It’s amazing that in spite of Christmas being a celebration of the birth of Christ, essentially celebrating Jesus’ birthday, the enemy is doing everything he can to detract from the true meaning and diminish people’s recognition of what it is all about. I can’t imagine that our culture would tolerate the kind of animosity that is happening today towards Christmas if it were a celebration of any other historical or religious figure’s birthday.

But even so, Christmas is still a very popular holiday celebrated the world over. However, I’m afraid that even when we recognize Christmas for what it truly is, the birth of Jesus, we still often fall short of understanding the real reason for the season. It’s not too difficult to be sympathetic towards a little baby being born on a cold night in a manger because there is no room for them in the inn. It’s somewhat easy to be sentimental about young mother and father taking refuge in a stable and having a baby and lying him in a manger. It’s a beautiful story, a story that evokes compassion and sympathy and sentimentality. And if we leave it there, then that is all that it is. A sentimental story. A story that has a sad ending. A poor baby who grew into an innocent man who went around doing good, who died as a martyr at 33 years of age.

The fact is though that the story may begin in sympathy, but it ends in triumph. What seemed to be the untimely, sad end of Christ’s life as we look at chapter 23, is actually the triumph of the ages. It is the greatest victory of all time. . The real reason for Christmas, the reason that Jesus came to earth as a baby in a manger, was to go to the cross. Jesus came to earth to die on the cross, to defeat the enemy, to take away the sting of death, to purchase reconciliation for man with God by offering Himself as a sacrifice at Calvary.

There is no doubt that Jesus was an actual, historical figure who walked the earth 2000 years ago. Historians agree that this is an undeniable fact. And yet simply believing this fact will not save you. And to the same extent, there is no saving grace in having a sentimental feeling towards Jesus as a baby in a manger. There is no saving grace in having sympathy for an innocent man being put to death on a cross.

And today’s passage illustrates that fact very well. As we look at Jesus walking through Jerusalem to the hill outside the city called Calvary, the Place of the Skull, there is a crowd following Him. It is made up of Roman soldiers, the high priests and scribes, members of the Sanhedrin, and the mob that called for His crucifixion before Pilate. But as this crowd winds through the narrow city streets, it attracts a large crowd of what we might call sympathizers. People that may have been attracted to Jesus at some point during His ministry. Many of them may have been there when He came into town just a week before riding on a donkey, and offered up their voices to cry “Hosanna!” along with the rest of the multitude. And included in this crowd, Luke tells us in vs. 27, are some women who were mourning and lamenting for Him.

Now at first glance this could be viewed in a positive light. These women obviously had some sense of the injustice of this act perpetrated on an innocent man. They must have had a certain fondness for the person of Jesus. They were sympathetic towards His suffering. After all, I’m sure they had heard of the kind things He had done in healing the sick. They had some sort of sentimental feelings towards Him as a person. They had compassion for the fact that this kind, gentle man who had done such good things had been arrested and wrongfully accused, sentenced to die and was now beaten and bruised and bloodied, walking through the city on His way to the cross.

These women were sympathetic to Jesus’ condition. They were feeling sorry for Him. They had sentimental feelings about Him and so they mourned for Him. They were wailing as was the custom of that day to wail for the dead or dying. Their emotions were running high. Their tears were flowing. And I would think that many of us if we were there that day would have thought such sentimental expressions of sympathy were appropriate. I suspect that very similar emotional expressions are a part of many contemporary worship services even today and might be considered to be honoring to Christ.

But Jesus does something extraordinarily unexpected in response to their sympathy. He rebukes them. Even though He has been beaten repeatedly in His face, lashed 39 times with a barb tipped whip until He is literally at the point of death, hasn’t eaten or drank in many hours and suffered a sleepless night at the hands of His enemies, He turns around to these women that are mourning and lamenting for Him and rather than thanking them for their sympathy or acknowledging their sentiments, He uses what little strength He has left to rebuke them. Now that is an extraordinary thing and worthy of our consideration.

Let’s look at what He says in vs. 28, “But Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.’” Now how are we to understand this? Is Jesus just snapping at these poor women because He is under a lot of stress and their wailing is getting on His nerves? Or rather is Jesus is still teaching, still concerned about the needs of others, even in this moment of agony? I would have to say it was the latter. Jesus uses this opportunity to teach one final lesson before the cross. Even in the midst of all the anguish that He is going through at that moment, He is not thinking of Himself, but of them.

So we must ask ourselves, why does Jesus tell the women not to weep for Him? Well first of all, Jesus tells them not to weep for Him because He had come into the world to go to the cross. They did not understand what was happening. This wasn’t a tragedy that required their sympathy. He was fulfilling His purpose. When Jesus prayed the night before in the upper room He prayed as recorded in John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Jesus suffered the humility of coming to earth as a baby in a manger so that one day He would deliberately make that walk to Calvary to die on the cross. It was the purpose of His incarnation. Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Jesus tells these women not to weep for Him because this is no unfortunate circumstance, but rather He is deliberately going to His death to die in our place so that we might live.

Secondly, Jesus says do not weep for Me because He knows what is actually happening. The women think that this is some sort of tragic coincidence and so they wail and mourn. But Jesus knows that what is happening is not some cosmic accident, but the divine plan of God. Not just the crazed actions of angry men, but the predetermined plan of God. Peter would later characterize this day as fulfilling the plan of God when He preached on the day of Pentecost, saying in Acts 2:23 “this [Jesus], delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

Thirdly, Jesus tells them not to weep for Him because He knows that what He does will glorify the Father as nothing else can ever do. His sacrifice for our sins glorifies the Father, because it manifests God’s love for the world in the most exquisite way possible. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall have eternal life.” The love of God for sinners required Him to offer up His only Son on a cruel cross so that He might save us from death.

Jesus understood what love meant. Those women along the road that day did not understand love. They understood sentimentality. They understood emotionalism. They understood sympathy. But they did not understand love. However, God understood love and He demonstrated agape love to the fullest expression by offering up Jesus on the cross for us. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God does not demonstrate sentimental or superficial love for us, but sacrificial love, by offering His only Son to die in our place.   That is how we are to understand love. Not in terms of emotion, or in terms of sentiment, but in terms of sacrifice. 1John 4:19 “We love, (we understand love) because He first loved us.”

Fourthly, Jesus tells them not to weep for Him because He knows the consequences of the cross. For Him, the joy set before Him was more than worth the sacrifice. In John 12:31 Jesus said concerning His impending death, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” The consequence of the cross is that sin is defeated, Satan is thrown down and the sting of death is taken away. He knows what the victory means. That if He is lifted up on the cross on Calvary’s hill, He will draw all men to Himself that they might be saved. The sacrifice is well worth the victory.

Col. 2:13-15 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” That is a reference to the rulers, the powers of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places spoken of in Ephesians 6. Jesus triumphed over them at the cross, shouting out in victory “It is finished!” Jesus knows the consequences of the cross, therefore He tells the women not to weep for Him. This is no accident, this is His destiny, the divine plan of God set before the foundation of the world so that men might be reconciled to God and nothing will stop Him from completing His mission.

So Jesus says to the women who were lamenting Him, “Don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.” Why such a rebuke? Why does Jesus take what precious little energy He has left to offer this stirring rebuke to these well meaning women? Well, the answer is simple. He says weep for yourselves because you don’t really know who I am. Weep for yourselves because of your ignorance concerning Me. And weep because of your ignorance for your own condition. Weep for your sins, for your own guilty condition before God.

James 4:8-10 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” Jesus tells these women to weep for themselves and for their children because that is the way of repentance, and the way of repentance is the path to righteousness before God. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Secondly, weep for yourselves and your children because you don’t understand the judgment of God is coming upon you. Jesus had warned the citizens of Jerusalem in Luke 13:34-35 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'”

They did not understand that they were putting to death the very Son of God. They did not understand that God would pour out His wrath upon them for their rejection of His Son, just as Jesus had prophesied, that the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to others who would make good use of it. And in AD 70, we know that Rome entered Jerusalem and massacred hundreds of thousands in one day and burned the city and the temple. Children were dashed to the ground as their mothers watched in horror as the day of judgment came upon Israel for it’s rejection of the Messiah.

Jesus says weep for yourselves and for your children, for the days are coming as prophesied when such a horror will fall upon Jerusalem that they will say “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,’ AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’ It would be better to be barren in those coming days of judgment than to see the destruction of your children. And the terror of those days would be such that men and women would call out for the mountains to fall on them and destroy them, rather than fall into the hands of the soldiers.

Jesus says weep for yourselves and your children, because if they do these things when the tree is green, what will they do in the dry. That means that if they do this to the innocent, meaning Himself, then what will they do to the impenitent and rebellious? What will happen to you who reject the Savior of the world? If they crucify the Holy Son of God, then what punishment is deserved by those that rejected Him? Listen, if you die in your sins, after so magnificent a sacrifice was offered for you, then you deserve to suffer the terrors of hell for eternity. Jesus suffered and died such a horrible death so that He might taste death for us. But if we reject Him and His offer of salvation, then the cross is of no use to us. It merely condemns us to a greater condemnation, because we trampled underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ. We considered it worthless.

So weep for yourselves because of the ignorance of the world who doesn’t understand that they are lost and will perish for eternity without Christ. Weep for yourselves and for your children because they did not understand their need for the cross. Listen, the sentimentality and sympathy of men can be a detriment to your discipleship if you believe that suffering and sacrifice are not part of God’s plan for you. Not understanding how God uses suffering to conform us to the image of Jesus, will impede your discipleship and cause you to question the purpose of God.

Probably the greatest skateboarder of the 1970’s, which was really when skateboarding started to become popular, was a guy named Jay Adams. I remember seeing him in the skateboarding magazines when I was a teenager. He rose to world wide fame at a young age as part of the Zephyr skateboard team which was from Dogtown, an area near Venice, Ca. Jay was a natural talent and a real innovator of what has became modern skateboarding. But like a lot of people from that era, Jay became involved in drugs and partying from a young age. As he got older, that lifestyle led him into crime and street gang violence and he ended up spending a lot of time in prison. But the amazing thing was about 10 or 12 years ago Jay Adams became saved. I remember hearing about it when my son and I were in Hawaii at the time. Jay showed up at a Bible study and some of our friends were there and they heard his testimony.

But not long after that I heard that Jay was arrested and put in prison again, presumably from an old outstanding warrant. I must say even though I really wanted to believe Jay was truly saved, I wondered about his salvation. From time to time though I ran across something in a magazine or on the internet that he said or did which gave me hope. Eventually he got out of prison, and he seemed to be doing ok. He was married, had a family and he experienced a resurgence in his career. Hollywood even made a movie about Dogtown and he was featured prominently in the story. But then in August of this year, just as it seemed Jay’s life was finally getting together and things were working out, he died of a heart attack while surfing in Mexico on vacation with his wife. He was 53 years old. It seemed like such a tragedy.

Then just the other day I happened to come across a video of Jay’s memorial service. It was held at a large church in Los Angeles. Hundreds of people were in attendance which included a large number of older skaters who had been his friends. These guys were some of the most hard core looking guys you could imagine. All tattooed up and a lot of them with pretty gnarly backgrounds. And there were two pastors that preached at that service as well as a testimony given by another professional skater named Christian Hosoi, who was also a born again Christian. It was really amazing to hear their stories about the Jay Adams that they knew that had been transformed by the power of Christ. One pastor read several letters written by Jay while in prison in which he talked at length about how God was changing him daily as he studied his Bible. And as I heard these three men’s testimonies, I was happy to be confirmed in my hope that Jay Adams was truly a man of God. He wasn’t perfect, and he did stumble on more than one occasion, but he had been saved and transformed by the power of the gospel.

But there was still the nagging question of why would God take this man, just when his life seemed to be getting on track, especially considering how his life could have been effective at reaching a lot of people. Why did God take him now? And the answer came in a couple of verses from one of the messages; Isaiah 53:10-11 “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” What that says in a nutshell was this; by the death of One, many were made righteous. And though that verse is talking about Jesus, it also applies to Jay’s life. By his death, many were made righteous. At the conclusion of that service, the preacher gave a simple invitation and a dozen old friends of Jay’s came up to the altar to receive Christ. God often uses suffering and trials which seem incomprehensible to us, for the good of the kingdom of God. Our part is to trust Him that He knows what is best and yield ourselves to be used by Him.

Now there was one other person on the road to Calvary that morning that did see the value of the cross. And I believe that person is given here as an illustration of what it means to understand the significance of the cross. That person was Simon of Cyrene. Luke doesn’t tell us a lot about this man, but we can find mention of Him in other scriptures which helps us to understand who he was. He was probably a Jew, living in what is now known as Libya, in Northern Africa. He was undoubtedly in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. So he would have been a God fearing Jew that had come from the country into Jerusalem to worship God.

And though we are not told a lot about this man at this point, we do know that he was pressed into service by the Roman soldiers to carry the cross of Christ. This happened just before Jesus spoke to the women along the road. Perhaps Jesus was so weakened by the flogging and the beatings that he had endured, along with a sleepless night and the loss of blood and so forth, that they wanted to be sure that Jesus made it to the cross without dying along the way. Or maybe they wanted to get there quicker and so they picked out a strong looking passerby to carry the cross of Jesus so they could get along with their business.

But the scripture is careful to tell us that after taking up the cross Simon followed behind Jesus. And here we have a picture of what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. This guy is following his own plan and purpose, and then one day he is suddenly face to face with Jesus Christ, and he takes up his cross and follows Him to Calvary. Jesus made the cost of discipleship clear earlier in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” He said in Luke 14:27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” And again in Matt. 10:38, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Listen, Jesus never offered a cross-less salvation. He never offered a blood-less Christianity. Modern Christianity today wants to present a blood-less, cross-less Christianity where all the sacrifice was done by Christ so that we can be forgiven and then get on with our life. Come as you are and stay as you are. Get your get out of hell card and carry on. But Jesus never teaches that. He teaches that just as He went to the cross, so we are to take up our cross and follow Him. Faith in Christ’s death on the cross produces our justification, which in turn produces our sanctification which requires crucifying our flesh and it’s desires and obeying the Spirit of God. Gal. 5:24 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Gal. 2:20 tells us what that looks like; “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” In other words, I no longer live for myself, no longer live like my flesh, my passions tell me to live, but I live now as the Spirit tells me to live. I crucify the passions of my flesh and let Christ live through my body. That is the picture that we see in Simon the Cyrene leaving the path that he was following, and picking up the cross and following Jesus.

Now I’m sure someone will say, “well Roy, that’s a nice illustration, but how do we know that Simon the Cyrene became a believer? He’s just some poor guy who carried the cross of Christ, but we don’t really know what became of him.” Well, actually there are a couple of indications that he was a believer, and furthermore his family came to believe in Christ. When Mark writes his account of this event, he includes the information in Mark 15:21 that Simon was the father of Rufus and Alexander. The point being that the church Mark was writing to would have known these two brothers as they were a part of their congregation. Furthermore, Paul mentions Rufus in Romans 16 and his mother who also was a Christian and esteemed by the apostle. So we can be sure that this experience on the road to Calvary was a life changing experience for Simon as he followed Jesus, carrying His cross.

Unlike the superficial women that lamented Jesus on that walk, Simon undoubtedly came to say, as the centurion did when witnessing Christ at the cross, “truly this was the Son of God.” He came to understand the purpose of Christ’s crucifixion as he shouldered the cross of Christ and followed after Him. And as such he is a great illustration for us of someone who has entered into the fellowship of His sufferings.

Paul, talking about the fellowship we have in the sufferings of Christ describes what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus in Phil. 3:8-11, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

I will close today by asking you a question. What effect has the cross of Christ had on you? Does it just evoke a feeling of sympathy? Does the person of Christ, or the birth of Christ produce only sentimental feelings? Listen, Jesus Christ doesn’t ask for, nor does He desire our sympathy. The cross of Christ is designed to produce in us repentance. Weep for yourselves and for your children. Let His example of love for us become our expression of love for Him. Not a superficial sentimentality, but a sacrificial love for Christ which considers everything that I once considered gain as loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.

What use is it to gain the whole world and lose your own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for His soul? The answer is everything. I surrender all. I completely surrender my heart to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He is worth it all. Whatever loss I have to surrender in this life is worth it for the sake of Christ. Can you say that this morning? Have you wept over your sinfulness? Have you trusted in Christ as your Savior? Have you experienced forgiveness for your sins? I pray that today is the day of your salvation and that no one here would reject the offer of salvation purchased by the blood of the Son of God.

What will you do with Jesus? That is the question of the ages. It is the question that every person of every age must answer for themselves. It is in this scenario played out here in the final chapters of the gospel of Luke that we see one person after another faced with the question of “what will you do with Jesus?” See, it is not enough to simply believe that He exists. All the players in this last act of the ministry of Jesus certainly believed that He existed. But they all must decide not if He is, but who He is, and then what they will do with Him.

So far Luke has presented a long cast of characters who had to answer that question. And sadly, as we continue to look at three more today, there is a uniformity in their answers.   They all reject Him. We saw in the last chapter to start with that Judas, one of the 12 apostles rejected Him, which resulted in him betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He not only rejected Him, but in the end He valued Him as worth no more to him than a slave – 30 pieces of silver being the price of a slave.

And then we saw the rest of the disciples reject Him as well in the Garden of Gethsemane. When the soldiers and the lynch mob came in the middle of the night, for a moment they attempted to put up a brave front and fight, and then they took off into the darkness. They all deserted Him.

Then we looked at Simon Peter, the staunchest, bravest disciple of them all. Possibly the closest to Jesus. And yet he too rejected Him. Peter ended up sitting by the fire of the soldiers who arrested Jesus and before the night was over he denied even knowing Him three times.

Then we saw the rejection of the high priests and Sanhedrin, the elders of the Jews. They made up the religious ruling parties of the Jews. They asked Jesus flat out if He was indeed the Son of God. Luke 22:70, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” And their answer was to blaspheme Him and hit Him in the mouth and call for His crucifixion.

Now today we will look at three other responses to this question; “What will you do with Jesus?” We see first of all Pilate, a Gentile, the governor of Rome. Secondly, we see Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. He was not a Jew, but was an Idumean, who ruled over the region of Galilee. And thirdly, we will look at the crowd, the multitude, made up of the mass of people who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover.

So the account begins by saying that the whole body got up and brought Jesus before Pilate. The whole body relates to the Council of the Elders spoken of at the end of chapter 22. The high priests, the scribes and the 70 members of the Sanhedrin. You will remember they had arrested Jesus in the middle of the night in the Garden of Gethsemane and held two bogus trials. The first was at the house of the high priest to try to find something that they could indict Him for. But they knew that was not a legal trial, so they reconvened again at dawn in their chambers so that it would be official. And all that they had determined in their trials was that they wanted to put Him to death. They had not found witnesses that could agree on anything, but they still wanted Him dead. However it was not legal under Roman law for the Jews to put someone to death. That is why they usually resorted to stoning people that they found guilty of blasphemy or some other serious crime. However, they don’t want to stone Jesus because they feared the people. They didn’t want to be seen as responsible for putting Jesus to death. He was still a popular figure. So their plan was to have Rome put Him to death. So as soon as it was light, they all went down the street a block or two to Pilates court to charge Him with crimes against the Roman government, thinking that they would put Jesus to death.

They wouldn’t enter Pilate’s court though because they did not want to defile themselves by entering a Gentile establishment. So Pilate came out to them. He must have been stunned to see the entire Jewish council standing there in the street at the crack of dawn. That was undoubtedly an unprecedented thing and signaled to Him that they were seriously agitated about something.

So they essentially bring charges of insurrection before Pilate, which they were certain would be worthy of the death sentence. They said, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.” All of which was an outright lie, by the way. They don’t want to defile themselves by entering a Gentile building, but they don’t mind defiling themselves by bringing false charges against an innocent man.

So now the question comes to Pilate; “what will you do with Jesus?” We could spend an entire message just on Pilate himself. The other gospels have more to say about him than Luke gives us here. But what we see in a nutshell, especially in this first response, is that Pilate wants to duck the question. He doesn’t want to have to give an answer. He doesn’t really want to deal with Jesus.

He asks Jesus if indeed He was the King of the Jews. I’m sure that was a mocking, sarcastic question. Pilate was the governor of Rome. He was over the entire region. He had certainly heard of Jesus. He knew what Jesus was going about doing. He may not have understood what Jesus was teaching, but he certainly was not so naïve that Jesus could be the King of the Jews and he would not know it.

But surprisingly, Jesus answers his sarcastic question anyway. Jesus answers, “It is as you say.” John’s gospel adds some really important details here that reveal the mindset of Pilate. In John 18:34-38 it says Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

Now that reveals the dilemma of Pilate. He desperately wanted to avoid this conversation about truth and the kingdom of God. He wanted to avoid having to deal with the question of the ages, “what will you do with Jesus?” And now Jesus takes this sarcastic, mocking question of Pilate and turns it around into a challenge. What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with the truth?

Pilate’s answer in the short term was to send Him away to Herod. He wanted to duck the question. And how much like Pilate are so many people in the world today. They don’t want to deal with the question of what to do about Jesus. They want to avoid thinking about such things. How can you know, they ask? What is truth, they ask? How can you really believe the Bible, they say? They want to avoid the question of what to do about Jesus. They want to live out their lives without conflict, without having to choose, without having to decide anything. They are classic examples of burying your head in the sand and hoping that when you take it out again the situation will have somehow been taken care of. They would rather have others do the heavy lifting about theology. They would rather have a form of religion, but deny the power of it. They just want to be left alone to live life as they see fit. So like Pilate, they want to pass on that question. But like Pilate, they will not be able to be left alone for long. One day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, either now resulting in your salvation, or one day in judgment resulting in damnation. But everyone must one day answer that question; “what will you do with Jesus?”

So then we turn to the second character in this passage who is confronted with the question of “what will you do with Jesus?” And that is Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. He happened to be in Jerusalem for the Passover at this time. Even though he is not a Jew, he has a vested interest in keeping the Jews happy. His father was Herod the Great, the one that had all the babies under two years old killed in Palestine after Jesus was born. These guys were like a mafia family or something. They did great public works to buy the loyalty of the people, but actually they were a murderous, treacherous lot and the son Herod Antipas is no exception.

Herod Antipas was the one who had John the Baptist put to death, if you will remember. Herod had a great ball and the daughter of Herodias his wife danced before them. And Herod in a state of drunken lust tells her that she can have anything she wants, up to half his kingdom. She goes back to ask her mother what she should ask for, and her mother tells her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The reason that Herodias hated John the Baptist so much was because John had rebuked Herod publicly for taking Herodias when she had been the wife of his brother Philip and then divorcing his present wife and marrying her. John the Baptist had the audacity to tell Herod that what he had done was a sin, and so Herod had John arrested and put in prison.

Yet interestingly, Herod liked listening to John. Mark 6:20 tells us that “Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.” But as we know, even though Herod knew that John was a righteous and holy man, even though he knew he was a prophet from God, he had him put to death to please his wife, to try to cover up their sin.

Listen, nothing makes people more mad than rebuking them of their sin. Nothing makes people madder than preaching about sin. Some people asked me the other day what we could do to grow our church. If I simply stopped preaching about sin I’m sure we would have a much bigger church. The world hates to be told that what they want to do, what they think is ok to do is sin. And yet the faithful man of God will preach the truth about sin, because unless a man is convicted of his sin he will not repent, and if he doesn’t repent of his sin he cannot be saved. We must come to understand God’s wrath against sin, in order to comprehend why a loving God would send men to hell. And we must understand that sin is an affront to a holy God, to understand why God would send His Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty of sin. Sin is not a peripheral doctrine that can be overlooked, but sin must be dealt with. However, the world doesn’t want to hear about it, and they hate whoever dares to convict them of it.

So here is the deal with Herod. This is a man who had heard the truth. He had listened repeatedly to the preaching of John the Baptist. The text says that he was very perplexed, that means he was convicted of his sin. But rather than repent of it, he had locked John up in prison and then executed him to stave off the anger of his wife. Then later on, when Jesus’ fame was spreading around Galilee, Herod’s guilt caused him to wonder if John had come back to life somehow. So he had been hearing about Jesus for 3 years and wanting to see Him.

Notice vs. 8, “Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him.” So Herod was curious. He wanted to see Jesus produce a miracle. He wanted to see something sensational. But it wasn’t going to make him a believer, it would just satisfy some venal desire on his part to see Jesus dance on the end of his puppet strings.

So finally Herod gets his chance. Verse 9 says that he questioned Jesus at some length. And yet Jesus answered him not a word. Listen, there are a lot of people in the world today that would like to see some manifestation of God. They brazenly say that if God wants them to believe in them, then God is going to have to do a miracle. And God’s answer to them is exactly what Jesus’ answer to Herod is. Nothing. God does not have to prove Himself to anyone. In fact, He will not. God’s name as He delivered it to Moses in the burning bush was “I Am.” God doesn’t start out in Genesis with a long list of reasons why we should believe in Him. The Bible doesn’t offer a course in apologetics. Genesis 1:1 simply and boldly states; “In the beginning, God…” And Jesus doesn’t waste anytime defending Himself either. A few hours before when Jesus was in the Garden He asked the mob, “whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” And Jesus answered them with just two words, “I Am.” And they fell to the ground at the power of that name. Jesus is the Son of God, and it is incumbent upon man to believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those that seek Him.

Herod is faced with the Son of God, and yet when he questions Jesus, He does not answer him a word. Herod had all the testimony that he was going to get. He had the testimony of John the Baptist. He had recognized his preaching as the truth and yet he had his head cut his head off. But it’s not that Jesus doesn’t give Herod a second chance. The fact is that Herod had already decided what he would do with Jesus. It says in Luke 13 that Herod had decided to kill Jesus. He was seeking Him to have Him killed. Herod rejected the Son of God because he did not want to be convicted of his sin. He did not want to repent of his sin.

And that is shown in the actions of Herod now that he has an audience with Jesus. When Jesus doesn’t dance when Herod calls, when Jesus doesn’t perform a miracle to satisfy the vanity of Herod, then he shows his true colors. He mocks Jesus. Vs. 11, “And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.”

So when Herod is faced with the question of the ages, “what will you do with Jesus?” he mocks him, he treats him with contempt, dressing him in a king’s robe as some kind of sick joke and sends Jesus back to Pilate. That is what the atheists and agnostics and God haters are doing today. They mock God. They sneer at God. They have contempt for all things holy. And yet in reality their motive is not some superior intelligence, but that they love their sin and refuse to repent of it. John 3:19 Jesus said, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” And I am afraid that many people in our community will never receive anything more from God than the preaching of the word of God. We preach the truth of God’s word here, plain and unadulterated. And yet, like Pilate, they have rejected the truth. They seek some sort of sign, some sort of miracle from God, but God has said in 1Cor. 1:21 that by the foolishness of preaching men will be saved.

So Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate, and that also introduces us to the third group of characters in this passage, and that is the crowd, the multitude. Throughout Jesus’ ministry He had been followed by the multitudes. They were an ever changing, but constant presence in His ministry. He miraculously fed them on at least two occasions. They heard His messages. They saw Him perform many miracles. They had the privilege that Herod and Pilate did not have. Herod wanted to see miracles and did not. But the multitudes saw many miracles. And just a week earlier they had followed Jesus into Jerusalem calling out “Hosanna!” and throwing down palm branches in His path as He rode into town on a donkey. Popular opinion was high at that time. Their expectations were high. The crowds fed off that popularity and the expectation of even greater miracles, perhaps even the prospect of Jesus taking the throne of David. They are moved by the tide of emotion, they are aroused by public sentiment and popular approval. And they now this fickle crowd has gathered at the sight of this mob of soldiers, the condemnation of the high priests and scribes, and the judgment of the 70 elders of the Sanhedrin. And their affections are swayed by the force of that religious persuasion to join them in their condemnation of Jesus.

Vs. 13 “Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people.” That would be the gathering crowds, the multitudes, many of them the same people that just a few days earlier had shouted hosanna are now in this crowd that is being driven by the resentment of the religious leaders. And so in the space of just a few days, we see the fickle crowds allegiance switch from calling for Him to be King, to calling for Him to be crucified.

And the amazing thing is that Pilate is still doing his best to wash his hands of the whole affair. He says three times, “I find no guilt in this man.” And yet the crowd, spurred on by popular opinion calls ever more for His crucifixion. Pilate even offers to scourge Jesus. That was typically 39 lashes with the cat of nine tails, a bull whip tipped with glass and barbs that cut the back of Jesus to shreds. He brings Jesus back out again before the people and offers to release Him, but they call out for him to release instead a man named Barabbas, who was a notorious murderer and criminal.

Vs. 23, “But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail.” I’m afraid that we are entering a period in our culture today when Jesus has lost whatever superficial popularity that He might have ever enjoyed. There was a time when the popular culture respected Jesus, at least on the surface. There was a time when the Bible was respected as holy and righteous. When men feared God. But those days are practically gone in today’s society. The same multitudes that called out to God in prayer meetings all across this country after the horror of 911 have now tossed every mention of God out of schools, public arenas, out of the military, out of political circles. God isn’t wanted anymore. Public opinion has shifted dramatically from a superficial acceptance of Christianity to downright animosity. To be a Christian today is to be hated by everyone. And even many religious organizations have joined in denouncing truth and righteousness as bigoted and narrow minded. The political correctness of our society demands that there can be no truth. Tolerance is the new righteousness. The voices of the Christ haters have become louder and louder. It drowns out reason. They don’t want to listen to reason. Evil is venerated and righteousness is demonized. Hatred for all things Christian has become all the rage now.   Denouncing Christ is popular. And more and more people are joining in with the throng every day. It is a sad time to be a Christian. Many of us are like Pilate, we are afraid to buck the crowd. We are afraid of popular opinion. And so by our unwillingness to stand up for Christ we participate in His crucifixion.

So Pilate now is faced again with the question of what to do about Jesus. Herod mocked Him and scorned Him and ultimately wanted Him dead. The fickle multitude has turned against Him as well, and they call for His crucifixion. And now Pilate must answer that question, “what to do about Jesus?” He had wanted to avoid it. He wanted to pass on that question. But in the face of all of this opposition, he finally succumbs to the pressure of popular opinion and seals his own fate for eternity. Vs. 24, “And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted. And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will.”

Listen, have you answered that question today for yourself? “What will you do about Jesus?” Have you been trying to duck that question? Have you really been trying to avoid answering it? Or are you like Herod? Have you answered that question already? Is your heart already hardened? Have you considered the choice of continuing in the pleasures of sin or the repentance of sin and made the choice to reject Jesus Christ? Have you hardened your heart against the preaching of the truth of God’s word? Or perhaps you have been like Herod in the sense that you are waiting for God to show you some sort of sign from heaven in order to prove that He exists before you will believe in Him.

Unfortunately, God is not obligated to answer that demand. But rather God makes His own demand in Hebrews 11:6. He says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” God sets the requirements, not us. And He requires that we come to Him in faith, believing that He is. The Great I Am. He is, and He is the rewarder of those that seek Him.

Or perhaps today you are like the crowd that followed Jesus when things were going good. When the food and miracles were happening they were excited about the benefits of following Christ. When Christ was popular you went along with the crowd. But when the way got difficult, when popular opinion began to change, the crowd quickly turned against Him. When Jesus didn’t perform in the way that you thought that He should, did you desert Him? Did you turn against Him when He failed to meet your expectations? Did you reject Christ when you found out what it really meant to follow Him? To worship Him? To serve Him as King?

Listen, I don’t know your heart today. But God knows. He sees your heart, He knows your motivation. He knows your disappointments. He knows your doubts. He knows your fears. And yet He still loves you enough to willingly go to the cross for you. He loved the murderous, fickle crowd enough to pray even as they were nailing Him to the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Listen, Jesus went to the cross for Judas, but Judas wouldn’t repent. He went to the cross for the Sanhedrin, but they would not repent. He went to the cross for Pilate, but Pilate would not repent. He went to the cross for Herod and he would not repent.

And Jesus went to the cross for you as well. The question for you today is, “what will you do with Jesus?” The Bible says, if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sins, so that we might be given His righteousness. That transaction is made possible by believing in Him, who He is, and what He came to do. As He told Pilate, He is a King. He came to be King of your life. What will you do with Jesus? Will you bow before Him now, in faith and repentance so that you may receive His salvation? I pray that today is the day of your salvation.

I’ve often jokingly said that I discovered panic attacks. And I’m only half kidding when I say that. Almost 18 years ago I went through a period where I had debilitating panic attacks every day for about 3 years. I may make light of it sometimes now, but I can assure you that panic attacks are no laughing matter. So along the way I learned something about panic attacks. And one of the things I first learned was that when you have a panic attack, your body wants to respond in one of two ways; fight or flight. That is the automatic response of your nervous system when it gets stimulated to the degree of a life threatening situation. Your adrenaline starts pumping, your breathing starts becoming shallow, and your heart is pounding. Your body basically is trying to prepare you for either fight or flight. If there really is a survival situation going on, then that kind of natural nervous response might enable you to react in a way that would help you to save your life. But when there is not a life threatening situation, then it is a horrifying feeling to have suddenly come over you and it can be difficult to shake off.

It’s difficult because at that time, your body does not respond to reason. It is responding to feelings. Though there is no real threat, your nervous system suddenly goes into hyper drive and the effect can be debilitating. It doesn’t mean that you are a coward. You might be as brave as the next guy in a threatening situation, but it’s that something triggers your nervous system and your mind becomes like a scratched 33 rpm record that keeps repeating and repeating the same what if scenario and causes your nervous system to rev up to the breaking point.

As we look at this story today, I don’t think that Peter and the other disciples necessarily had a panic attack, at least like the kind that I just described. But I do think that the principle of how we respond to fear is applicable to some extent to both situations. Peter and the disciples had a legitimate life threatening situation that was suddenly thrust upon them. Jesus had been warning them that something like this was coming, but it was so unreal to them that they had fallen asleep in the garden.

The setting was the middle of the night in a dark wooded olive grove. They were sleeping out in the open. They were exhausted. It had been one stressful thing after another with Jesus for a week now, ever since they entered Jerusalem. And suddenly they are awakened by Roman soldiers with lanterns flickering in the darkness surrounding them. They have clubs and swords. The well known enemies of Christ, the chief priests and the elders were there with their officers of the temple. It was sudden, it was frightening, and it was alarming.

So at first the disciples reacted just as the psychologists say is normal under those circumstances in a life threatening situation. They get ready to fight. Remember in the upper room Jesus had said that if they didn’t have a sword they should buy one, and they said they had two of them. That was enough, Jesus said. Now they are facing this mob in the middle of the night, and it makes perfect sense why Jesus said they should get a sword. So they say, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And before Jesus can answer vs. 50 says that one of them struck the slave of the high priest with the sword and cut off his right ear. Now Luke doesn’t say who that was, nor do Mark or Matthew. And the reason that they don’t identify the person responsible was that it was undoubtedly a capital offense to strike the servant of the high priest. But John who writes his gospel after Peter is long dead does identify him in John 18:10 “Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus.”

Now there were 11 disciples with Jesus that night, and some have raised the possibility of another one or two people with Jesus as well. But the mob has them vastly outnumbered. So Peter is certainly courageous. He had boasted earlier in vs. 33 “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” He knew that regardless of how many soldiers and henchmen the chief priests had, that he and the Lord was a majority. So I can imagine that all the disciples were kind of in the same mode. Peter was their leader, so they would follow his example.

But then Jesus does something really contrary to everything they could have imagined. Jesus says in vs. 51, “’Stop! No more of this.’ And He touched his ear and healed him.” And then Jesus turns to the chief priests again and said, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.”

From the disciples point of view, this must have been astounding. Jesus heals this servant of the high priest and then basically gives himself up to be arrested by this lynch mob in the middle of the night. He says this hour and the power of darkness is yours. He surrenders Himself into their hands to be arrested and taken away. And I think this is where the situation goes from being astounding and incomprehensible to terrifying.

Peter had actually in his boast earlier alluded to what might have been the key to their response to this sudden turn of events. Peter had said, “with you I am ready to go both to prison and to death.” With Jesus in all His power Peter was brave enough. But without Jesus Peter and the disciples didn’t know what to do. It was terrifying. Jesus had been the visible power of God in their midst for 3 years. He had been able to do anything, from walking on water to raising the dead. They had plenty of confidence when He was with them. But now, to submit Himself to the mob, to say that in this hour He would surrender to the power of darkness was incomprehensible. It was so unbelievable that it was terrifying.

And so that terror produced the second type of response to fear, and that is flight. Mark 14:50 “And they all left Him and fled.” That’s the second natural response of the body to fear; you take flight. All the disciples took off, probably in 11 different directions. We know according to Mark’s gospel that a young man, probably John Mark himself, was with them, and he was seized by the officers, but he escaped by pulling free of his covering and running away naked. So we can assume that all the disciples took off in fear for their lives, narrowly escaping arrest.

Peter, even more so than most. For he had struck a man with the sword and cut him. And that man happened to be Malchus, the slave of the high priest. So Peter had much to fear. In fact they all did, because Jesus is not acting like they thought He should. They expected Jesus to do more of what He did when the soldiers had first entered the garden. He had gone towards them it says in John 18:4-6 “ and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am He.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” That’s the kind of Jesus they would follow anywhere. Able to knock soldiers to the ground with just a word.

But when Jesus seems to surrender Himself to them, and then allows them to arrest Him and lead Him away that is something that the disciples cannot understand. In spite of everything Jesus had told them, they somehow still expected that He was going to enact a physical kingdom at this time, and it would mean the overthrow of Rome and Jesus would take the throne of David in Jerusalem and they would sit at His side and judge the 12 tribes of Israel in this new kingdom of God.

I remember what was the catalyst for my panic attacks. For me it was unexplainable medical issues. It was the fear of something unknown, that was beyond my comprehension, that was unexpected, unexplainable. That kind of situation prompted my psyche to go into panic mode. And I think that happens in the garden to some extent. Something unexpected happens. Something incomprehensible. Something that seemed to counter to their doctrine, to their faith. And it caused them all to stumble, to even fall in their faith.

Folks, I think there are some parallels in this event to what often happens in our lives as believers. We come to know the Lord, we come to something of an understanding of the doctrines concerning God, and then circumstances suddenly test our faith to the breaking point. Our doctrine founders. We don’t understand why this is happening. God seems to have broken His promises. God didn’t do what we thought He was supposed to do, when He was supposed to do it. Someone we loved didn’t get healed. Someone we prayed for didn’t get delivered. The money we desperately needed by Friday to pay that bill did not come, even though we prayed fervently for it. And we go from faith to fear in a moment. And in that fear we find ourselves reacting in the flesh in one of two ways; fight or flight. And both of those ways are the wrong way we are supposed to respond. They are the response of the flesh, rather than the response of the Spirit.

That is why I am so insistent that our focus here at the Beach Fellowship is on the teaching of sound doctrine. There is a lot of false doctrine out there that is appealing. We want to believe it. It appeals to our flesh, to the pride of life. It sounds like the kind of God we think God is supposed to be. And yet when life’s trials come along and God doesn’t perform as you have been taught and assured that He would, you are left with the options that either God doesn’t love you, or you don’t have enough faith, or the word of God can’t be trusted. So you find your faith foundering, in danger of shipwreck.

Well, to Peter’s credit, he tries to get back on track. He fled like everyone else, but then he must have doubled back and followed at a distance to see where they were taking Jesus. And they go to Annas’ house, the father in law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. There they begin an unlawful trial, a pretrial really, of Jesus to see what they could indict Him with.

Peter manages to get let into the courtyard, and John’s gospel says it was because John was known to the high priest, he might have even been related. And so John is also secretly following Jesus, and somehow Peter gets word to him to help him get in. So John speaks to the servant girl and she lets Peter in, and he goes over to the fire in the courtyard which the soldiers are warming themselves by. That’s a pretty daring move on the part of Peter, wouldn’t you say?

I see a lot of commentators disparage Peter on this night as some sort of coward. I don’t see that at all. I see a man that is brave enough, but he is acting and relying on his bravery, on his cunning, on his strength to not fall away. He is confident in that strength. And yet we will see that his strength is not enough.

Back in our text starting at vs. 25 we see the progression of Peter’s failure of faith. Peter’s self confidence in his natural ability had led him to fight. And that had backfired when Jesus had stopped him and healed the servant’s ear. That resulted in uncertainty, a failure of doctrine if you will, that caused him to take flight with all the other disciples. They were scattered in every direction. So now we see Peter come back, but he is hanging outside by the fire with the men who had arrested Jesus. The uncertainty of Peter’s faith has induced him to hang out with the wrong people. He is at the fireside of the enemies of Christ.

How many times do we find ourselves as Christians hanging out by the fire of the enemy? Especially at times when our faith is the lowest, we often end up seeking the comfort of the world. The familiarity of the old friends, the old hangouts. Our faith is shaken by some circumstance that we aren’t expecting, and rather than it driving us to God, we allow it to steer us back to the world. We skip a few church services. We say we’re trying to figure some things out. We need to take a break. Whatever the excuse, we find ourselves by the fire of the unbelievers, finding comfort in wrong associations.  As Christians, God never calls us to sit on the sidelines. That is where we get in trouble. David sat on the sidelines when his army went out to battle and began his fall from faith with a woman named Bathsheba. And it too went from bad to worse because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

Remember what Jesus had said to Peter in the upper room? He said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” And Peter’s response was, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” Well, now the devil was sifting Peter like wheat. Satan was going to exploit all the holes in Peter’s theology, all the fault lines in Peter’s faith. Peter had thought he was strong enough to handle Satan. But we should never underestimate our enemy. When Satan moves against Peter, he only has to use a little slave girl to do undo him.

Vs. 56-57, “And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, ‘This man was with Him too.’ But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” Peter had been ready for the big battle. He had been ready to go to war with Christ at the head of an army. He was ready for the big things in the kingdom, or so he thought. But this little girl completely caught him off guard. For some reason, he suddenly was afraid. He could probably see Jesus in there, bound and tied, getting repeatedly slapped in the face and spit upon. And he just couldn’t believe what was happening. It didn’t fit in with Peters theology. And all of his bravado went out the window when this little maid comes up to the fire and says in front of these soldiers you’re one of His disciples.

You know, the thing that reveals our true nature is involuntary response, not a planned response. Your character isn’t shown by what you prepare to do, it’s manifest by what you’re not prepared for and how you react to that, that involuntary reaction. That reveals which nature you are living in. It’s those things that catch us off guard that reveal the real weakness of our hearts and shows us who we really are.

You know, when Satan comes after you, it’s not going to necessarily be with big things. We probably have our guard up in those areas. It’s the little things that catch us. Maybe it’s skipping our devotions. Or like Peter, sleeping when he should have been praying. It’s the little things that take us further and further away from the Lord until we find one day that we are so far away that we are actually denying Him by our lifestyle or our in our actions or our words.

So to summarize the next few verses, Peter makes another denial to another servant girl, then an hour later he made yet a third denial to a man who according to John happened to be a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off. So there is a steady progression from faith to fear to fighting to flight, and then from sitting with the enemy to denying Christ, not once, but three times.

And there is one more element to that progression that Luke doesn’t include but Matthew and Mark both do, and that is that Peter begins to swear and curse to emphasize his denials, to try to prove to them that there is no way he could be a disciple of Christ. You know the way you talk when you’re away from church reveals your heart. The kind of language you use reveals the nature of your heart. Matt. 15:18 says, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.”

So Luke says as Peter was still speaking, the cock crowed. Jesus had said in the upper room to Peter that before this night had ended and the cock crowed, Peter would deny Him three times. And as the cock crows, Peter looks up and sees the Lord looking at him. And it says he went out and wept bitterly.

How in the world could Peter ever sink to that depth? How could a Christian ever reach the point of denying Christ? I will tell you one thing, if Peter could deny Christ, we all are vulnerable as well. So let’s review the path he took to denying Christ as a lesson for us. First, over confidence based on his feelings. Peter felt he could handle temptation. He felt as if he could follow Christ anywhere. He was confident in his emotional attachment to Christ. He relied on his feelings. And secondly, he disregarded the Word of the Lord. He didn’t think the warning applied to him. He didn’t take the Word of God seriously. He rejected reproof. He ignored the voice of the Lord. We cannot ignore the Word of God and survive the onslaughts of Satan. And the third step was prayerlessness. He rested instead of praying. He slept instead of watching for temptation. Spiritual indifference leads to ruin, lack of prayer leads to disaster.

And then the next on his path to failure was independence. He acted on his own. He didn’t need to seek God’s will. He didn’t wait on the Lord, he acted independently in his own strength. That got him into a situation that was out of God’s will. And finally, the fifth step was compromise. He followed Jesus at a distance, he sits by the fire, he mingles with the crowd that was the enemy of Christ. He reminds me of Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful,” He walked in, he stood around and finally he sat down. And he sat among the scornful. He took a seat in a compromising place. And compromise led to defeat. Peter’s strength was no match for Satan’s schemes.

But thankfully Peter’s story does not end in his denial, but in his repentance. In Judas’s story we looked at last week ended with his remorse and then he went out and hanged himself. There was no real repentance. But Peter went out and wept bitterly and he repented and was restored. And that’s the difference between a Judas and a Peter. Both will sin, but one will be repentant and restored and the other will be damned.

There are three aspects presented here that make up Peter’s repentance. The first is the prayer of Christ. Remember Luke 22:32, Jesus said, “Peter, Satan desires to have you but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” You know why Peter’s faith didn’t totally fail? Because the Lord had prayed for him. Peter was kept by the power of God. Listen, the reason that we stay saved is not because of our strength to hold onto God but because the Lord holds onto us. He didn’t hold Judas because He never had Judas. But He held Peter. God remains faithful even when we are faithless, for He cannot deny Himself.

Secondly, the repentance of Peter was brought about through the look of Christ. What kind of look did Jesus give Peter? Was it a look of condemnation? Was it a look that said “you sorry traitor you!” Or was it a look that said “I told you so, I knew you couldn’t stand, I told you that you would fall.” No, I don’t think it was that kind of look. I think it was the look of love, a look of total compassion. A love that loved us even when we were yet sinners, a love that was willing to die in our place so that we might be saved. It was a look that pierced Peter’s heart and conscience. Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God leads us to repentance.

Thirdly, Peter’s repentance was brought about not only by the prayer of Christ, the look of Christ, but the word of the Lord. It says in vs. 61, “And Peter remembered the word of the Lord….” The word of the Lord convicts the heart of sin. Heb. 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Holy Spirit, working through the word of God, convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

Peter’s response to the word of God was repentance. And that repentance brought about restoration. God is always ready to restore the repentant heart. David says in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” See, God worked even in the denial of Peter for His good. Peter wept that night in brokenness before God. And a broken heart is the kind of heart that God delights in. Peter had thought his independence was his strength. But now he realizes that his independence had been his greatest weakness. God often has to break us of our independence in order to bring us to repentance so that we might be able to learn dependence upon the Lord. Then we might be able to say with Paul in 2Cor. 12:9-10, “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Our brokenness and dependence on Christ should cause us to keep our eyes on Him, trust totally in His promises and stand firmly on His word, not reacting according to fear or the flesh, but remembering that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will strengthen and keep us by His great power, no matter what may come our way as long as we lean upon Him. Let us pray.