Authentic Inconsistency
Denial
Our Story
Describe a time in your teenage years when you were embarrassed that your parents were present.
With what group of people do you find it most difficult to talk about what you believe?
- The people I work with
- The people I socialize with
- My neighbors
- My family
- Other:
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. {Mat 10:33 ESV}
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. {Mat 10:39 ESV}
His Story
- Hours before this event Jesus told the twelve disciples that one of them would deny Him. Peter quickly replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” (Matthew 26:33). Jesus responded, “I tell you the truth, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” Peter pushed back, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”
- Peter had just seen Jesus forcibly taken captive by soldiers, tried by the highest Jewish court, found guilty of trumped up charges by a court that allowed “many false witnesses,” (Matthew 26:60) then blindfolded, mocked, and beaten while being spit on.
- Galileans had a distinct accent that differed from those who lived in Judah.
- When Peter “remembered the word Jesus had spoken,” (vs. 75) Jesus made eye contact with Peter (Luke 22:61).
- When Peter calls down curses on himself he is calling on God as his witness and pronouncing death on himself at God’s hand if his words are not true.
69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you mean." 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." 72 And again he denied it with an oath: "I do not know the man." 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you." 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly. {Mat 26:69-75 ESV}