Peter’s Denial

If you're a Christian, Jesus prays for you.

Can you imagine that? And this is what He says to Simon, Yes, you're going to deny Me. Your fall is going to be grievous, but I've prayed for you. I've interceded for you so that when you turn, strengthen the brothers, encourage them.

Be a new example and model to them, not one who is easily sifted by Satan, but one who will indeed follow Me both to prison and to death. Peter's denial of Jesus is a dark moment in his life and a dark scene after the intimate moment of the institution of the Lord's Supper. But the grace-filled lessons we learn from it and the vivid illustration of Jesus' prayers for His people, for you and for me, are so helpful for us as we seek to follow Christ faithfully. It's Sunday, and today on Renewing Your Mind, we're featuring a sermon from R.C.

Sproul. Dr. Sproul is making his way through Luke's Gospel, sermons that he preached at St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida. If you'd like to follow along in your Bible, we're currently in Luke chapter 22. Well, here's Dr. Sproul on Peter's denial of Jesus. Well, this morning we're going to continue our study of the Gospel according to St. Luke.

We're still in chapter 22, and I will be reading a broken-up segment of Scripture, reading chapter 22, verses 24 through 34, and then from 54 to 62, and ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at the table or one who serves?

Is it not the one who reclines at table, but I am among you as one who serves? You are those who have stayed with Me in My trials, and I assign to you as My Father assigned to Me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter the Russel, will not grow this day until you deny three times that you know Me.

Then we move over to verse 54. Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him to the high priest's house. And Peter was following at a distance.

And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. And then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, This man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him. And a little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.

Peter said, Man, I do not know what you're talking about. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. When Jesus was in the upper room and gave the lengthy prayer of intercession, His high priestly prayer recorded by John, He said in His prayer, asking the Father that He would sanctify His disciples. And He asked, saying, Sanctify them by Thy Word. Your Word, our Lord said, is truth. That's what you've just heard, the Word of God that is pure truth given for your sanctification.

Please receive it as such and be seated. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, again we ask that You would stoop to our weakness and help us in our frailty to understand the breadth and the depth of the things that we have just heard from Your Word. Speak not only to our minds, but our souls, that we may hide these words in our heart. For we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. The context in which Luke records for us the narrative of the denial of Peter is introduced by the record of a dispute that arose among the disciples at the very presence of the Last Supper, one of the most sacred moments in the history of Christendom. The disciples were reduced to quibbling and arguing among themselves as to who was the greatest. And Luke tells us that as they were disputing the question of greatness and authority, that Jesus took this occasion to rebuke them. And He said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in positions of authority are called benefactors. It seems there's nothing new in politics and all of those who are in positions of authority and lordship have promised the people that they exercise their office simply for the good and well-being of their servants. We know that that's not always the truth, and in fact, it's rarely the truth.

But any case, Jesus said, this is not how it's going to be with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and as the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater? It's the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves.

Is it not the one who reclines? Yet I am among you as one who serves. Now you are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you as my Father has assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the tribes of Israel. Now scholars speculate that the reason why this dispute arose at the Last Supper was that the disciples were jockeying for positions of honor as it was the custom in the ancient world that when a dinner was held that people were assigned places at the table according to their level of achievement or of success or of honor. And so here were the disciples nudging each other out of the way, I want to sit at the right hand, you sit at the left hand, you go back and sit in the back of the room because you're low on the totem pole of honor. It's not difficult to see that in a certain sense when Jesus was going through His great passion, what He was about to face, to have it to drink the cup that the Lord God had set before Him, how disgusting it must have been for Him to observe this warfare among His followers who were elbowing their way for the greater honor. Look, He said, I'm going to give you a kingdom. My Father has assigned me a kingdom, and I'm going to assign you that kingdom, and you're going to sit on the thrones judging all people.

And you're worried about which chair you have here at this meal. And again, you have to wonder that maybe, just maybe, that it was Simon who was in the middle of this dispute, as impetuous as we know he was, and as eager as he was to be the spokesman for Jesus. I can't help but think that he's the one who insisted that he be seated at the right hand of Christ. We don't know that.

I'm just guessing at this point. But again, in the midst of this dispute, Jesus turns to Peter, and He speaks to him. And He says to him, Simon, Simon, many of you have heard me preach on the significance of this literary construction among the Jews, is that when a personal name is repeated, when it's mentioned consecutively two times, that that is a signal that the person is addressing somebody for whom they have deep affection. It only occurs about fifteen times in all of sacred Scripture. And even while on the cross, Jesus cried to the Father, Hail away, hail away, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have Thou forsaken me? The pathos of the agony of David, when he heard the news of the death of his son, and he cried out in lamentation, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son.

Again and again and again we see this throughout Holy Scripture as a signal of communicating a tender feeling of affection. And now when Jesus had every reason to be furious, said Simon Peter, for being involved in this dispute, He turns to him, and He says, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded you that he may sift you like wheat. We know that Satan had possessed Judas, that he entered into Judas, and was a cooperative partner with Judas in the betrayal of Christ.

But in this case, we don't see possession. Simon Peter was obviously a believer. The Holy Spirit dwelt within his heart, and I don't think for a moment that Satan has the power to possess Christians, but he can harass them. He can tempt them.

He can accuse them. And in this case, he wants to sift them. And so, Jesus says to Simon, Satan has demanded that he may have at you, just like he went again Job, just like he went against Job in antiquity, and he wants to sift you like wheat.

What an image that he uses. We know that in the agricultural system of the day that it was so important to separate the wheat from the chaff, and there were different ways that the farmers carry that responsibility out. The most common was that the chaff would be harvested, and there'd be a great pile of chaff and wheat together. And of course, no farmer would have the time to look over that heap and say, this is a piece of chaff, and this is a piece of wheat, and separate them that way.

No, they were far more productive than that. They went for the winnowing fork, and they stuck the fork in, and they just threw the bundle of chaff and wheat up into the air, and the chaff was so much lighter than the wheat, the slightest current of air would carry the chaff away, and the wheat would then fall straight down, and the job of separation had taken place. But there was another way, often performed by women. They used a sifter. They would take both sides of the sifter. They would have the wheat and the chaff within it, and they would shake it back and forth, sometimes violently. And in the process, the chaff would be separated from the wheat. And of course, what Jesus is saying here is that, Simon, this task of separating the chaff from the wheat does not require a skill set of great power.

This is unskilled labor. In a word, what Jesus is saying is, Simon, you think you're so strong, you think you can stand through anything, but Satan would sift you like wheat. You are a piece of cake. It's going to be simple to do you in.

Listen to how Simon responds. Peter said to him, Lord, don't worry about Satan sifting me. I'm ready. I'm ready to go with you, both to prison and to death. Nothing like the sifting of Satan is going to stop me from my commitment to you. I will be with you to the very end, no matter what it takes or whatever it costs.

I promise that I will be there for you. Jesus said, Peter, I tell you, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you even know me. So that when Peter said to Jesus, I'm ready, I'm prepared to go with you to prison and to death, He did not tell the truth. What He spoke was a falsehood, but it wasn't a lie. All lies are falsehoods, but not all falsehoods are lies, because for a falsehood to be a lie requires intentionality, that a person knows something is not true, and they falsify the truth by intentionally distorting or twisting it or denying it.

No, no, no. This wasn't a lie. Simon really believed that he was ready to go with Jesus to prison or to death. He couldn't believe the warning that Jesus gave that Satan would sift Him like wheat. Not me, Lord.

I'm with you till the last drop of death. Then we move over to the rest of the story. Verse 54, Then they seized Him, that is Jesus, and led Him away, bringing Him to the high priest's house. And Peter was following, note this, at a distance. Then we're told that the people had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together while the initial portion of the trial was taking place.

In a short distance away, the people, the spectators were gathered, and it was cool, and so they even built a fire in order to keep warm. So Peter sat down among them. Then we read a centurion came by and noticed Simon Peter and said, I think he's one of those men.

No, no, no, no. That's not what the Bible says. It wasn't a centurion with a club or a sword. It was a servant girl, a servant girl who had no power, no authority, no possible way of directly bringing harm to Simon Peter. But she saw him in the light, and she looked closely at him, and she said, This man also was with him. And Peter said, No, it wasn't. Peter denied it, saying, Woman, I don't know the man.

I have no idea who this fellow is. A little later someone else came and said, Ah, you two are one of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. Now the other gospel writers, fill in some of the blanks and don't bleep out all of the expletives because we are told directly by sacred Scripture that Simon Peter accompanied these denials by crude words of cursing. Blankety blank blank, I don't know the blankety blank guy.

He was that emphatic in his denial. And still after an hour another one came said, Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean. Peter said, Man, I don't know what you're talking about. And at the very second that those words escaped the lips of Peter, there was a sound that interrupted the stillness of the dawn, the sound of the rooster crowing. What a sound that was for Simon Peter, because as soon as he heard that, he remembered the saying of the Lord, how He said to him, Behold, before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me not once, not twice, but three times. And the Lord turned as he was coming out. He heard the rooster too, and he turned to Peter. And what did he say?

Absolutely nothing. He didn't need to say anything. All he did was look at Peter.

Their eyes matched. Can you imagine what Peter felt when he sensed the gaze of Jesus looking upon him just moments after he had three times publicly denied that he even knew him? And he went out, and he wept bitterly. It wasn't that Simon just teared up a little bit. It wasn't that he simply experienced a little bit of shame. He wept bitterly.

His shoulders were heaving. He was sobbing like a baby because he'd been sifted like wheat and had publicly denied that he even knew Jesus. Who can grasp the depths of the shame of that moment? It's not uncommon, dear friends, for Christians to be ashamed of Jesus. Sometimes we want to be Secret Service Christians or Clairol Christians, where only our hairdresser knows for sure.

We want to keep a low profile in the world that nobody will identify us with the Holy One. Jesus warned us, if you're ashamed of Me before men, I will be ashamed of you before My Father. But notice the similarity here between Judas and Simon. Both of them were ashamed. Judas was so ashamed that he also cried bitterly, and he went out and he took the thirty pieces of silver.

He threw it on the ground at the feet of the scribes and the Pharisees and the rulers. He loathed himself. He felt nothing except self-disgust, so disgusted, so broken that he didn't just cry. He committed suicide. He went out and hanged himself, and that was the end of Judas in this world. But there was no suicide for Peter. There were tears. There was grief. There was profound remorse, daunting shame, but he didn't quit.

Why? Because he was stronger than Judas? No. The answer comes earlier in the text, a place that I skipped over intentionally, where Jesus said, Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you.

There's the difference. When he announced that somebody whose hand would be in the cup and seated with him and sharing in the Lord's Supper would betray him and each of the disciples, one around the room saying, Is it I? Is it I?

Is it I? I'm sure Peter didn't include himself in that inquiry because he was sure it wouldn't be him. But when Judas says, Is it I? Jesus said, Thou hast said, And what you have to do, do quickly. Leave the room, Judas. Jesus knew he had already betrayed him.

He already had the silver. He said, You go, and what you're about to do, just get it over with. But in the case of the denial of Simon Peter, Jesus said, Satan is going to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, so that not if you turn, but when you turn, strengthen the brethren. You know, this church is filled with artistic symbols, architecture, the Luther rose that appears on the front of the pulpit and at different places around the room. We have the symbols of the gospel writers and a portrait of Paul on the stained glass windows, and we have, again, all kinds of symbols.

If you look over on this side of the transept, many of you can't see it, but if the center symbol of that window is a chair, what's the chair signify? It signifies what we call the session of Jesus, where after He died, He was carried up into heaven by the Shekinah cloud of glory, where He was seated at the right hand of God, where He would give in that position of authority as the King of kings and as the Lord of lords, and from which chair He would reign over all of the earth. But not only did He ascend to His coronation, to His investiture as the King of the kings to be seated at the right hand of the Father, but He also ascended to carry out the role of our great High Priest in the Old Testament. On the Day of Atonement, the priest, the High Priest, would enter the Holy of Holies, and he would present the blood offering, sprinkling the blood across the surface of the Ark of the Covenant.

As I said before, there was only one Day of Atonement that was real, and it was the day after this night where Jesus poured His blood upon the altar of God and the mercy seat when He experienced the full measure of the judgment of God and satisfied His justice for us. But not only was He the High Priest who carried the sacrificial animal for the atonement, but He also fulfilled the office of the High Priest in perfection where He has since become our mediator and our intercessor. You know, I pray for our congregation in general. I frankly don't have the time to pray for everybody in this church individually, but I have a rather lengthy list of people who are going through serious and significant strife and anguish and affliction and pain in their lives that I pray for them by name every single day. And it's said in the Bible that, the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. My prayers don't avail that much because I'm not a righteous man. But I pray that the Holy Spirit will take my prayers of intercession to our intercessor who intercedes for His people every day. If you're a Christian, Jesus prays for you. Can you imagine that?

And this is what He says to Simon. Yes, you're going to deny Me. Your fall is going to be grievous.

It's going to be exaggerated. But I've prayed for you. I've interceded for you so that when you turn, not if you turn, when you turn, strengthen the brothers.

Encourage them. Be a new example and model to them, not one who is easily sifted by Satan, but one who will indeed follow Me, both to prison and to death. I want to die well, don't you? There are only two ways to die. You die in sin, or you die in faith. I want to make sure I die in faith. And in fact, I'm sure I will die in faith, not because I'm confident in my ability to persevere, but I'm confident in the ability of Christ to preserve me by His priestly intercession for me. Beloved, does He pray for you? Do you have the assurance that on this very day, Christ is praying for your eternal well-being? I hope that you will have that assurance and that you will rely on that assurance, that you will be strengthened by that assurance, and that you encourage each other with that assurance. What great confidence that brings a child of God. Of the many lessons R.C. Sproul taught me, this is one that has had significant impact upon my thinking and my assurance. You're listening to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Nathan W. Bingham. These sermons through Luke were an encouragement to the congregation at St. Andrew's Chapel, and they have continued to be used by the Lord, especially as people make use of the expositional commentary on Luke that's based on these sermons. If you'd like a copy of R.C. Sproul's expositional commentary on Luke, you can request a copy of the digital edition with your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.

The digital format will make it easy to search, and your support helps keep Renewing Your Mind freely available to podcast and radio listeners around the world. Thank you for your generosity. In the Garden of Gethsemane, have you ever wondered why Jesus prayed, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me? Next time, R.C. Sproul goes back to this agonizing time of prayer in the Garden, leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. That's next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind. .