Southland Christian Church

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Peter must experience supreme personal, spiritual, and moral failure so that he can appreciate the Gospel in a way that He previously could not. Read Today's Daily Devotional: Peter's Boast https://southlandcc.org/readings/114-peters-denial

Peter Denies Christ -Mark 14:26-31

ARREST: SCRIPTURE FULFILLED Thursday: Mark 14:46-51 Then they laid their hands on Him and took Him. (Mark 14:46) ... Then Jesus answered and said to them, Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. (Mark 14:4849) Rude and violent hands took him into custody. This would not be possible were there not a greater plan. Jesus argues that he was not a robber. He didn’t run or hide like a fugitive. He taught in the open with good conscience sin the middle of the day. Yet it is here in the deep dark night that the government comes with swords and clubs. What shame when the innocent is called a criminal and what should be righteousness, law and justice is unrighteous, unlawful and unjust. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20, NKJV) Jesus allows it because the scriptures must be fulfilled. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7, NKJV) But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. (Psalm 22:6, NKJV) To be sure, the Messiah and Son of Man will be delivered to the wicked conspiracies of men. "The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed..." Psalm 2:2 He gave his disciples a scriptural forewarning to this very event: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again. (Matthew 20:1819, NKJV) Peter is quick to raise the sword. Surely he means to sever a head but, by God’s grace to the man, only an ear is lost--and that only briefly. Luke 22:50-51. It is easier to fight for Christ than it is to die for him. We are not called to take another’s life, even for Christ’s sake. We overcome evil with good. That is Christ’s way. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11, NKJV) See how all flee Christ. One man is grasped by his garment, but tears loose and runs away naked. Don’t think it strange, Christian, if you are deserted by friends. Paul had many friends. Many good friends, but there was a time when he said that all forsook him. 2 Timothy 4:16 Yet Christ will not forsake you.

JESUS PRAYS ALONE Tuesday: Matthew 26:36-46 See the dwindling prayer meeting. A Judas-less eleven are brought to the familiar grove. Sit here while I pray. From there, Jesus culls out a smaller core, Peter, James and John, to walk a little further. He tells them of his deeply troubled soul. Stay here and watch, He tells them. They know that to watch, is to pray. Matthew 13:33 They will soon do neither. ... Then He moves a little further to pray alone. Friends, the farther you go with God, the smaller the crowd gets. Know that. And as God will have it, there will be times when when it is just you and Him. He will get you alone with Himself. Others may sympathize with your trial when you speak intimately of your soul’s state. These may sympathize, but they will not really get it. But you must go on, alone, with God In times of Covid, quarantines and social distancing, we whine, we fuss, we complain and we cry. Each of us are hindered from the liberties we took for granted. What do we say to that? Wasn’t Paul parked in prison? Was that wasted time for such a gifted Apostle? Did it hinder God's usage of him? No. God used the time and God used him! Jonah certainly lamented being contained to a very small quarters, yet God had a work to do in him. He had to get him alone with Himself. In that place of solitude and suffering, He broke down Jonah’s will and magnified grace to him--so he could preach grace effectively to a people who didn’t deserve it any more than he did. But isn’t that what grace is? Jonah 2:8 Even Job had to be separated from the well-meaning jibber-jabber of his three friends so he could come through. Human intercourse, even our own arguments, obscure understanding. Job 38:2 The Lord must have it out with you, and with no other hindering you by thinking they are helping you. Alone in a storm, the voice of the Lord and the face of the Lord was soon seen. Job 42:5-6 Only then, did Job come through. See Jesus’ private wrestling: Is it possible? Jesus is pressing in with the Father. Is there another way other than through the cross? But surrender wins the day. Take this cup, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. What back and forth between the cloak of human flesh and divinity’s plan! The first Adam caved to temptation, and we were the losers for it. But the last Adam overcomes temptation, and we will gain by his victory, in every way! Prayer is the key to submission. When three times of wrestling are through, the disciples sleep, even the best of them. But then the alarm goes off: the hour has come, behold the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Mark 14:41