By Pastor Chad
The stories recorded in Scripture (from Genesis to Revelation) are not simply nice tales to entertain a curious reader. They are not simply recordings of history. The stories of men and women, nations and crowns, failures and successes, are lessons for us today. No, we are not kings or queens of sovereign nations, but we are royal children of the King. Biblical stories are narratives that detail important spiritual lessons for Christians of all times and all nations.
On Sunday morning, we discussed Peter’s predicted denial of Christ. At times, Peter seems to be the proverbial whipping boy of the New Testament. We commonly highlight Peter’s tendency to “stick his foot in his mouth,” his penchant for speaking without thinking, and his naive overconfidence. And all of these things are true. Peter struggled with pride and arrogance. The truth of the matter, however, is that Peter’s sin is our own. Peter’s story is our story. No, you did not verbally deny Jesus on the night before His crucifixion, but we have all denied Jesus. Any time we willingly and knowingly disobey God, we deny God’s command and authority.
What is truly scary is that most of us today are not as spiritually wise and discerning as Peter was. That may sound harsh after I just highlighted Peter’s sins, but trust me when I say: If the Holy Spirit were to inspire someone to write about our lives, most of us would never want to show our face in public again.
Peter had one advantage over us: He personally walked and talked with Jesus for three years. He heard countless sermons, saw many miracles, spent intimate time with the Lord; however, even after personal instruction from Jesus, Peter still misunderstood his own human frailty and heart.
In John 13:36-38, Peter claims that he is ready, able, and willing to die for Jesus. Yet, as we read in John 18, the opposite was true. Peter was overconfident in his devotion to the Lord. Granted, Peter did eventually die for Christ, but–despite his passion and verbosity the night before Jesus’ death–he miscalculated his own allegiance. If an intimate disciple of Jesus can misinterpret his own heart and passion, we must be careful to rightly discern our own hearts.
This reminds me of Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge, and he will make your paths straight.” Our trust must be in the Lord, not in our own strength. Our heart must rest in the Lord, not in a naive overconfidence in our own ability or understanding. Peter could not trust his own heart and ability, and neither can we. Peter was prone to miscalculating the degree of his devotion, and we must humbly admit our own need for God’s grace to rightly follow the call of Christ.
Peter's failures should humble us (as they humbled him). We are not immune to his mishaps. In fact, we follow his missteps quite often ourselves. Thankfully, we serve a God who forgives and restores.
Watch the full sermon here.