl.
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Like, I don't think that's her name.
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That's what we're going with.
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But you know, that's the thing about Peter, not learning from his mistake, you know, that's the thing about lying.
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Lying is a lot like playing the guitar.
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The more you do it, the easier it is.
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And it's an ironic parallel again.
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Peter was asked fair questions and he lied.
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And Jesus was asked illegal questions He was open and honest.
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Now obviously, Peter didn't hate Jesus here.
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It's not like he lost his faith in this moment.
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He was afraid.
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Peter was afraid.
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And in this moment, Peter thought, "Look, pressure's on.
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My safest bet.
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My safest bet right now is to just skirt the truth a little bit.
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Nobody has to get hurt.
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Just a little compromise, right?
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I can stay close to Jesus.
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I can stay in proximity if I lie to protect myself.
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Again, we know that's not true, John.
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But I can stay in close proximity to Jesus if I just lie because, look, the ends justify the means, right?
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gets hurt, it's just a little white lie. It's not even a little white lie, it's like a group of lies, and I'm not sure how white they are, but the ends justify the means. Right?
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Don't the ends justify the means?
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No.
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The ends never justify the means.
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Hear me.
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The kingdom of God is not advanced through deception.
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It is not advanced through falsehood.
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It is not advanced through creative improvisations around the charcoal.
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The kingdom of God is advanced, as Jesus showed, through the unashamed proclamation of the truth.
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That's how the kingdom of God is advanced.
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And it's through disciples of Jesus who aren't ashamed of Jesus, no matter the cost.
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That's how the kingdom's advanced.
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Compromise dishonors the Lord.
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Okay?
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Jesus promised this, Matthew 10.
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Jesus said, "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before or my Father who is in heaven." Can we just pause for a second and bask in the awesomeness of that statement?
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To think that if you're not afraid to stand up and say, "I belong to Jesus Christ because He's God, and He saves, He saved me, He can save you, and He's coming back, and He's awesome in every way." If you're willing to do that, the day is coming when Jesus will acknowledge you before His Father.
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Jesus said, "Hey, he's one of mine." And he was faithful to the end.
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And he served me with such joy and with such honor.
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He's one of mine.
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Awesome.
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But Jesus said, "There's another side to this coin." He said, "But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." If you're like, look, I'm not like really super into, I go to church occasionally, but I'm not like one of them Jesus people.
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Jesus said, "I'm going to deny you before my Father." Like, "I don't really have anything to do with Him.
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He really didn't have anything to do with me.
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We're kind of detached from each other, actually." The point is this, church, there's never a good enough reason to compromise the truth.
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Peter thought he had one here.
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This is a good reason to compromise.
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There's never a good enough reason to compromise the truth.
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And just one more thing.
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And this could be the most important thing, but we see a contrast between Simon Peter's sin and Jesus' grace.
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Because in this moment, okay, do you have the scene?
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Because John is really, he did an incredible job under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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He did an incredible job painting this portrait for us of what's happening.
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He's showing us that Peter sinned in the presence of Jesus, like no other example we have in the Gospels.
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I mean, let's be honest, this is pretty bad.
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One of Jesus' select, chosen few, elite disciples pretends he doesn't even know who Jesus is, while Jesus is on trial, illegally and unfairly.
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It's pretty bad, isn't it?
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It's pretty bad.
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And I think this is John's main point.
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The exact moment that Peter is sinning, That exact moment, Jesus is on his way to die for Peter's sin.
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All of his sin, including the one that he was doing right in this moment.
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It's encouraging to know that Jesus knows our weaknesses.
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And even when we fail miserably like Simon Peter, Jesus wants to love us and forgive us and restore us.
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I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please, as the worship team makes their way forward.
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Father in heaven, we stand in awe of you, as always God.
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And you've given us countless reasons to do so, but the one today specifically is to catch this realization that Jesus was paying the penalty for sin on the way to the cross, willing to go through with it, while Peter was literally sinning against Him.
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God, I just know if that was me, if I was Jesus, seeing this happen, and we know Jesus saw it, actually called it ahead of time, I know if that was me, I would have just left, back to heaven.
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People aren't worth it.
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We see incredible grace in light of such horrible sin.
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That You know our weakness and You love us even in our worst moments.
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So Father, I pray today for those among us who are watching the stream or sitting in this room, those who are called by Your name and born again, Father, I pray for an honest assessment of ourselves that we are more like Peter than we want to admit. We do have this tendency, God, to let our flesh fire us up instead of Your Word and Your Spirit. Father, even Your people sometimes want to cut corners and take shortcuts because a little lie here and there is not going to hurt anybody if it's for the greater good.
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God, we know that that's not true.
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Father, I want to pray specifically for those who don't know you.
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And specifically for the people who feel like maybe they're beyond your forgiveness because of the way or the amount that they've sinned.
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And I just pray, Father, they take a hard look at this passage and see how beautiful the grace of Jesus Christ is against the ugliness of the sin of Simon Peter.
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You are the same God. You're the same God today. Same saving power today.
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Same solution for our sin today.
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Father, glorify Your name, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 18:12-27
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Is there an example in your life when you were like Simon Peter: went from one extreme to the other in your walk with Christ? What did you do?
Is there any context in your life right now where you are tempted to be afraid to speak up for Jesus and His Gospel?
Breakout
Pray for one another.