church

INI
Third Midweek Advent Service
March 11-12, 2009
Redemption/Lynnwood and Ascension/Tacoma

"I WAS THERE!"
SIMON PETER
Luke 22:54-62

Grace be to you and Lenten peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text upon which we'll base our meditation
this evening comes from the 22nd chapter of the Gospel of Luke, beginning at
verse 54, as follows:

Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's
house. But Peter followed at a distance. 55 Now when they had kindled a fire in
the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56
And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at
him and said, "This man was also with Him." 57 But he denied Him, saying,
"Woman, I do not know Him." 58 And after a little while another saw him and
said, "You also are of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not!" 59 Then after
about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this
fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean." 60 But Peter said, "Man, I do
not know what you are saying!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, the
rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter
remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster
crows, you will deny Me three times." 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Here ends the text.

In Christ Jesus, who said "I have come to seek and to save that which was
lost," Dear Fellow Redeemed,

If you pay close attention to current events, you may have noticed an
interesting thing about people who are suddenly thrust into the national
spotlight: they tend to be very forgetful about some of their former friends.
When Pete Rose was being considered for inclusion in Baseball's Hall of Fame,
he did the best he could to keep his old gambling friends out of the picture.
When politician David Duke was running for a seat in Congress, he tried with
all his might to distance himself from his friends in the Louisiana Ku Klux
Klan. Famed singer Frank Sinatra went to his deathbed denying rumors that he
associated with various leaders of the mafia.

It's an old story, isn't it? We're used to hearing about individuals who deny their
association with bad people. On the other hand, the same individuals often go
to great lengths to show off their association with good people. This evening,
however, we bring onto our stage a man who was an intimate friend of Jesus
Christ, the very Son of God, the Savior of the world. And yet, rather than show
off his association with Him, he three times denied even knowing who Jesus
was! His name is Simon Peter. He is the most impulsive and outspoken of Jesus'
disciples, and tonight we will let him tell his own story, in his own words:

SIMON PETER
My example holds two lessons:
I. You too may forsake Jesus - so beware!
II. Jesus will never forsake you - so rejoice!

My name is Simon Peter, and I was there. I was there when they put the Son of
God on trial for His life. A fisherman by trade, I was not highly-educated. I
grew up in Bethsaida in the north, along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. My
brother Andrew and I were both called by Jesus to become His disciples, but I
took up the calling with a fervency and an impulsiveness that sprang from a
nature that was fervent and impulsive.

In those days in Israel there was one question on everyone's lips: "What think
ye of Christ?" -It's a very important question. It was first asked of the Pharisees
in the Gospel of Matthew. But more important, it's a question that's still asked
of you today. Your whole future hangs on how you answer that question. What
do YOU think about Jesus? Who is He? I'm not trying to insult you by asking;
there's no doubt in my mind that each of you here in church tonight will answer,
"He is the Christ, the Son of the living God." The problem is, you're not always
here in church, are you? Most of the time you're out there in the world, living
among a lot of people who don't share your Christian faith. And take it from me
- out there, that answer can be a lot harder to give. So the first thing I'd like to
make clear to you tonight is that the same danger that confronted me in the
courtyard of the High Priest confronts you too, every single day of your life.
You too may forsake Jesus - so beware!

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Those are the exact words I
once used when Jesus asked me that all-important question. I told Him what I
really believed. It was an honest and forthright confession of faith. A good
confession. I'm sure each of you here tonight wants to share that confession.
But there's a line between a firm faith in Jesus and a false faith in yourself, as I
learned the hard way on that first Maundy Thursday evening.

A few hours before the arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus made an astonishing - and
to me downright insulting - prediction, "Assuredly, I say to you Peter that this
night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." Why, the very
idea! Among the disciples I was Jesus' most outspoken supporter and everyone
knew it! I spluttered my indignant reply, "I will never be offended because of
You. Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" Matt 26:33,35. That
was easy to say there in the upper room, of course. In private, alone with Jesus
and my fellow-disciples, it was easy to trot out those confident words. How
bitterly I would later regret them!

As I say, that was easy. But later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, things got a
little tougher. All of a sudden we found ourselves facing determined men with
weapons. A few hours earlier the prospect of being arrested with Jesus - and
perhaps dying with Him - had seemed noble and attractive. Now, when the
moment of truth arrived, now when the danger was real, standing up for Jesus
seemed a lot less attractive somehow. So when push came to shove, I shoved
off. With Jesus under arrest and the soldiers looking for other people who might
want to pay with their lives, I forsook Jesus just like everybody else. I took to
my heels and ran for all I was worth.

But I didn't run far. Maybe it was my guilt about running out on Jesus that
made me slink back into the courtyard of the High Priest in the wee hours of
Friday morning. Perhaps it was pride, and the memory of my windy bragging
that prompted me to try and blend in with that servants warming their hands by
the fire. If I couldn't actually be with Jesus, well, I'd be close anyway. Maybe he
could find out what was happening to Him. Maybe I could still help somehow.

But the devil wanted me. Just like Jesus predicted, Satan was sifting me like
wheat, and he was using those servants around the fire to do it. A servant girl
thought she recognized me: "This man was also with Him." 57 But I denied
Jesus saying, "Woman, I do not know Him." So much for blending in. I
retreated to the gateway, but soon ran into another person, who said in a little
too loud a voice, "You also are of them." This was getting serious. I put on my
most indignant attitude and said, "Man, I am not!" Then after about an hour
had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was
with Him, for he is a Galilean." My Galilean accent had given me away! What
could I do? I was trapped! The soldiers weren't very far away. I could still easily
be arrested if I didn't put on a convincing performance, so I said, "Man, I do not
know what you are saying!" Immediately a rooster crowed.

If you've ever raised chickens or lived around chickens, you know one thing for
sure: a rooster's as good as any alarm clock. When he crows, you are going to
wake up whether you liked it or not. Well, this particular rooster certainly woke
me up. I heard the crowing, and I suddenly realized the enormity of what I'd
done. The crowing of the rooster reminded me that the impossible was true -
Jesus could be denied, and I had done it. As the memory of Jesus' prediction
flooded over me; I rushed out of the courtyard. Alone in the dark, I began to
sob. I wept bitter tears of remorse and repentance.

Imagine for a moment that you had an alarm clock like that. What would it be
like if you could hear the faint crowing of a rooster in your ears every time you,
by your words or actions, had denied Christ. Every time you had the
opportunity to witness your faith to someone and missed the chance. Every
time you betrayed God's love for you by lashing out in anger against your
spouse or your children. Every time you gave in to the temptings of your flesh
and did the things you knew good and well were an offense to your Savior.
Actually, you do have an alarm clock like that - it's called your conscience. It's
the voice of God's Law in your heart, and He put it there on purpose. Listen to
your conscience. If my example proves anything, it proves that Jesus can far too
easily be denied in our lives. Beware it doesn't happen to you!

That was the first lesson of my denial. Yes, there is a danger. Yes, you too may
forsake Jesus. You do have that dark power. But my experience has another,
more important lesson to teach you as well: that Jesus will never forsake you!

You shouldn't get so wrapped up in my frailties and my failures that you lose
sight of where Jesus was during all this. He was standing before the Jewish
Council, hands tied and under guard. He was suffering their abuse and listening
to the lies of their false witnesses. He had already been mocked and beaten by a
group of soldiers, and much more suffering was soon to come. In short, Jesus
was, by His innocent suffering, already paying the price to atone for the world's
sin. In the courtyard of Caiaphas, I was sinning. In the courtroom of Caiaphas,
Jesus was suffering. Suffering for my sins, and for yours as well!

Oh, and there's something else important that I forgot to mention. Before I
went out and wept bitterly, something important happened. I made brief but
crucial eye contact with Jesus. I had just gotten done denying the Lord for the
third time, when Jesus appeared. He was being led through the courtyard on His
way to Pontius Pilate. At the moment the rooster crowed, Jesus turned and
looked at me. You may well wonder what was in Jesus' eyes as He looked at
His fallen disciple. Yes, it was a look of sorrow, for I, his own beloved disciple,
had just denied with an oath that I knew Him. It was a look of sorrow, but it
was also a look of love, and a look of forgiveness. I went out and wept bitterly
because of my terrible sin. I knew that he had forsaken Jesus -- but in that
crucial moment I also knew something else. I knew that Jesus had not forsaken
me! Even in this darkest hour of my life, I knew and believed that, in Christ, I
had forgiveness for all my sins - even this one.

You have the clear evidence of God's Word concerning my repentance and
faith. I was one of the first disciples to run and see the empty tomb that first
Easter morning. It was I - yes! the same one who said, "I know not the Man!" -
who later became a strong witness for Jesus. It was I who, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, brought the Word of God to thousands in Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost. And it was I who, by inspiration, would later write these words:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and
that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power
of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." I Pet
1:3-5.

For a moment there in the courtyard of Caiaphas, I gave up on Jesus. But Jesus
didn't give up on me, and He didn't give up on you, either! Jesus went right on
to His trial before Pontius Pilate. He endured the beatings at the hands of the
soldiers. Finally, He even poured out His life's blood on the cross. All of this so
that He might declare you and me justified. All this so that you and I can be
truly free from all the sins of our past! "Not guilty" before our Heavenly Father.
Fellow Christians, rejoice with me in our forgiveness! Rejoice with me in the
fact that we have a Savior who loves us in spite of our sins. He offers us
forgiveness over and over again - simply for the asking. He provides all the
good things in our lives, not because we deserve them, but because He loves us.
Your season Lent is such a wonderful time, not because you see your own
sinfulness reflected in bad examples like mine - there's nothing wonderful in
that. It's wonderful because during Lent you witness the sufferings of Jesus, and
you see His boundless love for you demonstrated more clearly than ever.

I said at the beginning that your whole future hangs on how you answer the
question, "What think ye of Christ?" -On second thought, though, that's not
quite true -- What your future really depends on isn't your attitude toward Jesus,
but His attitude toward you. You, with your words and actions, have often
forsaken Jesus just like I did. Often you too have said in effect, "I know not the
Man," NEVERTHELESS, He has not forsaken you. NEVERTHELESS, He
continues to say of each of you, "I know that man. I know that woman. I know
that boy and I know that girl. They belong to me, and they are saved, for I have
redeemed them with My blood." We sing with the hymnist,
Ashamed of Jesus? Yes, I may
When I've no guilt to wash away,
No tear to wipe, no joy to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.
Till then--nor is the boasting vain--
Till then I boast a Savior slain.
And oh, may this my portion be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me! AMEN.