The Restoration of Peter

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 28 June 2015

We come to a familiar story, the story of the denial of Peter the apostle. It is a rather sad and tragic story, but at the same time one of the most encouraging and hopeful of all biblical accounts. The greatest gift God could ever give men is the forgiveness of sins. There would be no relationship to God without the forgiveness of sins. That is why Exodus 34:6-7 says, “I am the Lord God, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin,” and He went on to describe His gracious forgiving character.

1 John 1:7, 9 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, keeps on cleansing us from all sin. 9 And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and still righteous to forgive us.” And that is exactly what we see in this Bible passage. No saint in scriptural record ever sank to the depths of sin that Peter did on this occasion. And the wonder of wonders is that even in the extremity of his sin, the Lord was there to forgive him. That is a hopeful truth for us.

Peter, who fell so deeply, was soon after restored to become the leading spokesman of the early church, and the great leader in the first twelve chapters of the book of Acts. So it is an encouraging story, for all of us who are sinners saved by His grace. Now, in order to understand this text, which is Matthew 26:69-75, we need to back up. There are reasons why it happened. When you begin to read verse 69, and you find Peter in the courtyard, and some servant girl comes to him and identifies him with Jesus, and he denies it, again and again, you say to yourself, “How could this happen?”

As they are going along toward the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to them in verse 31, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’” Jesus predicts that they will all forsake Him in the midst of His trial. “But after I am raised up again,” verse 32 says, “I will go before you to Galilee.” So He predicts His resurrection, and that He will gather them back together, and will lead them to Galilee.

Now Peter responds in verse 33, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Peter says, in effect, everybody else might do it, but I will never do it. Peter felt himself to be invincible. He could not imagine any circumstance or any difficulty that could cause him to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here we see him boastfully saying, “You’re wrong, Lord,” which takes an awful lot of ego, but that is what he did.

In verse 34, “Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Mark adds that He said “before the cock crows twice” so Jesus was very specific, “you will deny Me three times.” Jesus says, “On the contrary, not only will you not stay true to Me, compared to all the other disciples, but you will deny Me three times before the cock can crow twice.” In verse 35 we see Peter’s pride, “Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And his words influenced all the other disciples, and they said the same thing.

They are indifferent to the need to pray. The Lord goes back to pray a second time in verse 42, and in verse 43, returns to find them asleep again. In verse 44, He returns to pray, comes back the third time in verse 45, finds them asleep again, says, “Sleep and take your rest later on.” Jesus could already see Judas and the band of temple guard, Roman soldiers, and priests coming up the slope toward them.

In verse 57 it says, “They took Jesus captive.” Comparing Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John they took Jesus captive and tied Him up. They want to carry out a trial in the middle of the night in the house of the high priest. And so verse 57 continues, “ and they led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.” We know from the other gospel records that Jesus first was taken before Annas, who was the former high priest. John 18 describes the whole scene in detail. The high priest lived in a palatial home in Jerusalem, somewhere near the temple. And it was common for families to share the same home.

So Jesus is taken away, and He is brought into that great courtyard. All the denials of Peter occur in that same place. John 18 says, that the first denial occurred while Jesus was before Annas. The other gospel writers tell us that all the denials took place in this same courtyard. Annas and Caiaphas shared the same courtyard. In verse 58, Peter followed Him. Although he had all fled it says in verse 56, when Jesus was taken prisoner, Peter couldn’t stay away. He was pulled by the love that he had for the Lord, and so he comes back to follow the Lord at a distance.

But he wasn’t alone, according to John 18:15, accompanying him was also John who was known to the high priest, we don’t know how, but it gave him entrance into the high priest’s house. Peter was shut out, he couldn’t get in. Apparently John went back out and worked it out with the girl who watched the door to let Peter in. So John unwittingly contributed to Peter’s tragic denial of Christ.

Why would Christ even predict that Peter would deny Him? Because it was to teach us a lesson about spiritual unpreparedness, and even beyond that, to teach us a profound lesson about the restoration of a sinning saint, a lesson we should all know about. John disappears from the scene, and now Peter becomes the focal point. And so verse 58 says, “And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.”

Peter should have known the outcome, the Lord had told him enough times, but he didn’t trust his ears. And so he enters the courtyard, and totally ignores the prediction of Christ that he was going to deny Him. And Peter was outside, the other writers tell us “sitting by the fire.” He is in a crowd of temple police, Sanhedrin members bustling in and out, the servants of the house are there. It’s a little before 1:00 AM, and the whole trial is going to last two hours; and in these two hours, Peter is going to deny Christ.

Verse 69 says, “And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” Mark 14:66 says “one of the servant girls of the high priest.” John 18:17 says, “The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” And Mark adds that she said, “Jesus, the Nazarene.” They loved to use those terms of derision in reference to Jesus. And so she comes with her information to impress the guards that are sitting around the fire that indeed this Peter is one of the followers of Jesus.

She repeates her question several times, so that everybody is listening. Look at Peter’s reply. Verse 70, “But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And his denial is not to this servant girl only, it is to everybody, who have now heard everything. This is Peter, unbelievable. Mark says, “I don’t know Him.” And John says he said, “I am not.” And the truth of it is, he said it all, “I am not, I don’t know Him, I do not know what you mean.” Just a natural way to respond.

It took a little servant maid to take down the chief of the twelve. Gone were all his high and heroic protestations to Jesus, gone was his courage that supposedly existed in his heart. From his hand had been snatched the sword, and now out of his heart had been snatched his character, and now there he was, the coward, unable to confess his heavenly Lord, cringing in denial. He was afraid of being arrested. His self-preserving instincts took over, and he denied what he knew was really true.

What reveals our character is our involuntary response, not planned response. And his involuntary reaction was one that showed his character to be weak and sinful. And it was the result of strong ego, an unwillingness to listen to the word of the Lord, a failure to pray, and an acting on his own impulse, independent of the plan of God. He was on his own, and on his own he was weak, just like anybody else.

And so he heads for the corridor and he says to himself, I’m not going to have this kind of vulnerability there. So he went away from potential danger, away from recognition. Luke 22:58 says, “And after a little while,” then follows verse 71, “And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And Mark 14:68 says, “He went out into the porch and the cock crowed.” That was the first crow, he has denied the Lord once, and the cock has crowed once. He’s got two more denials and it will crow the second time.

Peter didn’t hear that first one. The crowd and his own tension interfered as he tries to hide there. And there he is, exposed again. Matthew tells us it was a different servant girl. Luke 22:58 adds that at this time a man also spoke to him, the same as the girl did. This is the time of his second denial. When they confront him, the crowd must have been drawn into it, because it says in verse 71, “and she said to the bystanders, he is one who followed Jesus.”

His response is really unusual, verse 72, “And again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’” Peter is angry, embarrassed and frustrated. He is also afraid and he is trapped. By now his denials are getting more vehement, and this time he doesn’t just lie, he lied in his oath. An ultimate oath would be to swear by the living God. Back in verse 63, when the high priest wanted the truth out of Jesus, he said, “I adjure You by the living God, tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Peter said, “I pledge the truth before God, I do not know this Jesus.” Unbelievable.

It’s the second denial and it was worse than the first. It demonstrates a lack of trust. Why couldn’t he just say the truth, and commit himself to the care of the Lord? Because he didn’t have the spiritual strength; he was weak. There are people who think that because they know so much about the Bible, and because they have experienced so many things in terms of the moving of God, that they now are beyond the possibility of a disaster, and that is just when you are most vulnerable. That is right where Peter was.

Verse 73, “After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” “How much later was this?” Well, Luke 22:59 says it was an hour later. So he just sort of milled around for about an hour. The first hour, two denials, and then another hour goes by and here comes his third denial. By this time they were spitting on the face of Jesus, and with their fists they were pounding on His face. And maybe the screams of blasphemy on Him held him there.

It says here that a group “came up and said”, the spokesman for the group, according to John 18:26, was a relative of Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Verse 74, “Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” Cursing basically means to pronounce death upon yourself at the hand of God if you are lying. May God kill me and damn me if I am not speaking the truth.

And then verse 74 continues, “And immediately the rooster crowed.” That’s the third time. And the rooster crow was about 3:00 AM; the Lord’s prediction came to pass. Luke 22:61 tells us that at this very moment, when the cock crowed, “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter instantly remembered the saying of the Lord, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” Peter was able to see the Lord and His look must have burned Peter’s soul, to show him to never ignore what Jesus says.

How can that happen?” We cannot defy the Word of God and survive. Spiritual self-confidence, not praying, and independence leads to compromise. If you think you can handle every situation, you are going to fail. That’s where Peter was. And this was the hour of the power of darkness, the forces of demons and the enemy, and Peter was no match for this in the flesh. And the key to this whole message is that the true Peter is seen not in his denial, but in his repentance.

Peter went out and wept bitterly and came back to be restored, and therein lies the difference between a Judas and a Peter. Both will sin, but one will be repentant and restored, and the other will be damned. In Luke 22:32, Jesus said, “Peter, Satan desires to have you, but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” The reason that we stay saved is not because of something we have done, but because of Jesus who owns us. Jesus didn’t hold Judas because He never had Judas, but He owns Peter and Peter’s faith didn’t fail.

Verse 75, “And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus.” Peter remembered that Jesus said it would be this way that he would do it three times before that cock crowed twice. And then it says, “He went out.” That’s the second thing, none of the gospel writers tell us where he went; that’s a private moment of repentance to come to grips with your own sin. That’s for him and the Lord, whom he so grossly offended.

But we do know that the third thing he did was not only remember and go out, but “he wept bitterly.” And you know something? It wasn’t until he saw the face of Jesus, and it wasn’t until he remembered the words of Jesus, that he repented. His sin didn’t make him repent. It was the Savior that made him repent. And here’s a very important principle.

It is not our sins that make us weep and repent. It is when we see what kind of Savior we have sinned against. And so we always need the vision of who He is. The sin alone didn’t do anything to Peter. It is the repentance born of a recognition of the kind of Savior we have sinned against. That is why the ministry should be, not a ministry of just telling you to turn from your sin, but a ministry of lifting up our God of glory, of lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ, so that in seeing Him, you understand the heinousness of oue sins.

And the end of the story is Peter’s restoration as an example to all of us of what we receive when we sin and need restoration. In John 21, Peter is in Galilee, and the Lord appears after the resurrection. And He comes to restore Peter, and says, “Simon, son of Jonah do you love Me?” And He says it to him three times. And three times Peter says, “I love You, I love You, I love You.”

Why do you think the Lord gave him three opportunities to say that? The Lord was bringing him back. For the three times of denial, there were three times of affirming love. And the Lord accepted Peter’s testimony, and the Lord restored Peter, and He said, “Feed My sheep, feed My lambs, feed My sheep,” and He put Peter back on his feet, and back in the ministry, and he became the great proclaimer of the gospel in the early church. Let us pray.