John Chapter 18:15-19

God has placed us all in different positions. It's not how much stuff you have.

The question is, does your stuff have you? Every now and again, I'll hear somebody make a statement like, well, if I had money, if I had more money, I would tithe. Or here's the ever classic, if I won the lottery, I would tithe.

Oh, wait a minute. If you're not exercising faith and you're not exercising discipline and responsibility towards what God has already blessed you with, why would you think God would bless you with more to be more irresponsible with? See, it's what you're doing with what you have that counts.

And again, be very careful about looking at other people and assuming certain things, if they have things or they don't have things. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we have in the studio with us one of David Magee's associate pastors. This is D.A.

Brown. He's been on before. He's been a blessing. Welcome to the broadcast today.

Bob, it's good to be here. As followers of Christ, it's about how we use what we have that counts, not what we don't have. Today, Pastor David explains the difference as he continues in the Gospel of John, Chapter 18.

Sounds good. So let's listen as David Magee starts his teaching, The Denial. Just a little recap of what we were talking about last week. We were in the beginning part of John, Chapter 18. Jesus was in the garden. And we see the betrayal of Judas and see the rest of Jesus.

And we looked at that. And so we find ourselves in the final hours, if you will, of the earthly ministry of Jesus. So we're going to pick it up in verse 15. 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. Now, we believe, with some assurance, that that other disciple was John, because John has details about what happens. And John was the writer of the Gospel of John, also of the Epistles, First, Second, Third John. But he has details about this, so we believe that he was the actual eyewitness. John wrote this Gospel in his lifetime. He wrote it as an eyewitness of the things that occurred.

So this is a very trusted document, where documents that came hundreds of years later are very suspect. Verse 16, 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.

Understand, Peter could not get into the courtyard of the high priest. And it was John, again, we believe, that went out to the gate and got Peter in. Many of us know what's getting ready to transpire with Peter and the denials. So you have to ask yourself, should John have gotten Peter in?

I have to wonder. Now, of course, Jesus knew what was gonna happen. Jesus prophesied and foretold Peter's denial. But John brought him in, into a place where, evidently, Peter was probably not comfortable. Peter, you get the picture from Scripture, was kind of a rough and tumble guy, a fisherman from Galilee, a little different from John. John, well, John came from a family that was well-to-do. Let me explain, because there's been some horrible teachings in regards to this. A lot of people have said, well, all the disciples were very, very wealthy.

Well, that's not true. But we do see that John came from a well-to-do family. Now, if you remember, once they got into ministry, it was kind of interesting, because Jesus was talking to them and they were asking these questions, and Jesus said, well, has anybody got a coin? And they were all like, oh, no, I don't have a coin. I'm in ministry. And then Jesus said, hey, go get the coin out of the fish's mouth. Remember that part?

So obviously, they didn't have a lot of liquid assets. I kind of relate to that. Early on, we'd started a church.

I had been working here for about a year and a half before I took a salary, and then at one point, we had like four people on salary, and our monthly payroll was like $4,200, so you can do the math. But praise God, we've gotten past that, those. But the thing is, we look sometimes kind of strangely at one another, and this is, let me explain. Peter, rough and tumble, John from a well-to-do family. Now, wait a minute, I keep saying that, and maybe you're going, what are you talking about? John, well, where do you get that? That's not in the Bible. Oh, you betcha it is, or I wouldn't tell you that. Now, if you're sitting there going, what chapter and verse?

You should be. What chapter and verse you get that from Pastor David? Mark chapter one, verse 19. It says, when he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets, and immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. So we see, hey, they have boats, they have nets, they have hired servants. Now, at that time, that didn't describe every family. As a matter of fact, you were considered kind of well-to-do if you had a boat, much less then had a net, but then you had hired servants.

Now, here's where we get into trouble, guys. When we say, and there's people that teach this, they say, well, everybody that follows Jesus should have lots of things, should be well-to-do. You don't see that in the Bible. You see, when we begin to make absolutes in regards to places where the Bible doesn't make absolutes, we get into trouble.

Now, neither do I believe that everybody should take personal vows of poverty and never have anything. But what happens is, a lot of times, we mistakenly think that people that have material possessions and goods are very carnal. And then we think that people that don't have things are obviously walking in sin and there's something wrong. Wait a minute, guys, you don't get that from the Bible.

You don't get that from the Bible. Now, let me say this, because this contradicts some of the thinking. A lot of times we think, well, somebody's blessed, they got a nice house, nice car, whatever. We think, oh, well, they're obviously very materialistic. You know what, I've probably met more people who are materialistic that don't have those things than people who have those things are materialistic. Let me ask you a question.

And this is kind of a telling question. But when you look at somebody who is blessed of the Lord, because if we have good things, it's God that gave them to us. If you look at somebody who's blessed of the Lord, do you look at them and go, oh, that's just wrong, they shouldn't have those things? Then understand the problem's not with them.

Problem's in your heart. See, I'm glad that some people are really blessed. Now, neither should people who have things look at those who don't have things and go, well, there's obviously something spiritually wrong in your life. Obviously, you're in some kind of sin or you lack faith or something's gone horribly wrong. Now, we have to reject that as well, because it takes all kinds of people to minister to one another. You see, obviously, John felt freedom going into the courtyard of the high priest, which was the upper crust of society.

Peter was a little uncomfortable. There's people here that are very comfortable at black tie affairs and can go in and mix and mingle. And then, you know, there's folks that that's not exactly their realm of influence. God has placed us all in different positions. It's not how much stuff you have.

The question is, does your stuff have you? Every now and again, I'll hear somebody make a statement like, well, if I had money, if I had more money, I would tithe. Or here's the other classic, if I won the lottery, I would tithe.

Oh, wait a minute. If you're not exercising faith and you're not exercising discipline and responsibility towards what God has already blessed you with, why would you think God would bless you with more to be more irresponsible with? See, it's what you're doing with what you have that counts. And again, be very careful about looking at other people and assuming certain things, if they have things or they don't have things.

Now, again, make sure your possessions don't have you. So it's kind of interesting seeing, looking at the life of John the disciple. Now, verse 17. Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, you are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?

And he said, I am not. Now, here, Peter goes down the slippery slope. And I think all of us can identify with Peter in this. I think every one of us has felt that paralyzing grip of fear, the fear of man in some situation. Perhaps a supervisor at work asked you to do something that you knew wasn't quite right, but there was fear there, so you did it.

Or maybe you took part in a conversation or listened to a joke that you probably should have said something, especially, you know, because the guy or the girl said they're a believer and then they tell these questionable things and you're going, eh, really should say something, but you're gripped by that fear, so you don't say anything. Now, guys, understand something, that we all struggle with this. We all have that problem. And I'm including myself in this.

I struggle with those, that paralyzing fear of man. Now, I'll be honest with you. You know, sometimes I go out to a restaurant and I go, and I don't go into every restaurant going, I'm gonna find somebody in here to tell about Jesus.

I go into a restaurant and I'm open. If the Lord lays on my heart to share with somebody, and sometimes He does and sometimes He doesn't. But let me share with you, let me be honest. In those moments, there is a fear there.

It's kind of weird. God so has made me into what I am today and the Bible teacher I am. Let me share, you know, before I come out here and start sharing, I'm not anxious. I just do what I do. It might be stupidity, I don't know, but I just come out here and I share in front of a bunch of people.

But that one-on-one thing, phew. There's that moment of apprehension that all of us have. Matter of fact, when I'm in a difficult situation sometimes, I actually, and maybe this will encourage you, you know, I actually, you know, God announced me to share with this person. I'm trying to work up and I'll do this little thing. I go, okay, I'm gonna share, gonna share, gonna share. Three, two, one.

Hey, do you know about Jesus? And so, you know, it kind of talks me into it or something and you can use that if you want. But we all have that, but the question is how do we respond in that moment? Do we not do anything or do we step beyond? See, having courage is acting in spite of your feelings. It's not an absence of fear.

It's acting in spite of that fear of being there. Proverbs says this, Proverbs 29 and 25. It says, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. Now, the New Living Translation says it like this. Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety.

See, it can be a trap. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't consider people. We should consider people, but we should consider the Lord first and foremost.

He should be the one that we're the most concerned about. And the life lesson here is consider the Lord first in all you do. Consider the Lord first in all you do. Yes, somebody might not like it if you say this or you say that, but is the Lord laying on your heart to say that?

Then by all means, brothers, sisters, say on. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from Associate Pastor D.A. Brown. We wanna take just a minute to pray for a few cities in our listening audience.

In Montana, Gallatin, Glendive, Great Falls, Hamilton, Helena, Kalispell, and Missoula. Lord, we thank you for everyone listening right now. We thank you for the work that you're doing in their lives. Lord, I pray that you would fill them with the faith that they need to say yes to you. God, we pray that if anyone in these cities does not yet know you, if they've not put their trust in you, that today they would. Lord, we pray for the churches in the area that you give the pastors wisdom. Lord, I pray that people will get plugged into these churches and grow. And Lord, we pray for the city leaders, the mayor, the police chief, the fire department, the town council, everybody in leadership. Lord, that you give them wisdom and discernment, and we pray for unity amongst the government. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Now verse 18. Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coal stood there for it was cold, and they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Now this is interesting. It says it was cold and they were gathered around the fire.

And you know what? I remember that we're told not in John but the other gospels that when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was sweating drops of blood. It wasn't because of the heat.

It was because of the immense pressure of what Jesus was getting ready to do, that he was sweating those drops of blood in the midst of it being cold here. It says Peter stood with them. We talked last week. Be careful who you stand with. Be careful who you fellowship with and who you listen to and receive counsel from, because sometimes that can get you in a lot of trouble. So be careful. Peter here is, now there's a time when in the interest of ministry, you're hanging out with somebody that isn't quite getting it, and let me encourage you in that.

But there's times when you shouldn't do that, and seek the Lord. And I think, again, that we need to be balanced, because some people would say, well, let's all go live on a commune, and then that way we won't be mingling with the world. That's kind of the concept behind Old Salem. The Moravians set themselves apart.

You actually had to have permission from the elders to have transactions to buy or sell outside of the area. I don't think we need to do that, but at the same time, we need to understand that there's within our relationships, within our fellowships, there's an encouragement there, because we're like-minded. We look at situations through, hopefully, a biblical perception, perspective.

So keep that in mind, keep that in mind. Now, it's interesting that we have 12 disciples, but in this time, we're given very close glimpses of two of them. Now, the enemy had already pretty much gotten Judas to stumble, and he's in the midst of having Peter stumble.

I think both of them were, to be honest, I think both of them were prideful. I think both of them had a lot of confidence in their ability to follow the Lord. And some of you may think that's a good thing, but it's not a good thing. See, if you're trusting in your ability to follow the Lord, you're trusting in the wrong thing. You should be trusting in God's ability to lead you, not in your ability to follow Him. See, because as you follow Him, and you sometimes struggle and sometimes fall, you're gonna be really bummed out if you're not trusting in God. If you're trusting in your own strength, your Christian walk is gonna be one that may even turn bitter and disillusioning, because you trust it in your abilities.

But if you trust in the Lord's ability to lead you, friend, though you struggle, may you fall, God's always gonna be your focus. Now, Proverbs 24, 16 says, "'For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, "'but the wicked shall fall by calamity. "'A righteous man may fall seven times.'"

Now, let me ask you a question. Does that not rock your boat of what a righteous man is? It says a righteous man will fall seven times. Now, a wicked will fall, so what's the difference? The righteous man rises again.

He gets up. See, that's part of the way you can tell the difference between barnyard animals, if you will. You know, you have sheep and you have pigs. Now, sheep, when they get messy, when they get nasty, you know, they're kinda like cats.

They're like, I've got something on me, you know, and they're really freaked out until they get it off. Pigs don't care. You can clean up a pig, and as soon as you, you know, as soon as he sees another mud puddle, boy, he's back to the mud puddle.

Why? Because that's what a pig does. But we're sheep. We're not supposed to walk around in the mud. Yeah, we'll fall in the mud, we'll get dirty sometimes, but we need to get up and need to get on with our lives.

And so we're given this really close look at Peter and Judas, and we need to look at them and kinda compare the two, if you will. See, because these things, these tragedies, these mistakes, well, chances are we will all make our own mistakes. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8 and 9. He says, we are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit.

We're hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. I like that, knocked down, but not knocked out. You know, if you remember the Rocky movies, all like 16 of them, when he's sitting there, and you know, he's on the mat, and Mick is going, stay down, stay down, you know, and it gets back up. Man, you're like, yes, come on, get up, get up, Rocky. Yelling at your television set probably. Do you understand that's what we should be feeling like with one another?

But how often we look at one another and go, look at you. Laying down, knocked down. You know what caused that, don't you? Well, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the fist that was hitting my face, but that's the way we look at it. Instead of, come on, man, you're down, but you're not knocked out. You can get back up. Now, some of you at this point, maybe even feeling uncomfortable. Well, Pastor David, what are you trying to teach us how to fault? Well, you probably know how to do that on your own. What I'm trying to share with you is that you should get up.

Well, Pastor David, that's fairly negative. No, I think thinking you'll never fall is obstinate, prideful, and unrealistic. What if you were a boxer and you're being trained and you said, okay, now what do I do when a guy hits me? Oh, nobody will ever hit you, you're too good. Your training is not gonna be complete because you're gonna get smacked. Well, okay, so they teach you how to take a punch. They teach you how to fall and how to get up when you fall.

Why? So in order for your training to be complete, guys, as believers, you're gonna get smacked around sometimes you're gonna fail, you're going to fall sometimes, but you need to learn as the righteous man that says in Proverbs, get back up again. To get back up again.

And you need to understand. And that way, you won't be totally shocked when it happens. When you get smacked down, you won't be on the canvas going, my gosh, what happened? I never thought this would happen. This was never supposed to happen. I was never supposed to fall or anything and yet here I am and it'll catch you by surprise. And what will happen, perhaps you won't get back up because you didn't see it coming.

But if you understand what the Bible says about this, you'll see it coming and you'll know when you fall that the thing to do is to get back up again. And Peter is such a wonderful example of this. Let's read on, verse 19. The high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Now notice he's asking him about his doctrine and Jesus obviously has doctrine.

And why do you say that? Well, because I think sometimes we emphasize the miracles of Jesus while we de-emphasize one of the main ministries he had. And that was a teaching ministry. The ministry of Jesus, the earthly ministry, most of the time was spent on teaching. Now obviously he was here, he came to die for our sins.

Outside of that, his interaction and relationships with people were primarily teaching relationships. And I think that's a model for the church today. Now it's interesting that this man asked him his doctrine and understand something. We need, you need to know why you believe what you believe. I read a statistic, I can't remember it, but it was like 84 or 86% of born again Christians couldn't explain what born again was.

Makes me wonder if they've been born again. It's not real complicated. You should be able to explain it. As a matter of fact, sometime today, let me challenge you with something. You should be able to, in 30 seconds, explain the gospel to somebody. And I would encourage, maybe jot down a note and put 30 second gospel. And sometime today to your spouse, to your friends, say, hey, I wanna do this, I wanna do this 30 second thing and I want you to tell me what you think of it. And you know another thing you probably should do is have a 30 second testimony. Because it will be rare where somebody gives you like 30 minutes. It's rare somebody walks up to you and goes, hey, tell me your life story, how you came to find meaning in life.

That's rare that somebody will ask you that. But you might have little 30 seconds opportunities all the time that if you had it kind of boiled down, so 30 second testimony, 30 second gospel. We need to be able to explain that. 1 Peter 3.15 says, instead you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you're asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.

Always be ready to explain it. Now, maybe you're sitting here and go, well, you know, everybody pretty much knows what Christianity is about. Do they?

I don't think they do. I think there's a huge misconception in this country about what Christianity is about. Ask your friends, ask family, ask co-workers and say, hey, what do you think Christianity is about? And listen to their answers.

You'll get some interest. Well, it's basically about, you know, not doing bad things and doing good things. That's most people's definition for Christianity. Is that an accurate definition of Christianity? Absolutely not.

Absolutely not. Their picture of a Christian, it's not accurate. They think, well, you know, Christian's somebody that, you know, that doesn't smoke dope, that doesn't drink, that never does anything wrong, that, now, wait a minute, let me clarify. I'm not saying Christians should smoke dope and drink. Go with me for just a moment, okay?

But sometimes what happens is somebody will find the Lord and they still are entrapped by some of these sins. And what are we gonna do, check people at the door? Wait a minute, wait a minute. You look a little funny this morning. No, the reality is there's people, let me help you out here.

There's people in here right now this morning that did some things they shouldn't have done last night. But this is the place for them to be as they discover the truths that will ultimately set them free. But see, the world's perception is that we get it all figured out before we ever visit a church. How twisted is that?

Ask them what they think a Christian is and then use that opportunity to explain to them what it is. Now, understand, this question, the high priest asked him, was an illegal question. And this is why, because you were not allowed to testify in regards to your trial. You weren't allowed to testify in your defense or to incriminate yourself. You weren't allowed to testify at all. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I wanna lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day, you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.