When in college, I pledged a fraternity, and there was a constant influence on my life to be "cool," and it was very intimidating at times. I guess you could say I was a "secret Christian." Morally, I was conservative but not very vocal in sharing my faith at all. My roommate, when I lived in an apartment, was a guy from the beginning who shared that he was a Christian, so deal with it. When He asked me if I was a Christian, I said yes, but with a hesitant type of reply. I think I was kind of embarrassed to be associated with these religious people called Christians. Oh yeah, I wanted to know for sure I was going to heaven, but anything beyond that was up for debate, and my weak faith walk would win the debate for not saying a word.
Time warps ahead, and after I surrendered and committed my life totally to Jesus and used the words, "Here am I, send me," everything changed. EVERYTHING!! My focus was centered on Jesus and His Word, and after my clarion call, I had one desire, and that was to be a witness. My first church to serve as a called minister was my home church in my hometown. God was doing some great things there, and word got out about the way I was leading our youth ministry because of the growth in numbers in our group. I was very pleased with the progress these youth and youth workers had made, and things seemed to be going well.
I went one morning to a local grocery store and on the way in I saw a guy coming out who looked pretty intently at me as we passed each other. To my surprise, when I greeted him with my generic "hey," he turned and, in a loud voice, said, "How's it going, PREACHER!" For just a moment, I realized that I was a called PREACHER. My old embarrassment of the faith began to kick in, and it was like God was saying, "Now, whatcha gonna do!" I was kinda surprised at myself for thinking what I was thinking, but God affirmed my call in my heart, and "I owned it." Yep. I am a preacher. Nuff said.
Good ole Peter was strong and brash at times when Jesus was showing His power and doing great things. He was committed, but this commitment was going to need to hold strong during the hours that lay ahead, and in the following verses in John 18, we see Peter's first test. John 18: 15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples. That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he was allowed to enter the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus. 16 Peter had to stay outside the gate. Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. 17 The woman asked Peter, “You’re not one of that man’s disciples, are you?” “No,” he said, “I am not.” 18 Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. They stood around it, warming themselves, and Peter stood with them, warming himself.
The woman at the gate's first words were not very threatening to Peter, but he chose to say no when she asked the following. 17 The woman asked Peter, “You’re not one of that man’s disciples, are you?” “No,” he said, “I am not.” Peter could have said, "I'm with Him, but He didn't identify with Jesus. Why? Who knows. Since all of this had taken a turn for the worse, Peter needed to establish in His heart whether He was with Jesus or not. Peter, at one time, had told Jesus He would die for Him. Now, he was showing that his earlier statements were not true. This first denial was a very general moment of identification as a follower of Jesus and His teachings, and Peter failed. I will write about the two other denials separately because they are at different levels of denial.
Our denials of Christ take on the same attitude Peter had when asked if he was a follower of Jesus. Being a Christian is not a "cool" thing to be in a lost and dying world, and to own up to the fact that we identify with Jesus might be a little daunting for us, but we are called to be a light and part of the shining is being identified with this group of people who believe in the resurrection of Jesus and us from the dead. Modern worldly thinking will try to make things we are taught from God's word something we might not even totally believe is true. I have seen many in the faith take a very "modern" look at the Word of God and try to explain away Jesus in their life, and it sickens me, but not as much as it sickens the Lord. Praise the Lord for His grace. I was at one church where the youth minister had all the scripture paintings taken down because it didn't look "cool" in a youth building. STUPID.
Jesus is our Savior, our Lord, and our ONLY hope, so don't be like Peter in his first denial and act like you aren't "with" Jesus and His Word. We show we are with Jesus by believing His Word and following His Word, no matter how we are received!! When we don't deny Christ, there will be persecution, and some of that persecution may hit our pride. We should not give in to the worldly Christianity that is religion-based and built around acceptable religious practices. That kind of faith is weak at best and does nothing but confuse the issue when it comes to following Jesus. When you lose your fervent identification with Jesus and bow to worldly faith (which is no faith at all), you have just lined up with the first denial of Peter. What will you do now? What did Peter do? He quietly warmed himself at the fire with those who had arrested Jesus. He blended in to keep from being found out, but in reality, he was "busted." In his heart, he knew he had failed. Time to change. Today, you have read this, and now I must ask the question. Are you busted? What will you do now?
Today's Message,
David Warren
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