Turn with me to John 18. I don't know if you've noticed
as you read through the Word of God and begin to study and
contemplate what's written in it, but it seems a bit easier
to look at a letter, an epistle, and look at some didactics, look
at the teaching and argument, proposition after proposition,
and find some way of applying that a little bit easier than
when you look at a story. After all, we are used to the
stories of the Bible in the context of parables where we hear a story
and then we see the explanation. Or that the story is told in
such a way that it explains a truth or hides a truth or illustrates
a truth, a moral lesson, a gospel lesson. But when we're looking
at historical narrative, When we're looking at what Jesus said
and did in the context of his arrest, when we're watching even
like here in chapter 18, his arrest, it's difficult to understand
how to apply that. I actually had that question
this morning as well. You know, what is my hermeneutic
in the context of narrative? Well, it is difficult. Because
we're so accustomed to this passage, now let's go to this verse, to
that verse, to the other verse, and then find some theological
truth and then apply it to our lives in some way. Well, as you
all know, very clearly, I think that the majority of application
in the Word of God, especially the gospel narratives, is to
exaltation, to the praise of His glorious grace. That's the
whole point of Paul's doctrinal teaching. I know that seems redundant,
but for the sake of our understanding, it seems necessary to say that
when Paul teaches the doctrine of Christ, the first and last
thing that must happen in our lives in this spiritual bookends
of the outcome and the application is that we worship Him, we praise
Him. So if that's the case for even
the theological things that we learn in scripture, it must also
be the case for the narrative. What are we supposed to do with
Jesus' prayer? What are we supposed to do with
this narrative here in chapter 18, where we see Jesus being
arrested and then questioned, and then we see Peter being questioned? Well, doesn't it fit? Does it
not fit the entirety of the Gospel of John? Does it not fit the
very thing that we learned in the beginning few months of this
text? That we are to see the glory of God in the face of Christ?
That the fullness of all that God is is visibly demonstrated
to us and revealed to us through the Lord Jesus? And that that
is the primary purpose of this writing. That is why it is necessary
to read, as the church, that we grasp fully over and over
and over and over again the glory of God in the face of Christ.
And so when we come to this text today, It would be difficult
for us to read through it and contrive certain aspects to say,
okay, now that Peter said this, now what are we supposed to do?
Don't deny Jesus. Isn't that your Sunday school
application? Or if we see Jesus being sort of cheeky and when
he says, why do I have to tell you what I've been teaching?
You haven't been listening? that that's either a prescription
for us to repeat or to acknowledge or to act on, not necessarily. Because by that hermeneutic,
then we're supposed to say, before Abraham was, I am. And by that
hermeneutic, we're supposed to be able to go into the temples
or the synagogues of Satan and tip over tables and beat people. Or by that hermeneutic, then
we have the authority to look into the hearts of men in omniscience
and call them dogs and snakes. But we don't. But you see how
easy it is to fall prey to severely misconstrued and twisted application.
And so it's difficult this morning. What is the point of this narrative?
It is that we see that God is the Christ. that Jesus the Christ
is the living God and that He is life, He is the resurrection,
He is the way, He is the truth, and that everything He does is
for the purpose of revealing Himself as Messiah, as the Lamb
of God. And that without the illumination
of the Holy Spirit through regeneration, you and I would not see it today.
And even with the Holy Spirit, because we are inundated with
all of the historical traditions of our doctrinal application
and interpretation of scripture, we still have to weed through.
It's like swimming through a swamp rather than a clear sea. So I
would say, in the beginning, if I were to add, or if I were
to allocate one specific point of the teaching this morning,
it is that Christ, Jesus, who is God, is in control of His
narrative. That's something that you need
to understand. So let's give these points up front. Let's
think of another one. Christ, Jesus, is in control of His narrative.
That means that when He was arrested, as we saw last week, He is in
control. It was His purpose. When he is questioned, it is
his purpose. And what else is part of this narrative? Peter's
denial. Peter and his denial. Christ is in control of that
narrative. So as we begin today, let's look
at the word of the Lord. Chapter 18, I want you to start
in verse 12 with me. So the band of soldiers and their
captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound
him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law
of Caiaphas, who was the high priest at the time. It was Caiaphas
who advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man
should die for the people. Simon Peter followed Jesus, and
so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known
to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard
of the high priest. But Peter stood outside the door.
So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went
out and spoke to a servant girl who kept watch at the door and
brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door
said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples,
are you? He said, I'm not. Now the servants and officers
had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing
and warming themselves. Peter also was with them standing
and warming himself. The high priest then questioned
Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered
them, I have spoken openly to the world. I've always taught
in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.
I've said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those
who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. 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.
But if what I said is right, why do you strike me? Annas then
sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Simon Peter
was standing and warming himself, 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, did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter again
denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. And we'll stop there. You might think, okay, this is
gonna be the longest sermon in the history of Grace Truth Church,
or he's just reading that for context and we're gonna deal
with a word or two. No, this is the sermon for today. Because
in this narrative, there's not a lot to pick out, there's not
a lot of things we need to just dive right into. But if you remember,
as we closed our service from last week, we looked at the last
verse of that, of the arrest. And we see Jesus saying something
in verse 11. He says to Peter, put away your
sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that
the Father has given me? So with that question, all these
things come to play. All the stuff that takes place
from this point forward is part of this answer. Am I not to drink
the cup the Father has given to me? Am I not to take the wrath
of God for you, Peter? Am I not to go to the cross and
die for the sake of my elect? Am I not to propitiate for God's
chosen people? But see how hard it is in the
midst of circumstances. And of course, we didn't. They
did not have the cross to look to. It was revealed to them at
the resurrection of Jesus and they understood. But here it
was difficult for them to fathom the fact that Christ was leaving,
which is why he taught them what he did at the Last Supper and
then outside that before he prayed. And as he prayed, of course,
he wasn't talking to them, but he was praying for them, and
he was also praying for us, for he was about to drink the cup
the Father had given him. And you may think about that
for a moment, and you see, even Peter, when he writes to his
Jewish brothers in the faith, he says that Jesus did not return
Raviel with Raviel, but entrusted himself to the one who was faithful.
And so when we see the dialogue with Jesus here, which is honestly
not in the synoptics in the same manner, So why is it that John
would write it this way? Emphasize things like Peter warmed
his hands, or this or that or the other, or there was people
going in and out of the house, or whose house it was. Who cares
whose house it was? I mean, that's not a theologically
significant reality. But by the Spirit of God Himself,
He calls John to write this narrative for the sake of seeing that Christ
was drinking the cup of wrath that the Father had prepared
for Him. And that He willfully and powerfully, as God the Creator,
submitted Himself to this purpose, submitted Himself to this demise,
for in His death life reigns. And that the outcome of the disciples,
as Jesus said last week, we saw when He was arrested, You know
who I am. I told you that I'm he. So if
you seek me, let these men go. And I want you to think about
that for a second. Remember what happened when they walk up to
him with torches and with weapons and with soldiers and with chief
priests and the temple guard and a mob. They were expecting
resistance. They were expecting the attitude
of Peter. Save the leader, save the Lord,
save the master, protect him from the evils of men. And if
you remember me making the suggestion last week that God needs no protection. God's word needs no protection.
God's truth needs no protection. There is not a band of heretics
in all of creation that could come together and thwart the
truth of God's word apart from his will. There is no one who
can stand in the way of the proclamation of the gospel of free and sovereign
grace to the ears of the elect. Nothing can stop it. Christ paid
for his people and he will proclaim to them the finished work he
accomplished for them. Nothing can stop it. Famine cannot
stop it. Powers and principalities of
darkness cannot stop it. Rulers cannot stop it. They have
tried to stop it and God has permitted much calamity in the
name of annihilating the gospel, but they've never stopped it.
Peter was not going to stop the will of the Father. He was not
going to just sort of usurp the plan by causing a riot. Now ask
yourself this question. If you are part of the official
band of police. And you go to a place where a
man has been given a warrant for this man's arrest and he
is a criminal, criminal acts, you need to bring him in under
this accusation, indict him and try him and then sentence him. And the people around him begin
to shoot and fight and slash with swords. Is that not another
infraction on top of the very thing that you went to arrest
this man for? In law enforcement, we call that high-risk seizure,
a high-risk entry, where you go into a situation where you're
not sure what's on the other side of the door. If you say,
police, and they're gonna open the door and let you take them
into handcuffs, or if they're gonna go down fighting. But when people
go down fighting, collateral damage is justified. When people
resist arrest, collateral damage is justified. if it's truly resistance. Now, I'm not talking about abuse.
In a simple process. And then once that stuff starts,
it's a whole new ballgame, isn't it? It's not just, oh, well,
okay, we settled this down, now let's go back to what we were
doing. No, now we're arresting these guys and we're arresting
these people, we're bringing charges against everybody, and
there's nothing that you can stop the process. Nothing that
can stop the process. If a cop is giving you a speeding
ticket, and I pull up behind you, and I slap that cop in the
back of the head, I'm going to jail. If I survive it. And you're going to still get
your ticket, and then I'm going to jail, and then everything
that happens after that is just desserts. If you jumped out of
your car and said, no, he's just my bodyguard. He didn't know
you were a cop. Please forgive him. He's not
going to turn around and shake my hand and say, good one, buddy.
You could have got me. I'll either be shot or tased.
Now, what's the point in this, Tiffins? What are you getting
at? And why is it they just walked away after Peter chopped off
an ear? Because Jesus put it back? Is
that what stopped them? Because everything has just settled
down now. Okay, let's settle down now.
You pull a gun, it's not just let's settle down now and go
out for breakfast. You pull a sword, it's not just over because it
de-escalates. Crimes have been committed. Resistance
has been offered. War has started. What happened? The same thing that happened
when they asked When Jesus says, who are you seeking? And they
say, Jesus of Nazareth. And He says, I am. And He blew
them down to the ground in His sovereign power. And when He commands them to
let the disciples go, they have no choice. They walk against
the natural order of their programmed will, and do exactly what Jesus
commands of them because He told them to. When God commands His
people and when God commands the reprobate, they obey every
time according to His will. See how messed up progressive
righteousness and obedient standards and all of this stuff where people
try to conflate the gospel of grace with the instruction to
life? It's confusing. It's damnable. Jesus is in control
and he commands them to leave the disciples alone. And you
might think, well they all ran. Peter and John follow them there
to Anna's house. And John goes in. I believe it's
John because it says the other disciple or another. He's always
ambiguous in his writings. He never names himself. So here,
now they take him, verse 12, and this band of soldiers, they
bound Jesus. How did they bind Jesus? Because
He let them. Because He let them. And I know many of you are action
hero type superhero comic book lovers from the 70s and 80s.
I've talked to you. And we all know what it's like
to have supernatural strength like a Superman or whatever.
And I know if it were me, I wouldn't be submitting. That's why I'm
not a good Messiah. Because the better story is,
he let them tie his hands, then he flew up in the air and beamed
them with laser eyes. I mean, what kid would not be
reading the Gospel of John right now if that were the case? There'd
be major motion pictures about Jesus, the cosmic hero. The Lamb of God that slayed the
world. instead of laying his life down for his elect. They
bound him. That's why it's here. So we can
see that Jesus permitted his arrest. It was the purposes of
God that put this into play and now it was time after 34 years,
it was time for Jesus to die. It was time. And then they led
him here and they led him there. And I'd like to get into all
the genealogy of whose daddy was somebody's dog's best friend's
pet's mama and all this kind of stuff that these commentators
have spent their PhD theses writing. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter who Annas is. It doesn't matter that Caiaphas
was a usurper and that he was usurped and all this stuff. And
it sort of convoluted in the context of John's language when
he says, in that year. That year. That means this year.
Who's the president this year? It's Mr. Trump. He was the president
last year also. It doesn't mean that there's
a new one. When a high priest was named, he died in the office. It's a terminal office. It stayed
with the man. But there were some practices
in the Jews around this time where they were using politics
and using Rome to go in and make changes that were better suited
for the policies of the state rather than to the instruction
of the Lord. But that doesn't matter, does
it? It piques our interest, but it doesn't matter. What matters
is that he was taken to the house of the family of the high priest,
who had said, not of his own accord, if we go back to chapter
11 and we see that, or chapter 12, We see the high priest said,
it is better that one man die than the whole nation perish. And the scripture says he did
not say that of his own accord. He did not say that, but he prophesied. He prophesied. For that is exactly
what Jesus is doing. He is drinking the wrath of God. He is taking the cup that was
given to him by the father and drinking it fully so that the
wrath of God and the cup of God is taken from us. And he swallowed it all. And
he digested it all, and he effectually surrendered it all, and there
is no condemnation for the elect. Discipline, yes. Encouragement,
yes. Rebuke, absolutely. We see that
in the word, together as the saints. It's given to us in the
scripture, but there is no condemnation. That's why I do not believe in
the dispensational philosophy that we're going to be rewarded
based on our works. I think the reward is the joy
of Christ. If I love Christ and if I live
for Christ and I love Christ's people in a passionate way, in
a zealous way, by the grace of God this day and in this life
before I lose this flesh, then how sweet and how much sweeter
is the reward of Christ when I get there for me. As a child, I loved visiting
with elderly relatives. I loved it. Most people would
say, oh, we're going to visit great-great-aunt so-and-so. Great!
I loved it. I would sit there all day and
talk and listen and talk and listen. Hated television. Loved listening to people who
had been around before the turn of the century. Well, at that
time, it wasn't necessarily the turn of the century, but it was
close. Enjoyed it. I don't even remember where I
was going with that. Anyway, I loved it. Just went across my head.
Boom, there we go. That's what two hours of sleep will do for
you. Will do for you. Anyway, Caiaphas back here. Jesus dying for his people. This
is written so that we may understand that what God is doing is on
purpose. This prophecy. And now we see
a contrast. Look at verse 15. We see Jesus being arrested and
taken in to this place. Taken in to the place where he
was going to be accused, where they get together a council.
They're trying to work quickly in the night to get some people
together, like you would call a judge in the middle of the
night for a warrant. Wake him up, say, I gotta have a warrant,
gotta make this arrest, gotta do this search, so I can get some folks
that I know are ready to be arrested. They're working to get his trial
set up. And with him, with Jesus, and
this posse, if you will, again, is Peter and John. Simon Peter followed and so did
another disciple. Since that disciple was known
to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard
of the high priest. But Peter stood outside the door. Now keep
in mind that Jesus and divine command made them forget about
arresting the disciples at that moment. Jesus says, or John the
Evangelist says here after that, that Jesus said these things
that it might be fulfilled that he would spare and save his people.
We know that that's not a physical salvation. We know that all but
John, all but John, die a martyr's death. Jesus tells Peter that
in Luke's Gospel. What is it to you, he said, actually
Ben and I were talking about this last night, what is it to
you if I keep him till the end? You're going to die, Peter. What
is it to you that I keep John? It's none of your business. I'm
talking to you. This is what's going to happen to you. What
happens to him is his business. It's not your concern. And yet they've escaped, but
yet somewhere in the driving force of their heart, they could
not leave. They wanted to see what was unfolding. They wanted
to witness it. They wanted to become aware still probably in
my mind I'm thinking they're following Jesus around they're
following this mob around so that they can try to put two
and two together maybe Peter in his mind was thinking you
know what I can be a little incognito here I can just sorta hang around
after a minute maybe Jesus will be in a place we can get him
out maybe there's gonna maybe they're gonna acquit him they'll
see this is nonsense but they knew the outcome was probably
death Peter went outside the door.
John was inside. 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. So here's this
servant girl. John's like, where'd Peter go?
Hey, would you go out there and tell that man to come in here?
So he goes out. She goes outside and says, Peter,
come on in. Or not Peter, but you. You're being summoned. Come
in, please. And as the servant girl sees
Peter, she goes, wait a minute. I saw your Facebook profile.
You were with Jesus, right? I am not a disciple of Jesus. Are you sure? I am not. But look what's happening to
Peter. Look at Peter, the zealous, the passionate warrior. Look
at Peter. He's always talking Above and
beyond what anybody else is willing to admit, he's always so passionate
he makes everybody else in the room look passive. He's whacking
off ears, talking trash, always ready for a fight, and a little
tiny servant girl blows his mind. A little tiny servant girl. Who
is she? She can't run in there and say
anything. Sorry, sir, Mr. High Priest,
cousin, father-in-law, sir, dog's mama trainer. I mean, it doesn't
matter. She's not going to bust in there. He was one, he was
with them, he was with them. But yet, this is the level, this
is the solidity, this is the faithfulness of humanity, even
unto their Lord Jesus. out. Let's don't talk about the
negative. Let's do it in the positive.
This is the reality of our zeal and love and how it blossoms
when we live it in our own flesh. That's what it looks like. That's
what your faith is going to look like. That's what my faith is
going to look like. Our faithfulness is going to be as strong as Peter's
when some nobody who's weak and frail says, aren't you a follower
of Christ? And we're fearful of the implication. And in that moment, he thought
nothing of it. He thought to himself, self-preservation,
baby. They got my Lord in chains. What
would they do to me? I whacked off this dude's ear.
I'm lucky to be standing here. I'm shocked that I'm not arrested
already. You don't lay your hand against
a temple employee. You don't raise a sword against
the indictment of the chief priests. And those people saw the power
of God. They heard the Word of God. They
heard the self-proclamation of Jesus as God. Then He commanded
them to leave the disciples alone. And now here's Peter, still faithless. But it didn't shake him enough,
did it? See, for me, if I were scared of being found out...
Are you a narc? Uh, no. I gotta go. And I'd leave. But this cat goes outside, doesn't
go in, he goes outside and warms himself by the fire with the
rest of the people who have arrested Jesus. I don't grasp that. I need to
go to some really high-level psychologist and have him teach
me what was going on in Peter's mind so that we can understand
it as the church. No, we don't. We know what was
going on in Peter's mind. The same thing that was going
on in the mind of those who died with Jesus. They were condemned
to death as murderous people. Yet, in their last and final
power of breath, they deem it necessary to what? To find affinity with Jesus'
accusers and mock Him and revile Him when they are condemned.
So in this sense, this is what the human condition does. This
is what humanity comes to. Without the Spirit of God actively
operating in the moment, our faith will fail. It doesn't mean
we are not believers. It doesn't mean that we are not
children. It doesn't mean that we're not adopted. It just means
that the flesh right now is weak. Isn't that what Jesus just said
to them? See, it doesn't put it here, does it? He comes out
to the garden before he's arrested. He comes out, he tells them,
stay here at the entrance of the garden, watch and pray. And what do these guys do? They
fall asleep. Why? Because they're tired. I
mean, I've never met anybody who purposely just go to sleep,
went to sleep driving. I mean, just, you know, I'm tired.
Let me set the cruise, Eddie. I'll get there when I get there.
You can do that on Texas if there's no traffic. And you've got one
of those cars that'll stay in the lanes. But not here. Certainly not in San Francisco. Nobody purposely goes to sleep
when they're driving. I sort of woke up last Sunday morning
right outside of Dublin in a little box of vehicles. You know how
that little woof that you get? Have I been asleep 30 minutes?
No, that's been like six tenths of a second. Woo! That's not
on purpose. It's just what you do when your
body's exhausted. You just go to sleep. And there's nothing
greater than putting yourself to sleep than when you really
want to pray. Unless you're walking around
the block praying out loud. You sit down in your chair, you get
on your face, you lay down on the bed, you get on your knees
beside the bed, you sit at the kitchen table with your hands
on your elbows like this, drooling in your plate. I mean, you know,
it's easy to go to sleep when you're praying. Why? Because
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is what? Weak. Peter's flesh is no different
than mine, no different than yours. Paul really expresses
it this way to young Timothy who's aspiring to be an elder
and then called against his will. He's going to be an elder and
he's going to suffer for it. He was a faithful elder. Why?
Because Christ is faithful. He tells Timothy, he says that
when we are faithless, Christ, Jesus, remains faithful for he
cannot deny himself. Jesus had already prayed and
promised the disciples and all who would believe in him they
would not orphan them and they would not be left alone. Jesus tells Peter that in the
Synoptics. He says, the enemy has come and
prayed for you. I mean, requested you, to fleece
you. I, not the enemy, I, Jesus, have
prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Does that look
like failing faith? To the world it looks like failing
faith. The difference is that God had granted Peter the sight
to see the faithfulness of Christ, even though he could not in any
sense logically understand it right then. This young servant girl calls
him out, I am not a disciple of Christ. And then he goes over
there and instead of leaving the scene, he warms his hands
with those who arrest. Jesus. Thinking he's away from
the danger now, we see Jesus being brought in, we see Peter
being brought in, look at the difference. the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ to submit himself to being bound, to submit himself
to being arrested, to submit himself to being brought into
an indictment that's wrong, and then Peter's questioning. No,
I'm not. And his dumbness. I'll just stand
out here on the fire with the people who have the power of
arrest. I'll stand out here with them looking to drug bust The
drug dealer, just one of the drug dealers, just start locking
up the drug dealers. I got one over here. Let's hang out with the cops
after it's all done. Maybe they won't notice I'm a dealer. And I got
my dealer badge on. Then the high priest questioned
Jesus, verse 19. And they questioned Jesus about
his disciples and questioned Jesus about his teaching. And
it probably went a little something like this. Who are your followers? Where are they? Where can we
find them? And what are the accusations
we see throughout the gospel? Did you not say you would tear
down the temple? Did you not blaspheme Moses? Did you not
claim to be God before Abraham was I Am? Did you not claim to
be God as the Son of God? Did you not say this? Did you
not rebuke the Pharisees in front of these people? Did you not
call us dogs and snakes and vipers, whitewashed tombs? Did you not say that this was
this and that is this and that the law didn't matter because
you fulfilled the law, you are the fulfillment of the law, you
are the righteousness of God. Did you not say all these things?
And what does Jesus do? What do we do? What would Peter
do in this situation? I'm not a part of this. What
did the blind man's parents do? He's old enough to speak for
himself. What happens when the accusation comes for those who
obviously know that Jesus is God because He raises a rotted
corpse from the grave in John 11? What do they do? They knew that they knew that
they knew that He was God, but they dare not confess it for
they love the glory that comes from man rather than the glory
that comes from God. Friends, in our best of days,
our human frailty is subject to wrath. Our best belief is
subject to condemnation. Our best faithfulness is subject
to the fire. And our greatest love that we
could ever muster for the Lord Jesus or His people is subject
to incarceration. But Christ is our hope. He is
our righteousness. He submitted willfully and powerfully. He caused His demise. They questioned Jesus and Jesus
answered only the way God can do. I have spoken openly to the
world. I'm not repeating myself. I've
been preaching a long time and you know what I have preached.
You know what I have taught. Let that speak for me. I have always taught in the synagogues
and I've always taught in the temple where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret."
Now let me tell you how this works. And I'll tell you, it's
not necessary application, but there's implication here for
our present world. Jesus says in that questioning,
I have been preaching, I continue to preach, all that the Father
is doing, I do. The Father was acting until now,
now I act. All that the Father has given me, I now say. So he
is claiming that all of his words are God's words. He speaks as
God. And He does so publicly. He speaks
and teaches the truth publicly. He says everything that He's
ever taught anybody, He has taught it also publicly. And so it brings the idea that
maybe they thought, tell us what you've really been teaching your
disciples. What all have you been saying? We've heard you
say these blasphemies, but what else is going on? They wanted
Jesus to get in there like some, you know, crazy undercover, undercover
general. Yeah, I've been amassing an army
and I've been pressing this and I've been teaching them how to
overcome you and the Romans and everything else, but he doesn't
teach in secret. Everything that Jesus taught
his disciples, he taught in the synagogue. Everything that Jesus
told them in private, he preached on the hillsides. There is no
special teaching of God that cannot be heralded even to the
darkest corners of the universe. There is no section of the Word
of God that cannot be, even though it is written for the elect of
God, who are born of God, that they may see it and grasp it
and understand it. It is also through the hearing here of this
text in the midst of deadness that God, through which God brings
to life His elect people. So they could have questioned
all the disciples and everything that would have gotten from them
would have corroborated everything that He'd said publicly. Now,
beloved, this is a problem in our world. It's a problem in
our world because when you hear sound bites from here, you have
personal interviews, people satisfy their curiosity and they set
the judgment against a person's teaching or theology based on
their private conversations. Well, do you know what a private
conversation can really do? If you're pressing me against
the wall and I'm thinking, oh, well, I probably am wrong on
that. I don't really know. I will pander to the circumstances
instinctively and I will say, no, I'm not. Are you his disciple? Oh, absolutely not. Do you believe
in that? Absolutely not. But the proof is in what's said
that's on record. The proof is what's being preached
continually. That is the whole of a man's
theology. That is a whole of a man's belief.
What is he teaching? Verbal typos are common, call
them out, we fix them. But if a man's got a public gospel
and a private gospel, or a public justification and a private justification,
or a written justification and a secret righteousness, and we've
got all these different things, that man is a liar. Jesus is
not a liar. He constantly declares as God,
the truth and the witness of God concerning Himself, the Savior
of His people. And Jesus questions them. Why
do you ask me? Why do you ask me? I've said
nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? And those who have heard
me, what I said to them, they know what I have said. You know
what He's saying to them? You're just looking for a sound
bite. You're looking for a pretext
out of context to catch me. And that was their game. That
was their stick. They loved to try to catch him
in something that could hook him and bring him under indictment. Remember the John 8? Remember that expression there? We didn't preach through that.
But they found this woman in adultery. Tried to catch him. Remember in the Synoptics where
they say, what is the greatest of all the laws? And so on and so forth. Remember
when they went to him and took a coin, a Roman coin and said,
or they didn't take the coin, they asked him, should we pay
taxes to Caesar? And he says, give me a coin.
Whose face is on it? Caesar. Then give it back to
Caesar. I mean, what do you do with that?
You cut your tongue out. That's what you do with it. Unless
you're just so blindedly arrogant that you think you can argue
with it. You can't argue with that. Whatever belongs to God,
give to Him. This looks like Caesar's. Give
it back to Him. Perfect wisdom. Perfect wisdom. Go ask these
people. You've heard what I've said.
They've heard what I've said. All of you people have heard
what I've said. Quit asking me what I've said. I've said it
already. And when he asked that, and when
he said these things, look what happens in verse 22. We always hear, turn the other
cheek. Jesus didn't turn the other cheek on this. When he
smacked back lawfully and respectfully to the high priest, this guard
slaps him, backhands him. Now he's bound. What kind of
a manly response is that? Let me take this tied up man
who's been up all night, he's got blood on his forehead from
praying just a minute ago, and let me slap him. It was against
the law. You don't slap somebody. It's
against the law for an authority figure to slap somebody now. And Jesus didn't let it go, did
he? He called it out according to the law that he was being
bound under. He was in charge here. They struck
him and Jesus says, or then the man says, is that how you speak
to the high priest? And Jesus answers him. If what I said is
wrong, then bear witness about the wrong. In other words, if
I've sinned and make the accusation of my sin, but what if I, if
what I've said is right, why do you hit me? You see what's happening. It's
showing the condition through which people view Jesus already.
There is a horrible stigma surrounding this God-man. They hated Him
from the beginning, they will hate Him, they hated Him then,
and they hate Him today. And when the truth of Christ
is stated, all He said was, I have not changed my teaching, those
who have heard it, you can ask your own people what I've taught. Ask those who hate me what I've
taught. This man couldn't stand it, because
he knew he was right, so he hit him. Violence. And I don't know about you, but
there's not a whole lot of times where I've been punched. Probably
wouldn't allow it. just me. I've met very, very, very, very
few times in my life where I've been punched in the context of
preaching. I'm not going to say never, I just can't remember
any right now. Not in a physical way. Verbally, emotionally, underhandedly,
behind the scenes, telephone calls, gossips. I couldn't imagine
during one of those seasons of life if we'd had social media. I couldn't have imagined what
social media would have done during some of those seasons
when people would rather punch you in the face than hear the
truth of Christ. If it happens to our Savior,
it's going to happen to us. Why did you strike me?" So then
he was sent out bound to Caiaphas. Now we're back to Peter. Peter
was questioned, Jesus was questioned. Look at the difference. Now back
to Peter. Peter is standing by the fire and he's warming his
hands and he's got his nerve back the same time this is happening. And they said to Peter, they're
looking at him and they're going, hey, hey, hey, hey, we know you.
Aren't you one of, are you not one of his disciples? And again,
Peter says, no, I am not. I'm not. Now why is it that Peter wasn't
as smart and cool and hip and responsive and cheeky as Jesus?
Because he's not God. He hasn't been granted that wisdom
at this point to say what needed to be said. He's speaking out
of his flesh. But when the time comes, Peter
will preach grace alone. When the time comes, Peter will
be hanged upside down and crucified and drowned in his own blood for the sake of Christ. But it
wasn't that time. And then just a few minutes later,
one of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man
whose ear Peter cut off, who you know he went right back.
You know he Instagrammed that sucker. Look at this. What? Jesus
put my ear back. This man did it. I mean, it's
all recorded. He told it all. He told it all. And this man
says, I know you. Weren't you in the garden? And Peter's like, no, I was not. And then the rooster crows. Jesus is sovereign over the narrative. Christ in his mercy has already
told Peter what he was going to do. Peter denied it. What
did Peter learn about himself? Peter learned about himself that
without the mercies of God he was doomed. Peter learned about
himself that no matter how much passion he had the morning of,
tonight he was willing to walk away from it all to save his
own skin. Peter learned that in his sincerity and in the greatest
of his just joy about being a disciple of Christ, that when it came
down to the wire, without the mercies of God and the power
of God's Spirit in him, he would deny it all. And Peter was not
condemned for denying it. And he learned something about
Jesus. Here is my Lord who is innocent, and I can't even stand
with Him. That's why Peter left and went
fishing. Talking about failure in ministry, failure in life,
failure. Yes, we see a lot of men of God
fall into immorality. But I've also seen likewise many
men of God who have fallen into unbelief. And I've seen people purely apostate
saying they never have believed. And I would say that the one
common denominator in all of them is that there is pressure
on them. And Jesus speaks to the disciples about this very
thing when he talks about the parable of the heart as a soil. And the only heart that produces
true and lively and perfect and continual faith is the heart
that is prepared by God Himself so that when the Word of God
is planted, it doesn't dissipate. It isn't eaten by the enemy.
It isn't taken away by God through the agent of Satan. that the
horrors and the stresses of the world. And so what this narrative
shows us and what it showed Peter is that his only hope is the
grace of God, that if he is left to himself, beloved, just as
if you or I are left to ourselves and to our knowledge, we will
say, I do not know him. And you've heard the old adage
that sometimes we just give people just enough rope to hang themselves.
I hate that picture. And I've had a dog one time that
I put on a runner. You know what a runner is? So he can run around
an acre or a half acre, but he can't leave the yard. And what
does this dog do with that freedom? Wrap himself around a tree for
an hour like this. And then whine. Dummy. That's what we do. But what Christ does is He secures
us, He keeps us, He holds us, He will never let us go, He will
not lose one of us. And we together as the body,
if I wake up, some mornings I wake up and my left hand is so sore
I can't close my thumb into the palm. And as someone who's a
musician and someone who's done sleight of hand for his entire
life, that's disturbing. But that's what arthritis does. And when I get in there and I'm
all stiff and I'm wondering what I'm going to do, I can't do anything
with that. In our flesh we can do nothing
with our faith. It is God working in us to bring
us to the place of recognizing that we are indeed in His mercy. The rooster crowed and Peter has denied the Lord.
Nothing, nothing could save Peter but Jesus. And that's something
you need to recognize, beloved. We live in a world today that
ministry success is measured by tangible properties, by tangible
measurements, by tangible observation. Look at all the people, must
be the Lord. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. If we began to get three or four
families a week coming into the fellowship, we just can't, probably
preaching wrong. I'm not gonna lie about that.
Now, can God wake his sheep up and we all start to get together?
Yes. Is it normative? No. So ministry after ministry
after ministry, we see the models of ministry where these people
can start out with fifty and in a year be a thousand. I've
been there. Find the believers and ask them
all for a dollar. You might have five dollars in
a group like that. Now that's just a hyperbolic
example to illustrate the reality of mass. Critical mass is not
evidence of God. Even in the Old Testament, where
the masses of God's chosen people then were fleeced, what did you
find? You found a few. The whole of unbelief in our
culture is predominantly evangelical belief. For those of you who have ever
studied church history and the philosophies of labels and titles
in that context, you know what I'm talking about. that a term
and a label that identifies certain groups of people, as that group
of people grow wider and wider and wider and larger and larger
and larger, the word becomes completely ambiguous, and all
that means is that they all wear the same color shirt. That's
as close as an affinity as people have as the mass gets larger
and larger. When Jesus fed the thousands
and He preached the gospel, only the twelve remained. Success in ministry is about
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Success in ministry is about
the death of Jesus Christ. Success in ministry as a church,
as a family, we are a family, is the purposes of God in intimacy
for each other. Because of the power of Christ
to control the narrative. Christ controls our narrative. And you know what that does for
me as a shepherd? It gives me great peace. Because there are
many great, there are mostly great experiences as a body. For nine years almost, when we
first gathered at my home. And I see all these great things,
but you know what overpowers them so quickly? The small stain. Beautiful linen tablecloth laid
out in great array with great boneware and all sorts of awesome
food to eat. But you know what I'll notice
when I walk into that banquet? The stain made by the juice that
the kid spilled. That's what I'll notice. Because
it's my human nature to look at the problem. But because my
Lord Jesus controls my narrative, I can trust in Him. And I can
know that the narrative that I live this present day with
you and together as a body, we are in the blessings of God.
So that when hell rises up and encroaches on our joy, it is
by the purposes of God for us to find joy in the midst of it.
Where is that? In the anchor of our soul, the
anchor of our faith, who is Jesus Christ, the faithful righteous
one. But we will, like Peter, whine
and complain, and we will wallow in self-pity. We will build a
laundry list of things that should be better, that if they were
better, then by golly, life would be great. But friends, you know
how you keep from having to do laundry? Stop wearing clothes. You know how to keep from getting
your laundry dirty? Do nothing when you wear it. If you're going
to exist in life, if you're going to absolutely have a life, you're
going to have to suffer through the consequences of this life.
But beloved, we will never suffer the consequences of justice. Because Christ controls the narrative. Many people love to proclaim
the sovereignty of God. but they're panentheistic at
best. God is sovereignly in the beginning, spins it into motion,
steps back, and watches to see. And when it's not going His way,
He might put a bumper, like a pinball machine, and push it on over
that direction. Hopefully we'll steer it right.
No, not quite. Keeps us into a boundary. Christ said He shoves
His sheep through a gate that's too small to get into. Christ says by the power of God
it is possible that he shoved his camels through the eye of
a sewing needle and they don't die. That's the possibility of God.
That's the promise of eternal life. That is who Christ is through
his body and his blood. He is, the irony here that I
haven't even dealt with, the only true high priest and he's
being accused and judged and condemned by a fake one. Then
he'll be accused and judged and condemned by a fake king. And
then he'll be acquitted by a fake governor that he put in place. Don't let your politics steal
your joy, beloved. And don't you ever let them divide
the body. Don't let your station in life
cause you to look less as a child of God in your own eyes. Don't
let your prosperity and your blessings blind you from the
true life and the blessing of God. If you are His, He will
discipline you and take away what you have for your joy. Stand in Christ alone, for only
in Him will you ever find life. Let us pray.