[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 2nd of April, 2017, the fifth Sunday in Lent. Today’s service included observance of Holy Communion. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
In 12 days our journey through the Lenten season will finally bring us to the cross on which our Lord was crucified. Next Sunday we will celebrate along with the people of Jerusalem as Jesus rides triumphantly into that city, seated not upon some mighty steed by rather a humble donkey. And that Thursday we will come together to revisit His last meal and subsequent arrest.
That night so long ago, Jesus spoke of one who would deny Him in front of others, and of one who would betray Him. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, from chapter 22, verses 31 through 34, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
That night so long ago, Jesus spoke of one who would deny Him in front of others, and of one who would betray Him. Listen and follow along to the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, from chapter 22, verses 31 through 34, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”
34 Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”
--Luke 22:31-34 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, we near that time when we celebrate the resurrection of Your Son, a most joyous day! But before then, we must walk a darker part of our path that leads past Jesus’ persecution, execution, and burial. As painful as that surely was for Him, our Lord might have suffered more as one of His closest followers denied Him and another betrayed Him. Help us, please Father, not cause Him additional pain. Let Your Holy Spirit speak directly into our hearts the message You would have us hear this morning so that we might better understand Your will over our lives. In the beloved name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
This is a story you may have heard, but possibly not in this much detail...
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself. As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe at him. At that instant the atheist cried out: 'Oh my God!...'
Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Then a bright light shone down upon the man and a voice came from out of the sky saying: "You deny My existence for all of these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect Me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to now count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light. "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the bear a Christian?" "Very well", said the voice.
The light went out, and the sounds of the forest resumed. Then the bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke: "Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly thankful. Amen."
Some wise person once said, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”, meaning that when the enemy is approaching and the bullets are flying all around, everyone is praying to God, whether they ever did before or not. I guess the same thing applies to being chased by a grizzly bear.
In that little story, God replies that the atheist had not only denied Him for so many years, he also taught others to deny God. But at least most atheists are honest in their disbelief. They deny the existence of any supreme, omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving, all-caring being, not just the one true Almighty God, our heavenly Father. Too many, I fear, are more dishonest in their belief than the atheist in his disbelief.
Author Brennan Manning once said: "Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat out denial of the gospel of grace." Wow! We acknowledge God and His Son Jesus, yet we continue with our petty ways, all the while trying to fix ourselves rather than rely on God’s mercy and grace. That “gospel of grace” that Manning says we deny is in fact the very grace our heavenly Father showers on us when we accept Jesus as His Son and our Lord. Jesus is that gospel of grace, the good news so important to all mankind!
But we deny our denial. Like Peter, we swear we’ll follow Jesus no matter what, but when our personal safety or possessions or life is on the line, or even just our personal convenience, we quickly deny Jesus as our Lord, doing what we want rather than what He commands. Peter was shocked when he realized after the fact that he had indeed denied Jesus before his fellow man, just as Jesus told him he would. Would we be shocked to find out maybe we deny Him sometimes, too?
How do we deny Jesus? When we ignore His commands, when we don’t obey Him as our Master, when we just do part of the Christian walk rather than stay the course every minute of every day, we deny His authority over us. When we don’t love everyone the same way we love ourselves and our own family. When we expect to be served, rather than to serve. When we don’t go out into the world spreading the Gospel, we deny Jesus as our Lord.
This last is most easily done when we give our own testimony, when we witness for Jesus, when we confess Him before our fellow man. There is a huge benefit to doing this. In the 10th chapter, verses 32 and 33 of his Gospel account, the Apostle Matthew records Jesus saying…
This is a story you may have heard, but possibly not in this much detail...
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself. As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe at him. At that instant the atheist cried out: 'Oh my God!...'
Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Then a bright light shone down upon the man and a voice came from out of the sky saying: "You deny My existence for all of these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect Me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to now count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light. "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the bear a Christian?" "Very well", said the voice.
The light went out, and the sounds of the forest resumed. Then the bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke: "Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly thankful. Amen."
Some wise person once said, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”, meaning that when the enemy is approaching and the bullets are flying all around, everyone is praying to God, whether they ever did before or not. I guess the same thing applies to being chased by a grizzly bear.
In that little story, God replies that the atheist had not only denied Him for so many years, he also taught others to deny God. But at least most atheists are honest in their disbelief. They deny the existence of any supreme, omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving, all-caring being, not just the one true Almighty God, our heavenly Father. Too many, I fear, are more dishonest in their belief than the atheist in his disbelief.
Author Brennan Manning once said: "Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat out denial of the gospel of grace." Wow! We acknowledge God and His Son Jesus, yet we continue with our petty ways, all the while trying to fix ourselves rather than rely on God’s mercy and grace. That “gospel of grace” that Manning says we deny is in fact the very grace our heavenly Father showers on us when we accept Jesus as His Son and our Lord. Jesus is that gospel of grace, the good news so important to all mankind!
But we deny our denial. Like Peter, we swear we’ll follow Jesus no matter what, but when our personal safety or possessions or life is on the line, or even just our personal convenience, we quickly deny Jesus as our Lord, doing what we want rather than what He commands. Peter was shocked when he realized after the fact that he had indeed denied Jesus before his fellow man, just as Jesus told him he would. Would we be shocked to find out maybe we deny Him sometimes, too?
How do we deny Jesus? When we ignore His commands, when we don’t obey Him as our Master, when we just do part of the Christian walk rather than stay the course every minute of every day, we deny His authority over us. When we don’t love everyone the same way we love ourselves and our own family. When we expect to be served, rather than to serve. When we don’t go out into the world spreading the Gospel, we deny Jesus as our Lord.
This last is most easily done when we give our own testimony, when we witness for Jesus, when we confess Him before our fellow man. There is a huge benefit to doing this. In the 10th chapter, verses 32 and 33 of his Gospel account, the Apostle Matthew records Jesus saying…
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”
--Matthew 10:32-33 (NKJV)
25 “When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’”
--Luke 13:25-27 (NKJV)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
--Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV)
The Apostle John, in his first letter to the far-flung church, chapter 2, verses 21 through 24, gives fair warning…
21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
--1 John 2:21-24 (NKJV)
In just a few moments, we will come to our Lord’s table to share in His last meal on earth. At the start of this message, I said that one of Jesus’ closest followers denied Him and one betrayed Him. We looked at how Peter denied Jesus even after declaring he would never do such a thing. And we have to take a look at ourselves to make sure we aren’t denying Christ in our acts and how we live.
Jesus foretold Peter’s denials while they dined at that last meal. But also seated at the table that night was the one who would soon betray our Lord. Let’s go back to Luke’s account of that evening, in chapter 22 of his Gospel account, to verses 19 through 21. Some of these words will be familiar, but the last verse may not be…
19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. 21 But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table.”
--Luke 22:19-21 (NKJV)
As we approach the table, let us each examine ourselves to make sure we are not a betrayer, not a denier of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we see in our mirror a reflection of denial or betrayal, let us repent and set ourselves aright upon the straight and narrow way.
Let us confess Jesus before the world rather than deny Him. Let us serve alongside Him rather than betray Him. Let us come to His table with repentant hearts, recommitted to serving Him and those He loves. All in the blessed name of our Lord and Master Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You sent Your only Son to mankind to offer us salvation. Yet some of the ones He came to save instead denied Him, betrayed Him. Sadly, some of us today still deny Him, even when our words say otherwise. We deny Him by our actions and how we live each day, not just on Sundays. We betray Him by not fully accepting Him as Master, by disobeying His commands, by ignoring His voice. Forgive us, please Father. Help us be more obedient to Your will and to Jesus.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You from our hearts, acknowledging our belief in Your Son Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Master, rededicating ourselves to His service, promising to repent of our disobedience and sin, seeking Your forgiveness, listening for Your voice…
Lord Jesus, You came to save us. You knew all along the sacrifice that would be required of You, yet You came anyway. You came on our behalf out of our Father’s love, and we deny You, we betray You. Forgive us, Lord. We don’t really mean to. We just get all caught up in the world and our daily lives and we fail to live as You would have us live, to love as You would have us love. Lord, as we come to Your table, to join in Your last meal so that we always remember Your sacrifice, may we not be counted among those who deny or betray you, but as among Your servants, doing Your will on this earth.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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