Witness to Christ: Peter John 18:12–27
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is always faithful to us.
He was a professional thief like no other. The mere mention of his name evoked fear throughout the Wild West.
He terrorized the Wells Fargo stagecoach line—roaring in like a lion, guns blazing, spooking even the most rugged cowboys, and then riding off like the wind with his saddle bags full of money and gold.
During his reign of terror, from 1875 to 1883, he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars today.
The most amazing thing about it is that no one ever saw him; no artist was ever able to sketch his face; no sheriff could ever track his trail.
The name of this elusive thief in the Old West? Black Bart.
There’s another Black Bart that can terrorize us.
This Black Bart is a far greater thief, far more destructive; this Black Bart steals more than money and gold, it steals peace and joy.
If you’ve ever felt shame and disgrace, it was his whisper that crushed your heart.
If you’ve ever felt useless and no good, it was his accusing finger pointing at you.
The name of this Black Bart of the heart? Guilt!
And its partners in crime: shame and regret.
This is the Black Bart that steals everything from you; it destroys the soul… unless someone or something can first destroy it.
As our Lenten series, witnesses to Christ continues, tonight we’ll see the events in the courtyard of the High Priest, as Jesus is falsely tried and accused, and as Peter warms himself at the fire and curses Jesus.
John tells us the story with his unique insights, and his eye-witness account of it in chapter 18, verses 12-27, which begins right after Jesus’ is arrested.
12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
While Caiaphas was officially the high priest, his father-in-law, Annas was the high priest in reality; he had the power.
Annas was appointed high priest by the Roman governor in 6 AD, when Jesus was still a child. In 15 AD he was deposed because he had become too powerful for Rome to control.
While Annas lost the title, he kept the power by arranging for his sons to succeed him. All five of Annas’ sons would eventually serve as high priests, as did his son-in-law, Caiaphas. But it was Annas who was pulling the strings.
Annas controlled his sons, but he couldn’t control God’s Son. While Jesus was standing up to Annas in the palace, Peter was caving in the courtyard.
John says, 15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. (John).
Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door.
They wouldn’t let Peter in, but then John, who somehow knew the high priest, vouched for him.
So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in.
John may have known Annas through his family’s business dealings, or some speculate he may even have been a distant relative.
Whatever the case, John used his connection to observe the sham trial, and so we have an eye-witness account of it.
17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” His first denial happened soon after he entered the palace courtyard.
Just a few hours before in the Upper Room, Jesus had told Peter, in John 13:38, Truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
To which Peter boasted that while the others might, he would never would.
18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.
21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.”
22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Breaking their own law.
23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”
Jesus called them out for breaking their own laws.
24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
No doubt with instructions that he and the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, manufacture some kind of charge so Jesus could be brought to Pilate and sentenced to death.
Nothing of political consequence happened among the Jewish leadership without Annas’ approval. So it was certainly by his bidding that Jesus was charged before Pilate and crucified. He was the main person behind it, but the devil behind him.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
His second denial.
26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
To complete the story, Luke adds this: And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
He was so ashamed and at guilt; he had failed his Teacher, his God and Savior.
We know the feeling, that Black Bart of shame and guilt that would steal God’s remission and absolution of our sins from us.
Some days later, around another charcoal fire, along the shore of the sea of Galilee, Peter would see Jesus cooking breakfast, fish.
As Peter had denied Jesus three times, so 3 times Jesus would ask Peter if he loved him, to which Peter answered that he did, and Jesus responded, “Then feed my lambs”.
Jesus restored him, showing Peter that He was forgiven -- his guilt had been taken away.
While Peter surely never forgot what he had done around the fire that night in the courtyard, when temptation came, that mistake didn’t define him; his Lord’s mercy defined him.
While the Black Bart of the Old West may never have met his match, the Black Bart of guilt and shame in us have met their match -- the One who suffered and died and rose in glory to defeat them.
Jesus has unmasked them as the soul-crushers they are; and so he crushed them by His sacrificial death and mighty resurrection for us.
His grace is greater than my guilt. His love overcomes my shame.
He has forgiven and restored us to serve Him in His Kingdom of Grace.
With a broken heart, Peter repented; with a broken heart, we repent.
With a healed heart, Peter followed Christ and rejoiced to proclaim the Gospel to many nations.
With a healed heart, we follow Jesus and rejoice in Him.
Our sins and failures and mistakes no longer define us; our God and His restoring grace define us.
When the Black Barts of guilt and shame and grief and regret come racing into your life, accusing you, assaulting your soul, trying to drag you down into despair, remember, they don’t get to define you anymore; not since Jesus died and rose for you.
The grace we live by now, and the glory we will live by forever, they define us.
His Spirit in ours transforms us to be more like Him, and less like sin; to be more courageous like Christ, so that we proclaim Him as the God and Savior of all the nations.
And as we do, His peace, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, who has overcome all the Black Barts of our lives Amen.