Peter's Denial -> Restoration

In this Palm Sunday message, Pastor Aaron shares about Peter being warned by Jesus about denying him.  We see Peter's emotions of betraying Jesus and how Jesus chooses to restore him after the resurrection. 

Transcript

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You ever read some of the things that Peter got to experience? And you're like, man, I wish, I wish I could have the opportunity to step out of that boat and step into that water and seen what it was like to be seeing Jesus and walking on water. Well, we know that didn't last long because he doubted his experience. But I'm curious because here Peter, he has all these amazing experiences. He's seen Jesus in all his glory, as we read about last week in the Transfiguration. And yet we still are going to read stories such as today, where we find ourselves there. We experience the glory of God, and then yet we find ourselves walking in disobedience. Some that find themselves ashamed of Jesus after he's fully revealed himself, and there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm on the winning side. And so today we're going to be reading from Luke chapter 22. So I encourage you to turn there as I'm going to share a quick story with you. I'm just curious, did any of you grow up in a home where your parents issued you lots of warnings about right and wrongs? Lots of warnings. The warning signs, it was it was abundantly clear. And it was like I your parents were saying, I can predict your behavior before you do it. So I'm going to issue these warnings because I am trying to save you from yourself. And I remember all those times growing up where mom would see me with a sharp object, and she's like, Aaron, don't cut yourself. And I said, Stop it. I know what I'm doing. And you know, like those thoughts pop in our head, right? Like, like, mom, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm safe. A couple of years ago, I'm in my garage. I'm dealing with something that has it's been adhered together. And in my brilliant mind, as I'm trying to peel back this adhesive with pliers, I thought, you know what? If I just wedge a knife blade in between them, then then this is going to work out just fine. Like I'm going to be able to get this separated. And so I walk, I was too lazy to walk inside to grab what was an appropriate knife. Instead, I saw this pocket knife sitting in my toolbox. And this this pocket knife, it has seen some work. You know what I'm saying? It's seen some work. And I open it up and I stick it in there. And I it it only the blade only goes in about this far, Steve. And I'm like, I got about that much blade to peel, like to work with here. And so I'm just shoving it in. And when I shoved it, I hadn't locked the blade. And boom, I closed it on my fingers. I can handle other people's blood. I cannot handle my own. And I am running in the house, about ready to pass out, because I am bleeding profusely. And I wrap up my hand real quick, and I am sitting there, I'm like, that blade was disgusting. I'm like, I gotta open it up and clean it out. And so I'm like, I gotta find a cleaning agent. And I go to the closet, and all I see is this bottle of hydrogen peroxide. And so I put the hydrogen peroxide in a bowl. And I open up the wound on my finger and I stick it in. Do you know what happens to blood when it hits hydrogen peroxide? I had a bowl full of bubbles that was crimson red. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh no, I'm going down. I'm going down. And so I run over, I get into my recliner, and I am sweating profusely, but I am cold to the touch. And I'm like, I'm coaching myself up. You gotta, you gotta regain composure. Mom's voice in my head, shut up right now. Now's not the time for this. And and I'm going through all these thoughts. Finally, finally, temperature comes back to normal, sweats. It's it's like it's the remnants are in the shirt, but no longer on my forehead, praise God. And I'm and then this voice comes in my head. Well, you still gotta clean that wound. I go, clean it out under the sink, blood is everywhere again, all over again, and I start going down again. And I go into the bedroom, and I think Wendy was working in the bedroom at the time for her job, and I'm laying on the couch or on the bed, and she's like, What's wrong? And I'm like, I don't want to talk about it right now. I don't want to talk about it right now. And I, you know, pride tells me, don't even tell that story. Pride says, Don't tell mom I was wrong. Today I want to look at Peter finding himself caught up in a place he never thought he'd be. He'd been warned. He never thought he'd be there. So the warning we find in Luke chapter 22, it's just it's 31 through 34. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with you and even to die with you. But Jesus said, Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you ever know me. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. And God, I I see myself and Peter so often in Scripture. And God, I I just pray for each and every person here that Lord, we see our position in you, and we can just kind of accept all the parts of us that are imperfect, they're not like you in God, where we need to heed your voice. I thank you and I praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus isn't just making a prediction, he's issuing Peter a warning. He's not saying, hey, this will happen. He's he's giving him a warning, and it's it's not a warning to make Peter look like a fool, but it's it's he's offering this because he loves him. And so often when when people do that in our life, we don't see it as love, we see it as people kind of trying to bring us down, trying to condemn us. And Peter's a prideful guy, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and you saw that in his response. He says, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with you and even die with you. And I think when Peter said that, he believes it. But Jesus knew Peter's words don't align with his behaviors, they do not align with his behaviors, and and we do that, don't we? We say things, we talk a big game. We make it seem like you know what, I've got this handled, I have figured it out. But what happens when the trial comes and the fire comes and you actually have to walk through it? How will you react? You can try and prepare yourself all you want, but until the moment gets here, you don't know how you're gonna respond. Now, Peter, when he looks in the mirror, you know what, you want to know what he sees? He sees, I'm Jesus' ride or die. Like we're in this together. And nothing is gonna shake that. But Jesus sees his fickle behavior, and Jesus has concerns. And so what he does is in the in the most loving way possible, he says to Peter, check this out. I love this verse. Peter, I have pleaded for you in prayer so that your faith doesn't fail. I've prayed for you. And Jesus, he's he's so tender in his delivery, and he doesn't want Peter to feel rejection, but he wants, he's like, I want to prepare you for some things here. And church, you need to embrace this. Walking with Christ doesn't make you immune to sin. You might feel on the mountaintop right now, and we could become so arrogant and believe we have arrived, or believe that we're I'm above everybody else. You know, you might not you might not agree to that right now, where you're like, yeah, I I think that. But how many times do you walk into a room and sometimes our pride says, I'm the smartest person in this room?

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We can become arrogant.

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We can believe we've arrived. We can think, man, nothing's gonna shake this. The moment we believe that we are above sin, that the enemy can't affect us, is when you're usually at your weakest. It's usually when you're at your weakest. Listen to Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 10 12. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. And it becomes more important that the further you walk with Christ, the more humble you become. It's not the more prideful you become, the more arrogant you become, the more you just you're just like, God, no, no, nothing can shake me. We need Jesus interceding for us as he did Peter. And and and because only Jesus can overcome temptation. We've proved ourselves flawed time and time again. Listen to Romans 8.34. Romans 8.34 says, Who then will condemn us? No one, for Christ died for us and was raised to life for us. And he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us. Hebrews 7.25. Listen to this. Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. God is interceding on your behalf. He's pleading for you in prayer. I think what needs to happen then in our lives, we need to guard our overconfidence. We really do. Have you ever brushed off a warning, as I illustrated? Someone gave you a clear warning, and it could be from your parents, it could be from scripture, a sermon, a friend, and we hear warnings like, watch your temper, guard your eyes. Don't let this bitterness take root in you. And it can be so easy when we're when someone is speaking to us in wisdom, where we roll our eyes and we see it as being judgmental, or we see it as being condemning rather than loving. And you hear Peter's overconfidence. Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with you. I'm ready to even die with you. What do you mean I'm gonna deny you? And Jesus' warning, it's love, it's not condemnation. So don't confuse the two because fellow believers offer warnings to each other all the time, and it is we see it as a sentencing that waits to say, I told you so. But you know what? If the fellow believer is doing that in love, they're not doing it to say, I told you so. They're doing it so you don't fall away. So you got to embrace that because Jesus, what he does is he reaches out to us and he does this because he knows we're weak. And so there is not a single one of us that is above this weakness. We're not. And now we turn to our next section of scripture in Luke 22. I ask you to go back to it. If you don't have a Bible here, it's in the seats in front of you. But Luke 22, we're gonna be reading 54 through 65, and we're gonna see Peter's weakness. It says, So they arrested him and led him to the high priest's home, and Peter followed at a distance. Everyone in here say, followed at a distance. The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. He joined the guards at the fire. Peter was cold. A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally, she said, This man was one of Jesus' followers. But Peter denied it. Woman, he said, I don't even know him. After a while, someone else looked at him and said, You must be one of them. No, man, I'm not, Peter retorted. But an hour later, someone else insisted, This must be one of them because he is a Galilean, too. But Peter said, Man, I don't know what you are talking about. And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. At that moment, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times that you even know me. And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly. The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and said, Prophesy to us who hit you that time. And they hurled all sorts of terrible insults at him.

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Peter caved to the pressure.

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Peter followed them. He he after the guards took Jesus out of the garden, he followed them. But notice it says he followed them at a distance. Kind of kind of trying to conceal himself a little bit. Like Peter thought I'm in incognito mode. I'm here, I'm even, I'm I'm so not one of them. I'm gonna sit by the guards at the fire. I'm gonna just blend in. Everywhere Peter went, there were armed guards, accusations, fear, exhaustion, and the horror of them taking them aside. Those things are real. And so Peter, instead of living by the Spirit, his fleshly survival instincts kicked in rather than seeing the situation with spiritual eyes. And the most tragic part of this, as with all sin that's not dealt with right away, the emotion doesn't just go away. It doesn't fade. The burden of sin still remains after. And so what we find, and this is terrible to me, after Peter does this, he abandons the mission, he completely aborts mission. Think about all the times that Jesus warned him, all the times that Jesus spoke into their life about how they were supposed to go out and do the work. He sent them out two by two. When he chose to follow Jesus, he walked away from vocation, he walked away from family, everything. He did all of it to follow Jesus, only to find himself returning to those things. Not because Jesus did exactly what he said he was going to do, but because he let the burden linger. Peter felt like a failure. He felt like an absolute failure. In fact, between Peter's denial and when scripture mentions he returns to fishing, he is only mentioned once. At Jesus' empty tomb, listen to what the angel tells the woman who's at the tomb. Mark 16, 7. Now go and tell his disciples, check this out, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there just as he told you before he died. At that moment, God knew exactly where Peter's heart was and was beginning to reach out, offering hope and restoration even then. Go tell the disciples, go even tell Peter. Even the guy that was so ashamed, he denied him three times. Tell that guy too. And church, unhealed failure will cause us to abandon the mission Jesus called us to. And that's the world that Peter was living in. And so he returns to his old life as if the past three years never happened. He wasn't returning to fish just to fish. It was a clear sign. I'm going back. Now we don't know exactly how many days this was between Peter's denial and him going fishing, but it was somewhere between between 10 to 20 days. Because this was after Jesus' resurrection that Jesus finds him fishing. But what I can relate to with Peter doing this is sin's burden. The weight was so great. In his moment of failure, the previous three years had no effect. You see that? Have you felt that? Have you felt that when you've fallen short? I know I have... boats.

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Our old ways. But check this out, even in our weakness, God's eyes are still on you. Go tell them. And Peter. Tell him to.

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Galatians 6:1. It says, Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. The true essence, church, of being a follower of Jesus are those who are in Christ recognizing where someone is at and restoring them gently in love. Do you hear me? Restoring them gently in love because we all face the same battle. There have been so many times I have been following Jesus at a distance. And we carry those burdens of fear, failure, or fatigue. And we might we might not be denying Jesus audibly, but our actions display a denial in small ways. And so maybe you are being silent when you should speak out. Or maybe you compromise where you should stand. We might find ourselves often like Peter going back to these old boats, whether it's bad habits, a relationship, an old coping mechanism that feels safer than just trusting Jesus in our trial. And I want you to embrace this truth you are not alone. So many people feel alone. You are not alone. If you ever want to know where Peter is at emotionally in this moment, don't look any further. The scripture describes his bitter tears.

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His bitter tears prove the burden of sin. But check this out.

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You know what else those bitter tears prove? His heart still belonged to Jesus. His heart still belonged to Jesus. And so, church, I'm telling you, I know the burden of sin. I know what it's like to make mistakes, and I know what it's like to walk in that unrepentant nature of just of just being so ashamed of what you've done that you can't possibly reveal it. You can't talk about it. And so we just carry it with us. And I want to encourage you, don't carry that burden anymore. Don't carry it anymore. It's not worth it. Jesus is reaching out to you, and he will use dramatic means to catch your attention. Peter in going fishing, he got a lot more than he bargained for. He got a lot more. Because what's about to happen is the resurrected Jesus shows up, and without Peter realizing who it is, he asks him, How's the fishing going? First off, have you guys ever been fishing? You ever been out there for a long time and caught nothing? How do you feel when someone asks, How's the fishing going? You feel like you've been wasting your time. You've been wasting your time the whole time. Scripture describes them as being in the boat all night trying to catch fish. All night. And what we see in Scripture is an unexpected welcome. Jesus warned Peter, the weakness has been exposed, it's been there, and yet we see that Jesus is willing to welcome Peter back. And I'm so thankful that I serve a God who is willing to restore even after all my failures and mistakes. Can I get amen, please? And I'm sure Peter's annoyed with any suggestion for fishing after fishing all night and catching nothing, because that's exactly what Jesus does. Imagine being in your boat and Jesus saying, I got a brilliant idea. Take that net out of the left side of the boat, and here's what you can do: you can drop it in on the right side. And when they follow Jesus' instruction, they catch 153 large fish in their nets in this small boat. So much so that it's overwhelming the boat as they're pulling it in. And I want to read immediately what happened in this moment. John realized who it was. John 21, 7. Let's read this. Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic, red stripped it for work. He jumped into the water and headed to shore. For the second time in Peter's life. He abandoned nets for Jesus. And what I love about this story, the reason I get emotional is because Jesus invites him. He invites him right back in. He invites him to eat breakfast. It's like, I know what you've done. I warned you were gonna do it. You did it. I'm not here to tell you I told you so, but I'm trying to restore you. I'm trying to repair everything that it is that we have lost.

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And Jesus wants to drive home something so critically important.

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And this is the most frustrating part of all of it. Listen to John 21:4. It says, this was the third time Jesus has appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead. Jesus appeared to him two other times. And he's still living in this. But Jesus isn't about to let Peter remain in his sin. He wants him free. So listen to what listen to what transpires here in John 21, 15 through 19. Says after breakfast. Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord Peter replied, You know I love you. Then feed my lambs, Jesus told him. Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord Peter said, You know I love you. Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. A third time he asked him. I can only imagine Peter's anger and frustration at this moment. Simon, the son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt that Jesus asked him that question a third time. He said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. I tell you the truth. When you were young, you were able to do as you liked. You dressed yourself, you went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go. Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, Follow me. Follow me. Three denials. Three questions. Jesus isn't rubbing it in. He's healing the wounds of sin. He's healing the wounds of sin. And so all of a sudden, Peter, in this moment, as painful as it is, because guys, here's what happens. Here's what happens is we tend to we tend to sin, and then we're like, okay, let's pretend that didn't happen. Let's keep going around in this life like that doesn't exist. And now I'm in his presence. And Lord, we dare not talk about that thing. You know that thing. I don't want to talk about that thing. So we're gonna pretend like it doesn't exist. So when Jesus says, Peter, do you love me? Peter doesn't go to the shame and the sin and all that because he's thinking, you know what? We're not talking about it. So I'm just moving forward in this thing. And so Peter, of course, yes, Lord, of course, you know that I love you. And then Jesus asks a second time, Jesus, what are you doing to me? What are you doing? Jesus asks a third time, don't go there. Please don't go there. But Jesus is unearthing the sin. He's sifting out everything. Peter's covered up over it. And he's like, no, no, no. We have to expose it. We have to deal with this thing. If we want to get to where I know you need to go, we have to get past this. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna restore you in the most appropriate way possible. We're gonna sift out all this earth. We're gonna reveal the sin for what it is because I want to restore you to wholeness. I don't want you to just walk in sin anymore. I want you to be holy as I am holy. I want you to be righteous as I am righteous. Church as hard as we might try, restoration is not earned, it's received. And so Jesus, what he does is he meets us in our failure and he doesn't want you to linger anymore. He wants to call you forward. And in order to get you forward, there are times where Jesus says, now we have things we have to deal with. We can't move on past this because I can't, I can't move you to healing with old wounds. 1 Peter 5:10. The words of Peter in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, in light of the ascension, in light of Pentecost, in light of Peter seeing Jesus miraculously uh go into heaven and then also in his spirit miraculously outpouring upon everyone, miraculously filling him and using him to lead thousands upon thousands to Christ. He says in 1 Peter 5 10, in his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. Foundational scripture should be in your life, 1 John 1 9. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness, all of it, all of it, but we got we gotta be willing to let him unearth things that we don't want unearthed. And check this out this is not a position open for you to earn. There's nothing you can do in and of yourself but embrace him and his finished work on the cross. Church, grace doesn't pardon us, it restores purpose to God's intent. That's how he wanted us to walk. So here's the thing: if you found yourself denying Jesus, embrace that Jesus standing on the shores of your life right now. And he sees the tears, he knows you haven't been perfect, but he is calling out to you. Do you love me? And as you respond, his response might be like, really? Because we've got some problems. Do you love me? Because if I if you're gonna abandon your nuts today, I need you, I need you committed to this, I need you committed permanently, not just temporarily, not just when things are good or not just when things are bad. I need you with me by by my side and trust and know that I have a plan for your life. You can't get sidetracked, and so many we have disqualified ourselves because of what we've done. And I'm gonna speak directly to you. He has seen your tears, he knows you haven't been perfect, and maybe you are carrying the weight of all these past failures. And I'm encouraging you. All you gotta do is one simple step. No more. Abandon the boat, abandon the boat, swim to Jesus. Just say, you know what? I don't care how indignified this is, I don't care that I've been fishing all night, haven't caught a thing, and all of a sudden they're reeling in all these fish. I don't care. I made a mistake. I abandoned my nets once for him. I picked them back up. The catch doesn't matter anymore. He dropped the nets for good. And there are people in this room. You need to drop your nets for good. You need to say, you know what, I'm done. I'm done. His way's better. I know his way's better. And listen, there's gonna be a lot Christ is gonna have to work through after that step, but you don't care about that. You don't care about that. That doesn't matter. What matters is the choice. The choice, I'm gonna drop my nets for good. I need to bow your heads. And if you're here today, and you say, Man, so much pain, shame, heartache, maybe you've had bitter tears. People don't understand. I get it. The Lord does. Despite all that, he is welcoming you. And he's standing at the shore, offering you the best alternative you could ever receive. His loving grace, restoration, purpose. And if you say today, Pastor, I've got to abandon the nets. I've got to leave it all behind. I just need him. If that's you, would you stand? I know it's a bold step, but Peter was a bold man. Praise God. Once you gotta stand in, come just down to the front right here. I was born and raised in the church. A prayer I prayed every night when I went to bed. Because I love the Lord, but I love the world too. And what I would do was I was sinning. And I was good at it. And I would go to bed every night, knowing that there are ramifications for my sins. And I was playing this game where I said, Lord, please forgive me for everything I've done. I want to be in your good graces. And my heart was far from it. I knew, I knew full well, I'm sinning tomorrow. And you know what? God knew that too. He knew it. And what I've learned about God since then is you know, he was patient with me. But he also wasn't ready to say, no, Aaron, we're not there yet. But you know what? It was when I finally decided, you know what, enough's enough. I I've seen what all that other stuff is like. But Wendy, if you could come also. Um I I've seen what that other is like. I don't want that anymore. You know what? I don't care on how undignified I look. I don't I don't care about anything else. I need Jesus. And I'm not gonna fix this on my own. That's what this is all about. It's not about the sin. It's about that we think we can handle it. We can't manage it, we can't handle it. That's up to God working inside of us to show us the door and that we step through it when he offers. So, I want you to know there's no shame in this right here. Zero. Because the goal is Peter was restored immediately to God's intended purpose, and he was used immediately. We can't let go of that, we can't forget that. And so it's it's not about the sin. In fact, it's just about God's restoration and righteousness. That's what it's about. There's no one standing here, period, that's perfect. But it's it's about leaving living with a clear conscience and not holding on anymore.

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I want to let go.

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Completely let go and let God just do his thing. And so we're gonna lay hands on you and we're going to trust that for you. We're going to trust that God He shows you so clearly how to just let go and let Him do His work. And so we've got one standing behind you right now. We're gonna be praying for you. I want you to be praying to, not just listening, going to God and saying, God, you know. Because He does. You know what's been going on, you know where I'm at, you know everything, Father. And yet He's still welcoming you. Praise God. Live in that. Because that's where Peter was. He just lived in that and then let God do his work. So I want to pray for each and every one of you.