So at church the past few weeks we have been going through the anatomy of a spirutual crash. We will be wrapping up the 3 pt series this upcoming sunday. Its been eye opening and convicting, i’ll tell you that much!
Part 2 is centering around Luke 22:54-62 where Peter denies Christ.
Notice verse 54. ” Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house,and Peter was following at a distance.”
-There is really no following Christ from a distance. You cannot love Jesus and love the world. Also, note the lengths that Peter will go to in order to protect himself; lying being one.(verses 56-60) This reminds me of the times that we are in front of people, our friends, coworkers, etc and completley act like we know nothing of our Jesus Christ. We lie, we get ashamed, we start to care too much about their opinion’s rather then God’s.
Two things led Peter to make this choice. One being fear of man. We put confidence in man because like I just stated we are TOO concerned about other people’s opinion’s about us. That crazy cousin that need’s Jesus that we come in contact with a few years during family gatherings we dont even mention the name of Christ because we are too concerned about what cousin larry will think of us rather then what God will think of us.
The second thing that led Peter to this choice was the illusion of safety. This is the part that struck me. YOU are not safe. WE are not safe. At any moment a meteor could come crashing into earth. At any moment someone could break into your house and take your life. At any moment a fire could break out and kill you. Listen to this statement: Your security is in God, otherwise it is NONEXISTANT. Your security is in God alone. He is the only one that has kept you safe thus far in life. And if there’s moments where you havent been safe, like sitting in a bathroom during an F4 tornado the only thing keeping those walls from collapsing on my head was the grace of God!
So what brought Peter back?
Well, he saw Jesus. Verse 61 says “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter”. They made eye contact, during that split second their eyes were connected. Secondly, he has a memory of Christ’s words. Still in verse 61 ” And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, (G) “Before the rooster crows today, you will(H) deny me three times.” Peter remembered what the Lord has said to him, and that broke him down. The last thing that brought Peter back was Jesus’ prayer and God’s power. Luke 22:32 states ”
32but(A) I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,(B) strengthen your brothers.”
Peter not only learned from all of this but he GAINED from this experience. Much like in our own lives when we go through things like this there is a purpose that the Lord has because he wants us to gain from experiences like this.
Peter was finally able to see how jacked up he was and to see and hate his sin. He learned that there is grace and forgiveness even for sins like the one’s that he committed. In our lives we dont want to go through things like this because we measure “good” differently than what God measures it by. Get this statement:
We want comfort, God wants Christ likeness.
Wow! We want comfort, ease, we dont want to have to go through hardships. But God wants Christ likeness and sometimes gaining Christ likeness includes going through things that will stretch us, help us learn, and make and mold us into who God wants us to be.
Finally, Peter was brought to the end of himself and learned wisdom and learned humility. Listen to 1 Peter 5:5-8 that demonstrates this.
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded;be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Peter is speaking through experience through this passage. He is telling us to clothe our selves with humility because its something that He did NOT do. He learned humbleness and is telling us to HUMBLE ourselves because he DIDNT and he elarned. He is telling us to be watchful of our enemy because the enemy GOT him and took him DOWN and wants us to learn from HIS mistakes.
Its such an eye opening way of reading this passage. Im so excited to see the ending part of this series. God is so good!!
My cry is…”Lord increase my faith!” (Luke 17:5)