The Book of Mark #96 chapter 14:66-72
The Book of Mark
Peter's Denial
(A Warning About Self-Confidence)
Mark 14:66-72
 
We open to the fourteenth chapter of Mark and a portion of Scripture from verses 66 through 72 that is a fulfilled prophecy. In fact, Jesus predicted this would happen on more than one occasion, and, in fact, when Peter denied the Lord, it happened just exactly the way the Lord said it would,
 
Now one of the fundamental teachings of scripture is the depravity of man.  That means we have a fallen nature and that nature is absolute.  It touches every area of our life.  We also understand we are saved.  But our salvation is wrapped up in this fallen flesh and there is a constant struggle going on between the two. 
 
We are not fully redeemed yet. We have experienced the redemption of the soul, but not the redemption of the body. We still are human. We still are locked in to fallen human flesh. And because of that there is a very keen awareness of our sinfulness and the evil that is at work in us.  That is what caused the Apostle Paul to make that gut-wrenching statement  of, “O wretched man that I am. Inwardly I desire holy things, I long for righteous things, but there are other principles operating in me which drag me in the direction of sin.”
 
And because of that, we can never trust ourselves to do the right thing in and of ourselves.  We might pull it off some of the time, but given enough time, we’ll mess up. 
I say all of that as a warning.  To trust ourselves is to put ourselves at risk and to live in a very dangerous place.  And that is exactly the experience of Peter. He learned the lesson of the deadly consequence of self-confidence, and we need to learn it as well.
 
Let’s look at the text
 
verses 66-72
 
Now remember, this is the same Peter who said, “To whom shall we go? You and You alone have the words of eternal life.” This is the one who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is Peter, the great leader, the great preacher. How in the world can this happen? After all, he is a believer.  He is an Apostle, on eof the original twelve.  We expect it from Judas, but not Peter. 
 
But keep in mind, this is not just a momentary slipup.  There is a danger in reading Scripture that we sometimes think the things we are reading about happen at the speed we are reading. But that is a wrong assumption.   His denials are strung out over two hours and the first one was a shock and a surprise, but the next two were pre-meditated responses. 
 
This is all taking place as Jesus is on trial before Annas and Caiaphas.  So what we have here is the sub-plot, a concurrent story line as Christ is seen in glorious triumph, speaking honestly knowing it will cost Him His life as Peter speaks dishonestly trying to preserve his life.
 
 
So how can something like this happen?  How can someone as bold and brazen and vocal as Peter wind up denying the Lord?  Well, let’s walk through it with him and see what we can learn. 
 
First, we’ll look at the story, then we’ll talk about its implications. The story begins with
 
  1. Foolish Confidence
 
Now Peter has not yet learned all the lessons that Paul will eventually right about.  We have the benefit of reading Romans 7 and the struggle of the two natures and Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the flesh. He didn’t have all the information yet. 
 
He just knew Jesus had changed his life. He had preached with power. He had healed people. He had cast out demons because the Lord had delegated that power to him. He had witnessed that power at work in the life of Jesus and he knew something was going on that allowed that power to transferred to the others and him. 
 
What he didn’t realize, maybe even as fully as do we, is that our fallenness still has a way of affecting our decisions and responses.  And as a result, there has developed within him this foolish confidence. 
 
You begin to see that early on.  We’ve already heard him saying things like, “Lord, I’m ready to die for you. Others may deny you, but not me. You know, Lord, most of the time You know what You’re talking about.  You’re really good on the Kingdom. You’re great on salvation. 
But You just don’t have a clue how strong I am. You’re right about everything else, but You’re wrong about me.”
 
In fact, go the Garden and you’ll find Peter sleeping like a baby because of his confidence.  There is no need to watch and pray as the Lord instructed.  He’s got everything under control.  And if you don’t believe it, just watch him take out his sword and attack a man with 1,000 to 12 odds against him.  
 
In his mind, he is invincible. In his mind, he will be faithful. But he is dangerously, foolishly overconfident.
 
One must wonder if he ever thought about Proverbs 16:18 which says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Or in later years ever thought about his own life as he read First Corinthians 10:12, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.”
 
 Peter is a good man who loves the Lord.  He has a tremendous desire to be obedient.  His inner man longs to give honor to Christ.  But he fails to understand the power of his remaining flesh. And his foolish confidence leads to
 
  1. Failing Cowardice
 
verse 66
 
Now just to set the scene, remember, Jesus is taken bound to the house of Annas at about one o’clock in the morning. Annas is the former high priest so he’s the patriarch of the priestly family. He had been a high priest years before.
The Romans had removed him and he had been replaced by four sons of his in succession, and now Caiaphas was a son-in-law. But he was the brains and power behind this priestly high priestly family.
 
It is most likely that Annas and Caiaphas lived in close proximity to each other in the family compound.  There were probably separate living quarters with a massive courtyard connecting all the buildings. 
 
It is in this environment in which Peter’s denials take place. All three denials occur in the same location, but they occur over a period of two hours. From reading the eighteenth chapter of John, the first one appears to have occurred when Jesus was before Annas, and the latter two when He was shifted over before Caiaphas.
 
In fact, it may be that the first occurred when He was before Annas, the second occurred when He was before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and the third actually occurred just about the time that trial ended and Jesus was walking or being escorted bound back across the courtyard.
 
Mark has all three of them in this one passage and puts them where they belong in the courtyard of the house of these high priests.
 
Now as we see Peter, I think it not surprising that he is there.  Obviously, he loves the Lord.  He’s gone on record and he’s just trying to have some integrity.
 
This compound would have been surrounded by a wall with entrance through a gate that was guarded by a gatekeeper. 
By the way, John records that Peter and another disciple followed the entourage that arrested Jesus to the house of Caipahas, but Peter couldn’t get in until John arrived. John was known by the family of the High Priest and John got them to open the door and let Peter in. Unwittingly, John contributed to Peter’s terrible, tragic denials.
 
So now Peter’s on the inside. He’s not right next to Jesus. In fact, when it says in verse 66 of Mark 14 was that Peter was below in the courtyard.  Most likely there were a couple of levels of buildings and Peter is down on ground level. 
 
Luke 22:54 tells us that Peter was following at a distance. Matthew says he was afar off. He was keeping his distance. He was caught between fear and faith. He was caught between love and terror, between courage and cowardice. And he was there  to find out where was this going to go, what were they going to do with Jesus, to see the outcome of the trials.
 
And it is in that situation that he is exposed. He’s in the courtyard and one of the servant girls in verse 66 who served the High Priest came.
 
And Peter is caught completely off guard.  He is simply standing by the fire to get warm along with some of the Roman soldiers and the temple police who arrested and brought Jesus there. Most likely there are others there as well, so he’s kind of mixing and mingling with the crowd, trying to blend in. 
 
But according to verse 67, this servant girl, who John says is the one who opened the gate to let them in, sees Peter warming himself by the fire.
And the Bible says here in verse 67, “She looked at him”.  Luke says, “She stared at him.” It’s not a glance.  She’s looking to see if this isn’t somebody that she recognized.
 
Remember that for the week leading up to the arrest, Jesus had pretty much spent His days in the temple surrounded by His disciples and everybody associated with the High Priest and his family knew about them and where they were because they were making quite a scene. 
 
So that’s what caused her to say, “You also were with Jesus of Nazareth.”
 
Now I want to insert at this point, Jesus said there would be three denials.  I take that to mean there would be three distinct and separate incidents in which Peter would betray the Lord.
 
Verse 68 is the first
 
Verse 68
 
I think this one was done from pure shock.  He didn’t see this coming and this is where our flesh is really vulnerable. Peter gets ambushed.  In fact, I am of the opinion had Peter been arrested by the soldiers and dragged him into a room and sat down and questioned, we would have seen the same response we’ve seen in other places.  If he’d just been given a little time to process what was going on, his response would have been completely different
 
He might have thought to himself, “You know, Jesus said this was going to happen.
He said last night in the upper room that we were going to be persecuted, we were going to be brought before the authorities, we were going to be dragged before courts and our Lord said, ‘Don’t worry about what you’re going to say because in that hour the Holy Spirit is going to tell you what to say.’”
 
Maybe he would have processed all of that. Maybe he would have thought, “Now look at all the confessions I made. Look, I said the Lord was wrong, I would never deny Him, and maybe he would have been ready.”
 
But he didn’t have that opportunity.  Now there is an extremely valuable lesson in that for us.  The devil is an opportunist.  His attacks are very often fast-paced trip-ups when least expected.
 
I think Peter would have been ready for the big, open arrest and trial, but he never saw this little girl coming.  In fact, he would have been better off if he had gone all the way across the courtyard and said, “I want to stand with Jesus during this trial.”
 
But he follows from a distance and the Lord is not there and he’s not prepared and he’s not dragged before some tribunal where he can muster up all his courage and make a great defense.  He’s confronted by a girl who takes care of the door and he’s caught off guard and he denied it.
 
In fact, Matthew adds he denied it before all of them which means that she made her declaration so that everybody around there could hear, all the bystanders, the temple police, the Roman soldiers, whoever was around the fire.
And he says,
verse 68
 
No sooner did he say that than what we read in verse 68, when, off in the night, a rooster crowed. 
 
verses 69-70a
 
He can’t escape.  The devil is in hot pursuit, sensing a kill. 
 
And once again, he denies the Lord.  In fact, the other writers lead us to believe his second denial is even more forceful than the first. 
 
And by the way, now he’s had some time to think about it.  The second denial is not a trip-up.  It’s premeditated now. He’s dug in deep now. In fact,  Matthew says this time, one of the accusers said, “This fellow WAS with Jesus the Nazarene.” And Peter denied it with an oath.  In other words, he swore he was telling the truth
 
And you’d think he would just get out of there, but he doesn’t. He hangs around.
 
verse 70b
 
More time goes by, maybe as much as another hour, and he’s still milling around in the night, wanting to see the end, wanting to see the way it turns out. And maybe he’s heard the screams of blasphemy that have been hurled from the mouths of the Sanhedrin against Jesus. But he’s still there. And the bystanders won’t leave it alone.  They keep coming back to Peter’s association with Jesus.
 
“Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.”
 
He had a Galilean accent. They picked up his accent.  Now that means he wasn’t just hanging around getting warm, he’s conversing and talking and fellowshipping. 
 
And somebody picks up on his accent and says, “You are a Galilean.”  By the way, according to John 18:26, the person who said that was kinfolk to Malchus, the one who lost his ear at the sword of Peter in the garden. 
 
And now Peter has to ramp it up even more.
 
verse 71
 
Cursing means he was pronouncing a curse on himself if he’s lying. He literally calls down the judgment of God upon himself if he is lying.  He swears to God he is not a follower of Jesus.   “I do not know this man you’re talking about.”
 
And immediately
 
verse 72
 
Now Mark doesn’t record it, but according to Luke 22:61, one of the most intriguing events of the night takes place at this point. 
 
Luke 22:61  
 
 
 
Straight into Peter’s eyes went the gaze of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps his trial had just ended and He was coming back across the courtyard.  His face is covered with spit, black and blue, puffy from being punched in the face and slapped. His garments are covered with sweaty blood that had oozed out of His sweat glands in the agonies in the garden. And as He’s bound and led through the courtyard, He looks right into the eyes of Peter.
 
What a painful moment. It’s like the collapse of Peter is crystalized, captured and frozen at that moment when their eyes meet.
 
So how does this happen? How does a believer find himself at his kind of place?  Let me tell how it happened with Peter. 
 
Number one, he boasted too much.  He had too much self-confidence.  He was strong. He was the man. He could handle anything, follow Christ anywhere. He had too much confidence in his strength. Too much confidence in his flesh.
 
Secondly, he listened too little.  Jesus told him and told him and told him, “there is great danger awaiting you.  Satan wants to sift you. You will deny Me. And he ignored all the warnings. He did not take the word of the Lord seriously. He ignored the word of Christ. He boasted too much. He listened too little.
 
And thirdly, he prayed too little. He slept through the prayer meeting. The Lord said in the garden, “Watch and pray unless you enter into temptation.” He had taught him in the disciples prayer, “Pray this way, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
He should have been awake and praying that, instead of sleeping. He didn’t see the need. 
 
He boasted too much, listened too little, prayed too little, and fourthly, he acted too fast.
 
He reacted on his own without considering the Lord’s will, grabbed a sword, started swinging it around. He was out of sync with the plan of God, he was out of sync with the purpose of God. He was driven by his own fleshly impulses. He wanted to make a hero out of himself. He wanted to increase his reputation. He wanted to affirm his self-confidence.
 
This is just more of his pride. He boasted too much. He listened too little, prayed too little, acted too fast, and he followed too far.
 
He would have been a lot better off if he had gone all the way across the courtyard and stood right with the Lord. That was always the safest place to be. But he fled with the rest. He followed far off. He is curious but not courageous. He is a compromiser. He’s mingled around the fire and now he’s stuck.
 
In fact, he mingled long enough, that he began to act like them. 
 
And finally, he fell too low. It is the darkest hour in human history, hell’s hour, as Jesus is on trial about to be executed, and Peter is no match for the forces of hell. He reached the top! 
 
 
 
 
He was called by Christ, commissioned by Christ, set apart by Christ, loved by Christ, taught by Christ, given the keys to the Kingdom, granted, delegated, miraculous power to heal the sick and cast out demons, leader of the Twelve, privileged preacher and here he lands in the pit of profanity, denying the very Lord he confessed.
 
And in that moment, as it alls falls in place in his mind, he began to weep. Matthew and Luke both say he wept bitterly, he sobbed bitterly. He had discovered the corruption of his own flesh even in the face of his best intentions.
 
It’s interesting, isn’t it?  Judas felt remorse and killed himself. Peter felt remorse and he showed up at the tomb on Sunday and in the upper room with the Lord. 
 
He remembered what the Lord had said. He remembered his foolish words. Matthew and Luke tell us he went out, he left that place, that house of the high priestly family for a solitary place. He went somewhere to be alone to remember the words of the Lord and his foolish self-confidence. And he began to weep.
 
He doesn’t believe in himself any more. He knows what he is capable of. This is a profound lesson and Jesus said to him, “When you are converted, when you turn around from this, you will be able to strengthen the brethren because you will be able to teach them the lesson you learned about the weakness of the most resolute, self-confident, believer. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
 
He was restored. Eventually, Peter and the Lord will meet our yonder by the Sea of Galilee and there they will have a conversation about loving the Lord.  Three times, Jesus will ask Peter, “Do you love Me?”
 
And three times, Peter will affirm his love for the Lord as Jesus sends him out to serve His people. 
 
I find it interesting that Jesus gave him an opportunity to confess his love for every time he denied Christ. 
 
In just a few days, Peter will stand on the Day of Pentecost, preach a great sermon and three thousand souls will be converted.  He spent the rest of his days preaching the Kingdom of God. 
 
Then he sat down and wrote 1 Peter 1 and the fiery trials that prove your faith. When you go through the worst collapse of cowardice in your spiritual life, and your faith doesn’t fail, it’s the proof that your faith is the kind of faith that will remain until Christ appears. That’s what Peter said.
 
It’s a great lesson for us to learn. Not to be overconfident, but to understand the weakness of our flesh and steel ourselves against the kind of cowardice that broke the heart of Peter and grieved the heart of his Lord.
 
Let’s pray