Passion

So John's gospel, chapter 18, starring at verse 1. When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the kidron valley. On the other side, there was a garden and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judith, who betrayed him knew that knew the place because Jesus had often met with the that met there with his disciples. So due to Judith came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials the chief priests and the pharisees.

They were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons. Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out in Austin. Who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. I am he, Jesus said.

And, Judith, the traitor was standing there with them. When Jesus said I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Again, he asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they said. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he.

If you are looking for me, then let the let these men go. This happens so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not lost 1 of those you have given gave gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest servant cutting off his right hit right ear. The servant's name was Melchus.

Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the up the father has given me. Then a detachment of soldiers with its commander and a Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Alice, who was the father-in-law of Kiafas, the high priest that year. Kiafas was the 1 who advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if 1 man died for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus because this disciple was known to the high priest he went to with Jesus into the high priest courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple who was known to the high priest came back spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. You aren't 1 of this man's disciples too. Are you? She asked Peter.

He replied, I am not. It was cold and a servant's officials stood around a fire that they had made to keep warm. Peter was also standing with them, warming himself. Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. I have spoken openly to the world.

Jesus replied. I always taught in a synagogues or at a temple where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secrets. Why question me ask those who heard me, surely they know what I said. When Jesus heard this, 1 said this, 1 of the officials nearby slapped him in the face, He was this is the way you answer the high priest he demanded.

If I said something wrong, Jesus replied, testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me? Then Anas bound him and bound him to caiaphas, the high priest. Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, aren't you 1 of the his disciples too, us, aren't you?

He denied it saying, I am not. 1 of the high priests servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter has cut off, challenged him, Didn't I see you with him in the garden? Again, Peter denied it. And at that moment, the cock began to cry. Well, thank you, Peter.

My name's Peter, and we're gonna be looking at Peter as we've heard. When we do John, I don't know what we're gonna do, actually. Let's, we're doing this short series in, in, John 18 and 19. And we started last week and we were looking at that amazing scene of the rest of Jesus. But let's pray.

For the help us now, as we look at these words, some some of this stuff is really familiar to us, and we pray that you would help to see treasures that would challenge rebuke and encourage us because this is your word. And those who have never read this before, please open our eyes to these incredible truths in Jesus' name, our, ma'am. How confident are you as a person? How confident are you? I mean, it's it's 1 of those sort of questions is quite difficult to answer because it does depend on the situation you're in, doesn't If you, are in some situations, you're gonna feel really confident chilled out, you know, what's going on.

In other situations, you just feel completely you know, I I'm not sure if I really wanna go into that situation. And I guess, we probably all know stories about people that are overconfident in themselves. And it's quite disastrous. You know, those people that over believe in themselves, and they they think that their talent is greater than it absolutely is. It just isn't very good, but they think it is.

Or you get the confidence swimmer, don't you? And it seems to happen every year in Kingston. Someone who looks at the river, thames, a student. He's been drinking a little bit. He thinks it's quite a narrow passage over to the other side and he's confident he can do it.

And it's cold and he gets swept away and he gets drowned. So the confident swimmer confident they can do it, but actually the cold and the current or the waves in the sea, they're just too much for them. Or the confident climber that, you know, thinks I'm gonna climb the mountain and I I don't really need all the gear and, but doesn't realize that the weather suddenly change and he's now exhausted halfway up. We we know what it is. There's self confidence.

It it can just delude us, can't it? It can make us think we're better than we are. It's interesting, isn't it? I'd I'd I played golf the first time in my life. With a bloke, a Scottish bloke who who played constantly all his life.

And I I thrashed him. And I'd never played golf before. And so immediately, that's my level of golf. I'm better than a a golfer that's played all his life, but it was just a fluke or you play tennis and you just happen to be able to hit it quite well. And you suddenly think, I'm I'm actually good.

So the very best you seem to look at yourself and seem that that's normal, and it often isn't. We have this self confidence very often, and it can be just self delusion. You know, the young man who, drinks a lot on his Spanish holiday and looks over at the balcony and sees a swimming pool below, and he confident that he can jump off the balcony and jump into the swimming pool. That was a big thing, wasn't it? But, you know, he's not so when he's being rushed to hospital, I believe I can fly.

He did. I believe I can touch the sky. He didn't. You know, there's that ridiculous confidence. And then there's all these self help books and actually get Christian versions of the self help book.

You know, believe in yourself. You can do it. Everything's gonna be great and grand for you. And, they all sound very good and and very convincing. And if only I believed in myself a little bit more, then, you know, I'll be a better Christian or I'll be a stronger or more passionate Christian.

Well, we're looking at Peter and he had a confidence, and that's the first thing I want you to see. Peter had a great self confidence, a great self confidence. The story actually starts, really, this of the story really starts in in John chapter 13 where Jesus had just washed the feet of of his disciples. And then Jesus is eating with them and saying that people will, everybody will run away. And Peter says in John chapter 13, yet they all may run away, but there's no way I'm gonna run away.

He's really confident in himself. Jesus, I'm the sort of bloke that you can really rely on. I mean, all the others, they may run away. There's no way that Peter, not me, that, you know, I'm not gonna run away, he's saying. In fact, he says, Jesus, I'll die.

I'm confident I'm gonna put my life on the line for you. So you can rely on me. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because he is the 1 that pulled the sword out in that story. We're seeing a minute.

He was confident. He was so self confident in chapter 13 before we get to this scene, that he, even though he claimed to follow the lord, and called him the lord, thought Jesus was wrong. Now you're right on lots of things, Jesus. Sorry. Absolutely.

You're right on salvation and things of the kingdom and understanding the Bible. You're right about that. But when it comes to me, I think you've got it wrong, mate. Okay? Just wanna just wanna tell you this that I know your lord and I know that you speak the word of god, but you are wrong on your assessment of me that I would deny you and there's some kind of cockerel involved.

That's the trouble with self confidence. That's the trouble with self confidence. It doesn't really listen It doesn't listen, and it doesn't listen to the word of god. We're confident. I'm a confident person Look at verse 10 of John 18.

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Melchus. Jesus commanded p Peter put your sword away. Shall I not drink this cup the father has given me? Now you gotta remember if you weren't here last week, you need to know this.

That it talks about, the Roman soldiers coming. And the word that is used there means that there would have been at least 200 Roman soldiers coming for this arrest. 200 Roman soldiers to come to arrest Jesus and his his his his disciples led by Judith, a traitor, and then there were high priests and some other pharisees around. So there's quite a crowd coming up the hill in the dark with swords. Roman soldiers.

Get that. This this is the best army the world's ever known. Yeah. And they're coming to arrest Jesus. And it's Peter that has a go at them.

He's so self confident That is amazing, isn't it? It really does look like he's prepared to lay his life down. I think he was at that point. Now the knife that he has or the sword that he has is probably a just a short knife. It's sort of a chopping up meat and stuff like that.

So you've got 200 Roman soldiers coming out of the, out of the night with their torches and flames as we read, in a cold night, we know it's cold because it went later on has to warm himself by the fire. His 200 Roman soldiers and Peter's getting his little knife out to have a go at them. Now he misses them and hits Melchus, and, it doesn't go wrong, but you've got to give it to him, haven't you? He's confident. He thinks that Christianity is about being manly He thinks Christianity is about defending the faith physically.

He thinks that he'd be the hero for Jesus Christ. He'll be a hero, the defender of the faith with a sword in his hand, and he was prepared to do it. If you know anything about Peter, you know that he got his theology right. So in another gospel in Matthew, when Peter says who do say I am and then who do you say I am? He says you're the Christ, the son of the living god.

So he understands. He's got his theology right. He's bold. He's confident. That he's got it right.

And compared with others, which is what confident people often do, He looks brilliant. I mean, everybody else is running away. Yeah. Judith is a traitor Everyone will fall away from you, he says, but not me. Not me.

So Peter CV looks really, really good. Yeah? If you want a disciple and you're you're looking through the CVs for disciples, he's he's gonna be quite up the top there, isn't he? So he's a leader. There's no doubt about that.

He's a leader. He's bold. He's pretty bold because he's having a go at these Roman soldiers. He's certainly a passionate man. If you know anything about Peter, he's definitely passionate.

He believes all the right stuff. He could tick the basis of faith. He knows what a Christian is. He is a confident follower of Jesus, a confident follower of Jesus, but he got it wrong. He'd got Christianity wrong, he'd got Jesus wrong, he didn't understand what Jesus was about.

It looks like he did, but he didn't. Jesus says in Matthews's gospel, not everyone who says to me lord, lord. Not everyone who says lord lord. They got their theology right. Lord lord.

Not everyone who says lord lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the 1 who does the will of the father will enter the kingdom of heaven. And he goes on. He's just amazing. These amazing words of Jesus of Jesus many will say to me on that day, on judgment day, lord lord, did we not prophecy in your name? Preach in your name?

Say things about god in your name? Can we do that? Look at us, we're pretty brilliant preachers and prophets in your name. Did we drive out demons that we didn't we perform many miracles? We've done miraculous things.

People have seen these things that we've done. We've seemed to have powers. And he said, I don't know who you are away from me. You evil doer? And then he gives this illustration that if you are someone who really follows me, you listen to my word and put it into this.

You listen to my word. Lord lord, write theology, doing all kinds of brilliant stuff, prophesying, miracles, all that sort of stuff. Far away from god. Peter was confident that he was a follower of Jesus, the son of god, and he was nothing of the sword. He wasn't.

We're in big trouble if we have confidence in ourselves. Jesus says, in John 15, just a few chapters earlier, without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. Don't you rely on yourself? Don't you put confidence in your ability to even follow me?

Don't make yourself a hero as a follower of me. It is foolish. It is foolish to put your own trust in yourself to be a follower of Jesus. You can do nothing with with me. Bible says very clearly pride comes before destruction a haughty spirit before a fall.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Be careful. Be careful there's confidence in yourself in being a Jesus follower. Peter was really set up for a big fall because he had this self confidence. So how confident are you?

You reckon you can go on with God and follow Jesus, how confident are you? I think I'll do it. I'll make it. Well, that's the first thing, Peter's confidence. Second thing I want you to notice I mean, this is really interesting.

The Peter follows after the arrest of Jesus, Peter follows a safe distance, and and and actually he then becomes just a member of the crowd. It's very interesting. His confidence in himself makes him nothing more than a member of the crowd looking on. Interesting, isn't it? I mean, look at this this passage in verse 50.

There's so much stuff here. There's stuff here about John as well. You learn about John here. But look at verse 15, Simon Peter, and another disciple. That's that's John, the writer of this book, were following Jesus.

Because this disciple was known by the high priest, that actually shows you that John was, pretty sort of a well-to-do blows from a well-to-do family. He was known by the high priest, and he could get into the high priest's place, and he gets Peter into that high priest's place. So pick it up at 17. Here's Peter now, servant girls challenges him. You're to Peter, you you aren't 1 of these men's disciples too, are you?

She asked Peter. He replied, I'm not. It was cold, and the servants and the officials stood around a fire that they had made to keep warm, Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. Now, to start, he's standing with them. He's warming himself.

He's in the he's in the court and Jesus is in the house. First 25, meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there, warming himself. So they asked him. You aren't 1 of these disciples too, are you? And he denied it and said, I'm not.

1 of the high priests servants, a relative of the man whose ear, Peter had cut off. Well, we're getting near now. I hope we challenged him. Do not see you with him in the garden? Again Peter denied it.

And at that moment, the cockle crowed Do you see what trying to follow Jesus in your own strength? Confident that you will be able to follow Jesus in your own strength. Do you see what it actually does? It actually puts distance between you and Jesus, and it mixes you with just the general crowd. You just mix with a general crowd.

Self confidence pushes you at a distance and makes you in the general crowd. Notice, look, verse 18 standing with them. Verse 25. Still standing there. John's trying to get you to see.

Where is Peter at this moment? This confident follower of Jesus taking out his sword, but that is not the way to follow Jesus. That's not the way of Jesus. And now suddenly he's pushed at a distance with the enemies of Jesus. Standing with them watching.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing the twist there? Never think that, would you? This boat drew a sword out very confidently. He was gonna follow Jesus, and now he's actually just looking on.

He's an onlooker. Here's the third thing I want you to see. Peter, at this point, sees the real Peter. He sees the real Peter. That confident, great leader The great preacher that want to be martyr, prepare to whip a sword out and go at all his soldiers.

Denies Christ by a warm fire. Do you see it? The trouble with Peter is he boasted too much. He had too much self confidence. He listened too little to Jesus.

He prayed too little, kept falling asleep. He acted too fast without asking the lord about the sword. He followed too far away. And he mingled too long with the crowd. Here then is the crunch.

Here's a crunch. He abandons Jesus. This confident follower of Jesus abandons Jesus. I don't know him. I don't know him.

I really don't know him. People talk about finding the real me, and often it's all full of confidence and look within your strength within. It's it's just nonsense. Look, within your fine deep faith within it. Well, that's nonsense.

Here is Peter and he looks within and he finds in the end a follower who denies Jesus. He's a denier. He's not confident at all. He's a weakling. He's broken.

He's fallen. He's sinful. He's denying the very lord that he confessed. You are the Christ, the son of the living god, and I don't wanna know you. And this is the problem if you trust yourself.

And this is the problem with a lot of people sort of trying to encourage you to trust in your heroic actions for the lord Jesus Christ, that you can do it, that you'll be great, that you are something special. There's always that going on It's just weird, isn't it? It's always, you know, why am I the 1 who's always super special? It's like people who always predict the the second coming of Jesus. Have you noticed?

They always do it in their lifetime. That's because they're the center of their thinking. It's always their lifetime, isn't it? You know? It's all about them.

And you hear all of these sort of prophecies and stories that you will be great, and you are the 1 that can stand, and you and it's all it's it's just so wrong. The lesson you have to learn is nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. I can't keep myself as a follower of Jesus. I can do nothing without him.

Do you see that? Stop the confidence and trust in him. From Peter had to learn that hard lesson. It's really hard. He saw the real Peter.

He saw the real him. Can you see the real you? Weak in the crowd? You look so confident. We've looked a lot of confidence here, don't we?

I remember taking a a meeting at a university, not so far away. Factors of the university you went to. You may well have been there. I don't know. And it was supposed to be an evangelistic meeting.

For non Christians. And it was really hyped up, and I was the speaker. And we went into this room in, in, Broad Holloway College you know, there was it was it was full. And then we had 50 minutes of singing. Which I couldn't understand because I thought it was for people that didn't believe.

So I didn't really understand it, but I was sitting there and I was thinking clearly, me, if I wasn't I just think I would have gone by now. But it went on and on, 50 minutes of singing. And then, and then, Just before, the, the last song, the president came up and said, there aren't any non Christians here. Can you change your message? Right?

So thanks a lot, mate. You have 50 minutes to tell me that. And I said, yeah. Okay. And, I did.

And I asked them, how many of you were confident enough to ask 1 of your friends to this meeting? Or were you all a a little nervous or scared and didn't do it? And they all put their hands up and said they were nervous and scared to do it. But why were we singing songs? Half the songs were about my love for Jesus and how I love Jesus, which is not the right emphasis.

It's Jesus love for me. And the other half of the songs were we have victory. We're powerful. We're an army. We're strong.

You were there as well, maybe. No. And, and I said, why are we look, look, those songs are all great. But we're singing songs about being victory and powerful. We're we're full of victory.

We're we're full of power. We're we're an army for god. And we're all flipping scared to talk to someone about Jesus. It's a lie. Stop singing those songs.

You'd be better to say, Lord, I'm weak and rubbish, and I'm so scared out of my wits. Would you give me some power to go and tell someone? That would be a better song to sing. Well, they didn't like that talk, and I was I was I had a strong letter from the president and told me never to come back. The next time I was there, I'll tell you that I'll tell you that story next time.

But, it in other words, what is there such a massive amount of pretense instead of saying I'm weak If we pretend, if Christianity is a pretense, you will fail and fall. Do you see that? We come to god in our weakness. We may not hate Jesus like caiaphas. We may not sell Jesus, but like Judus.

We may not be indifferent to Jesus like pilate, but we can deny Jesus if we're self confident. So be careful of that. Be very careful. God in his kindness sometimes shows us just how weak we are, and that's a great position to be in. Because then we rely on him.

But there's a fourth thing here just before I finish. You actually see not only the real Peter but you see the real Jesus. I don't know whether you noticed how John writes this, and he writes this specifically, you know, he does this on purpose. But actually, you've got 2 trials going on here, really. You've got the trial of Jesus and the trial of Peter, which we've been looking at.

And they're muddled up. It's the old sandwich thing. We were talking about sandwiches this morning. I mean, it's all food, isn't it? But, you know, there's there's 2 different trials going on.

And and did you notice how it works? So you've got you've got Peter sort of on trial from verse 15. To verse 18, then you suddenly go into the meat of the sandwich and Jesus is on trial, then suddenly you're back to Peter on trial again. His denial. And and John hasn't done this accidentally.

He's he's put it there to get you to see. That there are 2 trials going on. There are 2 men on trial. And there are different responses. Peter's on trial, and he totally fails.

He blows it. Even in his self confidence, now he's nothing, now he's a denier of Jesus, and the cock called crows or the cock crows, and it's a wake up call to him. You failed all your confidence. You're a weak man. Just servant girls for goodness sake.

You're weak. Do you see how weak you are? You thought you were strong, but you're weak you fail. And the cock wakes him up to his reality. There's nothing in me that is strong.

I'm not a great follower of the lord Jesus Christ, but then you go to the trial of Jesus and you see anything but weak. He's he's on trial. Nobody likes him. Everybody wants to kill him. They already know what they want to do with him.

The trial is just a sham. It's a mock trial. It shouldn't have been done at at night anyway or early morning. It shouldn't have been done. It's an illegal mockery of a trial.

They already know what they're gonna do with this innocent man. And Jesus is bound, and therefore, probably in pain. He's probably bound in a painful way. He's slapped in the face. He's been beaten up.

He's accused. Yeah. And yet Jesus there in that situation, unlike Peter, speaks the truth. Peter lies, Jesus speaks the truth. You see, it's going backwards and forwards.

Were you with him? No? Yeah? Are you Jesus? Look, he says.

And he speaks to truth. Why did you slap me if I'd done something wrong? You could slap me, but what have I done wrong? Jesus is constantly speaking truth under pressure. He doesn't try to answer his accusers by trying to get them sympathetic to his his side so that he'd be get off.

He'd get off This is an authentic man. This is a real man. This isn't a man that draws a sword out and attacks and slaps back. This is a man that speaks the truth. He is the model, authentic man.

The true follower of god being slapped and beaten and knowing they're lying against him, he speaks the truth. And it's a man that has come to take the place of Peter. The failure. This is the beauty of it. I mean, verse 14, we saw it last week, but it's just an amazing verse.

Kyophus was the 1 who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good for 1 man to die for the people. It's the 1 man dying for the people. You see, who's the guilty 1 here if if you were out of Peter and Jesus? I mean, the guilty was Peter, he got a sword out for goodness sake. You know?

He's he's whacking someone's ear off. He's violent. Yeah? He's a liar. He's a liar and he's violent.

Yeah? And he's pathetic as a human, a failure. Little girl asks him. No. And Peter is the guilty 1 in many ways, but it is better for 1 man.

See, it would be good for 1 man to die for the people the authentic human is Jesus. And he's the only authentic human. And he's the rock that we put our trust in. He's the 1 that we build our lives on, not our self confidence, but on him. So how are you doing?

How are you doing with your confidence? Are we constantly coming back to Jesus? Do you pray So if you don't pray, it really says you're self confident, isn't it? Because you don't need God to talk to you. To to help you.

You need to talk to god and ask him. If you don't pray, you've gotta be self confident person, haven't you? We go out into this world. I mean, we don't know what's gonna happen tonight or tomorrow morning. We have no idea.

Do we go out without praying? Without asking god to help us. And with that confident, you can deal with the world out there How confident are you? We can do nothing without Jesus. And that's why we need to keep coming back to him to see that he is the authentic 1, that we need to trust in him.

And that is why we don't believe in ourselves. But we believe in Jesus. We trust in Jesus.