Saturday, July 6, 2024

PT-3 "Peter's Collapse" (Matthew 26:69-75a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2024 9:05 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-3 “Peter’s Collapse”

 

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

 

            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.’”

 

            Now as we begin this SD by looking at the end of verse 71 we read another maid caught sight of him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth."  She did not say this directly to Peter, but it seems that she obviously was seeking to humiliate Peter by saying what she said.  Than after that we see an unidentified man also join in the accusation, saying, “You are one of them too!” (Luke 22:58a).  Now this time Peter not only lied but did so with an oath, as he hoped to reinforce the deceit.  MacArthur writes “A Jewish oath was always assumed to be made in God’s presence, whether or not His name was invoked.  In effect, therefore, Peter called God as a witness to his lie.  Angry, frustrated, embarrassed, trapped, and frightened, Peter desperately tried to hide his identity and especially his association with Jesus.”  I have to believe that all of this was truly hurtful to the Lord, and even though He prophesied that this would happen, it still, to me, was very painful to the Lord.

 

            What Peter was doing was going against the very grain of his nature as a child of God as he vehemently refused to acknowledge his relationship to his Savior and Lord, and this was in my opinion due to fear on Peter’s part.  Yet at the end of his life Peter would watch his wife being crucified for the cause of Christ and then Peter would be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy of being crucified the same way that his Lord was crucified.  That was then and this is now as Peter persisted in arrogant self-reliance on not knowing the Lord and oh how this would in just a few minutes hurt him deeply.

 

            MacArthur writes “Determined to stay near his Lord despite the embarrassment and danger, Peter perhaps drifted across the courtyard toward Caiaphas’s wing of the mansion, hoping perhaps to discover how the proceedings were going.  By this time Jesus had been declared a blasphemer and was being beater, spat upon, and taunted (see Mark 14:64-65).  Because at one point Jesus was able to look at Peter (Luke 22:61), it is possible that much of Jesus’ abuse was witnessed by Peter and others in the courtyard.

 

            “Probably incited by the events they saw transpiring in Caiaphas’s chambers, the crowd intensified its dogging of Peter.  A little while later, which Luke specifies as being ‘after about an hour’ (22:59), the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Surely you too are one of them; for the way you talk gives you away.’  Peter’s Galilean accent was readily recognized, and he was cornered again.”

 

            John tells us in his account of this that Peter was also recognized by sight.  One member of the crowd was a slave of the high priest and a relative of Malchus, the man “whose ear Peter cut off.”  Having been among the multitude who came to arrest Jesus, he said to Peter, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” (John 18:26).

 

            Now at this point Peter hit rock bottom in his emotions, and in his being as he still refused to either claim or rely on Jesus, he dug himself still deeper into denial as he began to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!”  MacArthur adds “Katanathematizo (to curse) is a very strong term that involved pronouncing death upon oneself at the hand of God if one were lying.  In perhaps the most serious taking of the Lord’s name in vain that is conceivable, Peter said, in essence, ‘May God kill and damn me if I am not speaking the truth.’  Omnumi (to swear) was a less extreme pledge of truthfulness but was nevertheless a strong affirmation.”

 

            As we look at this event we can see that Peter has lost all sense of reality and seemingly all awareness of God.  Comparison of the gospel accounts we can see that they reveal that there were three periods of incidents of accusation and denial ant that each incident involved repeated accusations by the members of the crowd and they repeated denials by Peter.  As the accusations became more specific and incriminating, Peter’s denials became more intense and extreme.

 

            It was even “while [Peter] was still speaking’ (Luke 22:60), immediately a cock crowed” a second time” (Mark 14:72).  At this time also we see that “the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Luke 22:61), and this happened apparently through a window that was overlooking the courtyard.  As Jesus looked directly at Peter this look must have penetrated the disciple’s very soul, burning deep into his heart and conscience the evil of his sin.  Seeing his Lord standing there with His hands bound and His face covered with spit and bruises was more than Peter could bear.

 

            MacArthur concludes “As if that visual indictment were into enough, while he stood transfixed, suffering the most excruciating pain of his life and he looked into his Lord’s eyes, Peter also remembered the word which Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times.” As Jesus’ remembered words augmented His gaze, Peter’s already unbearable anguish was made still more unbearable.”

 

            Peter will learn and know that the Lord forgave Him as seen in the 21st chapter of John when Jesus asked Peter three times “Do you love Me.”  Knowing you are forgiven and yet feeling the pain of denying the Lord because of your sin is still very painful.  It was for Peter and it is for all believers since then. 

 

7/6/2024 9:46 AM 

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