Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/65213/peter-denies-jesus/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] And we are in Mark chapter 14. We're actually going to finish up that chapter today. Mark 14 is quite a long chapter. You know, when the Bible was written, it wasn't written with chapters and verses, but those were added after the fact, right, to make things a little bit more convenient to find.

[0:18] You know, the Bible's a big book, so it makes it a little bit easier to reference different parts, different passages. But it can be difficult to know where to do the next chapter. And so I guess whoever decided how we were going to mix these up as far as chapters, they made chapter 14 quite a long one.

[0:38] But so today we're going to focus on Peter, the character of Peter. We've been looking at the last, really the last night of Jesus' life here before he goes to the cross.

[0:50] And his interaction, we looked at the last supper that he had with his disciples, celebrating that Passover meal. And then Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his own, one of the 12.

[1:06] And then last week we looked at Jesus in the garden, the garden of Gethsemane, and the anguish and travail that he experienced there in preparing for the cross.

[1:17] Through this whole storyline, Peter plays a big role. And if you're familiar with the Gospels, Peter seems to be one of the most frequently, he's an outspoken, he's one of the most outspoken and frequently referenced of the 12 apostles, the 12 disciples.

[1:39] You know, several of the disciples actually only get one reference in the whole of Scripture. Peter. And that's the reference of just listing them out. A few others get more references, but I think Peter, and I haven't, I didn't look this up or anything, but just from what I've read, it seems like Peter gets the most attention, both for good and for ill.

[2:02] You know, I wonder, you know, when you get to heaven and meet Peter, what he's going to think about all that. But I'm sure he'd be grateful for all that we have been able to learn from his life, both in the things that he did well and the things that he did poorly, which we'll be looking at today.

[2:22] We're going to be looking at Peter's denial, him denying the Lord three times. And then we're just going to consider what was going on there, looking at his boasting, his overconfidence.

[2:35] And then ultimately looking, actually a few days later, we're not going to just stop there, we're going to look a few days later when Jesus took an opportunity to really restore Peter in a very special way.

[2:48] So let's go ahead and read this. This is what we usually do. We're going to read through the passage we're studying today and then talk through it. I'm going to give some details about what we're reading through after we read through it, and then we're just going to talk about this passage.

[3:00] So starting in verse 68. Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, remember that Peter had followed Jesus after his arrest. He followed at a distance, but he was following Jesus.

[3:13] And they came to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, which is where he was interrogated. But it says this, Now as Peter was in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came.

[3:26] And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying.

[3:40] And he went out on the porch, and a rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, This is one of them.

[3:52] But he denied it again. And a little later, those who stood by said of Peter again, Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.

[4:06] Then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. A second time, the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him.

[4:22] Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And when he thought about it, he wept. So Peter, like I said, had followed the Lord after his arrest, but at a safe distance.

[4:43] He had fled along with the other 12. Fled from those people who were coming to arrest Jesus. Just to kind of put in our memory what had gone on before, if you go back, and we'll just read this in chapter 14, what had happened as far as Jesus predicting, or really foretelling, not necessarily predicting, but foretelling, what would come shortly.

[5:12] And if we look at verse 20, starting with verse 27, then Jesus said to them, this is right after the Passover meal, or the Lord's Supper, then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night.

[5:30] For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

[5:40] And Peter said to him, even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be. Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you, that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

[5:59] But he spoke more vehemently, if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said likewise. So Jesus took this opportunity to tell all of his disciples, you are going to stumble this night.

[6:13] And he quoted a scripture because this is something, this was a prophetic thing, this was something that was intended to happen, that they would stumble, that Jesus would go to the cross, abandoned and alone.

[6:28] Not that God was somehow putting it in their hearts necessarily to run away, but God knows the weakness of men. And Jesus told them, this is what's going to happen.

[6:41] And we see Peter here, really boasting, right? Hey, if everybody else falls away, I won't. He had a lot of confidence.

[6:54] And as we have seen here, in this, just really a few hours later, a misplaced confidence. As we, and we've already looked at this, but just to bring up again, also just a little bit before, Jesus had gone to the Garden of Gethsemane, right?

[7:13] To pray. Right before his arrest. And he had asked, at least the three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, to wait here, the Bible says, just a stone's throw away, while I go over here to pray.

[7:29] And I want you to watch. I know it's late, and I know we've had a long week, but I want you to stay up, and watch, and pray. And he went off to pray.

[7:40] Who knows for how long? It's not quite, quite evident, but, I guess he does say, could you not watch and pray for one hour?

[7:52] So maybe that's how long he prayed, but, for, for at least some amount of time. He went back to his disciples, to check on, and check in on them. I think it was three times.

[8:03] And each time he came back, and, they were sleeping. not watching and praying, as he had asked them. So already, after, after Peter's boastful, confidence, his, overconfidence, he's already failing, and showing the weakness, of his own, of his own flesh.

[8:28] Jesus said, you know, the spirit is willing, but the flesh, it is weak. So, but looking back, at these scriptures, that we're looking at, today, verse 66, now as Peter was, below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls, of the high priest came.

[8:47] So again, this is the home of Caiaphas, he was the high priest, at the time. Like I said, I think it was last week, many, archaeologists, I guess, believe, that they know exactly, where this house is, and you can actually, go to it, today.

[9:02] There's evidence, that there was this mansion, right there, in Jerusalem, and there is a, a basement, or, which might consider, a dungeon of sorts, where there are, indications, that people would be shackled, as prisoners.

[9:19] And this is where Jesus, was taken, for his trial, at least his trial, before the Jewish authorities. Later, he'll be taken, to stand before, the Roman authorities. But he has this interaction, and this interaction, is not with some big, soldier, armed, to the teeth, with sword, and, whatever else.

[9:41] But he has an interaction, with, a young servant girl. And, she seems to recognize him. Now, as Peter is, he's warming himself, the Bible says here, at this fire, in the courtyard.

[9:57] And so, who knows, what's going through his mind, but he wants to, see what's going to happen. Is there anything, that I can do? I'm scared, but, maybe I can, work up enough courage, to maybe, do something, about all this.

[10:13] But as he was, warming himself, by the fire, down in the courtyard, as Jesus was being, interrogated, this young girl, this servant girl, servant of the high priest, was there.

[10:25] And maybe Peter thought, you know, this is a big city. Now, the last few days, or the last week, Jesus, with his disciples, had been causing a lot of ruckus, throughout the city, right? Jesus teaching him, confronting the Jewish leaders.

[10:39] And so, a lot of people, knew who they were, but this is a city of, there was a hundred, hundred thousand people there. That's a, that's a big place, with, especially at this time, right?

[10:49] There's all kinds of people, going around, they're there for the Passover. And so, so many people everywhere. So, you know, when you're in a big city, right? With lots of people everywhere, you can go, you can walk through the entire city, and not, even though you might know, a hundred people in the city, you might never meet any of them.

[11:08] And, nobody may recognize, who you are. And so, he was, I'm sure, looking for some anonymity, but this, uh, young servant girl, she seemed to recognize him.

[11:21] And she said, you also were with Jesus, of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know, nor understand, what you are saying. And then he went on, he went out on the porch, and then a rooster, crowed.

[11:37] So, she recognized him, and he denied it, and he decided, you know what, I need to move locations here. Somebody seems to, have recognized me. So, I'm going to move to another location, where, um, I can get away from her prying eyes.

[11:54] But, despite that move, it says, and the servant girl, saw him again. Maybe she was roaming around the courtyard, for some reason. Maybe she was doing, you know, it's interesting, because this is the middle of the night.

[12:06] I mean, this is midnight, to maybe two in the morning, when this is happening. And, um, so, I know it is the Passover, and maybe there's things that she's doing, but she's walking around the courtyard, it seems, and she goes and finds him on the porch, I guess.

[12:20] And she says, she doesn't just say to him, I recognize you, but this time, hey everybody, I recognize this guy. This is one, one of Jesus' followers.

[12:34] And it's that time, that the first rooster crowed, or the rooster crowed the first time. Or sorry, that was the, that was what happened before.

[12:47] And so, um, this is one of them, but he denied it again, and a little later, those who stood by, said to Peter again, surely, you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech, shows it.

[13:03] And so, after being kind of exposed, by this young girl, people got curious, and they, they said, I think she's right. Because this guy's not from around here, he's from Galilee.

[13:16] And Galilee, that's where Jesus has been doing, all of his, ministry, all these three years. Most of his time anyway, he's, he's been to Jerusalem a few times, but most of his, ministry has been up, in Galilee.

[13:28] And most of his followers, are Galileans. And notice how they recognized his, his speech. Uh, he had an accent. And you might think, well, that's strange.

[13:41] Why would, you know, it's only really a few days journey, from, from Jerusalem, to the region of Galilee. How could people have different accents? But you know, uh, this is actually, very common at the time, uh, when you lived, even just a few days apart, even if you spoke the same language, your speech would be very unique, and different.

[14:00] You know, we watched a movie, uh, recently, uh, based in London. I'm trying to remember the name of it. My Fair Lady. Has anybody ever seen that? My Fair Lady. It's a musical. And, um, the professor something or other, he teaches this, um, this young girl, she's a flower girl, how to speak properly.

[14:21] And, uh, but part of the, part of the movie is, he's, he, as a, as a linguist of some kind of, uh, degree, he, he is able to recognize people's speech, and he can tell them what street they live on in London.

[14:34] I'm not sure exactly how, uh, accurate that is, but, especially back during that time, there were, I don't know how many, but, maybe up to a dozen different, not dialects, but just accents, uh, in, in one city.

[14:52] And so, one of the things that has caused that to change in our day, is that we have, is telecommunication. We can talk to each other over the phone, all the, you know, people all the way across the world, and so our culture is kind of homogenized in that way, because, you know, we watch movies and television, and talk to people over the phone, and listen to the radio, and so we have kind of, all of our speech patterns have kind of become more similar.

[15:17] And we have a few accents, right, you go to the south, and you'll find some southern accents, and you go to the north, and people will say, use guys in New Jersey, and those kinds of things, and I love those kinds of differences.

[15:29] I, I really wish we didn't lose, um, those kinds of things, but, that's the way things go. But anyway, in Galilee, they spoke a different way, and so as he's making these denials, they listen to his speech, and, wait, that's a Galilean accent.

[15:48] And it says this, then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. doesn't that sound, uh, vehement?

[16:04] And didn't he, just a few hours ago, speak, so vehemently? With his cursing and swearing, you know, when we read that, we might think that he was using four-letter words, or something like that, and that's a naughty thing to do, Peter, but, um, I don't know if they had four-letter words back then, or not, but, uh, cursing and swearing in, in this context, in a biblical context, is not like what we would maybe consider it today.

[16:35] The ESV has a good translation, I think, that brings it out a little bit better. The ESV says that he began to invoke a curse on himself. And so when you see cursings in the Bible, you're either cursing somebody else, or sometimes cursing yourself.

[16:52] And not necessarily like, I curse myself, but saying things, and in this context, I think this is almost certainly what happened, that I should be cursed if I'm lying to you.

[17:05] God curse me if I'm telling a lie. I swear to you, I do not know this man.

[17:19] Vehement. And it was at that time, as soon as he said that, with all the vehemence that he could muster, that there was the, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

[17:42] And the rooster crowed. And it made Peter think about what Jesus had said. Before the rooster crows twice, he will deny me three times.

[17:53] and when he thought about it, he wept. One of the good things here that we see, right, is some sorrow.

[18:07] Peter wept and even a godly sorrow. You know, there are many people who are happy to deny the Lord without any sorrow.

[18:28] We'll see kind of where this sorrow goes in just a moment. But I want to talk about a few things when it comes to this character of Peter that God himself decided to put this account in the Bible for our learning, that we might learn something.

[18:45] So what can we take away from this? You know, Peter had many reasons to be confident. Peter was a bold person.

[18:58] He was, by everything that I can see, the spokesperson for the 12 disciples. Whenever they had something to say to Jesus and everybody else was nervous, it was Peter.

[19:11] He would speak on behalf of the 12. He had left everything. He had left his fishing job and his business to follow Jesus.

[19:24] He had experienced many dangers following Jesus. In fact, he had even been given a miracle-working ministry by Jesus to go out.

[19:36] Jesus had sent him out along with the other 12 and they went two by two and they performed miracles. They healed people and they cast out demonic spirits and they preached the gospel of the kingdom.

[19:50] In fact, he was one of the 12 and not just one of the 12, really, he was the top tier of these 12 disciples. And so if anyone had reason to be confident that he would stand true, it was Peter.

[20:11] You know, and there are things, reasons why we might be confident in ourselves, why we would never deny the Lord or do anything to bring shame to his name.

[20:26] I mean, I think many of us can think back to times in our past where we were bold for Jesus. We spoke up when others didn't.

[20:43] We might think, you know, I, before I became a Christian, I had some sins in my life, but since that time, you know, it's been 10 years since I got drunk.

[20:56] Or committed fornication or whatever it might be. I've overcome those things. Or you know what? I grew up in a Christian family.

[21:08] Other people might, might fail the Lord, but not me. I come from good stock. You know what?

[21:18] I go to church every Sunday. I don't just go to any church. I don't go to one of those liberal churches. I go to a conservative church. I go to Grace Bible Church. I have every confidence that no matter what comes my way, I'm going to stand bold for Jesus.

[21:36] Paul, when talking to the Corinthians, we're talking about Peter here, but Paul comes in later.

[21:50] He was also one who, at a previous time anyway, had found confidence in his own flesh, but he writes so much about the folly and doing that.

[22:04] In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, he says this to the Corinthians. He says, let him who thinks that he stand, take heed lest he fall.

[22:19] Don't be so confident that you can stand. Take heed because a fall might just be around the corner, especially if that's where you're putting your confidence.

[22:35] In Philippians 3, as we talked about with Paul, if you can turn there, Philippians 3. Paul tells us why he has every reason to be confident in his own flesh, just like maybe many of us would be.

[23:03] verse 3, for we, he's talking about we as the Jews, are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh.

[23:19] He's saying, even myself as a Jewish person, I really don't have any reason to put confidence, at least not in the flesh. Verse 4, though I also might have confidence in the flesh.

[23:33] If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I'm more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. Hey, I come from good stock, the people of God, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and concerning the law, a Pharisee.

[23:54] I was a teacher of the law. Isn't that something we can put our confidence in? Hey, I'm a pastor. I'm a Bible study leader.

[24:10] Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. My history to this point has been stellar.

[24:22] I have done such a good job keeping the commandments. But then he says this, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

[24:38] Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith.

[25:04] See, Paul learned that there's no, that strength does not come through keeping the law, keeping the commandments, that we can't put our confidence in those things because our flesh is weak.

[25:24] And so where does he say that he puts his confidence and that we should put our confidence in Christ? And what does that mean anyway?

[25:35] What does it mean to put your confidence in Christ? Well, one, and the first thing that he brings out here, and let me read it again, but what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

[26:00] And here it is, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith. Instead of looking to his righteousness and boasting in his righteousness, or in his faithfulness to the Lord, I will never deny you, he's looking to put his confidence and his boasting only in the righteousness of God.

[26:32] And that's the gift that God has given to all of us. This is something we've been studying. In fact, this Monday night we're going to be specifically looking at this aspect of our identity in Christ.

[26:43] That we stand righteous not because of what we do, not because of what we've accomplished, not because of what we overcome, but because Jesus identifies us, God identifies us as righteous because we trust and put our confidence in him.

[27:03] Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, what does it say? For by grace we have been saved through faith. Not of ourselves, but it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest what?

[27:16] Lest any man should boast. God's not interested in boasting. He's not interested in Peter's boasting about what he's going to do. He's interested in Peter looking to him and to put his life and his confidence in him.

[27:33] The other thing that we can do to put our confidence in Christ is to look to him and his word to renew our minds. Renew our minds with the word of God.

[27:49] Don't think that we've arrived. Hey, I've got enough. I know all the Ten Commandments and I've read all the scriptures. I've even memorized hundreds of them. I've got it all figured out.

[28:03] You know, we deceive ourselves when we think that the corruption that is in the world that has infested our minds and our thinking that we have overcome all those things.

[28:15] And I don't know about you, but I'm constantly finding things in my thinking that just stinks. It's not right. It's not true. It's not biblical.

[28:26] It comes from the world. And I need to constantly renew my mind with the word of God to think like he thinks. And then the last thing as far as putting our confidence in Christ is exactly what Jesus told his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, to do in the garden.

[28:48] And what was that? Watch and pray. Well, what does that mean? Watch and pray. Do the same thing that Jesus was doing as we talked about last week.

[29:02] Jesus was going through a trial. And what was he doing? He was drawing near to his father. And that's what he was telling his disciples to do, to draw near to God, to look for his help.

[29:19] And that's what it means for us to put our confidence in Christ, to look to him day in and day out, to be our great, to be a help and to offer grace in times of need.

[29:38] And you know what? We can even have confidence in Christ even when we fall. Did you know that? Not just before we fall, but even after.

[29:54] You know, this isn't the end of Peter's story. I will say this if we go back to Mark, Mark 14.

[30:06] This is really the last we hear of Peter until what? Until the resurrection. Peter, here, he shows godly sorrow.

[30:19] He weeps knowing that he just denied his Lord three times. But, what does he do? Does he renew his strength and go after Jesus?

[30:35] He flees. He's not there when Jesus is crucified. crucified. There's at least one apostle or one disciple that we know was there at the cross.

[30:45] Who was that? John, right? We see that, I think, in the book of John, the gospel of John. But there's no mention of Peter. Jesus didn't have any support or comfort from Peter when he died on the cross.

[31:03] He abandoned them. He abandoned Jesus through all of his suffering. But there's this passage, let's look at it, John chapter 21.

[31:16] Turn to John chapter 21. It's the very last chapter of John. Go to the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and find the very last chapter.

[31:31] Peter. We'll start with verse 15. Jesus has this interaction with Peter.

[31:44] So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And Peter said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

[31:58] Jesus said to him, feed my lambs. And then he said to him again, and I'm not sure how much longer later, if it was immediately after or a few minutes, I'm not sure.

[32:12] But he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? I'm sure he was wondering, what, I just, you just asked me this question.

[32:27] But he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend to my sheep. Then he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

[32:45] Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And I wonder why he was grieved. Did he realize what was going on?

[32:58] did he realize the connection here? That just as he had denied Jesus three times, he was asked by Jesus three times, do you love me?

[33:17] And he said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, Peter, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished.

[33:31] But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. That's a funny thing. What's he talking about? Well, John tells us, this he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God.

[33:48] And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. This is an opportunity for Jesus to one, restore Peter, right?

[34:02] I don't know what kind of interactions. This isn't the first interaction that Jesus had with Peter after his resurrection. We know that he had met with Peter before this.

[34:15] But these piercing questions, that I think brought to light Peter's failure, and really what his need was to love the Lord.

[34:27] And you know, for Jesus to ask him this, it sounds like you're questioning my love for you. And I'm sure when Peter spoke and he said, yes, Lord, I love you, I'm sure it's true that he does love the Lord.

[34:46] he's speaking the truth. But he needed to recognize just how weak his own love for the Lord was.

[34:59] And I think that's what the Lord was doing. Notice the first question that Jesus asked, do you love me more than these? I mean, it goes right in with what Peter had done.

[35:11] Even if everybody else falls away, not I. And what should Peter have said? Did he respond correctly?

[35:22] Did he respond the right way? Yes, Lord, I love you. It's not wrong, right? We all should tell the Lord that we love him. But how about this?

[35:33] Yes, Lord, I love you, but not nearly as much as I ought to. I think what Peter still needs to learn, even after this, you know, as we mature and grow, we have maybe big events like this that Peter experienced.

[35:54] Does that mean that we have this huge jump in maturity? No, we just usually, as we grow as Christians, we take baby steps.

[36:06] And Peter, himself, is taking baby steps. He still has things to learn. And I think the lesson that Peter needed to still learn here is a lesson that we all need to learn. And that lesson is this, that we don't love God.

[36:22] And we don't love one another. At least, not nearly as much as we ought. And we need to recognize that.

[36:35] But we can love God more than we do now. And we should grow in our love for Him and our love for one another. You know how we do that?

[36:46] Is it by boasting about our love and our goodness and our virtue and our good stock? No.

[36:57] It's by looking to the Lord for His grace and help in our time of need. love and love. By what Jesus said, by abiding in His love, by abiding in Him.

[37:11] 1 John 4.10 says this, in this is love. This is what John says love is. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to die for our sins.

[37:26] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We have the ability, the strength, the motivation, the inspiration to love Him and to love others, not because we pulled something out of ourselves, but because He loved us so much and poured His love.

[37:47] The Bible uses the phrase, He shed His love abroad in our hearts, that we can in turn love others just as He loved us, that we can in turn love Him just as He loved us.

[38:05] In the book, in the Gospel of John, Jesus said this to His disciples, I am the vine, you are the branches, and he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. So if you abide in Him, if you live your life in Him, you'll bear lots of fruit.

[38:21] But He said this, for without me you can do nothing. In your own strength you can't do the things that you really do think that you can do, but you can't.

[38:33] And then a few verses later, John 15, 9, As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. Abide in my love.

[38:47] And that's where we put our confidence. So what happened after this? Peter has all these lessons that he learns. How did he do after this? Did he grow? Well, we read through the book of Acts, we see some of the things that Peter did as he served the Lord.

[39:05] We definitely see some growth. And I think because he learned not to put confidence in himself, but to put his confidence in Christ. He suffered persecution, he was bold for the Lord.

[39:19] The Bible kind of ends abruptly in the book of Acts. If you ever read the book of Acts, it seems to just stop in the middle of a story. We don't know what happened to Peter for sure, but there are, we call them early church fathers, early historians, Eusebius in particular was his name, who wrote about what happened to Peter and says that Peter, during the reign of Nero, was crucified just like Jesus, except in one different way.

[39:47] He was asked, or he asked or made the request that when you crucify me, would you crucify me upside down because I'm not worthy to die in the same way as my Lord.

[40:02] I think his love grew, didn't it? And we have opportunities in our Christian life for our love to grow. each and every day we want to see our love grow.

[40:17] And it's not through the arm of the flesh, through pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, but daily looking to the Lord for his grace and his help in our time of need.

[40:30] And when do we need the Lord? All the time. And in fact, there's a hymn. What's that hymn? I need thee every hour. I need thee every hour.

[40:43] O precious Lord. I don't know the rest of the words of the song. We should sing that one sometime. Hebrews 4.14, this is what we'll end with.

[40:57] I would like to end with a song, one of the ones we sang today. Oh, how I love Jesus. But Hebrews 4.14, we actually referenced this last week, but it bears repeating.

[41:08] Hebrews 4.14 says this, seeing then that we have a great high priest, talking about Jesus, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet he was without sin.

[41:27] He is one that knows our every weakness, and we can go to him with confidence and with love, and with joy, even after we failed, like Peter.

[41:42] It says this, verse 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help him in time of need. We need him all the time.

[41:54] Don't wait until you're in dire straits, until temptation is right at your door, to come to him. We need him every hour. We need to come to the throne of grace in prayer, asking for his help and his grace every single day.

[42:11] Amen. Let's sing that song, and we'll just sing the chorus, I guess. Oh, how I love Jesus. Let's see if I can get the key right. Oh, how I love Jesus.

[42:23] Am I doing that right? Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me.

[42:37] One more time. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus.

[42:52] Why? Because he first loved me. Amen. Let's pray. Father, you loved us first, and you shed your love abroad in our hearts, and we look to you, not just years ago when we came to you and trusted in you for our salvation, but we look to you every single day, and we need your help, Father, even to remind us to look to you every single day for help in our time of need, that we would live our lives in union with you, loving you, enjoying you, praying to you, trusting in your promises, reading your word, renewing our minds, may our lives be transformed by our abiding in you, and teach us how to do that better and better every single day, in Jesus' name.

[43:53]  Amen. Amen.