8-22-21 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

Matthew 26:69-75 God’s Zoo #12

Pastor Ron Koehler Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ August 22, 2021

The Rooster’s Crowing Announces the Need to Repent.

69

Meanwhile Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came to him and said, “You were also with Jesus the Galilean.”

70 But he denied it in front of everyone, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

71 When Peter went out to the entryway, someone else saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

72 Again Peter denied it with an oath and said, “I do not know the man.”

73 After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, “Surely you are also one of them because even your accent gives you away.”

74 Then he began to curse and to swear, “I do not know the man!” Just then the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Dear Friends in Christ, It’s likely that when you think of a rooster, you think of their crowing. If you’ve been anywhere in the vicinity of a rooster at sunup, you may not have appreciated it much!

The truth is roosters crow at all times of the day. But hearing that sound in the afternoon doesn’t make it any less obnoxious. Did you know that their cock-a-doodledoo is not the only sound they make? Besides their crowing, they have a specific food call, clucking that is used to bring the hens over to the food. They will also make a distinct aerial predator warning call. They will let out a long call to signal that a predatory bird is a nearby threat.

In the gospel for today, we hear about a rooster whose crowing signaled that Peter had sinned, just as Jesus had warned him would happen—and which Peter denied would happen. There was a predator eyeing up Peter and Jesus. It was Satan. His first strike was at Peter, playing on his sinful nature and his fear. He was also aiming for Jesus.

Mark’s gospel tells us that the rooster crowed twice—the first an initial warning. It was the final crowing that Matthew mentions here. This one announced that the predator, Satan, had defeated the disciple as he denied his Savior. Peter had given in to his fear.

He was devastated at the sound of the rooster’s crowing because he knew what it meant—Jesus was right about his denying. And so The Rooster’s Crowing Announced the Need to Repent.

You probably remember some of the details of this scene. It was the end of Jesus’ three-year ministry—three years of perfectly walking in his Father’s commands and his expectations for the One anointed to be the Savior of all people. Jesus had just met with his followers in an upper room to celebrate the Passover and to institute the Lord’s Supper. During the meal, he spoke to them again about the suffering that lay in front of him and his death. He warned them that one of them would betray him. His comment that they all would abandon him caused bold and impetuous Peter to bristle and declare that the rest of the Twelve might do that, but he would never fall away from his Lord. It is then that Jesus broke the sad news to him that, yes, he would. “Amen I tell you: Today—this very night—before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times (Mark 14:30).” And to make it worse, Peter just kept saying that he wouldn’t, even if it meant death for him.

After the meal, they all—except for Judas—went to a garden, to a grove of olive trees out across the small valley outside of Jerusalem, a place called Gethsemane. Jesus wanted to spend time in prayer because he knew what was coming—ridiculous accusations, unfair trials, torture and suffering, and a most painful and cruel death. A few of the Twelve were told to keep watch, but they kept drifting off while Jesus went off to pray. Peter was one of the three, and Jesus pointed out to him that he wasn’t even strong enough to do for an hour what Jesus asked. Peter’s weakness was already showing. Jesus advised him: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38).”

Shortly after that, the betrayer arrived. Judas came, leading an angry crowd of religious leaders, determined to take Jesus prisoner. Along with them was a contingent of Roman soldiers. Peter took center stage again, drawing his sword, swinging it at the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. He seemed to be making good on his commitment to Jesus and his promise to not flee from Jesus when things got tough.

Again, Jesus has to reprimand him though. Peter was not seeing things the way Jesus was. Jesus needed this to happen, just as he had told Peter and the others already.

They took Jesus away and Peter and John followed. They entered the courtyard of the high priest because John knew the high priest and was known there. It is then that Peter’s denials began.

Peter was recognized because people had seen him with Jesus, and his accent was unmistakable—he was from up north in Galilee. But despite the conviction with which the people there spoke, Peter kept denying that he had anything to do with Jesus or even knew who he was. He even resorted to cursing and swearing to try to reinforce his denial so that he could avoid whatever terrible fate awaited Jesus.

Jesus knew this would happen. He knew that one of his creatures, the rooster, would give the signal that what he said would happen had just happened. The rooster’s crowing reminded Peter that Jesus had warned him. All of the sudden, at the crowing

of the rooster, he was not only not confident in himself, he was ashamed at his attitude and behavior. Guilt washed over him as he realized what he had done. He had denied even knowing his Lord, who had done so much for him. Peter completely broke down, weeping over his sin.

The rooster’s crowing signaled his sinful failure. But it did more than that. The Rooster’s Crowing Announced the Need to Repent. Guilt and remorse are not repentance. The sinful denial needed to be addressed. Perhaps that is exactly what was going on as Peter broke down. It says that he wept bitterly. Another way of translating that phrase is that he was “wailing in agony.” Either way, Peter completely lost it. Why? Because he knew that Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah and his Savior from sin. He knew that! He had been commended by Jesus for confessing that quickly when Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was.

Since he know Jesus was his Savior, it seems that he was more than just remorseful.

A repentant heart beat within him. His breakdown did not lead him to despair like it did for Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. This was a sinful action, a sinful moment in time, not an entire disowning of Jesus, a loss of faith.

His actions later showed this to be true. Maybe you remember that he and John ran to the tomb to see if Jesus had risen from the dead. Maybe you remember how Jesus reinstated Peter to his position as a leader in the church, asking him three times—“Do you love me?” Three denials in the courtyard, three times affirming his love for his Lord as they walked along the beach. I don’t know if Peter forever flinched at the crowing of a rooster, remembering his sin, but I do know that he knew he was forgiven for that sin and all others. That’s what he proclaimed. You can read the evidence of repentance and the humility that came with it in the book of Acts and in the letters he wrote: 1st and 2nd Peter. Sin—repentance—forgiveness.

So that’s the story of Peter. But what about you? We cannot find ourselves in the courtyard of the high priest, seeing Jesus suffer and led off to trial and death. Our sin is not exactly Peter’s, but isn’t every sin as damning as his? What sins would the crowing of the rooster reveal in your life?

We don’t have the face of our Savior looking right at us to remind us that what we’re doing is wrong. But we know what he says, don’t we? We know our Bibles—at least enough to know many things we do that offend our Savior and which make us deserving of an eternity separated from God. Yes, there are particular things, aren’t there? God warns you about some things and you do them anyway. You may even think that you won’t…but you do. And confidence in yourself leads to humiliation when you fall, just as it did for Peter. Perhaps it breaks your heart like it did for him too. But let me ask you this as you sit here thinking about your failures before your Savior: Are you simply sad about what you’ve done? Are you feeling guilty, but that’s it?

Because repentance is more than feeling bad. It is more than saying you are sorry.

Are you truly repentant? It can be difficult to answer that one unless you realize what repentance really entails, so let’s walk that through. Repentance is…

Repentance is realizing that this thought or thing that we’ve said or done is sin, It is feeling sorrow over our sin, It is asking God for forgiveness because of what Christ has done for you, It is actually trusting that you are forgiven, and It is having the desire and intention of not sinning in that way again.

It is absolutely true that repentance has a lot to do with your response to your sin. But the most important thing is Jesus. Jesus loves us, and he forgives us. If your sins and the kind of life you have lived and your denial of Jesus are somehow keeping you from seeing that, then let me remind you again where Jesus was going as he glanced at Peter that night. He was being led to Pontius Pilate and then to Herod and then back to Pilate. His journey would end at Calvary where he would offer his life as payment for your sins.

All the opportunities you have missed, all the wrong turns you have made, all the times you have spoken when you should have kept quiet, all the times you kept quiet when you should have spoken, every time you denied Christ, and every sin that should rightfully send you to hell—all of these Jesus took off of you and placed on himself.

Then he suffered and died for them and took them all away.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard about what happened in August of 1993 in the Marshall Islands, a republic of 100 small islands in the Pacific divided by the international date line. The government announced to the local residents that they would go to bed on August 20, but in the morning when they woke up it would be August 22. The Republic of the Marshall Islands decided that all the islands should be on the same side of the international date line. And so, August 21 was completely eliminated.

Peter may have wished for something like that—to have that one day, the day of his terrible denial of the Savior, completely eliminated, torn out of the calendar and thrown away. Well, it was. Through the blood of Christ, God no longer held that day against him.

And that is not just true for Peter, but for all of us. Not just Peter’s one day and one sin, but all the sins of all people committed by them every day throughout their whole lifetimes—yours and mine included. They have been forgiven and forgotten by God. The Rooster’s Crowing Announced the Need to Repent and Peter found forgiveness when he did. Christians who hear the crowing of a rooster or even see a picture of one might think of Peter’s sin and their own as well. It may also serve as a good reminder of the forgiveness that Jesus extended to him and extends to us as well. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.