Luke 22:54-62 – What? Again? – Bible study

Luke 22:54-62 What? Again? We are reading a story from the life of Christ that involves Peter. From the words just read, you will quickly recall that Peter denied Jesus three times. Peter sinned. This is not the first time Peter had missed the mark. He had come up short on several occasions. 1. Remember when Jesus wanted Peter to let down the nets and he would only agree to let down a net? 2. Or how about at the transfiguration when Peter told Jesus that they ought to build three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus? He probably did not realize that he had just asked the Almighty God if it would be alright to worship Moses and Elijah until the voice of the Father thundered out, "This is My beloved Son. Here ye Him." 3. Then there was that mishap on the sea. Peter wanted to walk on water with Jesus and did so until he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. 4. And what about when Peter cut off Marcus ear? He thought that he was to defend Jesus, but that wasnt what Jesus wanted. The truth is that Peter messed up quite a few times. None of his earlier mistakes came close to this one, but they were failures, short-comings, none-the-less. Not only did Peter mess up before he became the Holy-Spirit filled Apostle Peter, but he messed up afterwards as well. In \#Gal 2:11-21\, Paul recounts a time when he had to publicly rebuke Peter for showing prejudices against the Gentile Christians! Now, I am not sure where God draws the line between mistakes and sins, but Peter not only messed up some, sometimes he was sinning. The last act I mention caused a division in the church that Paul was later having to attempt to correct. It was beyond a mistake. It was a sin. I bring all of these failures of Peter to your attention to point out that Peter had to come to Jesus an awful lot and ask for forgiveness. I know that Jesus never said it because Jesus is not that kind of God, but it almost makes you wonder if Jesus might have ever muttered to Himself as Peter was repenting, "What? Again?" No, Jesus never would have said that; but Peter sure used his knees a lot asking for forgiveness. On the occasion of our text, Jesus actually had to go get Peter and take him aside and give him three opportunities to affirm his love for Him before Peter would understand that Jesus had indeed forgiven him. Now, compare Peter, his sins, and his forgiveness to another mans end, the man Judas. Matt 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. Jesus had spoken of His betrayer earlier. Mt 26:24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. \#Mr 14:21, Luke 22:22\ Both of these men committed similar sins. Both denied the Lord, one for money and the other for his own safety, but both denied the Lord. Both were from the same group of disciples. Both committed their sins the same night. Yet, it would appear both by Judas action and Jesus words that Judas did not get forgiveness while Peter did. We know that Jesus pronounced extreme woe upon Judas and his soul, and Judas, if he ever asked for forgiveness, obviously never felt he was forgiven. Questions – What does it take to get forgiven? What was missing in Judas life that he could not get forgiveness? Is it possible that either you or I cannot get forgiven? I dont know about you, but these kinds of questions are important to me. I am like Peter. I mess up a lot. Are my sins forgiven or not? So what is needed to be forgiven? I will give you five things to consider. I. Tenderness – You must realize your wrong. A. I have always been intrigued by Peters response to his own sin. Luke 22:62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. 1. Peter might have been a rough fisherman with a dense head, but he had a tender heart! 2. To be a fisherman in that day must have been something like being a construction worker today – pretty much all men who want to show just how tough they can be. B. A tender heart is a treasure difficult to produce. 1. By calling tenderness a treasure, I mean a. It is rare. (1) In the old days, I might have said that it was more rare to find in a man than in a woman, but now it is just rare to find at all. (2) Ladies in the military (a) It will harden their hearts. (b) There is only room for one boneheaded, insensitive person in a marriage and, men, thats our job! b. It makes one very wealthy. Peters tenderness will be what saves him in this dark hour. c. It is something to be cherished and nurtured. (1) It makes you thoughtful. (2) It makes you sensitive. (3) It makes you appropriate emotion. 2. By saying it is difficult to produce, I mean a. I dont know of any thing you can do to produce tenderness in the heart of another. b. Most who have it, have it from birth. c. If you are not one of the blessed ones to be granted it, what can be done to get it? (1) Sometimes, going through extreme pain gives it; but that pain seems just as likely to produce bitterness, hard-heartedness, and anger. (2) Sometimes, seeing ones extreme blessings gives it; but that blessedness seems just as likely to produce greed, arrogance, and haughtiness. C. Peters tender heart helped him to deal with his sin. 1. Tenderness makes us deal with sin quickly, 2. Tenderness makes us deal with sin with remorse and sorrow. 3. Tenderness leads us to repentance. a. It appears that Judas response was that of guilt and shame. b. However, there is no mention of Judas repenting. c. You can be ashamed of your wrong, even sorry about it, but if it doesnt move you to repentance, you will never be forgiven. d. Rather, you will just be miserable, hating yourself for the wicked things you have done but never getting any cleansing from it. e. Such was Judas situation. He hated himself so much, he decided to kill himself. D. If you want to produce it in your heart, you might try 1. Remembering your own sins. 2. Ask God to give tenderness to you. II. Receptive – You must respond well to rebuke. A. When we do something wrong, God is the Rebuker of sin. B. God used Paul to physically rebuke Peter on one occasion and as far as we know, Peter received that rebuke well. 1. God does not normally send a person to rebuke a person. 2. Most of the time, God sends the Holy Ghost to do His REBUKING. This is the Holy Ghosts work of CONVICTION as the REPROVER. John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 3. Yet, we must be receptive to rebuke if we are to be brought to repentance and receive forgiveness. C. Why are some not receptive to rebuke or correction? 1. There is the pride issue. a. That is probably the number one reason. b. We dont like to be wrong. c. The only thing worse than being wrong is having someone else point it out. (1) That is a double strike against our pride (once for being wrong, again for having someone point it out). (2) It is our negative response to being told that we are wrong that leads to attack the messenger so often. 2. There is the injury issue. a. Being wrong means we have to deal with the consequences of being wrong. b. That is always embarrassing, humbling, and uncomfortable. c. Those are not emotions we like to feel. d. Those emotions HURT us. They do INJURY to our ego. e. Our preferred course of action to deal with known wrong is to just wait until everyone forgets about it. f. Rebukers take that option off the table. D. Understand what rebuke, whether by the Holy Spirit or by a human vessel, means. 1. It means that you are Gods child. Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 2. It means that God cares. 3. It means that there is time to fix this. III. Humility – You must seek forgiveness. A. The Bible never says that Peter or Judas actually asked for forgiveness. 1. It is my belief that Peter did, but I have no evidence. 2. In fact, as I said, it is Jesus who will seek Peter out to make sure that he knows he has been forgiven. (That happens when Jesus is with the disciples and asks Peter three times, "Peter, do you love Me?" Three times, one for each time that Peter had denied Jesus. And three times, Peter affirms that he does.) 3. Jesus never had the opportunity to seek out Judas. He hung himself before Jesus was risen and perhaps even before Jesus had died. B. Regardless, Jesus does not physically seek us out to offer forgiveness today. We must seek Him out. 1. Now, the Holy Spirit seeks us out as He desires to deal with us about sin, but chances are good that no one is going to physically take you aside and deal with you about sin. 2. We must go seek forgiveness. C. What should we do? 1. Ask God to forgive us. James 4:2 yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 2. Go to whoever we have wronged and. a. Ask them to forgive us. b. Try to make restitution. D. Are these easy things for us to do? 1. No. 2. They are very humbling. 3. That is why humility is required. E. Dont allow your pride to push you further into sin. 1. Go deal with this thing right now. 2. I like what our church sign say"The longer you look at temptation the better it looks." 3. I recently spoke with someone who was shown from the Scripture that they were wrong about a certain thing. Their response was, "Ill think about it." It was no surprise when they came back with the decision they were going to continue to do wrong. No one needs to think about doing right. When we want time to think, we are trying to figure out our reasons to justify our wrong. IV. Giving – You must give forgiveness. A. God does not give to you what you will not give to others. 1. That is Gods rule, not mine. Mt 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 2. Every person who wants to be forgiven of their sins must be quick to forgive those who have wronged them. B. Christian, the surest way to hinder your walk with God and to separate yourself from the best that God has to offer is to hold a wrong against another. V. Salvation – You must be born again to receive any forgiveness from God. A. To a knowledgeable Christian, this goes without saying; but just in case someone lack the knowledge, let me be very plain. 1. Every person owes God a debt. a. The debt is the debt of sin. b. We are born sinners. In fact, the Psalmist said that we were conceived in sin \#Ps 51:5\. c. Until that original sin debt is paid, all of our other sins go on that tab. Our sin debt just gets larger and larger. d. You cannot remove one of the more recent debts until you pay the original bill. 2. The problem is you cant pay it. a. The payment required is the death of a sinless person. b. Since you are sinful, you are doomed. 3. So Jesus, Gods perfect and sinless Son, came to pay the bill for you. a. That is why Jesus came. b. That is why Jesus died. 4. If you will believe that Jesus did that for you and, the best you know how, turn away from your sins to serve God, He will apply Jesus payment to your bill. B. It may be that you are feeling very guilty today about something you have done to someone or something you failed to do that needed to be done. 1. Your guilt may be much like Peters. 2. Perhaps you feel too wicked to be forgiven. 3. What you dont understand is that as bad as that one thing you did was, you done have a whole lot more things against God and forgotten them. 4. He has not. C. You need Gods forgiveness and it must start with the cross and salvation. Both Judas and Peter did terrible things. Both put themselves and their wants ahead of Jesus. One is still paying for his sins. One was forgiven. Which best describes you?