Luke Chapter 22 Verse 54
This is the house of Annas and interestingly, Luke doesn’t give us the interaction between Jesus and Annas. We find this interaction in John Chapter 18 verses 12-24…
“Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him. And they led Him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year.” It was a complex situation in Israel at the time. Luke calls Annas the high priest but John calls Caiaphas the high priest. So, what’s going on here?
The Romans had deposed Annas and made Caiaphas the high priest. So, officially, Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Annas, was high priest but in the eyes of the Jews, Annas held more clout which is made obvious here in that he was the first person Jesus was brought to… Continuing in John Chapter 18…
“Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought Peter in. Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, “You are not also one of this Man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself.
Peter is involved in a series of mistakes here, poor decisions, that ultimately lead him to outright denying Jesus. John records for us that Peter followed Jesus but Luke, Matthew and Mark all give us this phrase, “Peter followed from a distance, or from afar.” Understand, that’s not the beginning of the red flags that ultimately signal a coming denial of Jesus… The first can be seen in the upper room.
Earlier in this chapter, Verse 33, Peter answer’s Jesus saying, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death!” Oddly enough, spiritual pride is a sign of spiritual weakness, and true confidence in the spirit is displayed through humility. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall…” The idea of, “I’ve got this thing figured out and I know what to do,” not only leads you to falling right of your face but also leads you into the abuse of others…
Unthinkable, right? The abuse of others part…but let me throw you a wake-up call… In the economy of God, if we are not walking in the Spirit and actively loving our brother, no matter what we think we are not doing, in God’s eyes, we are abusing them. Why? Because in order to actually walk in righteousness, we are loving each other as we love ourselves. To ignore someone, to not actively love them, in God’s eyes, that’s to abuse them. There are only few that will care about doing anything about that…I know…but I’m thankful for those few, super thankful.
Spiritual pride leads to all sorts of problems and we ought to be against it in our own heart of hearts. No one has “arrived.” Not one Christian on this planet “gets it.” Paul wrote in Romans 3:9-12, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” Do you know when Paul wrote this, he himself was including he himself?
The minute we think we get it is the minute we stop depending on God and walking by grace. Pride comes before the fall, Proverbs 16:18, and that applies in all situations and people, including people of faith. It is rather as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, “We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” Who needs the grace of God and the leadership of God anymore when we know what to do ourselves…?
Peter’s first red flag warning was his pride even in the faith. In fact, we see Peter go through a progression, a growing up of sorts. From correcting Jesus, telling Him not to talk about going to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed (Matthew 16), to then spiritual pride. Hey, no longer correcting God, “My way is better Jesus…,” but now thinking that He is able in his own strength…to being completely humbled which we will see by this chapter…and in that humility, FINALLY, after following Jesus for YEARS, being FILLED with the Holy Spirit and then standing and leading by spiritual strength, which is humility and lowliness of heart.
One example of this is Acts Chapter 9 when Peter comes to the Lydda and finds a certain man named Aeneas who was paralyzed. We read in Acts 9:34, “And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you.” And then another scene in Acts 9:40, in the healing of Dorcas,, “Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed…” Kneeling shows complete subservience, dependance and humility. Peter wasn’t great when he was strong in himself…he became great when he was strong in the grace of God and dependance upon Jesus.
The second issue we see in Peter is that he was sleeping when he ought to have been praying. Prayer speaks of relationship. It’s as simple as that. And when the day comes along with its decisions, troubles and temptations, are you one to go to the Lord in prayer or are you one to do your own thing and perhaps if it goes wrong, then resort to prayer? That is a symptom of one of two things. Spiritual ignorance or spiritual pride.
This spiritual pride and prayerlessness laid the foundation for Peter’s third fallacy in that he began, as all spiritually arrogant people do, he began to follow Jesus at a distance. Only natural. No need to be close to Jesus…I pretty much am Jesus…just ask me, I know what the Lord would do or say… And so, the energy and excitement around church and serving and ministry and Bible study and service towards God and others begins to fade, why? Jesus isn’t so special anymore…
Look at the next verse as we see the continued downward progression.
Luke Chapter 22 Verse 55
In a matter of minutes, we have seen Peter go to gung-ho for the Lord to sitting together with those that opposed the Lord and warming himself at their fire. Doesn’t take long at all to slide down that slippery slope…
Luke Chapter 22 Verses 56 – 62
Spiritual pride, failure in personal devotion, following at distance, warming at the fires of the world… open denial. This is the pattern and it is repeated time and time again… What are we to do? Defend against denying Jesus in our lives? No! You can’t do that. Denying Jesus is a result not a cause. It’s being awake to and working against spiritual pride. It’s being awake to and active and passionate in your devotional life with the Lord. It’s taking a temperature check every now and then on yourself and asking, “Am I following Jesus closely…” It’s being wise to the traps set for you in the flesh, in the world…
Now, what are the words in the eyes of Jesus? It says that He turned and looked at Peter…we know from another Gospel that they are leading Him out now to go to Caiaphas…Jesus there in the courtyard hearing what Peter says…what’s the look on Jesus’ face?
What you see says everything about what you think about Jesus. “How could you, Peter? How could you?” Is that what you see? “You’re a disgrace, Peter. After all and everything, this is what you do?” Is that how you see Him? “I’ll deny you too, man. You’re no real friend…” What do you see…? This scene says so much for each of us personally.
There are times in my life that I have seen all of those faces…but I’ve learned since then. There is no doubt, I know this to be true because it is shocking and it destroys my flesh… May I give this to you? Will you take this and never forget it? We can tell this by the response of Peter, not just now but in the weeks to come, Jesus looks at Peter and says to him, “I understand. It’s ok.”
I was stuck here for years and could never get to this conclusion. How can God be understanding towards my sin? Sin is confusion to God, right? In Him is no darkness at all so how could He not just hate my sin…? I mean, that’s what we say, right? Love the sinner, hate the sin! Isn’t that how God is….? Yes…no.
What was He doing for 30 years? Living His life and doing life? I don’t think so. He was watching, studying, seeking to understand…not walking in sin but compassionately relating to those who, well like Eve, fell being deceived…and once He understood, I believe that’s when He was ready go forward into His earthly ministry…man, there’s a whole sermon there for the leadership of the church. I think we see this on the cross when He cries from God’s one perspective/person of the Son to another of God’s perspectives/persons of the Father saying, “Forgive them…they don’t know what they’re doing…” How did He know that? He understood.
Jesus’ eyes were NOTHING but love, compassion, forgiveness, understanding… Peter, its ok… I understand. This is what saved Peter. Yes, he goes out and weeps bitterly, but in a matter of days, he goes from denying to proclaiming. We see in no time, in the Book of Acts, the same crowd questioning him on a healing…watch this scene in Acts 3:11-17…
“Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So, when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
And the next thing Peter says…, “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers…” Zero condemnation. Zero judgment. Zero. It’s all understanding. Where’d he learn that? Can you never forget this, please…?
How have you fallen? How have you denied Jesus? God is not mad at you, He has never been disappointed in you, He hasn’t turned from you or left you in anyway… God understands… and by His blood, it’s ok… Would you return to Him?
We’re interesting like that, we humans. If you come down on someone there’s something in us that defends…I mean, we have to…but grace given and received, compassion given and receive, love given and received, understanding given and received…leads to humility and humility is strength…it’s so pleasant even though we may weep bitterly… It’s the goodness of God that leads me and led Peter to repentance. Perhaps tonight, change everything, all the faces you’ve seen, and receive finally the one true God…and savior and understander of your soul.