The King of the Gospel, Mark 15:21-39

I believe, without question, that the greatest pivotal event in history is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament saints looked forward to it, and the New Testament church looks back to it.  But not only is it central to Christians, the cross is the monumental centerpiece of the history of the whole world.  Even our calendar reflects the fact of Jesus’s life and death.  I know, AD does not mean “after death.” It means “anno domini”, which means “in the year of our Lord.”  However, even though historians now use BCE or CE, meaning “before common era,” and “common era,” the determining crux of the eras is still the life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus whole life purpose was to come to offer Himself as our substitute, to die on the cross for our sins, that we might be made righteous by the grace of God and be given spiritual life.  But in order to accomplish that, He also had to be God incarnate, He also had to be the Messiah, He also had to be the Son of God, and He also had to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And I believe that as Mark describes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he is instructing  us in this tragedy of errors, as the world fails to recognize Jesus Christ as it’s King.  In fact, they scorn Him and ridicule Him for claiming to be the King of the Jews. If this event were a fictional work of literature, then this story would easily best the greatest Shakespearean tragedies.  The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, rejected, despised, scorned by His own people, and to add injury to insult, they crucify Him, having failed to recognize His rightful claim to the throne, nor His mission of mercy towards the very ones that assailed Him.

I think it’s very interesting that Mark gives merely four words to describe the actual act of the crucifixion; “and they crucified Him.”  Mark does not tell us all the grisly details of crucifixion.  He leaves out even many of the events that the other gospel writers include. Mark obviously wants to focus our attention on this event, but on what exactly?  Volumes of books have been written on the crucifixion.  Movies have been made, poems written, songs composed, and yet Mark, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, gives us four words.  What gives?  If not the torture of the cross, then what should we be considering here?

Well, I want to suggest that what Mark wants us to consider the humiliation of King Jesus.  He is humiliated in that He has put aside HIs robes of glory, His heavenly splendor, and for our sakes became poor, for our sakes became garbed in human flesh, and yet He was despised for it, He was ridiculed for it, He was flogged for it, and then  hanged for it.  Paul says in 2Cor. 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” 

Mark emphasizes again and again that He was the King of the Jews.  Notice how many times the phrase turns up in this section of scripture.  Notice in vs2, Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He *answered him, “It is as you say.”  Then notice vs9, Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” Then vs12 Answering again, Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?” Next, let’s hear the words of the soldiers in vs18 and they began to acclaim Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!” Then notice the charge they crucified Him under; vs26 The inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Notice next they join the title Messiah, or Christ, with the King of the Jews, in vs32 "Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” 

Now that’s a pretty interesting perspective on the crucifixion, I believe. Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews and the Son of God. Jesus was condemned, crucified for being the King of the Jews.  He was ridiculed and scorned and beaten for being the King of the Jews.  He was taunted to come down from the cross if He was indeed the Messiah and the King of the Jews. 

Now to be clear, to claim to be the Messiah was to claim to be the anointed King of the Jews by God Himself.  The Messiah, by many prophesies, was to be a descendent of David, of the line to the throne of David, which indicated that the Messiah would restore the kingdom of Israel. So in the last chapter, when Jesus is brought before the High Priest in a midnight trial, they ask Jesus pointblank, “Are You the Christ (that is the Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

So Jesus claimed to the religious leaders of the Jews that He was the Messiah, that He was the Son of God, and that He would be sitting on the throne of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.  That’s a pretty heavy claim.  He is claiming not to be just the King of the Jews, but the Supreme Ruler of the Earth.   And then to Pilate, the face of Roman civil authority, who asks  “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answers, “it is as you say.” 

Now Mark left out the remainder of the remarks that Jesus said to Pilate.  But it behooves us to consider them because it’s reported in John 18:36 Jesus continued to answer Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

What Jesus is claiming is pretty clear; His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, not of this world.  Not of the physical, material world.  It is a kingdom of the spiritual world.  And those who are spiritual are part of His kingdom.  Though Jesus had every right to claim the physical, material benefits of being the King of the Jews, the Messiah, He was not setting up a physical throne in Jerusalem but through the royal line of David is establishing a spiritual sovereignty over the world.  And so as Paul would make very clear later in his epistle to the Romans said in chapter 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

Now that death of the flesh, which Paul says is pictured by circumcision, is described for us here as the cross.  The cross is the means by which the flesh is put to death, and righteousness is revealed, so that sinners might be made spiritually born again. Folks, there is something missing today in modern Christianity.  And that is the cross.  Not the historical details of the crucifixion.  I think we are all well familiar with them.  But taking up our cross and following Jesus.  We have to take up our cross, we have to crucify the flesh, we have to be reborn, transformed, converted, so that we have new life.  Gal. 5:24-25 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

I’m afraid for the church today because we have millions of people who are claiming to be Christians, claiming faith in Christ, but most cannot be characterized as having been reborn, they cannot be described as all things becoming new, they cannot be thought of as having been converted.  As a result of their Christianity, they may be able to make the claim that they are improved. but not changed.  I’m afraid it is because they have been taught a watered down gospel, which says you can retain all the corruptness of the flesh and still have salvation. 

The truth is, that the flesh and spirit are diametrically opposed. Rom 8:5-8, 12-14 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ... 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--  for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

I’m sure you have all seen the products which have become familiar in the grocery store, and then they come out with a new color scheme on their packaging, and they write in bold letters, “New, Improved!”  Yet when you taste it, it tastes the same as it ever did. I’m afraid that is what a lot of Christians are like.  They claim to be new and improved, but what’s inside still seems to the same.  The problem is perhaps that they have never been converted.  They have just changed some things on the outside, but not the inside.  

Now that change comes from recognizing that you are a sinner in need of changing, number one.  It is an appeal to the One who is able to change you to forgive you of your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  To make you into a new creature. And that conversion can only come from the One who has the authority to give life, and to take it away.  It comes when we renounce our will and bow down and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has the power and authority to forgive sins, and to give new life.  

I think there is some difficulty in recognizing what it means to be a King in today’s culture.  We live in a culture of independence, of personal rights.  We live in a time when democracy claims to be the rule of law.  The rule of the people.  But that is not what a King or a kingdom represented in history.  A King had complete authority over life or death.  A King owned all the land, and all the people of the land.  Everything was under His dominion.  The King granted land to certain nobles.  He appointed certain people to certain tasks.  He gave permission for people to do various things.  Everything existed by His decree.  Now that is an outmoded form of government today.  But it was very much in play for the first 6000 years of the history of the world. And that kind of sovereignty is what is referred to in the title King of the Jews.

Now Mark gives us a long list of folks that are at the cross during the crucifixion.  And the overwhelming response of them all towards the idea that Jesus was the King of the Jews is that of scorn and ridicule.  But not all of them. I want to briefly address each of these groups as they are recorded as encountering the Lord Jesus as He suffered, and in the process we will see how they came to see the cross and it’s significance for them.

The first person we see after the sentencing by Pilate an scourging by the soldiers is a man called Simon of Cyrene. As Jesus is being led to the cross, He is forced to carry His cross.  And the suffering He has already endured, and the lack of rest or sleep has had a tremendous effect on Him.  So as He is carrying His cross, Mark tells us that He stumbled, and so the Roman soldiers requisitioned a passerby, who was coming into Jerusalem from the country, to carry the cross of Jesus.  

There is a picture here that I think is illustrative for us as we labor under the load of our sin. Notice the phrase in vs21, that Simon was chosen “to bear His cross.”  The cross is a picture of sin.  And our load of sin causes us to stumble.  The picture here is that we need someone to carry our load for us.  Our sin is too much for us to bear.  But Jesus bore our sins on the cross, that we might be made righteous.  And I believe that Simon came to see this for himself at some point.

Now there is a tradition that Simon actually became a Christian as a result of witnessing the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  We don’t know exactly how it happened, or when it happened, but notice that Mark tells the reader that Simon was the father of Rufus and Alexander.  The point being that they were known to the church in Rome at the time of Mark’s writing, presumably because their father Simon had first become a Christian, and then led his sons to become Christians.  Many believe that Paul writing much later to the Romans mentions Rufus as a leader of the church of Rome in Romans chapter 16.

The next group we see in this passage is the soldiers once again.  They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha.  There are a variety  of explanations why it was called the place of a skull, we are not sure which is the real reason.  But that definition is not the point of this lesson.  We see the soldiers offered Him a drink mixed with wine and myrrh, which was a form of narcotic that was given to help those being crucified to lessen the pain somewhat.  But Jesus refused it.  As I said last week, He had no desire to escape the cross, nor even it’s suffering.  He willingly suffered for sin, because that was the penalty for sin that was due to us.  

You know, the cross is a terrible way to die.  But it may not be the worst possible way to die. I don’t know what is, and I prefer not to think of it.  Thousands of people have been crucified, however, down through the centuries.  However, God chose the torture of the cross as a just recompense for the affront of our sin. A Righteous Judge must give an adequate punishment suited to the severity of the crime.  And the agony of the cross illustrates for us the severity of our crimes against God.  We may think of our sins as being too terrible, but to a Holy God, they deserve not only the horrors of the cross, but the beatings of the trial, and the terrors of Hell.  We have too small a view of sin, and too mild a view of God’s wrath against sin.  

Then after the soldiers had crucified Him, Mark says they divided among themselves His garments.  This is all in fulfillment of prophecy found in Psalms 22:16-18 “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;  They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”  Written roughly 1000 years before Christ, this is an amazing fulfillment of prophecy.  That He was crucified, and that they cast lots for His clothing.

The illustration though that needs to be seen in this event, is that the soldiers are natural men, physical men, and consequently are blind to the spiritual.  Thus they crucify the King of the Spiritual Kingdom of the whole earth, and focus only on His clothes. They completely miss the point of the crucifixion, that God has prepared a righteous robe for them to wear through the death of Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews. Instead, they are focused on the physical parts of His clothing.  How many people come to Christianity today looking for the physical benefits to the cross, and completely miss the spiritual blessing.  The prosperity gospel that glosses over the blessing of new life in the Spirit, while emphasizing your best life now, is but a caricature of what we see these poor blind soldiers doing.

These callous men who are gambling over Jesus’s clothes, are the very ones of whom Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They are looking down at the clothing and the dice on the ground, when they should be looking up, where above Christ’s head is the inscription written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  The Creator of life, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the source of true riches, hangs above them, while they focus on the rags below.

The next group that Mark shows us at the cross is the robbers who were crucified with Him.  Mark doesn’t give us the details that the other gospel writers do concerning these men.  He seems content to say in vs.32  that they were also insulting Him.  But Mark does tell us that this fulfills the prophecy that He would be numbered with transgressors which is found in Isaiah 53:12 written about 700 years before Christ.

Luke tells us that one of the robbers in particular was hurling abuse at Jesus, but the other rebuked him and then said, Luke 23:41-42  "And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."  And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”  Jesus answered Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” One robber despised Jesus as a victim, saw only a convicted man dying upon a cross, the other saw a King, dying to give men life.

Then there are the passersby.  It was typical of Rome to crucify criminals beside the main roads, in order to be a warning to others of a criminal intent.  And as it was the Passover, many people were undoubtedly passing by to enter into Jerusalem before the Sabbath.  And those who passed by were blaspheming Him , shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuilt it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.”

The thing that these passersby failed to recognize, was that Jesus was intentionally hanging there to save them.  He had no interest in saving Himself.  He would not come down from the cross to try to save Himself.  He went to the cross to save them. Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” The Lion of Judah became a lamb that was slaughtered for the sins of His people.

These naysayers are fulfilling prophecy again from Psalm 22:6-7 “But I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised by the people.  All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,“Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

There is another group of scoffers that Mark describes, the chief priests and the scribes.  The very ones who demanded that Pilate crucify Him.  The ones who arrested Him and demanded that He be killed for the charges of blasphemy and treason.  Now they come to the cross for their pound of flesh, and say, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” 

Notice first of all, they recognize that Jesus has saved others.  They cannot dispute His miracles.  So what they do is just add more requirements in order for them to believe.  The problem is that they don’t want to believe.  They hated Him without a cause.  Notice also that they call Him the King of Israel, the Christ, or the Messiah.  They are saying it in sarcasm, of course.  

But by their words they condemn themselves.  “Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!”  They say that if they see, they will believe.  But salvation is by faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen.  I’m afraid that a lot of people today, even many so called Christians, are guilty of making this charge against Christ.  “Manifest yourself and we will believe!  Show us a sign and we will believe.  Why doesn’t God reveal Himself?  I would believe if He would show Himself.”  Such sentiments are not of God, but of the flesh. Jesus said God is Spirit, and we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The Bible tells us that the just shall live by faith, not by sight.  Jesus said concerning Lazarus and the rich man, that even if a man were to come back to earth from the dead, they will not believe.  And even if Jesus was to have come down from the cross, these men would not have believed. 

Now there would come a time when it says in Acts that many priests came to faith.  But I think it was because of the preaching of the Word of God, in conjunction with the working of the Holy Spirit. And that was poured out on the church with power after Pentecost.  Acts 6:7 “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

This speaks volumes of the love of God towards sinners, that after the resurrection, Jesus did not send the apostles to hunt down and put to death or condemn to death the priests, but to preach the gospel so that even the very ones who persecuted Christ to death, might live in the Spirit by faith in the gospel.   What a great testimony to the patience of God when we are living in rebellion against Him.  God is continually wooing us, and seducing us by His mercy and grace that we might turn to Him.  The gift of salvation is available to everyone, even to those who hammered the nails in His hands.  Even to those who cheered His crucifixion.  Even to those who deserted Him at His trial.  Christ came to save sinners, even the chiefest of sinners.  The only people that cannot be saved, are those who will not be saved.

Well, Jesus had been crucified at about 9am.  For three hours He endured not only the torment of the cross, but the ridicule and scorn of His people.  But then at high noon the lights went out.  God caused darkness to come upon the land for three hours.  Some translations say it was an eclipse of the sun.  But the full moon would have prevented a natural occurrence of an eclipse.  I believe it was a supernatural event, signifying God’s judgment upon the sin of the world.

For three hours of darkness God’s judgment rained down upon Jesus in a way that we cannot imagine. But it obviously caused great torment and a sense of desolation to Jesus.  Vs.34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Once again, this is a direct fulfillment of Psalm 22, which says in vs 1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.”  We have already seen the disciples forsake Jesus, the Jews forsake Jesus, and now it seems even God the Father forsakes Jesus as Christ becomes sin for us.  

But some bystanders hearing Jesus, seems to misunderstand Him as asking for Elijah.  And so they say, “Behold, He is calling for Elijah.” Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.”  Perhaps they referred to Elijah, having been familiar with the prophecy that Elijah would come first before the Messiah, to prepare the way for Him.  So they are sarcastically saying that maybe Elijah will come and help Him come down from the cross.  Right up to the end some of them are slandering Christ.  

And you know, the same is said to be true of the  generation of the last days. 2Peter 3:3-4 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  I believe we are living in the last days, in dark days of spiritual blindness and hardness of heart.  And the Bible teaches that God will bring judgment upon the world during that darkness, but men still will not repent.

Right up to the second coming of Christ, men will curse God, and ridicule Him, and mock God. 

Mark then tells us in vs37 after this one last mockery that “Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.”  We know from the other gospels that He cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.  It is finished!”  Jesus gave up HIs Spirit to the care of the Father, as His body died hanging there on the cross.  And Mark tells us at that moment, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  This veil being torn from the top to the bottom is another supernatural occurrence by God showing that the way to Him was made possible to all men.  The chief priests had been the only one allowed in to the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year.  Now that was rent, the high priests office is no more necessary, as our Great High Priest fulfilled the role of both the mediator and the eternal, perfect sacrifice for sin. The curtain that separated the natural from the spiritual was opened up through the death of Jesus Christ, that we who were condemned flesh, might be given spiritual life.

Finally, there is one last person that we will look at today.  We see the centurion, who witnessed the entire proceedings, from trial to the darkness, to the way that Jesus gave up His Spirit to die, and who seeing all of that comes to the conclusion, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

This centurion, who took part in the torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, suddenly sees in the death of Jesus the evidence of Christ’s divinity.  He who had participated in nailing Jesus to the cross, now confessed Him as the Son of God, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  And by such faith, he was given forgiveness, he was given repentance, he was given new life by faith in Jesus Christ.

Listen, what we need to take away from this is that regardless of your rebellion, or how grievous your sin might be, or how horribly you may have blasphemed against the Lord, He died to save you.  He died to change you, to make you a part of His kingdom.  Repent and be converted.  Call upon the Lord to save you, and give you a new life.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and be saved today.  

The gospel on trial, Mark 15:1-20

It needs to be restated, that Mark is not writing a biography, but a gospel.  In other words, he is not attempting to record every little detail that occurred in the life of Jesus.  None of the four gospel writers do that.  Some may omit some things the others include, while including some things others omit.  And the reason for that is that they are writing a gospel, or a sermon if you will, which is presenting certain doctrines and principles that they want to emphasize. 

So as we consider this text before us today, it’s important that we resist the temptation to try to fill in all the blanks or gaps in Mark’s account, by bouncing around all the other gospels for the parts Mark seemingly left out.  We must remember that behind Mark is the authorship of the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit, speaking through Mark, certainly knows that He is omitting certain details.  So rather than focusing on what is not said, we need to focus on what is being said.  The important question then is what is being emphasized in this gospel account?  What is the message that Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is trying to convey to us?  

Well, to start with, we are introduced to a couple of new characters in this passage.  The first being the governor of Judea, who is Pilate, and the other being Barabbas, a convicted robber, murderer, and insurrectionist.  These are the main players in this scene before the crucifixion. The other players who have side roles are the Sanhedrin, who are the governing religious body of the Jews, and the crowd, and the Roman soldiers. 

In vs1, we see the Sanhedrin, which is the whole Council that Mark mentions, made up of the chief priests and all the official religious leaders of the Jews, about 71 persons in all, having a quick trial now that it was daylight, in order that they might officially condemn Jesus to death.  Now they had already had a trial during the early morning hours, but it was an illegal proceeding since  it was against the law to condemn a man to death in a nighttime trial. So they convene again at dawn, condemn Jesus as worthy of death, and bind Him and send Him to Pilate.  Note that He was bound, that He might set men free.  He was rejected, that men might be accepted.  He was condemned, that we might be forgiven.  

And so the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus of blasphemy in their religious trial.  They say in the previous chapter that His claim to be the Son of God makes Him worthy of death. But they do not have the authority to take a person’s life. They don’t have the authority to put a person to death.  For that, they must get Roman approval.  The problem with Rome is that they are unlikely to care too much about blasphemy. They are much more concerned about crimes against the state. So the Jews are going to accuse Jesus in the civil trial before Pilate with the crime of treason; particularly forbidding to pay taxes and claiming to be King.

We have looked at the activities of the Sanhedrin in detail in previous messages, particularly in last week’s message, so today we will not spend much time on them.  Pilate is the officiator of the civil trial.  And Pilate seems to only be concerned about the  charge of Jesus claiming to be a King. Not only because of the possibility of insurrection, but perhaps because if he thought that was true, then Jesus would have outranked him.   He was only considered the governor of Judea, which includes Jerusalem. And first and foremost, Pilate is a petty politician.  He served under Caesar Tiberius.  He had in fact gotten in trouble in time past with the Jews, and had been censored by Caesar.  So he is very concerned to keep his position, to hopefully advance in Roman government, and to do so he must try to walk a line between pleasing Rome and not offending the Jews in his jurisdiction.

If we can say one thing about Pilate’s power though, it is that he has been given the authority over death.  He alone can administer the death sentence.  That is why the Jews have come to him. 

So he asks Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And Jesus answered him, “It is as you say.” Now Mark leaves it at that.  Luke and John’s gospel’s add considerable more to the dialogue.  And I would encourage you to read their accounts for yourself.  But what I think Mark is trying to emphasize here is the contrast between this petty, political ruler of Judea, and the King of the Jews.  Pilate is governor by the decree of Caesar, and so he has judicial rule over Judea, only a portion of Israel, but which does include the Jewish capital, which is Jerusalem. 

Jesus, on the other hand, is the King of the Jews.  In actuality, Jesus is King over the whole Earth, but since He specifically came to fulfill the purpose of the Messiah, it is to the Jews that He claims sovereignty.  He is sent to the Jews first.  He is of the royal line of David. So He is legitimately claiming sovereignty over the Jews. He has already told the high priest in the preceding chapter that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Now in response to this pagan politician, He adds the claim that He is King of the Jews.  

It’s interesting to note the contrast between Jesus and Pilate.  Pilate has the authority to condemn, but Jesus has the authority to forgive.  Pilate has the authority to put to death, but Jesus has the authority to give life.  Pilate has a limited, temporal rule, Jesus has a sovereign, eternal reign.  Jesus is recorded as saying to Pilate in John’s parallel account that His kingdom is not of this world.  It is a spiritual kingdom.  And thus it has no boundaries, it has no end, and no limitations.  Pilate’s rule will come to an end, a rather inglorious end at that as tradition tells us he commits suicide in his later years. 

Pilate represents the natural man, the material man, the temporal man, who claims his right to self rule, who thinks that he has the ability and authority to determine for himself what is right and what is wrong.  He thinks he has freedom, when in fact he is in servitude.  He thinks he is making his own decisions, but in fact he is cowering and caving in to popular opinion.

Jesus, in affirming that He is King, albeit of a spiritual kingdom, adds another dimension to what it means to believe in Him.  Faith in Jesus means acknowledging that He has the right to rule your life.  He has authority over life, and He has the power to give life.  But Pilate, as the quintessential natural man, though intrigued by Jesus’s claim,  will not believe in Him, will not acquiesce to Jesus’s sovereingty.  

Isaiah writing 700 years earlier prophesies concerning this failure to recognize Jesus as King in Isaiah 53:2-3,  “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

Then Mark tells us that the chief priests begin to accuse Jesus harshly.  I suppose we can piece together all that they were accusing Him of from the other gospels, but really it makes little difference.  The details do not concern Mark as much as the fact that they make all kinds of wild accusations, and yet He makes no answer.  Pilate, on the other hand, feels he must respond to their accusations.  Because Pilate is a politician.  He makes his career by acquiescing, or at  least appearing to acquiesce, to the demands of the Jews and to the demands of Rome.  Jesus answers to no man. This judge and jury think that they have authority over Him, but in fact, all authority in heaven and on earth belong to Jesus.  He has the authority to lay down HIs life.  And that I believe, is what is behind Jesus’s silence.  He is not going to play along with Pilate.  He is not going to try to defend Himself.  He has said, I am the Messiah the Son of God.  I am the King of the Jews.  And that is all He needs to say in HIs defense.   In fact, He makes no defense at all.  It may be argued that Jesus is on the offensive, not the defensive.  He is going to lay down His life, voluntarily.  He is resolutely headed for the cross, not the least interested in avoiding it.  And so He answers them not and Pilate is amazed at His silence.

But even His silence is confirmation of His claim to be the Messiah.Isaiah 53:7  “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

Mark then tells us that it was the custom of the governor to release a prisoner at the feast of the Passover.  And so they come to Pilate and ask for him to do that, according to his custom.  So he asks them, “‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.” Pilate, ever the politician, is trying to walk both sides of the fence.  The other gospels tell us that Pilate had already announced that he found no fault in Jesus.  But rather than seeing that justice was done and releasing Jesus, he wants to please the crowd.  However, perhaps this was his half hearted attempt to release Jesus, or at least to be able to claim such, in offering to release Him to satisfy the custom.  But I think that Pilate knows that they will not want Jesus released.  The Jews have made it clear that they want Jesus dead.  I think Pilate is just trying to salve his conscience somewhat by being able to say he offered to release Jesus.  And Mark says that he knew that there was no evil that Jesus committed, it was just a matter of jealousy on the part of the priests.  So I think Pilate knew that they wouldn’t let Jesus be released, he is just trying to portray a semblance of innocence in the matter.  But Pilate already has given over in his heart to the will of the priests in condemning an innocent man.

And let me say by way of application that Pilate is a good example of the natural man who thinks that he is his own ruler, he is the king of his castle, but in reality, he is subservient to the peer pressure of  the world.  He claims to be autonomous, but actually he is a slave of popular opinion.  He caves in to the dominance of the world’s demands, whether it be from the media, or the entertainment industry, or his career, or from the influence of friends.  They reject the dominion of Christ as King, but become enslaved to the passions of sin and the world, which is ultimately orchestrated by the devil.  Like Bob Dylan once wrote, everyone is going to serve somebody.  It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna serve somebody.  Pilate chooses to serve the world, which ultimately achieved the purposes of the devil.

Vs.11 “But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.”  So Mark indicates that the crowd is induced by the priests to ask for the release of Barabbas instead.  And Pilate, wishing to accommodate the crowd, releases Barabbas, the condemned murderer, and keeps Jesus in bonds.

What Pilate and the Jews do not realize, is that by their actions they have demonstrated the gospel of Jesus Christ quite effectively.  Barabbas, the convicted robber, murderer and insurrectionist, is obviously guilty of his sins. He represents the sinner.  And in setting the sinner free, and putting to death the righteous, spotless Lamb of God, they have illustrated nothing less than the truth of the gospel.  That principle of the gospel especially that Jesus came to save sinners.  That principle that the innocent would die for the ungodly.  That principle that God would transfer our sins upon Jesus, who would be punished to die in our place, so that we might be set free from sin and death, and receive the transfer of Christ’s righteousness upon us.  That is the gospel, and though they hated it, yet by their actions in freeing the guilty and condemning the righteous they have given us a tremendous illustration of the gospel of God.

Once again Isaiah predicts this divine justice wrought by God upon our sins. Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

Such an illustration of God’s grace towards sinners cannot help but make one wonder what happened to Barabbas.  Nothing more is said in scripture concerning him. But  I cannot help but wonder if the magnificence of this transaction, resulting in his freedom, while Christ went on to suffer and die, did not have a tremendous effect on this condemned man.  I cannot help but wonder if he did not follow the crowd to Calvary, and there watch as Jesus was crucified in his place.  I can’t help but wonder if he was converted by this divine act of the innocent dying for the guilty. I suppose we will find out in heaven.  Perhaps we will see Barabbas in heaven. 

But let’s not miss the point that all of us here today are Barabbas.  According to the gospel, we are all sinners, deserving of death, but Jesus took our place on that cross, so that we, by faith in Him, might be set free. I want to point out one more fact about Barabbas, before we move on.  The name Barabbas means “son of the father.”  Bar= son of, Abba, the Aramaic word for “father.”  And interestingly, there are also some manuscripts which  give the first name of Barabbas as Jesus.  So his name might actually have been Jesus, son of the father.  And of course, he was contrasted with Jesus, the Son of God the Father.  One being the sinner, being  the son of Adam, and the other being sinless, being the Son of God. What an irony, that the crowd chooses the son of the father Adam, the sinner, and rejects the Son of God.  And yet is that not what is at stake today?  Does the world choose to believe in  the Son of God, or do they choose to believe in  the son of man?  I would suggest that the world routinely chooses to believe in man, rather than to believe in Christ.  They choose to be ruled by man, instead of ruled by God, and as such, they choose the death of man, rather than the life of God. As it says in 1Cor. 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”

The question of the ages for everyman is found in the next verse, 12, “Answering again, Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?’”  What shall I do with Jesus?  That is the question for every man. That is the question for you today.  What will you do with Jesus?  Will you accept Him as your Savior from your sins?  Will you accept Him as your King?  Will you bow your will to Him?  Will you trade your sinful life for new life in Him?  What will you do with Jesus? Pilate wanted nothing to do with Him.  He tried to get out of making a decision concerning Jesus.  He tried to shunt Him off on Herod.  He tried to release Him.  He said repeatedly that He found no fault in Him.  But ultimately, Pilate did not recognize Jesus as King.  Ultimately, Pilate choose the favor of the world, and rejected the Savior of the world.

Some of you here today may not want to make a decision concerning Jesus.  You want to remain ambivalent about Jesus.  But if you put Him off today, if you shunt Him off until a more convenient time, then you are really doing exactly what Pilate did.  You are rejecting the Lord in favor of maintaining your own sovereignty.  And as such, you condemn yourself.  You are not guaranteed another opportunity tomorrow.  Tomorrow may be too late.  What will you do with Jesus?

Well, the crowd knew what they wanted to do, “Crucify Him!” they cried out.  They essentially want to murder the Son of God.  Their hatred for Christ has reached a fever pitch.  Pilate calls back, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify Him!”  They don’t have to have a reason to want to kill Christ.  Their hatred is all the reason that they need.  You know, Jesus was correct to equate hate as murder in the Sermon on the Mount.  Hatred is a scary thing.  I’ve personally seen hatred escalate to murderous intent.  I’ve seen hatred become so manifest in a person it was scary, it changed them into a monster.  And I will tell you something, rejection or rebellion leads to hatred.  Rejection of the truth is not an innocuous thing.  It’s not a harmless choice. It’s not as simple as you believe what you want, and I’ll believe what I want. Rejection of the truth leads to hatred of the truth, and that leads to murder of the truth. 

Notice what Mark says concerning Pilate in vs 15 “Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”  Wishing to satisfy the crowd.  I wonder how many people have crucified Jesus by wishing to satisfy the crowd?  Trying to satisfy the bloodlust of the world, we crucify Jesus Christ.  Trying to make people like us, to not lose face in public, trying to gain the fleeting approval of the world, we crucify the King of Glory. 

And Mark barely gives a mention in vs15 of the flogging that Pilate gave Jesus.  A cat of nine tails was commonly used to scourge a convicted person before heading to the cross.  It was meant to weaken them, so that they might not last too long on the cross.  It is said that such a flogging was stopped at 39 lashes, because it was determined that 40 would kill you.  Such a tremendous cost was our sin, that it required such a fierce punishment.  

Once again, consider Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” What a travesty of redemption when the modern day faith healers use this verse as some sort of mantra denoting the guarantee of our physical health. By His scourging, we are cleansed of our unrighteousness. That is what Isaiah says.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. Our physical health is not the issue, it’s our spiritual health that is spoken of.  The wrath of God against our sin was satisfied in the suffering of Jesus our Savior.

Now beaten to within an inch of His life, His back and legs ripped to shreds, there are still more indignities left to bear.  The soldiers now take part in the ridicule and mocking of Jesus.  Mark tells us more detail of the mocking than he does of the scourging.  Some wounds cut deeper than the flesh.  And the mocking of the soldiers is particularly cruel.  Perhaps they took out their pent up hatred for the Jews upon Jesus.  After all, He was said to be the King of the Jews.  It was common in those days to disrespect the fallen monarch of a defeated enemy.  Maybe that was it then, as the soldiers call all the Roman cohort from the Palace together to ridicule and scorn Jesus.  

The whole idea of Jesus being a King is obviously the point of their ridicule.  They dress Him in purple, a royal fabric, and crush a crown of plaited thorns upon His head, calling out “Hail, King of the Jews!”  Vs19 “They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.”

This is savage mockery.  This is hatred at it’s lowest form.  It’s easy to imagine that these soldiers were the lowest of the low.  That they were no better than savage animals.  But the fact is, that such savage mockery happens today on our concert stages and in our theaters and it is applauded by the world.  The fact is that sin is a savage beast.  Sin is an evil that turns men into the lowest of the low.  Thus we see God’s justification in dealing with divine wrath upon sin. The retribution that these low life soldiers deserved, God struck their blows upon Jesus. 2Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Once again God’s wrath against sin will be satisfied.  And God’s purpose is that in Jesus He would punish sin, put to death sin, and by His resurrection overcome sin.  If you remember in the Garden of Eden at the fall, God pronounced a curse upon the earth.  He said in Genesis 3:18 that part of the curse would be that the land would produce thorns and thistles.  Thorns then are a picture of the curse of the fall.  The coarse jesting of the soldiers in placing the crown of thorns upon HIs head, unwittingly played into the magnificent illustration of God, that He would put the curse of sin upon Jesus, that we might be free from sin.  

So as the soldiers hit Him and spit upon Him and revile Him, I can picture Jesus standing there in all of HIs bloody wounds, standing there bravely and purposefully bearing our reproach, that even those who were assaulting Him might go free.  

Isaiah 53:4 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Then Mark tells us in vs20 “After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.”  

The question that I want to leave with you today, is what will you do with Jesus?  You cannot avoid the question.  You cannot avoid making a decision.  If you try to avoid it, then you are really rejecting Him as your Savior and King.  I pray that no one here is like Pilate.  I pray that no one here is like the chief priests, or the soldiers who scorned Him, nor the crowd who hated Him without a cause.  I pray that you would be like Barabbas.  That you would recognize that your sin has condemned you to a just punishment, but that Jesus has taken your punishment upon Himself, that He might grant you life everlasting.  

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior and King, then today I urge you to accept His invitation to enter into His kingdom.  Jesus said in Revelation 22:17  “The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  Come to Jesus today.  He will save you.  Jesus said in[Matt.11:28-30  "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus has taken the burden of our sin upon Himself, that we might be given the righteousness of God.  If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  He can forgive us, because He has paid our penalty.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Come to Jesus today as your Savior and King and receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, resulting in salvation unto life.

Denial of the gospel, Mark 14:66-72

In the passage of scripture we read today, we have seen a tragic picture of the fall of one of Christ’s greatest, most courageous disciples.  Peter, by all accounts, was the foremost of the disciples.  He was first to declare Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.  He was the one to jump in the water to walk on the waves with Christ in a storm.  If he had been a fireman, or a policeman or soldier, he would have always been first through the door.  Peter was a man to look up to.  He was a natural leader.  And yet we see him here falling, falling to the lowest level that anyone could have ever imagined.

It reminds me of the lament that David sang of Saul and Jonathan when they died on the battle field.  David said, “Oh, how have the mighty fallen!” Peter was the mightiest, the most courageous of all the disciples, and yet here he is pictured, denying the Lord three times while Jesus was being tried and beaten just a few yards away.  A tragic figure.  A terrible fall into sin. The old adage seems to be true that the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

The question though, as we see Peter rushing out into the night, weeping bitter tearsl, casting himself to the ground in agony at his lack of faith, the question is, how did Peter get to this point? How did he go from being the foremost disciple, part of Jesus’s inner circle, the leader of the band of 12, how did he end up here lying on the ground in disgrace? 

Well, to understand Peter’s fall, we must go back in the gospel accounts to the first step to his declension.  No one goes from the heights of faith to the pit of despair in just a moment. It’s a progression, a downward slide that may be an almost indiscernible drift at first, but it ends up in shipwreck.  It’s like when I see a homeless person on the streets, caught up in addiction, living in poverty and filth, I have to remind myself not to judge him by the way he looks now.  But remember that once upon a time he was a young boy, running around the neighborhood.  Once he was an innocent child.  And I cannot help but wonder what happened in his life that caused him to end up there?  

So let’s retrace the steps of Peter’s denial.  Because I believe we can show that there was a progression which led him to deny Christ.  And perhaps Peter’s fall might serve as a warning to us, that when we think we stand, let us take heed lest we fall.  If Peter could fall, then we all could fall. And perhaps this lesson learned from Peter might even reveal our own fleshly attitudes and actions which are leading us towards a similar fate, and a similar destination.

The first step in the progression of Peter’s failure of faith is found in vs29.  There we see Peter boasting in himself.  Peter said to Jesus, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.”  The key to what was wrong in Peter’s response to the Lord’s statement that all of them would fall away that night, was not necessarily in his determination not to fall, but in his superior attitude.  Proverbs says that “pride goes before a fall,”  and Peter shows that in his pride he considers himself superior to the other disciples.  They may fall, they may be weak, but I am not.  I’m better than the other disciples.  I don’t have the sinful issues that they might have. 

Paul warned the Corinthians not to compare themselves against one another. 2Cor. 10:12 “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”  As I have said before, when we see another person who is down and out, who is suffering the consequences of bad decisions, our attitude should be, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”  We need to guard against pride.

The real problem that Peter’s answer reveals is that he is trusting in his flesh, in his courage, in his strength of will to accomplish what the others could not do.  But again, Paul writing the Romans tells us not to trust in the flesh.  Rom. 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”  We have to walk in the spirit, to keep from fulfilling the desires of the flesh.  Peter though is boasting in his flesh, in his strength. And that’s a dangerous first step in the wrong direction.

The second step in the progression to backsliding, was that Peter argued with the Lord and with the word of the Lord. Vs.31, “But Peter kept saying insistently, ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And they all were saying the same thing also.”  Notice, he kept on

insisting even after Jesus corrected him.  Jesus said that they would all fall away, then Peter denied it.  Then the Lord specifically told Peter that before the cock crowed twice he would deny Him three times.  And Peter begins to argue with the Lord.  He keeps on insisting. 

It’s a dangerous thing to argue with the Lord. You may say, well I would never do such a thing.  But of course you do that very thing when you argue with God’s word.  When God says, leave something alone, do not touch, we want to argue that it won’t really be a bad thing for us.  We can do it and not be tempted, we can go there and not fall away.  It may happen to others, they may become alcoholics, but not me.  They may fall into sexual sin, but not me.  And so we find ourselves arguing with the Lord.  We think we know ourselves better than our Maker does. 

I’m reminded of what Jesus told Peter earlier; “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.”  It turns out that Satan didn’t have to use some great tool  to turn Peter.  He simply had to use the accusation of a little servant girl, and Peter ’s faith fell like a house of cards.  Because he was dependent upon his own strength. And Satan knows that though our spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.  To rely upon the Spirit, is to walk according to the word of God.  “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11)  And Isaiah 45:9 says, “Woe to him who strives with his Maker!”  If the Lord said it, don’t be foolish enough to go against His wisdom in lieu of your own.  Let God be true, and every man a liar.

The third step in the progression to Peter’s betrayal is that he was sleeping when he should have been praying. Vs.37.  “And Jesus came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”  There is a saying that prevention is worth a pound of cure. And I suggest that the prevention to falling away is prayer.  It’s hard to pray and fall into sin at the same time.

It’s interesting that Mark says that Jesus came to them three times to wake them up from their sleep.  You would think that they would have set themselves on fire in order to stay awake after the first time they fell asleep.  But instead, they seem to have become calloused.  They have no sense of urgency.  They forgot the admonition of Prov. 6:9-11 “How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?  "A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest"--  Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.”  Now in context, Solomon was talking about laziness in regards to work, but it certainly applies as well to spiritual poverty.  Phil.2;12 says we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  Thus Peter writing many years later in his last letter says, “be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.”

There are really only two sources of spiritual strength, prayer and the word of God.  And notice that Jesus puts a great deal of emphasis on prayer as the means of overcoming or resisting temptation. That’s when we confess with our mouth our faith.  That’s when we call upon the Lord to help us to stand, to keep us from falling.  And finally, I can’t help myself on this one, notice that Jesus says, “could you not keep watch for one hour?”  I’m amazed at the excuses that people come up with in regards to coming to church.  One hour a week, and that is too much it seems.  And then we don’t understand why we are having such problems in our lives. Jesus said the church should be a house of prayer.  Peter could have possibly prevented a lifetime of heart ache if he would have just made prayer a priority.  

There is an old song, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus." The one line declares "O what needless pain we bare, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”  Prayer is not just declaring what we want, but submission to what God wants.  Jesus taught us to pray “your will be done.”

Another step in the progression to failure of Peter’s faith, is that in the garden he relies upon physical weapons to fight a spiritual battle. Vs.47, “But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.”  That was Peter, according to the gospel of John.  And we would have expected no less.  They only had two swords among 12 disciples, but you would have expected that Peter made sure he would wear one of them. 

Listen, what happens when we walk in the strength of our flesh, in the wisdom of our mind, rather than in the wisdom of God and the Spirit of God, is that we then find ourselves fighting spiritual battles with fleshly methods.  And not only does that not work, it’s counterproductive to spiritual things.  We may think it makes perfect sense.  We may think we have figured out a method for dealing with a problem, but in the long run, it accomplishes nothing for the faith, or even comes to outright disaster.  

Peter forgets that Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to defend Himself if He had wanted to do that.  This was a pretty large mob, it included not only the temple guards of the high priest, but also a group of Roman soldiers.  Peter’s efforts could have ended up getting him and the rest of the disciples killed.  And the sad part of that is, that it was not God’s will.  It was just the consequences of a headstrong, foolish will on Peter’s part to do things according to what he thought was right.  It’s one thing to suffer for the Lord, it’s another to suffer the consequences of unspiritual thinking.  Peter learned his lesson here though, because many years later he writes; in 1Peter 3:17 “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”

The fact is that what seems natural and logical to us is often not the method of the Lord. Isaiah 55:8-9  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”  And Zechariah 4:6 speaks to that as well, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.”

The fifth step in Peter’s progression to denial is found in vs54, with says Peter followed the Lord at a  distance. “Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.”  After Jesus’s arrest in the garden, Peter fled with all the other disciples.  But then he sort of doubled back and followed the mob back to the high priest’s house.  But whereas in the garden, Peter was right beside the Lord, now he is following at what he thought to be a comfortable, safe distance. 

Listen, there is no safe distance to be from the Lord.  The further you are from the Lord, the more unsafe it is.  If you think you are in a comfortable place with the Lord, then you are about to get a lot more uncomfortable.  James said, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”  But we often think that we don’t want to end up looking like a religious nut, so we find ourselves a comfortable distance from the Lord, where we think we are still close enough to hear Him and see Him, but not too close for comfort, and not so close as to bring undue scrutiny upon ourselves by the world.  We follow at a distance when our hearts are not fully given to the Lord.  We think we are ok being half way.  But that’s a dangerous place to be.

The truth is, we need to be as close as in the same yoke with the Lord if we are going to have any safety.  It’s much safer to be close to the Lord than close to the world.  The world is hostile towards you, if you are a Christian.  Satan is your mortal enemy and looking for an opportunity to strike you, to sift you like wheat.  And when you start hanging near the back of the herd, and then straggling a few dozen yards behind everyone else, the devil’s ears prick up and he begins to stalk you, looking for the right moment to pounce.  But poor old Peter has to learn the hard way.  His prideful confidence regarding his own resources is his downfall, and already he has started to pick up the pace in his descent.

The devil is always going to tempt you to think that you can go over there and still be ok.  You can do this and still be a Christian.  He uses the allure of the world to lure you further and further from being in communion with the Lord.  It reminds me of the story of a rich man that was hiring a new chauffeur to drive his limousine.  And so he came up with a test course to see how well each applicant could drive.  And the course near his mansion had a hairpin curve around a mountain, with a sharp cliff off the side of the road.  The first driver drove his car pretty fast around the curve, and got within a few feet of the guardrail without skidding out.  The second driver decided he needed to outdo the first, so he went even faster and got within a foot of the edge of the road, and he made it fine.  The third driver drove very slowly around the curve, and he stayed as far away as possible from the edge of the road.  Well, the rich man hired the last driver.  He had no interest in seeing how close he could come to running off the road.  He wanted a driver that would stay as far away as possible from danger.

Now that’s the attitude that we need to have.  When we want to see how close to the world we can get and not end up in trouble, then we are playing right into the devil’s hands.  Our desire should  not be to see how close we can live to this world, but how close we can live to Jesus.

Finally, we see Peter warming himself and sharing a fire with the Lord’s enemies. Psalms 1:1 tells us that there is a progression to falling away from the Lord.  It says, “Blessed [is] the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”  Notice that he starts off walking in the counsel of the ungodly, then standing in the path of sinners, then finally sitting in the seat of the scornful.  Peter made the same mistakes.  He walked afar off.  He stood near the fire.  Then finally he is seated with and sharing the fire with the very men that are enemies the Lord.

Trying to find companionship and warmth in the things of the world is always a sign of having moved away from the warmth of His love.  And when we find ourselves sitting by the fire of the world, we find ourselves dangerously close to the denial of our Lord.  James 4:4 “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  

Peter found himself sitting by the fire of the enemies of Christ, the very servants of the high priests who would strike the Lord repeatedly as He was blindfolded, and without realizing it he had put himself in a position to readily deny the Lord, not just once, but three times.

Yet I am sure that none of us today would think that we would ever deny the Lord.  Oh, everyone else may deny the Lord, but I never will.  Yet we may already have denied the Lord either by our words or our actions.  We have denied HIs word, by not doing what He says.  We have denied Him by refusing to spend time with Him in prayer as He desires.  We deny Him by the way we talk, or the way we act when we are around the world.

Notice, that the more the enemies by the fire accused Peter of being with the Lord, the more incensed he became, until he finally begins to curse and swear.  Now cursing and swearing can be a sign of a heart that is far from the Lord, but I don’t think Peter was necessarily saying curse words.  The commentators tell us that Peter was swearing by God, and pronouncing a curse upon himself if he was not telling the truth, that he did not know the Lord.  That’s really a lot worse than saying a couple of swear words.  It’s hard to imagine Peter falling that far, that fast.  Yet as we saw, it really wasn’t an immediate thing.  It was a downhill slide that started some time before with an attitude of pride.

I think Mark is careful to point out the contrast between Jesus speaking under oath in the inner courtroom and Peter's oath in the courtyard. Jesus said he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and Peter denied that he knew Jesus at all.  If there is anything good that comes out of this situation, it is that Peter’s pride was broken that night.  He realized when the cock crowed the second time that what Jesus had prophesied concerning him had come true.  His spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.  Luke tells us that when the cock crowed, Jesus looked at Peter.  And I’m sure that look broke his heart, because Mark tells us that he ran out and wept.  

Sometimes, God has to break us before He can use us.  I heard the story of a famous conductor who had written a beautiful song, and a  young woman was chosen to sing it in his presence at a rehearsal.  The woman was very talented, and she sang the song perfectly.  But when the friends of the conductor asked him what he thought of her rendition, he said, “She will be great when something happens to break her heart.”  

In the life of faith, whereby we walk by faith and not by sight, it is not enough to simply believe with your mind the facts of Jesus’s life.  But  a necessary component to faith is repentance, and that comes not simply from sorrow, but from brokenness over your sinfulness.  Recognizing as Paul said, that there is nothing good in you.  And yet the Lord still loves you, and has died for you, so that He might purchase you for His own.  Brokenness is the key to usefulness. Brokenness is realizing that the flesh is worthless.  Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Even Peter’s professed love for the Lord was not able to sustain him in his time of trial because he was dependent upon his flesh, on human abilities and human resources, to carry him through. In the hour of crisis, even love was not really effective in keeping him close to the Lord. Love and loyalty and determination mean nothing when they rest on the shaky foundation of the  human will.  Our steadfastness is not dependent upon our will power, but on the power of the Holy Spirit, who works in us through prayer and the word of God. 

When I look at the lives of many Christians today, I am afraid for them because they depend upon the flesh.  They exhibit sentimentalism instead of sacrificial love. They evaluate spiritual things with worldly appraisals. They propose fleshly methods for dealing with spiritual problems. But God choses to work in the Spirit, which is contrary to the flesh.  Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  

But we bring the flesh into the church, we bring the world into the church, and like Peter slashing with the sword, we try to fight spiritual battles with worldly weapons.  And like Peter, it leads to our spiritual destruction.  That’s why Paul could say, that he gloried in his weakness.  Notice he doesn’t say he gloried in his sinfulness.  He was not glad he was weak, but in recognition of his weakness he knew his dependency was in Christ.  And so he dared not stray from  closeness to Christ.

Paul goes on to say in 2Cor. 12:5, 9-10  “On behalf of such a man I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. ... 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”  The source to our spiritual strength is our utter dependence upon Christ dwelling in me and my fellowship with Him through prayer and through His word.

The late Paul Harvey used to end his popular radio broadcasts by saying, “And now you know the rest of the story…”  The chapter ends with Peter going out and weeping bitter tears at denying Christ.  But I want to just leave you with the rest of the story.  Jesus, after being resurrected, made a special  private visit to Peter in order to restore him to Himself again.  And then, one more time before His ascension, Jesus made another appearance as Peter and the disciples were fishing, and this time Jesus publicly restored Peter not only to fellowship with Him, but usefulness to the kingdom. Once Peter recognized his weakness, and repented of his pride and self sufficiency, then the Lord could use him.

The good news is, that if you have seen in yourself some parallel today in the life of Peter, you recognize that you have started slipping away from fellowship with the Lord, then there is the invitation of Christ to be renewed and restored to usefulness.  And that starts with repentance.  David, who also fell away and by his actions denied the Lord, prayed a prayer of repentance in Psalm 51, 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ... 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. ... 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

The Lord is willing to forgive and restore those who come to Him in faith and repentance.