Peter’s Denial and Jesus’ Interrogation (Lk 22:54-62)

This lesson covers Peter’s denial of Jesus and Jesus’ interrogation by the Sanhedrin

Luke 22:54-62

Peter Denies Jesus, and Weeps Bitterly

 

Luke 22: 54-62

54 Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed at a distance. 55 Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, "This man was also with Him."

57 But he denied Him, saying, "Woman, I do not know Him."

58 And after a little while another saw him and said, "You also are of them."

But Peter said, "Man, I am not!"

59 Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean."

60 But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!"

Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."  62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Parallel passages: Matthew 26:69-75, Mark 14:66-72, John 18:13-18 and John 18:25-27.

Our passage tonight from Luke 22 describes the events surrounding Peter’s three denials of Jesus. When Jesus was taken into captivity sometime in the middle of the night by the temple guards and the Roman soldiers, all of His disciples forsook Jesus and fled. Peter and another disciple, who is not named but who is probably John (John 18:15-16), had not yet abandoned Jesus completely, for we find them following the guards and soldiers at a distance as they take Jesus to the house of the high priest.

We are not told what became of the Roman cohort. If these soldiers were still present, most likely they remained outside, in the courtyard, while chief priests and elders took Jesus before the high priest. It was just before the Passover, and the Jews, especially the priests, would have sought to minimize their contact with Roman soldiers, who were Gentiles, so as not to become ceremonially impure. The servants of the high priest were probably sent out into the courtyard while Jesus was brought in for interrogation. Together with the officers of the temple, these servants lit a fire in the courtyard to help keep warm.

John’s Gospel tells us that the other disciple who followed with Peter was known to the high priest and was able to get first himself and then Peter admitted into the courtyard. So Peter came in and sat among them, around the fire.

Just in passing, consider what we see Peter doing here in light of Psalm 1:1-2

1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

These verses remind us that our blessing comes from NOT walking in the counsel of the ungodly, NOT standing in the path of sinners, NOT sitting in the seat of the scornful. Many people see in these verses a warning about what a slippery slope it can be for a believer to become involved with worldly people. There appears to be a progression suggested here, as the man goes from walking to standing to sitting.

We might picture a believer walking through the world, for indeed we are called to be salt and light here. Perhaps our believer, like Abraham, is waiting “for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Heb 11:8-10) His eyes are focused on spiritual things and the world is not his home. However, as our believer walks, he encounters and to a certain extent comes to agree with worldly philosophy. He begins to be ”conformed to this world” (Rom 12:2) and to walk sometimes “in the counsel of the ungodly.” As time passes our believer ceases to “desire a better, that is, a heavenly country”(Heb 11:13-16) as he walk through the world. In fact, he stops pressing “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”(Phil 3:12-14) altogether and begins to look more closely at the things of the world which surround him. With the passage of even more time, we find our believer now “sitting in the seat of the scornful”. He has become a carnal Christian, one who is trying to serve two masters. And this is a hard thing to do, as Christ Himself tells us in Matthew 6:24:

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”  

In Scripture I believe that we can see such a progression in the life of Lot (Gen 13,14 18a& 19) as he goes from travelling with his uncle Abraham, to settling in the well-watered plains of the Jordan, to sitting in the gates of Sodom and Gomorrah, vexed in his righteous heart by the filthy conduct of the wicked which he saw daily (Pet 2:4-10). Another example might be Jacob and his family settling near the city of Shechem and the problems (Gen 34) that ensued there before they moved on to Bethel where the Lord called them.

Now clearly what we are describing is a process which takes time and does not generally, praise God, happen overnight. I do not believe we can push this too far with what we see Peter doing in our passage. That being said, as we look at the different Gospel accounts of this incident, we see first Peter walking at a distance behind those who have taken Jesus prisoner. Next Peter is found standing outside the door to the courtyard of the high priest’s house. Soon Peter is standing inside the courtyard among the servants of the high priest, warming himself around the fire. Finally we read he is seated around the fire with them.

And it is there, seated around the fire with the servants of the high priest, that Peter denies Jesus three times. Luke tells us that first a servant girl, recognizing his face as he sat by the fire (Lk 22:56), said “This man was also with Him.” Peter’s response was to deny Jesus: “Woman, I do not know Him.” Realizing he might be safer out of the light, Peter moved away from the fire (Matt 26:71).  A second time Peter is recognized, again probably by a servant girl, and again Peter denies that he was with Jesus. His denials were unconvincing. In fact, it seems that Peter’s accent or word choice made it clear that he was a Gallilean. A little later another person asserted that Peter must have been with Jesus. John’s Gospel ( John 18:26) says that this was a relative of Malchus’, the servant of the high priest whose ear Peter had cut off with a sword. Matthew 26: 74 tells us “Then he began to curse and swear, saying, "I do not know the Man!"”

“Immediately”, Luke’s Gospel tells us, “a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." So he went out and wept bitterly.“

Peter was broken. He remembered that less than eight hours before, he had boosted to Jesus that he was ready to follow Him, both to prison and to death. Peter remembered that Jesus had told him that he would deny Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. Peter realized that the very thing that he had said he would never do, he had done, not once, not twice, but three times.

And make no mistake; it is not a light thing to deny Jesus among men. Indeed Jesus Himself tells us otherwise. Speaking to His disciples in Matthew 10:32-33 (cf Lk 12:8-9), as He prepared to send them out to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, Jesus warned them:

"Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."

None of us, I believe, desire to have Jesus deny us before God. Rather we want Him to be our advocate before the Father.

Praise God that He loves us while we were yet sinners. Jesus knew Peter’s heart. He knew that Peter truly loved Him. And I believe that He knew that Peter still relied too much on his own strength. Jesus allowed Satan to sift Peter like wheat to help him understand how weak his flesh truly was.

After this experience I believe that Peter would have understood and agreed with the words that Paul wrote in Romans 7:15-25:

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Peter, it seems to me, had relied on his own strength as he followed after Jesus. Scripture never records that he prayed even once as he waited to see what the faith of his Master would be, Yet Jesus had repeatedly instructed the disciples to pray there in the Garden of Gethsemane, lest they fall into temptation. Peter had experienced firsthand the painful but valuable lesson that the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:40-41). Without prayer, we will be unable to do the things that God calls us to do. We need to pray (1 Thess 1:11-12) that:

God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet praise God because His mercies are new each morning (Lam 3:22-23)! He is truly full of grace and mercy for His children. Jesus did not hold the fact that Peter denied Him three times against Him. After His resurrection, Jesus would lovingly restore Peter, and not just restore him, but give him the charge to feed Jesus’ lambs and tend His sheep (See John 21).

In passing I want to quickly point out some of the differences among the Gospel accounts of this incident. I do so not to bring the accuracy or reliability of the Scriptures into question but rather to make you aware so that you may “be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Pet 3:15-16)

There are four things I want to touch on in turn:

1. Jesus at the house of Annas
2.  
3. The location of Peter’s denial
4.  
5. The crowing of the cock
6.  
7. Jesus’ interrogation by the Sanhedrin

Jesus at the house of Annas

 

In the Gospel of Luke, Matthew, and Mark, Jesus is taken to the house of the high priest from the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew specifically mentions Caiaphas by name (Matthew 26:57).  The Gospel of John (John 18:12-24) however, mentions that Jesus was taken to the house of Annas before the house of the high priest Caiaphas. Annas had been a high priest (that is why he is called by that title, just as we call former presidents President Bush), and was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the current high priest. Annas conducted a brief interview with Jesus, attempting to question Him about His doctrine. When Jesus refused to give specifics, Annas ordered that Jesus be taken to the house of Caiaphas.

The location of Peter’s denial

 

In John’s Gospel, it seems as if Peter’s denial occurs, or at least begins, in the courtyard of the house of Annas rather than Caiaphas. In the other three accounts, it seems as if the denial occurs in the courtyard of Caiaphas.

The crowing of the cock

 

In the Gospel of Mark Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him three times before the rooster will crow twice. In the other Gospels, only one crowing is mentioned. During Mark’s account of Peter’s denial of Jesus, the cock crows the first time after his first denial and the second time after his third. In the other Gospel accounts, only one crowing is mentioned.

Jesus’ interrogation by the Sanhedrin

 

In the Gospel of Luke the interrogation of Jesus by the Sanhedrin occurs in the morning after the cock has crowed marking Peter’s third denial of Jesus. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the interrogation seems to take place during the night, while Peter is sitting in the high priest’s courtyard. John’s Gospel does not mention an interrogation by the Sanhedrin.

To those who would insist that the Gospels must be in complete agreement on all details, otherwise they cannot be trusted; I would hasten to remind them that the preoccupation with a strictly linear chronological account is a modern one. Scripture plainly tells us at least one purpose for the written word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17):

And Romans 15:4 gives us another reason: “4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

I believe that we have the word of God to help us learn about eternal life. And John 17:3 has this to say about eternal life: “3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Scripture is intended to help us learn about God and Jesus Christ, His Son. Nowhere that I can find are we told that the purpose of Scripture was to give us a complete, chronological account of everything that happened. Where Scripture does speak about people and events, it has proven to be quite accurate. It is my belief that (Psa 12:6-7)

6 The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.  7 You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

What is the application of this passage for us? Three things come to mind:

1. We need to stay close to God, remembering that we are His sheep, and not stray too far from the flock.
2.  
3. We need to rely not on our flesh or on our own understand but on His Spirit and His strength. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” John 6”63
4.  
5. We need to recognize our weakness and how easily we can go astray. For this reason 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 warns us “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”