Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 5, 2025 | Picture Perfect - Peter

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January 5, 2025 | Picture Perfect - Peter · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, good morning again.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um we are wrapping up our series uh called Picture Perfect this morning.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have looked at the last couple weeks.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some people in the Bible that we know well, um, who have lived imperfect lives, to say the least, just like all of us.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And yet God has used them in amazing ways.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um He has incorporated all of these imperfect people into his perfect plan.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We, week one, we looked at David and his dramatic sin that tore apart his family, and yet he was a man after God's own heart, who the Lord raised up to be the greatest king that had ever existed in Israel's history and ever would exist until Jesus came along.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then we see Moses, Jason spoke about him last week, and a lot of self-doubt that he had through many different circumstances in his life, and yet he's the person who redeems Israel from the clutches of slavery, leads them through and into the promised land, or into the edge of the promised land.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this morning we're going to look at one final character.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to take a look at the Apostle Peter, right?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: One of the disciples, and a man who is known sort of in general terms for having an amazing, bold faith.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was often the guy that, you know, sort of spoke first, maybe without thinking always, but um he's somebody that throughout the stories of the Bible, and especially once Jesus has resurrected and ascends to heaven, and then we see the disciples sort of take over the ministry of Christianity, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Peter's just leading the charge.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's at the front lines, he's doing all of these different things, getting arrested for his faith.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he is arguing against the religious leaders, he's going and being a missionary, he's doing a lot of stuff.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we find out from church history that, or at least we think from church history, uh, that Peter was crucified for his faith.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: We know that he was killed for his faith in Rome, but that the story goes he uh asked to be crucified upside down because he was unworthy to receive the same death as his Savior.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: A man whose life was marked by tremendous faith and dedication to the Lord.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: But yet what we're going to see this morning through a couple different examples is that he also had a lot of fear.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: He was somebody who struggled mightily with the fear of social pressure.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: He feared failure, he feared uncertainty, he feared persecution, he wanted to be in control, and when those things didn't happen, he often retreated back and made terrible decisions.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see this morning as we close out this series is that God is once again in the business of redeeming people and bringing them back sort of from their lowest moments into his perfect plan.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is what we'll see with Peter, a guy whose real name is actually Simon, but Jesus gave him the nickname of the rock.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly if you grew up Catholic, you know Peter as the first Pope and sort of the rock of this faith.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's also the part that he is holding the kind of the gates to heaven, that he's the guy that introduces you.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much that's in the Bible, but nevertheless, he's got some important jobs.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the first things we're going to look at here is in Matthew 14.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh first example, where we'll see that Peter maybe was led by some fear early on.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 14, Jesus has been, or rather, Peter has been following Jesus as a disciple for like 12 to 18 months.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And though he's seen miracles, uh, he's heard teachings like the Sermon on the Mount, he's watched Jesus speak with religious leaders, with some with as someone who could only speak with the authority of God.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's seen all of these things, and yet he's not at the final place that we know that he gets to.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: He still has some uncertainty, but yet he is setting the example for the other disciples as being somebody who is willing to commit to Jesus, maybe before the rest of them are.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can see that in Matthew 14 here, it says, Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he dismissed the crowds.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're on the Sea of Galilee.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: After dismissing the crowds, he went on, uh went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well into the night, Jesus was there alone.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, and because the wind was against them.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came toward them, walking on the sea very early in the morning.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately Jesus spoke to them.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, have courage, it is I, don't be afraid.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's just be Jesus, walking on the water to come to you.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is so popular by this point in his ministry that crowds are just constantly following him.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is before he sends some of them away with even more radical teaching about the kingdom of God.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: But right now they just they love the idea that this guy's doing miracles.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're following him around.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so he sends the disciples out across the Sea of Galilee, and he says, I'm I'll meet up with you later.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: A storm kicks up, though, while they're doing this, and this wind and the waves comes along.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sea of Galilee is really big.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's multiple miles across.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like Lake Shawnee or something.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so the idea that there's, if you've ever lived up in the Great Lakes area, okay, think of the kind of storms that you can see over there as well, even though those are a bit bigger.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, the disciples are on this boat, and uh where you see that um it was very early in the morning, uh that's the third watch of the night.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's between 3 and 6 a.m., okay?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So between 3 a.m.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: and 6 a.m., it is pitch black, it's stormy, and Jesus is walking on them or walking towards them on the water.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say, understandably, the disciples are like, what is it, what is this?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they think it's a ghost, and immediately he's like, Jesus says, No, no, no, no, it's me, your teacher, Jesus.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I do want you to notice that word, though, because it will come up later, is immediately.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew their fear, and he responded to it immediately and reassured them.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but whereas at this point in the story, fear is mostly on like them thinking it's a ghost or something terrifying.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: What we'll see in the next section, though, is Peter is going to be fearful in a way that the others aren't.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is Jesus comes to the boat and he appears to be out in the water still when this next event takes place.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um, Peter is so bold, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he is so excited about seeing his teacher, his savior, walking towards them, doing obviously this miraculous thing, that he goes, Jesus, I'm going to come out into the water with you, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him, Command me to come to you on the water.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: You might imagine what's going through Jesus' head.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Come.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately, there's that word again, Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, You have little faith.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you doubt?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's um it's an amazing testament to Peter, even though we'll get to the second part here, but just that out of everybody on the boat, who at 4 a.m.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: in a storm is thinking, I need to get out on the water too?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I need to get out and go and be with Jesus.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is my opportunity to go.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And not so much that he could be, you know, praised or something like that, but just this amazing moment of wanting to be with his leader, his savior, his God.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is a great testament to so many of the qualities that we love about Peter.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, as he is the only one who steps out of the boat, he is inevitably taken by the wind and the waves and the storm that's happening.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's like to um walk out onto water that is just dancing with the waves and being tossed and turned by the wind.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter becomes fearful.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: He gets scared.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He sees these things happening.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: He is uh standing out on top of the water.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: We know that for a period of time Peter was walking on water as well, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But then eventually his fear overcomes his faith.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not so much that those two things are in conflict with each other, as much as it is that Peter just, his fear grows in a greater proportion.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: He is more fearful than he is afraid.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or excuse me, yeah, he is more fearful than he has the faith.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what is it faith in?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's faith that God is going to provide, protect.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's faith in what Jesus has called him to do.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus told him, come out onto the water.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: He has the power to do it, and yet Peter is sort of overcome by his circumstances, overcome by the wind and the waves and all these things that just take over his mind and remind him that what he is doing shouldn't be possible, and in fact, isn't possible without the miraculous work of God.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so he begins to sink.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Peter starts to fall.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately Jesus reaches out his hand, catches hold of him, and then says to him, You have little faith, why did you doubt?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch! Right?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: To the guy who's the rest of the disciples are just watching from the boat, you know.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Peter just walked out onto the water.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but then Jesus says, You of little faith.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard moment and a teachable moment for Peter.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are going to be many other moments in his life where he is going to need to step out onto the water, or in fact, where Jesus just tells him he needs to come out onto the water.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that question becomes, Peter, what are you going to do when the wind and the waves start to come against you?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want to push on here is the idea that hey, I think a lot of us have experienced fear before, and it's not always rational, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we might know that we are safe, or know that we have the skills to move forward, or know that we should be able to trust in what is going on, and yet fear can overtake us.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I went to a science museum with my parents, and they had one of these bikes.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: If I can kind of paint a picture for you, it was in a big atrium and sort of on a second story.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: There was this big metal wire or cable, really, that was stretched across two ends.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And on top of that cable was this bike.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this bike, I was watching people ride back and forth between these two things, and it seemed like people were had no problem being able to balance on this cable.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were, you know, sort of had a seatbelt on, but like, you know, there's people watching below, and what if they fall, and all of these things.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as a little kid, I wanted to go and try and ride that bicycle.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: It looked really easy.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: People uh were just going back and forth.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I get up there, and you know, I'm able to do it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: They strap me in and they say, Listen, here's the deal.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can see the photo here that I have, you'll notice that there's this little bar that kind of goes down below off the picture.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The guy says, Look, there's this counterweight at the bottom.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's hanging way off of this bicycle.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is so heavy, there is no way that as long as you hold on to the handlebars, you can tip this thing over.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can lean back and forth, you can rock it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you are not going to be able to get this bicycle off that cable.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, easy.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I got this thing.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know how to ride a bike, I'll pedal it forward.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I get on and I start pedaling, and I get just far enough out that I can no longer touch my feet to the platform.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on the cable, but I'm only like uh barely into above this net area.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately I start shaking.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I start wobbling just a little bit, and it doesn't feel like that counterweight is down there.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like something is there to save me.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so even though I had watched people do it, even though I had this guy behind me who's still going, like, pedal, go, you can, you're fine.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: No worries, you're strapped in, you're safe, we've got you, you can't fall off.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I became so scared.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you could pedal backwards on this thing, and I just went back to the platform.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I failed.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't keep going.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'd watched people do it, said it was easy, and I didn't.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it just drives home this point that we can have all of these things going for us.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: We can say, man, I trust God.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know that he's got me.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know that he is not going to leave me or forsake me.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know he has power to do these things.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yet fear can still come up.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: It can still be something that overtakes us and in fact lead to consequences at times.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: We can sink down into the waves, but it is a good reminder in this story what was God's response?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: He could have let Peter swim for a bit, right?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Swim back to the boat, Peter, right?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you let getting wet be your lesson here and go and crawl back over the sides?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he reaches out his hand, grabs him, and lifts him back up.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't know what the rest of the story is there.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I presume that Peter walks on water with Jesus back as they get back onto the boat.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a lesson that you can be sure that Peter never ever forgot.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like to be told, ye of little faith, why did you doubt?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Even as Jesus was holding him tight.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter would surely never fail again, right?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: That would be our hope.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Peter would learn his lesson, would never doubt again, would never have fear, even when he could have faith that God was going to take care of him.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was never going to allow, you know, the circumstances, the wind and the waves, to take him.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not done with the sermon yet.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we have one more example to look at.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: See, about two years later, roughly, to that moment crossing the Sea of Galilee, it was the Last Supper.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was in Jerusalem with the disciples, and later that night he would be arrested, and then the next day he would be crucified.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is sharing this last meal with his disciples, with his followers, who still don't really understand what it is that he's about to do and go through and all those things.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And at this meal, there's a lot that happens.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that takes place is Jesus just tells Judas that he knows that he's going to be the one to betray him.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And understandably, Judas hustles out of the room.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: But in response to that, Peter stands up and says, Lord, even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Truly I tell you, Jesus said to him, tonight before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch again, right?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, stepping out in faith, like nobody else just yet is saying these kinds of things, and he's like, Not me.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: All of these other guys, maybe them, not me, right?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I won't deny you, Lord.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus, such a humbling statement.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, before the night ends, Peter, you're going to have done it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not once, not twice, but three times.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then Peter responds, he says, Even if I have to die with you, Peter told him, I will never deny you.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And all the disciples said the same thing.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I do imagine all the disciples saying the same thing.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Well, we can't not say that now.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like Peter just went out and said all of this.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter doesn't back down, he doubles down.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I will go to the grave with you, Lord.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: We love his boldness.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: In moments where it maybe doesn't cost him anything, Peter is uh has no fear at all, has no problem saying these kinds of things.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: But the night wasn't over.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so after the meal, uh Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane with the disciples, and um he asks them to pray and continues to find them falling asleep.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um then Judas returns with the authorities.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus is betrayed, he is taken into custody, and then he is led to the high priest's house, whose name is Caiaphas.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um the high priest this is a really rough analogy, but Caiaphas is like the Jewish Pope.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: He is basically the figurehead, the religious leader of the entire faith of the Jewish faith.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so Caiaphas is the one who, before we get to Pontius Pilate, before we get to some of the other trials, Jesus is taken to his house and he's given a sham trial.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they need to, uh, in order to kill him, in order to put him to death, they need to sort of charge him with certain crimes.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, the ones that they feel stick onto Jesus is that when he said that he was God, he was committing blasphemy, which is a crime punishable by death under their law.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so ultimately, this is what they run with.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we also find out in the text that it says, as Jesus was being led away, Peter followed at a distance.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's following him, but he follows at a safe distance.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus goes into the house of Caiaphas, which is a gigantic home, there's a courtyard.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what we can understand is that from this courtyard, they would have been able, whomever was there, would be able to see the proceedings of what was happening.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in the courtyard, you could watch them interrogating Jesus, spitting on Jesus, hitting Jesus, and ultimately yelling at him, screaming, and condemning him to death.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter is in that courtyard.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: While Peter is in that courtyard watching Jesus, a servant girl, or he's just right outside the courtyard, so he's not in the most inner section, but a servant girl approaches him and says, Hey, you were with Jesus the Galilean, too.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: But he denied it in front of everyone.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're talking about.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, Peter.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Strike one.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Strike one, Peter.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: The question is sort of vague, and so is his answer, but he just says, I don't know what you're talking about.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, he retreats further outside the courtyard, sort of over by the gates, hoping that nobody would ask him again.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: But another woman saw him and told those who were there, Hey, this man was with Jesus the Nazarene.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind the man who's being interrogated just a few steps away.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, he denied it now with an oath.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the man.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even more strong.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Gospel of Luke, his strong answer was convincing enough to put them off the scent for about an hour.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people mingling, a lot of suspicions, but Peter is so forceful in his reply here that it's an hour later that one final person comes to him.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: They said, You really are one of them.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your accent gives you away.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You thought you could lie, but really we can tell who you are.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then he started to curse and to swear with an oath.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the man.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he went outside and wept bitterly.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Luke gives one final brutal detail, which is that in this courtyard area where Peter was at, where he could see Jesus, the moment that he denied him the third time, Jesus turned and made eye contact with Peter.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the rooster crows and he weeps bitterly.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would too.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: When it does say, just to be clear, when he started to curse, that's not really like how you and I think of cursing.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: That curse and swearing is, if you think Old Testament language about blessings and curses, cursing is when you would wish evil upon somebody.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hope for bad things to happen.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Judgment would befall them.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is almost even worse than just saying a bad word, that Peter is not just saying, you know, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know the man, but he is saying negative things about Jesus.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's basically playing into the crowd who is presumably excited many of them to see him uh go to Caiaphas's house, and Peter is aligning with them.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: The story's hard to hear, but what's striking about it is that Peter's fear does.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean that he lacked any sort of love for Jesus.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it can be easy to look at this and be so critical about Peter, right?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And say, oh man, Peter, like if you had just been stronger, if you, well, if you really love Jesus, well, if you had, you know, just had the courage to do something.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then this is so many times we read ourselves into these stories and think that we would do something completely different.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, maybe you would, but I think for a lot of us, we've been in circumstances where it wasn't a lack of skill, it wasn't a lack of faith, it wasn't a lack of love, but yet fear just overwhelmed us.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it was that we were scared of what others would do, what they would say, maybe that we would be hurt, but mostly their opinions or their thoughts about us, that we might be rejected or not invited into something.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: We find out later on in some stories about Peter that he seems to bend a bit more to social pressure.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that in this circumstance, after the rooster crows, Peter goes away.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's failed.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He had stood up so boldly beforehand and said, I'd never deny you.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then just later that night he did it three times in front of everybody else.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even though Peter was present, um, and we read about him during the resurrection accounts, it seems to be that uh Peter's life for the moment after this, uh he saw himself not just as a complete failure, but as stepping away from ministry.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna kind of skip ahead just a little bit here because there is one moment that addresses this uh triple failure, really, of Peter's, which is a triple restoration of his by Jesus.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So in uh John 21, um Jesus has died, he is resurrected, and he appeared for the next 40 days to a number of groups of people.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: One of them, one of those groups were was clearly the disciples.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he he saw them a number of times.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the disciples were sort of doing their own thing.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're not yet at the point in the Bible where the disciples were this like, you know, leading, courageous group of people who were sharing the gospel no matter the cost.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus finds them in John 21, they've gone fishing.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh going back to what they knew best, right?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: They'd failed, their master had died, he's back, we don't know what our job is.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, if we're putting on our psychology hat, we might say, was not feeling up to the task.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I have taken myself out of the game.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: God is going to bench me.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: That rooster crowed after I denied him.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus calls them back to the shore, and though multiple disciples are there, he takes Peter aside and he asks Peter a really critical question.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey Peter, man, do you love me?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Yes, Lord, I love you.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus asks that same question two more times.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, do you love me?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know I do.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, do you love me?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we find out that understandably, after that third ask, Peter gets what Jesus was doing.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And though it pains Peter to hear it, this gentle confrontation, it is not harsh.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of other ways Jesus could have addressed somebody denying him in front of others.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this gentle confrontation restores Peter's soul.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because what it then leads into is Jesus telling Peter that he has great plans for him, that Peter is going to go and do amazing things for the kingdom of God.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That in fact Peter learns even in this moment that he might even die for his faith.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that Peter is going to be somebody that the world will eventually know, who has lived up to his name as the rock, as a bold proclaimer of his faith in Jesus Christ, no matter the cost.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so somebody who was in many ways marked by fear when it mattered very soon becomes somebody who is preaching to thousands of people, right?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who is leading the disciples in Jerusalem where there's so much hostility, the same city where Jesus was crucified.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's put in prison for his beliefs.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on to be a missionary and do all of these amazing things, and like we already said later on, is eventually killed because of his faith.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not the identities or activities of somebody who lives in fear or allows fear to overcome their faith so often.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, even still, we know that he struggled with fear.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just because he goes on and does all of these bold and courageous things doesn't mean fear never crept its way in.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if you were with us this past fall as we went through Galatians, you know, in Galatians 2, there was a little story that we talked about there where Peter kind of let fear take over again and the opinions of other people, and Paul had to correct him.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: But by and large, not only does this gentle correction by Jesus on the beachfront restore Peter, but it creates within him this new identity.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Peter becomes somebody who leads with courage and bravery.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 41, 10 says this.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the lesson here is not that we would ever get rid of fear entirely.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there are some.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: But even those who don't fear the things that we normally do usually fear something at least.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And fear can sometimes creep its way in when we don't think it will be there.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: It can come in a lot of different ways.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's a question: is how do we conquer that fear, right?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Nelson Mandela said that it's about the triumph of fear.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Twain said it's about the mastery of fear.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: General Patton said it's fear is holding on a minute longer.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what courage looks like.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: While all of those are well and good, it positions fear as something that is sort of this internal battle that just needs to be shoved down, and through like steely determination we can move past fear, right?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you can master fear, then it won't affect you any longer.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, what I think the Bible seems to describe is that fear is a natural part of our human condition.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that oftentimes what it takes is an understanding of a God who is greater and can conquer our fear rather than relying on our own strength to do it.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah says.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do not fear, and then notice all of the reasons he gives.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: God says, He is with you, he is your God, which is such a powerful statement about his commitment.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: God will strengthen you, he will help you in those moments of fear, and he will hold on to you with his righteous hand.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can even imagine sort of a picture of Jesus grabbing Peter out of the water with his hand.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is the image of what it looks like to struggle with fear and yet know that it is God's power which can banish it from our minds and our hearts.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of fear being mastered, it is removed in the light of our Lord's presence.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least, even if it still remains at times, right, as kind of that seed in the back of our mind, we know that it is a shadow that cannot compete with the glory of God.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so even though there are still going to be moments of fear, of the future, failure, losing control, social pressure, persecution, letting others down, I want you to picture God, I want you to picture God coming alongside you and lifting you up.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to picture fear as a sort of mono-imano battle of you against this thing that's trying to take over, but rather to give those things to God.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know that that is the answer, just like Peter knew that he could have the ability to walk out onto the water because of Jesus, but yet sometimes we need to allow him to do all of the work instead of thinking that it is based upon our own efforts or skill.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: When we think about Peter, one final word on him before we close.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear what he says later in life.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: One passage from, we have two letters from him, first and second Peter in the Bible.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to hear this man who has had fear be sort of the dog trailing him for a part of, certainly a part of his ministry, how he grew, and later on in life, when he was closer to death, what he had to say about facing fear.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not that slide, this one.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know why I love this passage?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is because it comments on the thing that I think most of us are fearful of, which is sharing our faith, right?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Peter says, look, certainly in his context, he's like, there are people who want to kill you, there are people who don't want to be friends with you, there are people who are going to run you out of town because of your faith.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: But his application point is he says, yeah, but when somebody asks you about the hope that you have in Christ, right, are you going to be ready at any time to give a defense for that hope?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody asks you, why is it that you think this way?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you go to church on Sunday when it's not, you know, freezing cold and terrible conditions outside?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, why don't you go out and do all of the other things that we do on Friday nights?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh why don't you join in with us when we're talking about this person that we work with?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, or maybe it's not even phrased that comfortably.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, why are you so stuck up?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you such a prude to somebody who doesn't understand that maybe you have a different morality?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a different set of priorities.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have something else that you're working towards than they do.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody says, I don't understand what all this business about Jesus is.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get why somebody says that we need to believe in him.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like that he says that we're sinners.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like that he's God gets to say what we get to do.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it comes with hostility.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: In whatever circumstance it is, where there's an opportunity for you to share your faith, where somebody comes alongside and maybe does not know God the way that you do, are you going to be ready in that moment?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many places where fear can creep in here, right?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are we fearful?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't I don't know what to say.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Man, what what if I say the wrong thing?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: What if I'm not the best example of what a Christian should be?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe I shouldn't say anything at all.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: What if they don't ask me any more questions after I respond to them?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: What if it puts me in my job or my friendships in danger?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of answers here.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of questions, rather.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see is that fear is ultimately something that can be overcome because you have God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you are stronger than your fear, not because you have some steely determination, not because you don't act like you're afraid, but because God is with you, he is your God, he is giving you his righteous right hand, he is holding you up and strengthening you in the moment of doubt and fear.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is why you can overcome it.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, this is what the other slide had said.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: When we focus on our fears instead of Jesus, it is easy to stumble.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: But God is always there to lift us up again.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like the first story we looked at.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: God is there.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't going to let Peter drown.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: God is not going to let you drown either.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he was there immediately to pick him up.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to ask that little question that Jesus asked.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Ha, Peter, why did you doubt?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you think that I was going to be here with you the whole time?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good reminder that Peter, somebody who becomes a lion of the faith, right?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Peter, bold, the rock, this guy who set so many examples for us and what it means to lead courageously, often had a big problem with fear.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we wrap up this series, I want to give this to you.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whether because of sin, that was David, self-doubt, that was Moses, fear, Peter, or fill in the blank.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can feel like damaged goods.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: We can feel like God has maybe taken us out, he's benched us, we're not worthy to be a part of his kingdom, to do the things that he has called us to do, that we are not fit for service.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter your background or struggles, God wants you to be a part of his perfect plan.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: All of us have fallen short of the glory of God.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 3.23 says that.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what Peter didn't understand when he was in the courtyard of Caiaphas's house is that his Savior was about to do something that would redeem the entire world from their sins and their depravity.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that because of the sovereignty of God, in the glory of God, and the mercy and grace of God, that anybody who trusts in Jesus, that he died and resurrected, would be able to overcome their sins, that they would no longer be counted against them.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And to each one of those people who is nevertheless imperfect, I am, you are.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: God still wants us to be a part of his perfect plan.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: He has not benched you, he hasn't taken you out of the equation.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are sometimes consequences, right, for the things that we do in this world.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've looked at that in each one of these stories of David and Moses and Peter.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: There are still some times where God says, You need to take a beat, right?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: You need to learn something from this.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: I need to ask you a hard question.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: But God is always there to restore us, to bring us back into the fold.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I want you to be a part of my perfect plan.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: As imperfect as you are, you have a perfect Savior who has redeemed you and turned your weakness into a strength so that you can help others who struggle with the same kind of things.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: As we move on next week into a new series, um, I don't want us to forget this.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to come up over and over in our stories.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: One very quick example as we're going to look at the book of Joshua this spring is that one of the keys, the linchpins for Israel going into the promised land rests upon a woman named Rahab, who is a prostitute.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And later on, we find out in the Gospels that she is an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: God uses imperfect people for his perfect plans, often in ways that we don't understand in the moment.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this is true for you.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd love for us to go ahead and bow our heads and pray as we think on this.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come before you and we do.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, that you don't bench us when we mess up.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, you don't take us out of your plan because we have rebelled against it.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, you redeem us, you restore us, you draw us back over and over and over again, because of the grace of Jesus Christ, God, you are always in the business of bringing people back, no matter how far they have fallen.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, there is not a sin too dark for you to overcome by the power of your blood that was shed on the cross.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I pray that for anybody who is feeling burdened by the weight of sin or doubt or fear or whatever it is, God, feeling imperfect, feeling like damaged goods, that you would remind them that you are there for them immediately.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: You are there right now, walking with them, helping them, restoring them into your perfect plan.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us by the power of your spirit to walk in that plan.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like Peter, it still required great faith to carry out that plan to the best of our abilities.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we know that by your power we can do it.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I hope you stay safe in this winter weather.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great Sunday, and hopefully see you next week.