Peter had already set himself up as we've studied together to fall down hours earlier. Remember the Lord had invited him into the garden to pray, and then Peter said, No, what I really need is sleep. And Jesus said to him in verse 40 of the same chapter, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. What he meant was pray that you not enter into temptation unprepared.
You ever thought about the fact that we have the same warnings from God about sin in print, in black and white? In today's message, we're going to witness one of the most powerful and humbling moments in Peter's life, the night he denied Jesus. As the rooster crowed twice, Peter realized his failure.
But it wasn't the end of the story. In Luke 22, we'll discover how Peter's failure, like ours, can be redeemed by the mercy and grace of Christ. Here's Stephen Davey with the message he's calling, When the Rooster Crowed Twice. Have you ever thought about the fact that one of the most well-known passages in Peter's biography isn't his sermon on the day of Pentecost?
I wonder how many of us could even remember his main points. The most well-known passage in his biography is his denial of Christ in that courtyard of the high priest. And the Lord, by the way, recorded it in all four gospels so that we couldn't miss it because we need it.
So let's go gather there today. Let's go back to chapter 22 in Luke's gospel, if you're new to our study, verse 54. We read, Then they seized him, that is Jesus, and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. Now the high priest's compound, really more like a palace, was bordered by a wall with gates that were locked.
Household servants guarded the gate. We know from John's account in chapter 18 that John the apostle had also come along and got inside. In fact, John writes in his account, chapter 18, verses 15 to 16, Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple.
John always refers to himself in that way. Remains anonymous. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, being a relative probably in Zechariah the priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter was still outside the door. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watching the door and brought Peter in. Now, let me tell you, we're going to divide what happens next into four scenes just to help us, guide us through this exposition. I'm going to call scene one, small talk at the fireside. Verse 55 in Luke's account now. Now when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.
Now we know John had gone further inside with Jesus at the St. Hedron. Peter is shuffled over to the fire. It's midnight.
The air's chilly. So Peter's going to just, he's just going to blend in. Well, good luck with that, Peter.
I don't believe in luck, by the way. Peter doesn't have any anyways. You'll find out if you don't know already. Verse 56, then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him said, this man also was with him. Now, according to John's Gospel, this is the same girl that let him in. And ever since, you know, she let Peter in, she's had her suspicions and she's just not going to let him go. So she comes over to this little fire. In fact, the Greek expression indicates she's staring at him in that flickering firelight until she's certain of it.
She puts two and two together. John knows Peter. Peter knows John. John had her let Peter into the courtyard. John is a follower of Jesus.
That's obvious. So that means Peter is a follower of Jesus too. Now you need to understand, at this point, John is openly claiming to know Christ. Peter's life is not in danger. In fact, John's inside the house. The Sanhedrin will not arrest John even after Jesus is carted away. They really don't care about John.
They don't care about Peter. She's not identifying, by the way, Peter here so that Peter can get arrested. She's actually mocking Peter and his association with Jesus.
In fact, her words are tinged with sarcasm. We get a clearer view of that from Matthew's account that records her saying this in chapter 26, verse 69. You also were with Jesus, as she adds this little, the Galilean. Notice she doesn't say, you were with Jesus, the healer. You were with Jesus, the great rabbi, the great teacher. Jesus, the miracle worker.
No. Jesus, the Galilean. You have to understand that in these days to refer to somebody as a Galilean wasn't a reference to their hometown.
It was a cut down. It was a slur. It was a sarcastic statement that you're backwoods.
You're uneducated. In Jesus' day, the citizens of Jerusalem and that region used the Galileans as the butt of their jokes. The northern Galileans were considered in these days less refined, less sophisticated than those southern Israelites. So the southerners ridiculed those backward northerners for their primitive ways, sort of like today, only reversed, right? The northerners tend to look down on the southerners as being less sophisticated. The northerners talk about those hillbillies down south. They talk funny. Well, don't look so innocent. You're from New York. Got a lot of Yankees in here. You talk funny too, just for the record. You New Englanders, you know, I'm going to go pop the car in the yard. I have no idea what you mean when you say that. Or maybe you're from New Joy-Z. Can't you say you're ours?
I better not keep going with this idea. Now we know from history that Galileans talked with a different accent. In fact, they found it difficult to pronounce some of the gutturals in the dialect that was more refined in this region of Jerusalem, the city. They were viewed as ignorant. So this little servant girl is making fun of Peter.
She's saying, aren't you following that backward ignorant man? You're one of them, verse 57. But he denied it, saying, woman, I do not know him. At this point, Matthew's Gospel inserts this very interesting result, chapter 14 and verse 68.
But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you mean. And he went out into the gateway, and the rooster crowed. The other Gospel accounts only record the rooster crowing once after the third denial. If you compare the Gospel accounts, Jesus says in Matthew's account, I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Luke writes, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.
John writes it this way. I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. But Mark records Jesus saying, this very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.
Now, there are several ways to understand this. First, the rooster crow was a Roman expression for the changing of the guard. In fact, the official Latin term they used for this trumpet call was gallicinium. That translated meant the rooster crow. The rooster crow took place at the end of the third watch at 3 a.m. The Romans divided, the soldiers did, the night watch into four segments. The first watch was 6 to 9 p.m. The second watch was 9 to midnight. The third watch was 12 to 3 a.m. And the fourth watch was 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. called the morning. I don't see anybody writing this down.
You're going to need to know this for the test. Okay? Well, just remember it this way. Mark spells it out and helps us understand this back in chapter 13. Jesus says this to his disciples.
Let me put what Jesus said in bold letters. Therefore, stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come. In the evening, 6 to 9 p.m., at midnight, 9 to 12, or when the rooster crows.
That's 12 to 3 a.m. Or in the morning, 3 to 6 a.m. Some would say that Peter's denial then occurred at the trumpet blast which signaled the end of the 3 a.m. watch. I think that's actually a fascinating possibility except for the fact that Mark tells us the rooster crowed not just at Peter's third denial but after his first denial. And I'm pointing this out because that liberal professor that you have or you had or you will have in your freshman religion class who notches his belt with Christians who cave in when they enter his classroom is going to point out a discrepancy like this and he's going to turn to this passage. So remember, putting the gospel records together gives you the fullest account. They each heard or saw something that they would later recount.
Some focus on one thing, some on another. Mark is the only gospel writer to add this. And I think it's interesting because Mark was discipled by Peter. He received much of his information for his gospel account from Peter. In fact, Peter closes his first letter by referring to Mark as his son.
It's a significant detail and I want to come back to it later. Let's go to the second scene. We'll call this one denial at the back gate. Luke 22, now verse 58. And a little later someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. But Peter said, man, I am not. Mark's gospel informs us that Peter's moved away from that fire. Got a little too hot there. He's back over by the gate.
Attendance are still over there, both young men and women. One of them basically makes the same accusation. Now, at this point, it isn't so much mockery as it is them demanding his honesty. He's being told, look, why don't you just fess up? Why don't you admit it?
You're one of them. Tell us the truth. Matthew's account adds at this point he denied it with an oath. Getting a little more serious. Peter puts his hand on the Bible, so to speak, and says with an oath, I am not one of those disciples. But he's getting cornered. The pressure is on. Now, I want you to keep this in mind.
These denials didn't happen suddenly, one after another. Luke is compressing nine verses into these four scenes which took several hours to unfold. Now, scene three. We'll call it the Meltdown in the Courtyard, Luke 22 verse 59. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insistence saying, certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.
You guys sound alike, got the same accent. But Peter says, man, I do not know what you are talking about. And Matthew's account says that Peter added to the oath that he began to swear. Now, why would Peter do that? Well, at this point, John's gospel account gives us a clue. He writes that this individual making this accusation was now bringing into place something very dangerous to Peter's future, if not his life.
John writes it this way. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, did I not see you in the garden? In other words, hey, you're not only one of Jesus' disciples. You're the guy that cut my cousin's ear off, aren't you? You tried to kill him. All of a sudden, this becomes dangerous. He's now possibly in trouble with the law. He could not only be charged with, you know, following a deluded rabbi who's a heretic but charged with attempted murder. So Peter reverts to his old life. He pulls out his old vocabulary. He's going to prove he's not following some religious nut. He's not the kind of guy that, you know, would follow a religious teacher around.
Are you kidding? And to prove it, Peter starts cursing like the sailor he used to be. His words are still there. Luke writes here at the end of verse 60, and immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. Luke uses an article, the, the rooster, which indicates it's an animal.
He doesn't use the more official term in this verse for that trumpet call for the changing of the guard. In fact, Luke emphasizes, I want you to notice this, that Peter's memory is stirred not by the rooster but by what happened next. Verse 61, 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, you will deny me three times. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now let's take a closer look at that scene. That's scene 4.
I'd like to entitle that the look that spoke volumes. Now for several hours, if you follow the gospels, the Lord has been in this room. He's been surrounded by Supreme Court justices, Roman soldiers, temple police. They're bloodthirsty. They're infuriated. They're insulting Jesus.
They're outraged. They're yelling at Him. They're punching Him. They're pulling some of His beard out. He is now, by now, bloody and bruised, but He's still God the Son.
He's still in control and He's, He's actually been listening to Peter. The text indicates that Jesus purposefully turned and looked at Him. Maybe He was through an open window. We don't know. Maybe He's just now being carted in chains through the courtyard, and their eyes meet.
It was Jesus' initiative. He looked at Peter. Peter remembered. I often think when I get to this point, reading some time ago the true story of a young mother who rescued her little baby girl in her house caught on fire, and she fought her way through the flames and into the daughter's nursery and grabbed her and ran to safety, and in the process of saving her, her hands and her face were permanently disfigured. The little girl grew up to become a popular teenager, and when her senior class took a day trip on a yacht, her mother volunteered with other mothers to come along and help in the galley, prepare the meals, and that afternoon the girls were all out on the deck and began talking about this woman they'd seen in the galley with scarred hands and face, and one girl asked, I wonder who that ugly woman is. Not knowing her mother was just around the corner and close enough to hear, she heard her own daughter say, I don't know who she is.
These words are barely out of Peter's mouth. His face is contorted in anger and frustration and fear, and he's cursing, and his curses are piercing the air as the Lord turns and looks at him. What was in that look? Disappointment? Sadness? Anger?
We're not told what kind of look this was, but I don't believe it was some withering glare. Just wait. No. Remember Jesus already knew Peter would fail. He told him he would.
Remember? He knew. It was a look of hope, hurt, sorrow, not for himself, but for Peter. Before we leave this scene, let me draw from it some reminders for us today. First, remember to be on guard for that sin you are convinced you would never commit. I mean, just a few hours earlier, if you could interview Peter in the upper room, Peter, what's the one thing you'll never do? Oh, let me tell you, I'll never deny Jesus.
That's the one thing I will never, ever do. That leads me to the second lesson. Remember that being courageous in one moment does not guarantee courage in the next moment. You know, just a few hours after the upper room, he's charging 800 armed soldiers with his little sword, swinging it rather wildly. He was courageous. He was at that moment willing to die for Jesus.
He wasn't going to get out of there alive, but now. Never view yourself as impervious to defeat, as if you've got some kind of spiritual, you know, force field. We have no guarantee to victory over any sin. This is a reminder we are all capable of committing the worst sins.
None of us are beyond anything. That person you see staring back at you in the mirror, never trust him. He's the most dangerous enemy you've got in your life.
The minute you start telling yourself, I'm clear of that stuff, you're in danger. Third, remember that you rarely walk into sin without plenty of warning. Maybe today is a warning. That rooster crowed after Peter's first denial, let me go back there. Wasn't that gracious of the Lord?
Just a reminder, hey, that's number one, but two more coming unless you change course. But Peter had already set himself up as we've studied together to fall down hours earlier. Remember the Lord had invited him into the garden to pray, and then Peter said, no, what I really need is sleep. And Jesus said to him in verse 40 of the same chapter, pray that you may not enter into temptation. What he meant was pray that you not enter into temptation unprepared. Jesus knew temptation was coming, warning after warning. You ever thought about the fact that we have the same warnings from God about sin in print, in black and white? What's worse, ignoring the warning of the living Word or ignoring the warning of the written Word? Warning after warning for us all. Fourth, remember that one sin usually leads to another, so confess quickly before it spreads.
Don't let it spread. No one gets up in the morning. None of us ever get up in the morning and say, you know, I think I'm going to start living a lie. You know, I think today as soon as I can I'm going to deny Jesus. I'm going to be a coward today. I'm going to do what Peter did. I think I'll say farewell to my integrity. That's my goal for today.
No. So watch out for those little steps early on, that lingering look, that click of the mouse, that thought, a little urge to follow through this afternoon. J.C. Ryle wrote more than 100 years ago, beware the beginnings of backsliding, however small. Here's a fifth reminder. Remember your testimony is not determined by what you say about Jesus to believers in here, but what you say about Jesus to unbelievers out there. The test of your testimony isn't in here. This is easy.
We're cheering each other on. And it's great, isn't it? It's out there. The test of Peter's commitment to Jesus wasn't what he said in the upper room. It's what he's going to say in the courtyard. So take a realistic evaluation at what you say at the Christmas office party, or the conversation in the hallway, or to an unkind neighbor, or to that professor, to unbelievers out there.
There's the test. One more lesson to remember. Remember the mercy and grace of Jesus who already knows when you're going to sin. Peter is now this foul-mouthed, deceitful disciple, but he wasn't kicked to the curb, was he? His failure was by the grace of God, not final. And that's because of the tears of repentance he sheds. The emphasis is on the bitterness of his soul. He's going to be eager, more eager than ever to serve the Lord if the Lord will allow it. And when Jesus rose from the dead, I love this text.
Only Mark records this. Again, Peter never got over it. Peter evidently was just so amazed by the Lord's mercy. An angel at the tomb instructed the women, you may remember who had come to anoint the body, and the angel said to them, Jesus is not here. He's risen, and then they say this, but go tell the disciples and Peter.
I love that. Tell the disciples, oh, don't forget, Peter's one of them, because Peter doesn't think he will be. Jesus was not finished with Peter, beloved. The wonderful news is he's not finished with you or me either. He already knows.
Think of it. He already died for your future sin. Now does that mean you just go sin? Oh, I've got a free pass now. Well, that's what was Paul preached and taught on the doctrines of grace.
That's what people accused him of. Why are you just going to go sin? Why not?
Why not live a lie in order to get ahead? Well, Peter told us why in that opening verse we looked at from his first letter. Now he's an old apostle. He's learned a lesson. He's passing it on to us.
So here it is again in closing. Peter writes, whoever desires to love life and to see good days, I mean days that really are good, clean conscience, fellowship with the Lord, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking lies. Instead, be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you about your hope in Christ. The same grace is available to us today. Jesus knows our weaknesses, but he also knows our potential for redemption. Just like Peter, our failures don't have to be final when we turn back to Christ.
This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Today's message is called, When the Rooster Crows Twice. We're on social media, and we'd love to connect with you. Be sure and like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for daily Bible lessons. If our teaching ministry has blessed you, please share it with your family and friends. It's a simple way to help us reach more people with God's word. On our website, you'll find links to share our messages on all the major platforms. We appreciate your support. Join us next time here on Wisdom for the Heart.
