Wednesday, July 3, 2024

PT-3 "Intro to Matthew 26:69-75"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2024 10:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-3 “Intro to Matthew 26:69-75”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:69-75

 

            Message of the verses:  69 All this time Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a maidservant came up to him and said, "Weren’t you too with Jesus, the man from Galilee?" 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, "I don’t know what you’re talking about." 71 Then when he had gone out into the porch, another maid caught sight of him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." 72 And again he denied it with an oath — "I don’t know the man!" 73 A few minutes later those who were standing about came up to Peter and said to him, "You certainly are one of them, it’s obvious from your accent." 74 At that he began to curse and swear — "I tell you I don’t know the man!" Immediately the cock crew, 75 and the words of Jesus came back into Peter’s mind — "Before the cock crows you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

 

            I want to finish the steps which caused Peter’s denial of Christ as we looked at the first two in yesterday’s SD.  Peter’s third step toward denying Christ was prayerlessness, which was a manifestation of sinful self-confidence.  As we look at the life of Jesus Christ on earth He had a constant prayer life with His Father.  Dr. Wiersbe writes about what “Prayer without ceasing” means as he states that one has to keep the phone off the hook.  He wrote that when the majority of people had land lines, not cell phones.  Jesus always had the phone off the hook, and in this case Peter did not.

 

            MacArthur writes on this subject:  “When Jesus took Peter, James, and John farther into the garden and left them to watch and pray while He spoke intimately with His Father, all three of the disciples fell asleep.  When he found them asleep, Jesus addressed Peter as leader and spokesman of the Twelve, saying, ‘So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?  Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation’ (Matt. 26:40-41).  The Lord went away to pray privately two more times, and each time Peter and the others fell back to sleep (43,45).  Jesus had just warned them that ‘the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’ (41), but they felt no weakness and saw no need to be watchful or prayerful. Because they did not take seriously the Lord’s warnings about their deficiencies and frailties, they did not take seriously His admonition to be prepared and strengthened.  Self-confidently trusting their own judgment above the Lord’s, they were indifferent to His call to prayer.”

 

            Now we look at the forth step toward denial and that was Peter’s independent, self-generated impulsiveness.  It does not take too long to find this characteristic of Peter in the New Testament, and I know that the Lord was putting up with it because of how He planned to use Peter especially after His return to heaven. 

 

            Peter sensed no need to ask the Lord’s advice or help, he took matters into his own hands.  This can be seen as soon as the Roman officers laid their hands on Jesus that Peter took his sword and cut off the ear of the slave of the high priest, and make no mistake Peter was aiming for his head.  Jesus and also the others were taught by Jesus that it was the Lord’s will for Christ to go to the cross, to suffer and die and then be raised from the dead.  (Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19)  Peter just refused to believe it as remember when he said “Not so Lord.”  After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples Peter was a different person and understood the reason why Jesus had to go to the cross, and that was to pay for the sins of the world.

 

            Now we move to the last, the fifth step towards Peter’s denial of Christ which was his compromise in allowing himself to be in a place of spiritual danger—such as the courtyard of the high priest—where his faith might be tested above his ability to resist.  MacArthur adds “The Lord’s promises not to allow His children ‘to be tempted beyond what [they] are able’ (1Cor. 10:13) and ‘to rescue the godly from temptation’ (2 Pet. 2:9) do not apply to willful disobedience.”  (That is a really good point to understand.)

 

            He goes on “Peter could not accept the word of the Lord because he was so controlled by his ego and self-sufficiency that he felt infallible.  And perhaps because he had just seen the entire multitude suddenly fall at Jesus’ feet (John 18:6), he also felt invincible as long as the Lord was nearby.  If Jesus could miraculously save him from drowning when he tried to walk on water (Matt. 14:31), He could protect him now.

 

            “But again Jesus had to tell Peter he was out of God’s will and pointed out to him how foolishly presumptuous he was to think that He, Jesus, needed to depend on Peter for safety (Matt. 26:52-53).  Well-meaning and humanly courageous as he was, Peter continually placed his self-centered human understanding above the Lord’s divine revelation.  His own human will was a barrier to obeying the Lord’s will.”

 

            We will look at two subjects about Peter’s denial as we finish this last section of the 26th chapter of Matthew, a chapter that we began looking at on the 6th of April this year.  “Peter’s Collapse” and “Peter’s Repentance” are the two sub-sections we will be looking at and the first one will take us the longest to get through.

 

7/3/2024 10:52 AM

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