Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
9/27/98 pm
Face To Face With Jesus
The Look That Changes Life
Reading — Luke 22.54-62
Face-To-Face With Jesus; The Look That Changes Life
Access a Bible and turn to Luke chapter twenty-two and let’s set the stage for our lesson tonight.
It was the feast of unleavened bread... Passover. The Chief Priest, scribes and Pharisees were looking for a way to do away with Jesus. They were ready to kill Him, if necessary, if this was the only way they could rid themselves of this thorn in their side.. They hated Jesus, but the everyday people loved Him. They needed a fall guy. So, they made a pact with Judas to betray Jesus for a few dollars.
Beginning with verse seven we begin to make our way to the upper room. In verse 17 Jesus begins what is known to us as the last supper. But during this most solemn feast where Jesus is explaining that His body will be broken and his blood shed for their transgression something terrible, something unbelievable occurs... Note verse 24.
Can you believe it? During the Lord’s Supper with none other than Jesus the Son of God serving the elements, these guys begin to bicker among themselves as to who is greatest. Jesus takes this interruption as an opportunity to teach a lesson on Kingdom greatness. His teaching is this, the greatest in the kingdom must become the servant of all.
Then in John’s narrative, Jesus girds Himself with a towel and washes feet. O church, when will we learn this lesson:
- In our homes,
- In this church,
- Down at the office,
- And out on the golf course?
Notice verse 31, Jesus focuses His attention on Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back... When you are changed... When you are converted, strengthen your brothers. But Peter replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death."
It seems to me that we are all like Peter. We all have to go through a second , third, maybe fourth or fifth conversion experience. Yes, there is that time when we come to know Jesus for who He is and we acknowledge Him as our Savior... Put Him on in New Testament baptism. Remember it was Peter who acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of God back in Matthew 16.16; when Jesus ask, but whom do you say that I am.?
Yes, it’s true we are all like Peter converted, changed, committed men and women and then Satan comes along and sifts us, causing us to deny Jesus. But then Jesus prays for us and we see ourselves as we are and we understand what He wants us to be so we come back to His side.
Conversion is an ongoing process where we are: Converted, Changed, Restored, Molded into the image of our Lord. When you are converted, when you come back, strengthen the brethren.
As Jesus was arrested, Peter follows closely. When identified as one of the followers of Jesus, Peter denies, not once, but three times. As the denial was completed Jesus looked at Peter and the rooster crowed just as Jesus had predicted. And Peter want out and wept bitterly.
CHURCH, LET’S SEE WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THIS LOOK OF JESUS.
FIRST, PETER IS FOLLOWING AT A DISTANCE PETER IS PRACTICING DISTANT DISCIPLESHIP.
Peter seems to want to be close enough to Jesus for Jesus to see him, but not close enough for others to recognize that he is a follower... A disciple... A Christian.
Peter wants to be with Jesus:
- As He walks on water,
- As he raises Jairus’ daughter,
- As he feeds thousands,
- As he raises Lazarus,
- As he marches triumphantly into Jerusalem
But not when discipleship demands he take a stand that is not politically correct.
Peter appears to be working for a grand compromise here. After all he has promised... Pledged... Committed to follow Jesus anywhere. He wants Jesus to see him fulfilling his promise, but at the same time remain unrecognizable in the crowd.
Do we ever do this? Do we ever try to walk this tight rope; where we keep one foot in the world and one foot in the church? At services one, two, three times a week, SEEN BY GOD... SEEN BY THE LORD... SEEN BY THE CHURCH, THE ELDERS, PREACHER and MEMBERS. But not really converted, not changed enough to be recognized out in the world as a disciple?
Like President Clinton, we want to be seen carrying our Bible to the church house, but ashamed to have it lying on the desk at the office or unwilling to live by its principles daily. We are known for our long prayers in worship, but ashamed to be seen praying in restaurant. Its called DISTANT DISCIPLESHIP.
SECONDLY, WE MUST KNOW THAT WHEN WE FOLLOW AT A DISTANCE, WHEN WE KEEP THE WRONG COMPANY, WARM BY THE WRONG FIRE, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND USUALLY DOES.
Paul tells us in First Corinthians 15.33, Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals... Corrupts good character. Church, Peter was not a bad person. Peter intended to be faithful. After all he had promised to follow Jesus to the very end... To go with Him anywhere. But Peter is wrongly influenced by the crowd... And he gives in to the temptation. He warmed by the wrong fire. He is spending time with the wrong people. Peter is allowing the world to force him into its mold. Here it is audience:
- Following at a distance,
- Keeping the wrong company,
- Being warmed by the wrong fire, invites Satan into our hearts and lives. For instance: Keeping the wrong company makes it easy to excuse ourselves from services, causes us to forsake the assemblies.
- Company comes.
- We have a slight headache.
- Perhaps a golf game.
- A trip to the lake.
- Or a thousand other things.
Warming by the wrong fire causes us to forget prayer at meal time and daily Bible study. Keeping the wrong company makes it easy to lie, gossip and criticize others. Folk, if there are some people who encourage and make it easy for you to gossip and criticize, stay away form those people.... Keep your distance. Following the wrong crowd influences us to participate in sexually immoral practices. Sometimes, warming by the wrong fire causes us to be materialistic and keeps us close to our money rather than giving as we’ve been blessed. Warming by the wrong fire causes us to take exception to Biblical preaching and excuses personal application of God’s truth.
Keeping the wrong company caused:
- Judas to betray Jesus,
- Peter to deny his Lord,
- And Demas to forsake truth and go back into the world.
- Keeping the wrong company caused Peter to be prejudiced toward his Gentile brethren in Antioch.
Church, we must be careful with the company we keep. We are influenced by our surroundings. Yes, I understand that there are times when we can’t always control this, but most of the time it is a personal choice as to those with whom we keep company... RIGHT? Some of us just need to be more careful in choosing our friends.
THIRDLY, THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND IN DISCIPLESHIP.
You see, denying Jesus is the opposite of confessing Him. Denying Him and confirming His deity are mutually exclusive. These two attitudes cannot occupy the same heart at the same time. Jesus said, you are either for Me is against Me. He that gathers not with Me scatters abroad. This leaves no middle ground.
Genuine discipleship, Real Christianity is not found in lukewarmness but is zealous, hot commitment. Pilate tried remaining distant and it didn’t work. He tried to please the world without denying Jesus, but couldn’t... Neither can we!! Who today sees Pilate as one who was really neutral? Nobody! He is recognized as the one who sentenced Jesus to death on the cross.
Jesus said, confess Me before men and I’ll confess you before the Father; Deny me before men, and I’ll deny you before the father. Audience, do you see any room for middle ground, for neutrality here?... I don’t think so! Now we must understand that confession is more than a one time event with the tongue. Genuine confession is a life-style... A way we live daily. Confessing Jesus in our living by His will through the word in our DAILY walk. You see,
- Trying to remain neutral,
- Trying to walk on neutral ground is denying Jesus rather than being molded into His image.
NUMBER FOUR, SOMETIMES THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD CALLS US TO OUR SENSES.
Peter denies Jesus three times, then what happened? The rooster crows... OUCH!!
- Wonder what went through Peter’s mind when that rooster crowed?
- Have you ever wondered what caused that rooster to crow at just this exact moment?
- Was it coincidental?
I don’t think so... It was the divine providence of God at work in the life of Peter. You see God intervened in the life of one of His children in such a way as to call him back to his senses.
This is not the first time such a thing has taken place is it?
- God prepared a great fish and caused a storm to call Jonah back to his senses.
- God dried up a brook to call Elijah back.
- Here He caused a rooster to crow causing Peter to think about his misdeed... His sin... His denial.
The question becomes this, what is God using in your life and mine to bring us to our senses. Perhaps more importantly are we recognizing His divine providence or are we ignoring Him. I encourage you to search your difficulties asking God, what do you want me to learn here?
FIFTHLY, GODLY SORROW BRINGS REPENTANCE.
The eyes of Peter met the eyes of Jesus and Peter remembered the words of Jesus. And he went out and wept. Church,
- Do you know why some of us do not change the way we live?
- Why we don’t repent and forsake our favorite sins?
Because we haven’t seen the eyes of Jesus... We are not filled with Godly sorrow. When we are truly sorry for our sins with a Godly sorrow, we will repent, we will become changed people. Isn’t it time that we stop trying to:
- Rationalize our sins.
- Run from them,
- Deny them.
- Cover them.
- Blaming them on our environment or our genetics and just confess them in Godly sorrow... In genuine repentance?
THEN FINALLY TONIGHT, THE LOOK OF JESUS CAN CHANGE OUR LIVES.
What do we know about Peter after this?... Note these contrasts with me:
- A few weeks later along the Sea of Galilee Peter affirmed his love for Jesus three times, the same number of times he denied Him.
- Fifty days later in Acts two, instead of denying Jesus, Peter is preaching His Deity in the first Gospel sermon.
- Acts four has Peter preaching Jesus in the same court he denied Him in, before the Sanhedrin saying, I can’t keep from preaching the Christ.
Quite a contrast, but this what conversion is all about... RIGHT?
- In Acts five Peter is rejoicing that he is counted worthy to suffer for the Lord.
Here in our text, he is trying to keep from suffering because of Jesus, five chapters later he is glad to be worthy of such suffering.
- In Acts ten, he is courageously preaching to the gentiles at Cornelius’ house.
- In chapter twelve, he is imprisoned and about to be beheaded because he will not deny this same Jesus.
- History tells us that he was crucified, head down, because he confessed and confirmed this same Jesus that he denied in our text.
Audience, where do you think:
- This change
- This conversion,
- This restoration,
- This repentance,
- This about face, took place in Peter’s life? I suggest that it began in the look of Jesus. This look of Jesus caused Peter to think about: Who he was, what he had promised to do and to be. He was a disciple... He had promised to go anywhere with Jesus... To be faithful unto and until death.
Folk, we’re not here to play church, we’re here to worship God. We’re here to remember our commitment we made at baptism:
- To be a disciple,
- To follow Jesus,
- To be a loyal and true follower.
Paul didn’t write Romans chapter six JUST as a treaties on baptism. He wrote it to remind the Roman Christians that they had crucified the old man of sin and that in that act, they promised to be faithful instruments of God in His Kingdom.
Well, Peter was never the same person after he looked into the eyes of Jesus.
- How about us?
- Will we be changed? Jesus is looking at you and your preacher this evening... this very moment. Will we confess Him or deny Him?
“Face to face with Jesus my Savior.
Face to face what will it be?”
This narrative tells us about God’s grace. It is about what God can do:
- With,
- For,
- To,
- By an individual who will let the look of Jesus change his live.
Will you respond to His look in: Faith, Repentance, Confession, and New Testament baptism, immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sins?
Or, perhaps like Peter we need restoration.
Come meet Jesus face to face!!
Will you come?
