Matthew 26
57 And those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
58 But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.
59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,
60 but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward
61 and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'"
62 And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?"
63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!"
64 Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!
66 What do you think?" They answered and said, "He is deserving of death."
67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands,
68 saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?"
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.
In the account we are reading this morning, we are reading about two trials. The one trial is obvious; Jesus is on trial before the high priest and elders charged Him with claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed One, the Son of God. The other trial was a little more subtle. In it Peter’s faith was on trial. Even though Peter failed his trial miserably, he learned so much from it. He became an expert on trials. Listen to some of the things he wrote on the subject:
1 Peter 4
12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;
13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
Peter lets us know that the trials that you are going through are not unique to you. And, by the way trials are always eventually followed by joy.
1 Peter 1
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
What encouragement! Just like gold, your faith is not destroyed by fire, but is purified by the fire!
1 Peter 5
5 "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
Submit to God, resist the devil, and realize that all that you are going through is going to perfect you, establish you, strengthen you and settle you.
All those words were written by somebody who had “been there.”
We will look at the phases of the trying of Peter’s faith which will aid us during times when our faith is tried.
Matthew 26
57 And those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
58 But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.
There are two phases that I want to point out to you from verse 58.
· Phase 1 Will you stay close when things happen that you don’t understand?
When things are happening that we don’t understand it is easy for us to begin to follow God from a distance. Several weeks ago in our Wednesday night study we read about a time when that happened to David.
2 Samuel 6
3 So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
4 And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark.
5 Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.
6 And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
7 Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
8 And David became angry because of the LORD's outbreak against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day.
9 David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?"
10 So David would not move the ark of the LORD with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
Uzziah being struck made no sense to David at all. He was thinking that maybe he didn’t know God like he thought he did.
When David moved from the ark the next time, he did it right.
1 Chronicles 15:2 Then David said, "No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever."
Following closely is a challenge when things are happening that you don’t understand. This leads us to the next phase.
· Phase 2 Will you trust even when you don’t know how things are going to turn out?
If you have ever watched the replay of a game you already know the final score of, you are not affected by highs and lows of your team…because you already know, “We won.”
Even though Jesus had told the disciples exactly what was going to happen, they didn’t get it. Peter is now in the courtyard to see the end.
Deuteronomy 8
11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today,
12 lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them;
13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock;
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end--
Look at what God is going to do at the end of the test! He is going to do you good!
James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord--that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
God has good intended for you because He by nature is compassionate and merciful!
59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,
60 but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward
61 and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'"
62 And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?"
63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!"
64 Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!
66 What do you think?" They answered and said, "He is deserving of death."
67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands,
68 saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?"
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."
· Phase 3 Will you allow fear to paralyze you?
When the Israelites had come out of Egypt, the people looked back and became paralyzed with fear when they saw the Egyptian army closing in on them. Moses assured them that God would make away…then he began to pray. Listen to what God said to him.
Exodus 14:15-16 And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”
Fear may be paralyzing you, but God says, “Go forward!”
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
God does not send fear to torment you! Listen to what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
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.
· Phase 4 Will you allow pressure to bring out the worst in you?
I am sure that Peter had a vocabulary that he used all the time as a fisherman. Peter was honest about how he was.
Luke 5
3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."
5 But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net."
6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
I am sure many of the things that Peter used to say, he stopped saying when he became a follower of Jesus. I think many of us here can testify to a major change in vocabulary when we became followers of Jesus. Have you forgotten any of those words? Have you forgotten how to spell them or use them or what they mean? Neither had Peter! When they told him that he sounded like a Christian, Peter said, “Oh yeah, listen to this…and the old salty fisherman vocabulary came pouring out.
There is one book in the Bible that beats me up every time I read it. Let me remind you what James says in the book that bears his name.
James 3
2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
They ought not to be…but often they are!
Don’t allow pressure to bring out the worst in you.
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.
What do you do when you blow it? You are in a trial, and you have been following from afar, or you haven’t been trusting but taking things into your own hands, or you have experienced the paralysis of fear, or you have allowed pressure to bring out the worst in you…what do you do?
The answer is found in
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Just confess it! Forgiveness is yours for the asking.
Next time you are going through a trial, don’t be surprised by the phases of that trial.
Phase 1 Will you stay close when things happen that you don’t understand?
Phase 2 Will you trust even when you don’t know how things are going to turn out?
Phase 3 Will you allow fear to paralyze you?
Phase 4 Will you allow pressure to bring out the worst in you?