"Courage through the Cross" 3-3-24

Overview

Courage Through the Cross

We tend to admire Peter from a safe distance—the bold leader, the first to confess Jesus as the Messiah, the one hand-picked to witness the transfiguration and so many of Christ's miracles. But Luke 22 invites us to see ourselves in him, not just admire him. After Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper and gives himself in bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins, the disciples slip into an argument about who is the greatest Luke 22:24. Into that pride, Jesus speaks a sober warning: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers" Luke 22:31-32. Peter's reply is bold and self-assured—"Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death" Luke 22:33—and Jesus answers that before the rooster crows, Peter will deny him three times.

This is Peter before the cross: confident in himself, certain he has it handled. Hours later, in the courtyard firelight, that confidence collapses into three denials. "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter… and he went out and wept bitterly" Luke 22:61-62. It is tempting to read this story as outsiders, shaking our heads at Peter while quietly carrying our own pride—proud to be churchgoers, quick to judge, but timid when the world demands we speak the truth or seek first the kingdom. As Bonhoeffer observed, the cross of Christ destroys all pride. Standing before the cross, we have nothing to offer but a broken and contrite heart, and that is precisely what Christ receives. He picks up our sin—pride, greed, the illusion that we have it all together—and carries it himself.

The Peter we meet after the cross and resurrection is a different man—not because his personality changed, but because he has been forgiven. In Acts, dragged before the council and ordered to stop preaching, he answers, "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" Acts 4:19-20. His courage is no longer self-generated bravado; it is courage through the cross, grounded in the assurance that nothing can separate him from the love of Christ Romans 8:31-39. Jesus foretold not only Peter's denial but his return—"when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." The forgiveness was already secured before the failure ever happened.

This is the word spoken over you in your baptism: Christ has got this, and Christ has got you. The empty tomb is the final word, and it makes us bold. So as the writer of Hebrews urges, "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross" Hebrews 12:1-2. When you face moments this week where timidity tempts you to silence, remember you do not proclaim alone—you stand with a great cloud of witnesses, and with Peter, declaring that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again.

Transcript

If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, the 22nd chapter, if you're using 2s

a Pue edition of the Bible, this can be found on page 71 in the New Testament. 10s

We're in Luke the 22nd chapter. 16s

I really love this sermon series, resemblance, and seeing ourselves in the stories of 21s

Trent and Holy Week and Easter. 28s

It's so exciting to place ourselves right in the middle of the happenings because so 31s

often when we read Scripture, we read it from a distance. 38s

And here we're engaging with it where we can see how it still pertains to us today, how 43s

God's word is indeed living and active. 50s

We're no longer mere observers, but we're engaging with it and the Lord in turn is engaging 55s

with us through it. 63s

Today, today we get to see ourselves in the story of Peter. 66s

Now, Peter is a favorite. 73s

Peter is a favorite. 74s

He is so wonderful. 76s

He thinks or speaks without thinking. 77s

He acts without really putting thought into it. 80s

He's so passionate and impulsive and such a strong, strong leader. 83s

Any one of us, any one of us would be proud to see ourselves in Peter, to be the kind of 89s

leader that Peter was. 100s

Peter was the first one to confess Jesus Christ as the Messiah. 103s

Peter was hand-picked by Jesus. 110s

Got to witness up close and personal, amazing, miraculous things. 113s

He was there when Jesus made the water turn to wine. 119s

He was there when Jesus fed the 4,000. 123s

The 5,000 Peter was there at the top of the mountain to witness the transfiguration 127s

when Christ was seen in his state of glory before the crucifixion. 134s

Any one of us would find it lucky to be counted as Peter was counted before the Lord. 142s

I want to fit myself into the story of salvation as Peter. 153s

Because Peter was one who we greatly admire, greatly admire. 159s

So we're going to see today exactly how we're like Peter or how Peter's story resembles 167s

our own stories. 175s

We're going to begin a little further back than where our gospel text takes us. 178s

We're going to take it right after the institution of the Lord's Supper. 183s

So if you go back to verse 24, we're going to begin there. 189s

So Jesus had instituted His Supper. 193s

He knows that this is the last time that he will recline at table with his friends. 196s

He knows that in a mere hour, he will be hanging upon a cross. 201s

He knows all of this is coming. 207s

And as he is sharing in this bread, we read in verse 24, 210s

a dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 215s

So here Jesus is, he has just told them that he is giving himself. 224s

He is giving his lifeblood for them. 230s

He is telling them, eat this bread, drink this wine. 234s

This is the bread, the life, the new cup, the new covenant. 237s

This is going to be forgiveness of your sins. 242s

And the apostles get into an argument. 248s

Over which one of them is the greatest. 252s

And Jesus interjects. 255s

And he tells them point blankly, don't, don't, don't. 258s

Don't get into this argument. 263s

Don't get into this false idea of what is great. 265s

I am great, I am here to serve. 269s

And as he's talking, there must have been a continued discussion 272s

or the apostles weren't quite paying attention because if you jump down to 31, 277s

31, this is right in the middle of where Jesus is talking about greatness. 283s

And he says, Simon, Simon, listen. 287s

He needs Peter's attention. 293s

Simon, listen to me. 299s

Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. 306s

Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. 312s

This is in a very bad sense. 317s

This means that Satan has been wanting, 320s

has been seeking out how he can torture the apostles, 325s

how he can torture them in their faith, how he can overthrow their faith lives. 331s

He's demanding this. 340s

He wants it. 341s

He is going to try and test the limits of the apostles' faith. 342s

Jesus continued verse 32, 349s

but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail. 351s

And you, when once you have turned back strengthen your brothers, 358s

he is telling Peter, 364s

you're going to turn, 369s

but when you come back, when you repent, when you come back, 372s

you need to firm up your brothers. 378s

You need to help stabilize them in the faith. 383s

Listen to me. 391s

Peter, we don't exactly know what's going on in his mind, 395s

but when he hears this in verse 33, 399s

he said to him, 401s

Lord, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. 402s

So bold, so boldly, Peter proclaims this. 411s

Peter is confident in his role as Christ's apostle. 419s

Peter is so courageous, so confident, and so sure of his place 429s

of his own greatness. 435s

That he proclaims he is ready to go to prison and even death. 440s

Lord, that is how great I am. 448s

And Jesus says, I tell you, Peter, 456s

the cock will not crow this day until you have denied three times 461s

that you know me. 467s

Peter, so bold, so brave. 470s

Once theologians said nothing more certainly for both of fall 476s

in a professed follower of Christ than self-confidence, 481s

with disregard to warnings and contempt of danger. 486s

Last week when my daughters and I were on vacation, 493s

we were walking up some stairs and we overheard a conversation 497s

between a toddler, probably about three years old and her mom, 500s

and she was trying to climb the stairs on her own. 504s

And she said, I can do this. 507s

I can do it. 510s

And how many times have we given ourselves that pep talk? 512s

I've got this. 516s

You got this! 518s

And we do that. 520s

We do that because we have so much confidence. 522s

We know we've got this. 529s

I got this. 533s

And we are proud that we got this. 535s

And we carry our pride around with us. 539s

Because we got this. 545s

We got this. 549s

And when we read about this interchange between Simon Peter and Jesus, 551s

even then we look and we say, oh Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, 559s

you don't got this. 567s

Because we know what's coming. 569s

We know what's going to happen. 574s

And so we read scripture boldly. 578s

We read it, giving our commentary, our thoughts, 581s

our judgment passed upon those who we read about 585s

because they don't have a clue of what they're doing, 589s

or what they're saying. 596s

But we do. 598s

We know because we got this. 600s

We got this. 604s

And we remove ourselves from the story. 607s

And we remove ourselves from Peter's pride. 610s

Because we know what's coming. 615s

Let's turn now to the 54th verse in chapter 22. 620s

This is after Jesus had gone with his disciples to the garden. 629s

Jesus had prayed, sweating blood for this cup to pass, 634s

but not his will, but the Father's will. 638s

Jesus had asked his disciples to stay awake and pray 642s

and they fell asleep time and time again. 646s

And then Judas comes with the crowd ready to arrest him. 650s

Then they seized him and let him away, bringing him into the high 659s

priest's house. 663s

But Peter was following at a distance. 664s

When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard 667s

and sat down together, Peter sat among them, 669s

then a servant girl seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, 672s

this man was also with him. 677s

But he denied it. 680s

Saying, woman, I do not know him. 682s

A little later, someone else on seeing him said, 686s

you also are with him. 689s

But Peter said, man, I am not. 692s

Then about an hour later, still another kept insisting, 696s

surely this man was also with him. 701s

For he is a Galilean. 704s

But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about 705s

at that moment. 710s

While he was still speaking, the cock crowed. 713s

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. 720s

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. 729s

I can only imagine that the very breath that Peter had stuck in his throat. 741s

I can only imagine the depths of shame, embarrassment, guilt, 755s

Peter who hours before was so bold, so courageous, 770s

ready to go to prison and even death. 775s

And here he denied Christ, time, after time, 782s

his Peter still is great as he had made himself out to be. 797s

Is he still longing to have that argument with his friends about who is the greatest? 803s

Who is the most deserving? 811s

Is Peter feeling so boldly now? 814s

So courageous now? 818s

Week after week, my brothers and sisters, we come to church and we are proud of ourselves. 824s

We are proud because we are churchgoers. 831s

And we can look at those outside these walls 838s

and we can pass judgment because we know what's wrong. 845s

And we can look at others and we can tell them how we are so great because we 854s

go to church because we believe in Christ and we are willing to proclaim that 866s

always. 876s

Maybe. 879s

Because then we leave these four walls and we go out into that world. 884s

And we see something that we know is directly outside of God's law and rule. 892s

And we lose courage to speak up for what we know is true. 902s

Or we leave these four walls and we go out into the world and we try to make ourselves great 912s

pursuing after worldly passions and we're not courageous. 923s

We lose our courage to seek first after the kingdom of God. 933s

And we find that that our courage is not so great. 940s

Our boldness is not so bold and we're rather timid like Peter. 946s

What did Peter do? 961s

Well, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. 963s

Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord. 967s

How he had said to him before the cop grows today, you will deny me three times and he went out 970s

and wept bitterly. 976s

We don't want to resemble Peter so much. 982s

Any more, do we? 986s

We don't want to resemble the one who denied Christ in his lowest. 989s

We don't want to be the one who was laid bare humiliated. 997s

Whether before others are in his own mind, in shame and guilt. 1008s

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a wonderful, wonderful quote that says, 1015s

the cross of Christ destroys all pride. 1020s

The cross of Christ destroys all pride. 1027s

When we place ourselves before the cross, we have nothing that we can be proud of. 1031s

We have nothing that we bring before the cross that is worthy of greatness or to be called 1040s

great. And when we come before the cross, we realize we are so far from having got it 1049s

that we lay ourselves at the mercy of the one who hangs on the cross. 1063s

Before the cross, we have absolutely nothing. We have no feet to stand on. 1073s

We have no gift to bear. We have nothing that we can bring. 1080s

Save our broken and contrite heart. 1089s

We have nothing to bring to the cross. 1095s

But our sin. And the sin that we bring to the cross that we lay down with humiliation, 1100s

that we lay down humbly, that we lay down with shame before Christ. 1112s

That's what he seeks. That's what he wants. That's the whole point of him being on the cross. 1122s

That as we lay our sins before him upon the cross, he picks them up and puts them upon himself. 1135s

We lay our sin of pride at the feet of Jesus. We lay our sin of greed at the feet of 1146s

Jesus. We lay our sin of thinking we've got it at the feet of Jesus and he picks it up 1154s

and he takes it from us and he lifts the burden, the shame, the guilt, the weight of our sin 1165s

and he carries it for you. And the sin is no longer yours. And the burden of your shame is no longer 1174s

yours. But they belong to God. They belong to Christ because He has taken them as He hung upon the cross. 1190s

He knew that Peter was going to deny him. He knew that Peter was going to lose all courage. 1203s

He knew that Peter was going to carry that guilt and that shame with him. This is why he gave Peter the warning. 1211s

Listen, listen. You're going to deny me, but you will come back and when you come back, 1221s

you need to strengthen your brothers. He foretold the denial and he foretold the repentance 1232s

and he foretold the forgiveness because none of it was out of the realm of Christ's knowing 1240s

and Christ still went to the cross, knowing full well the weight and the burden that He would bear. 1251s

There's this before and after cross experience for Peter. Before the cross, 1263s

before the cross, he lost all courage. Before the cross, he was absolutely timid. He was 1276s

guilty. And then after the cross, after the cross, he found that He was loved. He found that 1289s

that He could be bold because He had been forgiven. In Romans, Paul gives us that same exhortation, 1300s

in Romans chapter 8, when he says, what then are we to say about these things that God is for us, 1309s

who can be against us? He who did not withhold his own son, but gave him up for all of us, 1316s

will he not with him also give us everything else? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. 1324s

It is Christ Jesus who died. Yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, 1333s

who indeed intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. 1339s

I am convinced that neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate 1349s

us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the cross, Jesus says, with finality, 1356s

I got this. I got this. And in Jesus having it, He has the final word, the final say, 1367s

and we know that He has the final word because when they went to the tomb on Easter morning, 1379s

no one was to be found. The tomb was absolutely empty, which means that Jesus indeed has 1385s

got it, which means that Jesus indeed has got you. This, this is how we know that we can be bold. 1396s

This is how we know that we can be courageous because Jesus through the cross has made us 1415s

courageous. We find courage through the cross because it's through the cross that we know that we have 1423s

been forgiven, that we have indeed been saved. We see this before cross after cross play out in the life of 1431s

Peter, before the cross he's denying Christ so timid, so fearful and after the cross after the 1442s

direction after Jesus ascended into the to the right hand of the Father in Acts the fourth chapter. 1451s

We see him and John proclaiming salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. We see them healing 1459s

the the lame in the name of Jesus Christ. He says there is no salvation, there is salvation in no 1470s

one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved and 1479s

the counsel did not like that. They didn't like the courage of Peter that he had gained through 1486s

the cross, they didn't like that he was proclaiming life in Christ and Christ alone and so they took 1493s

him and John and they arrested them, but they didn't know what to do. They didn't know what to do 1500s

with Peter and John because certainly they had seen that these signs had been done, they had seen 1507s

the power of the name of Jesus Christ, but they couldn't stand it, they couldn't have it. 1514s

They said, what do we do? What do we do? And so as a counsel they decided that together they would 1524s

tell Peter and John, they would let them go, but they were not to preach in this name of Jesus again. 1530s

Now before the cross, before the cross, Peter may have said, okay, gotcha, but he has courage 1539s

through the cross. He has courage through the cross and in Acts chapter 4 verses 19 and 20, 1552s

Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you, rather than to 1561s

you must judge for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard. 1567s

Peter is bold and courageous and what made him so courageous to speak so boldly to the council 1580s

the cross and the promise that nothing could separate him from the love of Jesus. 1593s

Nothing, no one, nada, could separate him and because he had the love of Jesus and the full 1606s

truth of the cross with him, he was courageous and bold to speak because it was no longer him, 1617s

but it was Christ in him and he knew he didn't have to God it because Jesus had it and Jesus had him. 1629s

My brothers and sisters, you have the cross. You have that same absolute final word spoken 1645s

over you through your baptisms that Jesus has got it and that Jesus has got you. 1657s

You have been washed in the promise of salvation. You have been sealed in the power of the Holy Spirit 1670s

that you can go forth courageously proclaiming exactly who we know Christ to be. 1679s

Exactly what we know Christ has done. As the author of Hebrews encourages us in the 12th chapter, 1690s

he says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside 1703s

every weight in the sin that clings so closely and let us run with perseverance, the race 1710s

that is set before us looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Who for the 1716s

sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross disregarding its shame and has taken his 1723s

seat at the right hand of the throne of God. We are a part of the cloud of witnesses when we go 1730s

outside of these four walls we are not proclaiming alone. We are proclaiming with the cloud 1739s

of all the witnesses of all time and all places who have known the power of the cross and who 1748s

have courageously stepped forward day after day proclaiming the good news and the salvation 1757s

and the forgiveness that we have in Christ and Christ alone. So as we go forth today and into the 1766s

week as you come up against those moments where you want or are tempted to be timid, 1777s

step forward, speak with courage and with boldness that Christ has conquered, Christ has died, 1787s

Christ has risen and Christ indeed will come again with Peter, with Peter, we know that we've 1801s

got this because we know that Christ has got you. 1818s