How Not to be Defined by Your Mistakes. (Matthew 26:69-75)

According to Jesus Christ everyone drops the ball, so to speak at some point. With few exceptions everybody fails a test at some point. In universities and colleges some fail the whole course. We experience all kinds of failures, there’s financial failure job failure, even sadly for some marriage failure. But there is also spiritual failure. I wonder if you have ever felt you failed spiritually. When I grew up people used to talk about what they called a “besetting sin”, you don’t here that expression much now days, but I suspect we all have one. There’s one sin that just keeps rising up and tempting us, sometimes even defeating us, one that keeps coming back and plaguing us. Sometimes this can lead to serious spiritual failures and they consequences can affect us for the rest of your life. And when we fall in that way Satan loves to come and sit on your shoulder so to speak and whisper in your ear, now because you’ve done that, who are you to say anything spiritual, in fact you’re not even a Christian.

Sometimes people are so intimidated by their past failures in their lives that they don’t feel worthy enough to serve the Lord in an open active capacity. One of the classic failures in the Bible was in fact one of the highest profiles of his disciples, and that was Peter. We all know who Peter was, but Peter did not watch his step and consequently he tripped, and he fell. However, I think we can learn some real valuable lessons by looking at his fall, so I’d like to invite your attention to Peter’s fall and failure and see if we can learn anything from it. 

These events are found in the text covering Matthew chapter 26 covering verses 69-75. This message is on the surface rather straightforward and simple, it records the denial of Peter and there are three denials. What I would like for us to do is look at each one of these briefly and then I would like to sort of step back from the passage itself and look at it in its immediate context and then in the context of Peter’s life. There are some very valuable spiritual lessons here that we dare not miss so let’s begin with the text and see what it has to says.

69 Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.” 71 And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!” 73 And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” 74 Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So, he went out and wept bitterly.  (Matthew 26: 69-75)

Here are recorded for us the three denials of Peter, the first is in verse 69 when Peter sat outside the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying you were with Jesus of Galilee, weren’t you. We need to remember that earlier Jesus said all are going to stumble and fall, he predicted that this was going to happen to the apostles in general and Peter in particular. As a matter of fact, he not only said that all would stumble he said that all of the disciples would scatter and that Peter would deny him, so that is the backdrop to these verses. Peter has been told he’s going to deny the Lord and he’s going to do it that night, so in face of all of that goes to the courtyard of Caiaphas’s house where Jesus is being put on trial. Frankly, following Jesus after his arrest to Caiaphas’s courtyard was rather risky something like walking into the den of lions, so to speak.

This servant girl who came to him saying, weren’t you with Jesus, and by the way it’s not apparent from verse 69, but she didn’t whisper this in his ear she said this before a group of people watching. Immediately we see that Peter denied this before them all. Experts say the text implies she pointed him out said it for everybody in that part of the courtyard to hear and before them all she accuses him of being with Jesus. But then comes the denial, saying, “I do not know what you are saying not me I am not guilty”. Do you remember what Peter said when Jesus told him you’re going to deny me. He said maybe them, but not me. Remember that “I will rather go to prison tan deny you Lord”, he said. Would you say that Peter was determined not to deny the Lord. But determination is not the key to victory, I’m not saying you should be determined, I think you should, but I just want you to know that if you come at things thinking because you’re determined things are always going to work out you are likely to fall into the same trap Peter did. A trap in which he ended up denying the Lord. 

It's a truly a humbling experience to read back through the Old Testament and see how frail and imperfect all the quote “heroes of the faith” actually where. Abraham was a coward on more than one occasion. Jacob was a cheat who struggles with everybody, Joseph was an immature and arrogant teenager. Moses was hot headed who rash impulsiveness not only meant he often didn’t wait on the Lord but he, in fact, committed murder.  Gideon was a Bale worshipper, Samson a womanizing drunk. David a manipulative adulterer and  Solomon the wise man, on many occasions, was not so wise. On one level it never ceases to amaze me why God could not have chosen better people to do his work in the world, yet when I remember that if God could use them, then he can probably use, you and me. if God can use them and reveal himself through them then he might be able to use me inadequate unwise and too often lacking in faith personality to his purposes also. We can’t put limits on what God can do with the most unlikely people. If you look back to the Old Testament what you frequently see is folk failing and stumbling just like Peter does here.

Peter denies Jesus more than once, another girl saw him and said to him you are one of those guys who went around with Jesus of Nazareth, now we know from the other gospel accounts that happens about an hour after his first denial. It seems to me that given what Jesus told him and now he’s actually gone and done it you would wave wanted to flee and get out of there. I am always amazed at myself and the number of people that have confided in me that they do something stupid and then instead of learning they do something stupid again. Peter by staying could have got arrested,  I suspect that was love for the Lord that kept him there so I can just imagine the internal struggle that was going on in him. At any rate, again a second time Peter denies the Lord. It says in verse 72 he denies him again, this time  with an oath and said I do not know the man.

It’s getting worse, this time he takes an oath, the first time he says, “I don’t know what you’re saying”, this time he says, “I don’t know the man and swears to it”. This is clearly getting worse; this is clearly a denial of the Lord but he’s using an oath to try and bring authority to his denial. He is really revealing his true character here.

There’s a story about a young man that very much wanted to be able to talk to Socrates and he got his chance one day and they were actually walking together but once he got in the presence of Socrates he was so intimidated he didn’t say anything and they walked along for a while and Socrates finally turned to him and said, “Speak young man so I can see you”.

What comes out of our mouth reveals what’s going on in the heart and that is exactly what’s going on here. The doctors say they can learn a great deal about our physical by looking at your tongue, and this is even more true of our spiritual condition. The tongue betrays you in three ways, it tells the country from which we come, it reveals the education and refinement or lack of it we have. It betrays the real chief interests of our lives because you talk about the things you love the most. But our tongues, the words that come out of our mouths also reveals what our destination in live is. I you’re full of the Lord you will talk about the Lord,  you can tell an awful lot about people now sometimes they’re saying what you want to hear but if you just listen to people just listen, they tell you what’s on their mind what’s on their heart what they’re dwelling on. Peter denied the Lord with his words because they revealed the posture of his heart.

There’s a third temptation it picks up in when later some of the crowd say to him, surely you are one of them for your speech betrays you. (That’s what I was talking about a minute ago. And it tells us Peter began to curse and swear saying, I do not know this man and immediately the rooster crowed. By the way, notice the progression, first he just denied, then he denied with an oath, now he is swearing taking an oath again saying he not only is not one of his followers but that he has never even met him. What is interesting is this time it says your speech betrays you so they know from his accent he is a Galilean you are from Galilee you’re from Nazareth, and you’re with the man Jesus of Nazareth who we know was also from Galilee so every time you open your mouth, your accent betrays you. Historical records show that the Galilean accent was considered so heavy that some Galileans were not allowed to say the benediction in the synagogue. A bit like her in the UK prior to the late 1960’s no one with a Northern accent was ever allowed to be heard on the BBC.

By the way, I live in the UK, but I was born and raised in Northern Ireland and people often say to me you have a Northern Ireland accent. I say you think I have an accent you should listen to some of the people I know who come from Belfast, But if you say the same thing to the people of Belfast, they will say, well you should hear someone who comes from the small town of Ballymena, but I suspect of you spoke to someone form Ballymena you should listen to this other guy from the next village. 

What this verse tell us is that is his accent, his speech betrayed him he was from Galilee and they're accusing him of being from Galilee which means he’s came there with Jesus, and like I said this time he cursed and took an oath and said I do not even know this man. Do you remember earlier in Matthew when we looked at a passage where Jesus said, “If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father”, that was in Matthew chapter 10, well that’s what’s going on here. This is the illustration of denying the Lord before people, it’s simply saying I don’t know him, and I am not one of his followers.

You can do that without even speaking, you can do that by being quiet, or you can do that by actually saying, I don’t know him,  and the point of Matthew chapter 10 is not that you are going to lose your salvation when you deny the Lord you’re going to lose the blessing of being and living closely to him but you also going to forfeit regards in the life to come.

Three straightforward denials and the point of the message is to show us that just like the Lord predicted, Peter denied the Lord three times and the only thing you can add to that after he did that he went out and wept. When he realized what he had done he wept.

I think to really appreciate all there is learn here you need to see this in its wider larger context. For example, maybe we could ask what would make Peter of all people do this, are there any hints here as to how Peter got to the place where he would deny the Lord. Then maybe we could figure out how not to do it ourselves. That takes us back into the larger immediate context of this passage. If you read it in the light of what’s going on in this wider chapter I believe you will discover two things.

Firstly, I think led Peter to do this this was not just something that happened on the spur of the moment sometimes impulsive. Peter did that but in this case, there were things that led up to it like when Jesus said to him, you’re going to deny me he said, not me. He was overconfident that he would not deny the Lord. “Pride goeth before a fall” it says in Proverbs. Also in this chapter context is the fact that Jesus said,  very specifically, to watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. (Verse 41) and all Peter did was fall asleep. He should stay awake and prayed and remained vigilant and instead he went straight to sleep. The point is if you don’t pray, I would suggest that being overconfident and arrogant about your perceived lack of the need  of God.

No believer is immune to the possibility of denying the Lord. This passage is dealing with denying the Lord with what comes out of your mouth. I’ve spent my life studying the scripture and I would have to say from a biblical point of view that what the scripture is interested in as much as anything is the words that come out of your mouth. If we could control what came out of our mouths, then we can really develop spiritually. The Epistle of James says, that if you can control the tongue, you can control yourself, and that is the mark of spiritual maturity. I dare say that one of the great problems believers have in the church today in the UK is learning to control their tongues. If you get anything out of today’s message then pray this,  Lord give me the grace to control my tongue, let me use it to minister to people build them up and not tear them down.

We’ve looked at the passage we’ve looked at it in a little larger context but if you really want to understand what’s going on in this case you need to understand this in the context of Peter’s life. Peter was told by Jesus beforehand that he was going to fail, but he was also told beforehand that failure is not final. As a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter 26 he said all of you are going to fail me, all are going to stumble, and Peter is going to lead the list. Peter denied it he said, but Jesus said, yes you are, and you are in fact going to do it tonight. But then he said and after this is all over, you are going to follow me again. So, he tells them failure is not final, and if we were to take what happened after the resurrection we are told in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus had a private meeting with Peter and commissioned him to lead and feed his sheep. He told him Satan is going to lead you astray, but when you turn return to me I will forgive you and strengthen you and call you back into service. And he personally met him after the resurrection to draw him back to himself.

The classic account of this is seen in John chapter 21 where Jesus appears to Peter before the others and he said Peter, “Do you love me”, and if you’ve heard the passage explained you will know that in the Greek text are two different words for love and he says you love me agape love which is the highest form of love, and Peter I love you”, and that goes on three times and people have pointed out could that be for each of the three denials, and for each of the three times Jesus says feed my sheep, go guide the flock, and feed the lambs.

I doing that I believe Jesus is saying that failure is not final, that God will use you even after you have failed. If you don’t hear anything else today, hear that. I don’t care what you done, you can always come back to the Lord and God, and he can help you start again and he will use you again. Indeed the Lord used Peter again, he preached on the Pentecost and 3000 people git saved. It was Peter that God chose to use to preach the gospel for the first time to the gentiles and at the Jerusalem council it was Peter who led the charge to get the church to invite the gentiles to be saved without having to go through circumcision and keeping the Mosaic law, and on top of all of tha  tat the end of his lifePeter writes two books of the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit which we are still reading and referring to today.

I repeat, you are not defined by your failures; you past behaviour will never cancel the call of God on your life.  So, put behind you, those things that are behind you and look forward to the future,  deal with the sin by placing it at the foot of the cross and leave it there and go and serve the Lord into the future. What you now need to do is forget all that stuff and get a little excited about the fact that God can use you today and every day.