Preview

This is the sermon I'm preaching this evening. If you think of me at 7pm, feel free to pray for me! :)

Denying Jesus

I should preface this sermon with a thought. This is really an Easter sermon and I know Easter was last Sunday, but I’m still chewing on all that Easter truly means so bear with me a few moments.

I woke up on Easter morning to a rooster crowing just down the street.

It made me laugh about an ongoing discussion we’ve had in our house. You all know where we live, it’s a pretty nice little subdivision. We pay HOA dues, so you think they’d keep a pretty tight reign on things in the neighborhood. Not so much. See, about a month ago we started hearing this rooster crowing early in the morning. And if you’ve been around a rooster, you know that they crow a lot! Anyway, this thing keeps going off all hours of the day and night. I mean, all hours. Last week, I figured out that this rooster lives a few houses down and I’m a little annoyed about that. I’m thinking about writing a letter.

But this particular morning, the rooster got me thinking about Peter, and thinking about Peter’s part in the Easter Story.

See, I can relate with Peter. I’m definitely a ‘right-hand’ kind of person; the one who encourages the main guy, a sounding board, an idea person, a let’s get-er done kind of person. Peter didn’t want to be in the spotlight, but he wanted to be right up close to Jesus, in on everything that was going on. Peter was a hard worker, a fisherman who left everything he was doing to fish for men. He was in love with Jesus, in awe of Jesus’ ministry. He wanted to be like Jesus. He was a protector of Jesus.

Peter was still human though. In fact, had a bit of a temper problem. We’ve seen it surface a few times in the gospel. He was quick to defend what he knew was right. He would do anything for Jesus, even went so far to cut off a soldiers ear in the garden when they came for Jesus arrest.

But Peter loved Jesus. He had an up close and personal relationship with Jesus. He left his former life to follow Jesus. He believed in Jesus with enough faith to actually walk on water simply because Jesus said he could.

So why then, did Peter deny Jesus three times?

Let me refresh your memory. I already said this wasn’t going to be your typical Easter story. But I think we can learn a lot from Peter in these circumstances.

[read Matthew 26;69-75]

69Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. "You also were with Jesus of Galilee," she said.

70But he denied it before them all. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

71Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth."

72He denied it again, with an oath: "I don't know the man!"
73After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away."

74Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!"

Immediately a rooster crowed.

75Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.



Ouch.

Here is Jesus’ go-to guy, his right hand man, his numero uno. And mere hours after Jesus has been taken away, Peter is denying that he ever knew Him! What changed in this man’s life? What shook his faith so badly? Was he just scared for his life? Or was he questioning his relationship with Him? Would he change his mind come Easter morning??

I think we can all relate to Peter at this point in the story. Often times as Christians, we deny Christ His rightful place in our hearts. Even on Easter! We get caught up in our lives, or we get afraid, or we just get distracted. Sometimes we are scared when circumstances are out of our control or a situation seems bigger than us. Sometimes we are in a life and death situation and calling out our dependence on Jesus seems to be our most difficult choice.

But you see, this was Peter’s great mistake. His big loss. He had this great opportunity to take the stand for Jesus and say who Jesus really was and what Jesus meant to Him and instead he cowered under the pressure and cracked.

Can you relate?

You might be Jesus’ right hand man here in 2008. You might be at youth every Wednesday when Pastor Rob unlocks the doors, and you might read your bible until the pages fall out. You might drive around with a fish on your car and United CD on your iPod. You may have the daily bible verse on your mySpace page.

But when you get put to the test, do you deny Christ?

Sure, the easy answer is “of course not!” But I’m not only talking about the obvious denial. I’m talking about the little ways we deny Him everyday.

The conversations with your friends that could have happened.

Tthe tithes you maybe ‘accidentally’ forgot to pay.

The cuss word you let slip out.

Maybe it’s that little bit of HBO you watched, even though there was a “you shouldn’t be watching this” ringing in your ears.

Perhaps it’s the other music you are listening to on your iPod.
Maybe it’s the images you are staring at on the computer screen late at night when you think no one is going to know.

Perhaps it’s the way you talk to your parents or siblings, a nasty tone or an overall attitude of disrespect.

Maybe it’s the way you react when you are under pressure, being abusive to those are around you.

Maybe you are overly aggressive in traffic. I’ve seen a lot of good Christian people really lose it in a traffic situation. I mean, really seen it, like up close and personal, like in the rear view mirror! ;)

Maybe it’s just your attitude that isn’t Christ-like.

We all have those struggles, the struggles of flesh and spirit. We are in the battle of our lives here. Every moment of every day you are making a choice between what your flesh (your personal desire) wants and what is God’s best for you, what God wants for you. And the bad news is that we all lose that battle at times. I find hope in this verse…
Psalm 73:26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

We are going to make mistakes, but when we do, we turn to God to make them right. There will be consequences to our sin, but God can restore us to right relationship with Him.

Ultimately, God wants more than just right relationship with us, He wants us to represent Him and all of His glory. It’s not just about us and our relationship with Him. It’s also about our ability to showcase that relationship for others to see it, and desire it for themselves. You see, when we become a Christian, we become ambassadors of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:20 says
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

We need to act like Christ. We need to look like Christ. We need to do this so that we can attract others to Christ. When we fail to do that, we deny Christ as first place in our lives. We are no better than Peter and his denial in the courtyard. In fact, we know of one great denial in Peter’s life, but how many times have you denied Christ in your own life? How many times have you denied Christ just this week? Think of all the times you knew you weren’t doing the right thing and you went ahead and did it anyway. That is denying Christ. Aren’t you glad they didn’t include your story in the Bible?

But there’s Good News. Of course there’s Good News! It’s Easter! Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, but HE ROSE AGAIN! And through that perfect sacrifice, He paid the price for Peter’s denial. He paid the price for your denial, and my denial. He crossed the chasm between heaven and hell and gave you an invitation to pass.

Back to Peter. Did Jesus leave his sorry self there sulking in his failure in the courtyard? Is that the end of Peter’s story? Hardly.

Peter went on to experience the empty tomb and the resurrection, to witness Jesus’s reappearance on the scene in the upper room. He would go on to be forgiven by Jesus for his failure. And even more than that, he would reinstate Peter in the ministry in John 21. He had the opportunity to witness Pentecost and Jesus’s ascension into heaven. Peter became a missionary, taking quite literally Jesus’ charge to
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Mark 16:15
He started the early church and ultimately gave his very life for it. I say all that to you to remind you that Peter, even after his great failure, was never a lost cause. God went on to use him in a mighty way and He wants to use you too.

Can you relate to Peter? Have you denied Jesus in your life? Maybe not even outright denied Him, maybe just lacking to give Him first priority in your life. Maybe He’s just a fringe friend and needs to move inward in your circle. Maybe there’s some sin in your life creeping in and pushing Jesus out.

I want to give you an opportunity to make it right. God wants you to have this opportunity to make it right with Him. He knows you’ve messed up. He watched you do it! How do I know you messed up? Because I mess up every day. I’ll lose my cool with my kids, or I’ll start thinking about what I want out of my day rather than what God wants. Or maybe I’m watching tv when I haven’t read my Bible yet that day. Whatever it is, I’m putting my flesh first, rather than giving Christ His rightful place. So I’ll make it easy for you. I’ll step up to this altar first and say ‘yep, I need to repent and I need to make Jesus my first priority.’ Will you join me here? I want to pray with you.