Ep 84 Our Consistently Inconsistent Faithfulness - The Real Story of Peter at Jesus’ Arrest

Discover the intricate tapestry woven by scripture in our latest podcast episode, where Selena, Pastor Ryan Brown, and I unravel the profound symbolism rooted in the Garden of Gethsemane. Experience the Easter story as we draw parallels between the arrest of Christ and humanity's first steps in the Garden of Eden, revealing a redemptive narrative that flips the script on original sin. The imagery of trees, fruit, and thorns takes on new life, highlighting the promise of salvation and the ultimate act of sacrificial love.

Navigating the complexities of faithfulness, we shed light on how it shapes and defines our relationships—with one another and with the divine. From the rocky shores of marriage to our love of Christ, we dissect the emotional intricacies of Peter's denial and ponder our own moments of inconsistency. In examining the tumultuous events of Jesus' arrest and Peter's impulsive defense, we find powerful lessons on obedience, and the importance of standing firm in our faith amidst life's tempests.

The episode culminates with an exploration of Peter's transformation post-arrest, inviting us to reflect on the interplay between fear, faithfulness, and the journey towards emotional and spiritual mastery. Join us for a profound reflection on the power of redemption and the strength found in unwavering devotion to our beliefs, even when fear seeks to challenge our resolve.

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Transcript

Imran: 0:05

Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all grown to love. Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. I'm your host, emran Ward, and we are joined by my wife, selena.

Selena: 0:28

Hey.

Imran: 0:29

And our teacher, pastor Ryan Brown. What's going on?

Ryan : 0:31

everyone it's going well, I just never get over it, your introductions. So I don't know how many episodes ago it was. I was like, hey, you say hey, this is Emran, this is Selena, and you call me by my full name. Yes, remember that. You know why. You just introduced yourself as Emran Ward.

Imran: 0:47

Yeah, but do you know why? I don't put Selena's full name, because she told me not to.

Ryan : 0:53

That's all it is. I think it will cause more confusion. Oh man, he just threw me off for the whole podcast now because he changed up the. I don't know what to do.

Imran: 1:01

But I will, yeah, but I'll say that that's. I always say either Emron Ward and Selena or Emron and Selena, because Selena was like don't ever, don't ever say it, don't.

Ryan : 1:09

She doesn't want to get hit up on social media.

Imran: 1:12

Yeah, I'd be like, why don't you take your husband's last name, like her last name is Cruz contrast. I love her. Now people know that's a secret, yeah right. Well, her phone number is and her social security number. But for those that are joining us for the first time, welcome, welcome. For those that are returning, happy to see you again or happy to have you listen to us again, I guess this week is Easter week, right? Palm Sunday.

Imran: 1:44

Palm Sunday. We're recording this on Palm Sunday, getting ready to go into Easter, uh, this weekend and, uh, big celebrations all planned, as there should be big celebrations planned all over the world because of such an amazing thing took place. If you didn't know, you're going to learn more about it in this week's episode. So, uh, we did have another episode recorded prior to this, but Ryan was so excited after his, after teaching in youth today, and he's like, all right, we're going to record this message that I gave today, cause it was really, really good, and so he's impassioned, he's rehearsed because he literally did this, this morning, this morning, but I wasn't able to do all of it and that was part of probably my problem.

Ryan : 2:21

Was that part?

Imran: 2:22

of probably my problem was that whenever I have a bunch of stuff, I'm like people need to know and you can't hit that in a 30 minute sermon, when we did the Bible studies at the church, ryan would often run into our guided discussion time because he had so much to go through. So it was an hour of Bible study and then 30 minutes of guided discussion and he would always run into it and he's like I'm sorry, I took some of your time, but it's just so much and it's definitely part of the reason why I wanted us to have this, uh, this discussion here, and it's also definitely why these podcasts are always like an hour and a half because there is, he does that deep level study.

Imran: 2:55

So, um, in honor of that, uh, let's jump into it for this week. So where are we? Where are we touching on for this episode?

Ryan : 3:03

So we're going to be doing a story, um, tonight. Um, so it's a garden story. It's when, or we're going to start at least there. Um, what do you mean by it's a garden story? It's when Jesus and his disciples are in the garden of Gethsemane and when Jesus gets arrested.

Imran: 3:19

So no, I mean, but like, what do you mean by it's a garden story?

Ryan : 3:22

Are there a?

Imran: 3:22

bunch of garden stories.

Ryan : 3:23

Well, it's actually very interesting If you ever notice how much happens around or in a garden. In the Bible, you know the most obvious. If you were to look at, of course, the Garden of Eden, where everything starts right, and there's actually a lot of parallels that are always interesting. So, for example, like in this particular you know, the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is getting ready to do his passion right, he's going to go to the cross. He knows that. You almost see this exact reversal of God, reversing what was done in the original Garden of Eden. Right, so like.

Ryan : 3:58

So, for example, do not eat of that tree or the fruit of that tree or you'll certainly die. Right, so they take the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And because they did that, there was a curse. It says that there's going to be a promised seed. Who comes and fixes all this and says Satan will bruise his heel, he'll crush his head. There's also because, you know, to Adam he says because you did this, the ground is now going to produce thorn and thistle for you. Your labor with your hands is going to be more difficult. So you kind of get this idea of what Adam and Eve took from the tree, now God takes and puts back on the tree. Because this reference to feet, to now Jesus' feet are pierced, because labor is going to be harder with the hands.

Ryan : 4:48

They pierced Jesus' hands. The crown is going to produce thorn and thistle. From the curse of this event, they place a thorn of crowns on his head A crown of thorns. Yeah, a crown of thorns, oh man.

Imran: 5:01

Crown of thorns. There we go, yeah yeah, yeah.

Ryan : 5:03

Crown of thorns on his head, so it's almost like reversing the actions right, symbolically of what happened in Eden as he goes to save the world.

Ryan : 5:12

So as one led to death, he now is going to do something that leads to life, and so when I say a garden story, it kind of brings in this motif that you see in a garden biblically. That's really cool. But the story is also, by the way, it's in all four of the Gospels and it's not uncommon for certain stories to be shared across, obviously, but for there to be one story across all four. There's actually far, you know, I couldn't give you a number, but there are very few of them.

Ryan : 5:45

Which means that this story in particular is of great interest to every gospel writer. And every gospel writer is writing to different audiences at different times, right? And each one of their audiences have kind of different sensitivities that they're considering right.

Imran: 6:03

So what's kind of cool is you get these different— the audience of the gospel at the time so you get these different. Considering, right. So what's kind of cool is you get these different-.

Ryan : 6:05

The audience of the gospel at the time. So you get these different details right and the certain details are kind of left out, to not just the theological point that the author is making but also the sensitivities that exist around it. So they'll leave certain things out for sensitivities, but also it's like it's not necessary to make this point right. So you actually kind of get this really interesting um collaboration between the four of what happened and each one offers different details, that kind of um, you know, give you a fuller picture of what happened Exactly. Yeah, and the story is also one of cause, you could say three redemptions coming off this one event it kind of anchors on. So it's an important story and it's one that we, I think most people, have heard about, but one that I don't think people have really ever just thought about how significant it was in terms of the narrative of Easter week right, particularly the night before right, he's about to get arrested.

Imran: 7:05

Talking with Palm Sunday going. When he enters. What was the city that he entered? Where they laid the palm leaves down, jerusalem?

Selena: 7:13

So he enters.

Imran: 7:13

Jerusalem and then the whole week where he's arrested, tried four times and then-. He is welcomed as essentially a conquering king.

Ryan : 7:22

On Sunday, by Tuesday, tuesday, wednesday, he's flipping tables in the temple. Yeah, um, really makes everybody mad. Um, they start plotting to kill him and that's probably within that week that Judas makes his decision to betray Jesus, and then by Thursday night, or yeah, I mean so it's like his arrest, his trial evening to Friday not Passover Last Supper. The Last Supper that also happens. They go to the garden and then he's arrested. So by Friday he's dead.

Imran: 7:52

Which is just fascinating, that the majority of the stories you hear or that you would maybe commonly know about Jesus' life are all from that one week. It's like he had three years of ministry and then 30 years of life before that. Uh, but a lot of it anchors on that Palm week.

Ryan : 8:12

Over 30% of the gospels are committed, in terms of narrative, to the last week of Jesus's life.

Imran: 8:17

Wow, um, and so most of the detail is there.

Ryan : 8:20

You get half a chapter of his birth right and we make a whole month for Christmas but for.

Ryan : 8:25

Easter. Um, you know, over 30% of all your new Testament writing or gospel writings, are committed to the last week, the week we're about to enter, right, so, um, so I think this will be good, but I would say I guess the perspective we're going to take with this story is in really just kind of anchoring on fleeting faithfulness. You know the the idea of um. I'll just tell example. This is the same story I told the youth this morning, but um had me and my wife had the kids. We were traveling to Utah. So a long drive from 29 Palms we're driving to see her family in Utah and we're talking Bible. Right, I'm talking something. I don't even remember what it was. It was something brilliant. I was really excited by it and I'm like this is just how do not people not know?

Ryan : 9:16

you know we're all fired up talking. Bible and all these things, and as I'm driving and we're talking Bible we're all impassioned by talking scripture, Me and my wife this guy comes and cuts me off in a very dangerous way where I had to slam on my brakes and not hit him and immediately switch one off. I'm barreling down that horn for probably anywhere between five to 35 seconds.

Imran: 9:39

Five to 35.

Ryan : 9:41

Oh my God, rolling the window down, screaming at this person that you're an idiot.

Imran: 9:44

You're an idiot.

Ryan : 9:44

You're an idiot.

Imran: 9:45

You're an idiot.

Ryan : 9:45

You know, like just switch.

Imran: 9:48

Absolutely, oh no.

Ryan : 9:50

All the time my wife is over here, like kids are in the car, kids are in the car Right, and it's just that kind of idea that kids are back there taking notes Like, ah, this is how you probably respond to mentally.

Selena: 9:59

They're you never know who you're running into.

Ryan : 10:03

But the idea, though, is that I think that's kind of a paradox for Christians and believers, right Is that in one moment I could be all impassioned and just in the spirit and excited and that, and then, in the very next moment, I could be doing something that's dishonoring or something that is a betrayal to the way Christ wants us to be and how he wants us to act. Right. And it's like why, how does that happen? And it's a struggle. I think everybody, if they're honest, has right.

Imran: 10:36

I think, more than just the faithfulness piece as well, because it's like you feel that in marriage sometimes too, it's like I love my wife and then my wife would do something and then like, in a sense, it's like you know what I hate my wife and then my wife would do something and then, like an instant, it's like you know what.

Ryan : 10:45

I hate my wife and it's like where's that coming from? So it's faithfulness to anything, yeah, any relationship. This is true of right and um. You know we talked in youth last week about the betrayal of Jesus with Judas and you know, we always, we always look at Judas as, like this, obviously a bad guy right and the gospel writers are also very harsh with him.

Ryan : 11:10

You know he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, but if you're honest with yourself because I know this is true of myself I have betrayed Jesus for far less than 30 pieces of silver, betray.

Imran: 11:19

Jesus for free.

Ryan : 11:22

I've paid money to betray Jesus. Yeah. You know, and not, not in the sense of um rejecting him, but in the sense of dishonoring, dishonoring relationship right Not being faithful. Yeah. And the idea is that in any given relationship in the world, we have an expectation of faithfulness within that scope. Right so your relationship with your parents, you having your idea of what that means for your parent to be faithful to you. What does a faithful father look like? What does a faithful mother look like Now?

Imran: 11:51

it doesn't necessarily mean that our view of that is always correct.

Ryan : 11:55

But the larger concept, though again the same goes in marriage. Right, you have expectations. This is actually a good conversation that married people should have, or at least I encourage engaged people to have before they get married?

Ryan : 12:05

Oh, absolutely. Is what does each one think? What you know, Selena, what do you consider unfaithfulness and cheating? And Rand, what do you consider Right, yeah, now you may think it's like oh, common sense, right, like it's not, but it's not. There's some, like you talk to them, like they have a complete breakdown. They're like I caught my husband watching porn, which obviously isn't okay, but to her that's cheating, right. He's like well, I, I don't. And if you talk to him, he's like well, I, I never thought it was okay, but I definitely I didn't.

Imran: 12:37

I didn't consider it cheating. She thinks it's cheating?

Ryan : 12:38

I don't think it's cheating, um, and they never had that discussion right. There was one couple who they had a big fight because he held the door open for another woman. Wow, like they were walking in I don't know where they were walking into.

Imran: 12:50

How dare you not let that door slam on her face?

Ryan : 12:52

Right, and that's what's kind of his right Like. That's the man perspective, like well, am I just going to shut it Like. But to her she's like I kind of felt like you were being unfaithful. You know, at the very least it wasn't honoring in her view. It doesn't matter if you think that's correct or not.

Imran: 13:10

That's what's true to her and you need to have that conversation right. But the larger point, I think it's also interesting on like a country-wide scale scale too, because there's countries establish treaties and relationships and that stuff and so you can see that betrayal take place on a country level scale.

Ryan : 13:22

You know, like our commitment our commitments to Ukraine or Russia's commitments to their allies, and all that and I think, though, like the largest point is this is that if you look at any relationship, whether it's friends, a sibling, parents, romance, right, whatever, yeah, you have an expectation of faithfulness in that relationship.

Imran: 13:41

You expect them to be faithful to you. Yeah, however, you're defining faithfulness.

Ryan : 13:44

Right, and then they'll sometimes do things that you say that you weren't being faithful to me, like that was an unfaithful act as a friend, as a brother, as whatever. So the whole point is that we have expectations of faithfulness and relationship. That means our relationship with Christ. He has expectations of faithfulness, right, so kind of anchoring there, right, and how we can betray Jesus or be unfaithful to him for far less than 30 pieces of silver, right? Well, we're going to get into with this story particularly it's anchored on three individuals, these different levels of faithfulness, but one in particular, which is Peter, and how you could go from being on fire, like 100 percent, like willing to go to your death for Christ, right, sword drawn, to denying him three times. Yeah, right, it's like how does that happen? Why does that happen?

Selena: 14:36

In a night? Right yeah, within a couple hours, I think anybody can relate to that.

Ryan : 14:40

There's been times where I've been on fire, I've had like great ministry victories, and then within a couple hours I'm in an argument with my wife or you know what I mean Like how does this happen? Right, and I think we can learn a lot of things out of this story. So we're going to kind of break it down a bit. So I don't know, Selena, you want to get started? We're in what? Matthew 26?

Selena: 15:01

Yeah, we're going to go through verse 51 through 54. And behold one of those who were with Jesus stretched out.

Ryan : 15:09

Sorry, I'm sorry. Let me just set the context of it real quick. Yeah, this is. They're in the garden, jesus just got done praying. They see Judas. This is post the last supper, right? So this is that night. After the Lord's supper, they go to the garden to pray. This is when the disciples fall asleep, which we'll talk about here in a second. But I mean, they do that a lot, yeah, but there's something it actually tells you why they fell asleep, which we often miss. But they're praying. And then Jesus is under a lot of pressure, right. And then we see Judas come up with this mob, judas betrays him with a kiss.

Imran: 15:44

That's the same prayer where he, like, was praying so feverantly. He was bleeding, yes.

Ryan : 15:49

We're going to do an episode on that someday, cause that's a whole nother thing, yeah, um, maybe we do it right after this one, I don't know, but we, that's a whole nother thing, um, but what we're starting off tonight is, after Judas betrays him with a kiss, he says you betray the son of man with a kiss, and then they come to seize him.

Selena: 16:12

So now they're coming after Jesus to seize him, and this is where we pick up. So go ahead, sorry. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him put your sword back in its place, for all you, for all who take the sword, will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how, then, should the scriptures be fulfilled? That it must be so?

Ryan : 16:43

So, um, again, bringing in all the gospels here, you kind of get a fuller picture. Um, in the gospel of John, you could read it in chapter 18. It actually tells us that, um, they come to seize Jesus. But you know, there's a scruffle, and essentially, this servant who got his ear cut off, um one, we get a detail that it was his right ear, which becomes relevant later, but also that he was on his back.

Imran: 17:11

I have a question.

Ryan : 17:12

Well, hold on, hold on. So he's on his back right when this occurs. That matters in terms of the context of how this is going down. Okay, really, to the point of what kind of gets accomplished with this whole event. So, but go ahead.

Imran: 17:28

Right, I never noticed this, but right after that I'm going to check. This is looking at NIV and at the Amplified Bible. It says in verse 35, at that moment Jesus said to the crowds. And then in NIV it says in that hour Jesus said to the crowd I did not know there was more than like a couple people there. Like what does he mean by the crowds?

Ryan : 17:48

was it a lot of people there in this garden? A whole group came, yeah, a lot of. I probably like a company of soldiers essentially to arrest Jesus but when we remember we did this when we started talking about, we mix up the 12 and disciples. Often, when we read scripture, the Bible always refers to Jesus's. We would call the 12 disciples right, the 12. It always says his 12, the 12. Okay.

Ryan : 18:14

Then there's disciples. He had many disciples, yeah, tons of disciples, right? So it wasn't. There was this inner group of 12 that he kind of like his deacons, right, yeah, but then he so it wasn't. There was this inner group of 12 that he kind of like his deacons right, yeah.

Imran: 18:26

But then he had groups of people who were always Dozens or more, or just around all the time, right so?

Ryan : 18:33

this isn't some small intimate moment between like Jesus and 12 against you know a few soldiers Like this is probably a company of soldiers.

Imran: 18:44

Coming to arrest.

Ryan : 18:45

someone Coming to arrest out of a crowd of his disciples right now. Crowd, however many. You could write like don't really know, but this isn't like ones on ones here, like this is this is a crowd thing. This is a like. Think of like a riot in a city, downtown, where you have the police on one side with their shields and a crowd on the other side. Right, it's a clash, yeah, right.

Ryan : 19:12

And within that, which is the point I was making earlier, is that the servant of the high priest pretty much falls down on his back, which is when he gets his ear cut off by Peter Right Now. How do we know that's Peter? Because it doesn't say it here, right, that's, one pretty much falls down on his back, which is when he gets his ear cut off by Peter Right Now. How do we know that's Peter? Because it doesn't say it here, right, that's one of the details we get from John, in fact we get. We know.

Ryan : 19:31

When it says one of those who are with Jesus, we find out in John it was Peter. Yeah, peter is the one who drew the sword. And we also find out the name of this servant of the high priest. His name is Malchus. So we're really in this whole situation where we're going to talk about beyond the crowds, right, we're going to talk about those three men Jesus, malchus and Peter in this whole story to kind of let you know because I think this also creates a false impression with us. When it says a slave of the high priest or a servant of the high priest, we kind of get this impression of, I don't know, like a peasant right, like in a sense right lower class or just.

Imran: 20:14

I mean, in my head mind is really just someone's assistant, I guess. Normal, right?

Ryan : 20:17

yeah, malchus, the name malchus itself means counselor, judge and king. Um, when it says that he is a servant of the high priest, that is true but that's not a claim of his stature. What this guy really was was probably the high priest number two. This was his trusted confidant. This was essentially his executive officer to go do his bidding. So when you read the gospels and you ever hear, and the Pharisees listened and they went and reported to the high priest what Jesus was preaching Malchus was probably there. This was probably Malchus and his crew.

Imran: 20:55

So he wasn't arrested by Romans, he was arrested by Jewish a Jewish company of soldiers from the Jewish authority within Jerusalem. That's also okay, Because I definitely thought he was arrested by Rome because he was brought before Rome. But he was brought. You're right, we talked about it in the episode talking about the trials. He was brought before the high priest first and then brought to.

Ryan : 21:17

Pilate.

Imran: 21:18

Then to Herod, then to Herod and then Back to the high priest.

Ryan : 21:23

So Pilate then to Herod and then back to the high um, the. So the pilot then to Herod and then back to pilot, and that's when Roman soldiers took over.

Selena: 21:27

That's a really good point because just reading that they came with swords and clubs like I will.

Imran: 21:33

I would have thought the Jews had a well, they were soldiers but, they were.

Ryan : 21:37

It was a Jewish authority. They weren't official soldiers, though this was like a mob rule, yeah this was like a mob rule.

Imran: 21:41

Yeah, yeah, so he's arrested by a mob. This is essentially taken to everybody who's on this side.

Ryan : 21:46

Hey, like, go get your pitchforks and we're going to go get them Right.

Imran: 21:49

Wasn't a formal arrest? Like no one's coming out there with like an, a warrant is like reading you your articles and then but this was at the direction of the high priest, yeah.

Ryan : 21:57

That did have authority Right thing, but it wasn't in terms of what we would think it wasn't the overarching Roman authority.

Imran: 22:06

It started off at the Jewish authority.

Ryan : 22:08

But I want to make this point clear, though, is that this isn't like. This is the first time the disciples have seen Malchus. Nor is this the first time Malchus has ever seen Jesus. Malchus had been there listening to Jesus preach, and probably seen some of the things Jesus did. Some even think that it was Malchus who, when they were trying to entrap Jesus, and says, well, there were some Pharisees that came Like, some think, well, that probably was Malchus. He was probably one of the ones trying to set the trap for Jesus.

Imran: 22:35

You're talking about the adulterous woman that was the one that was caught in adultery, that one or when he says, hey, should we pay taxes to Caesar, he says well, take out your coin, whose face is on it?

Ryan : 22:49

right, but some think that that was Malchus who would have been leading that effort. So that's important, because what we're talking about is somebody who the disciples have seen before. Malchus has seen before. So it's not like, this is their first time meeting.

Imran: 23:08

So it kind of adds some, but also the crowd would know who he is too, so it would make sense that he was able to get all the way in without it seems like without much resistance, before he gets his ear chopped off.

Ryan : 23:17

It's also why he probably wasn't armed, because that's another point John makes he was unarmed. Why would he be unarmed if everybody else is coming with clubs? Because he's the commander, he's doing it.

Ryan : 23:26

High priest goes to Malchus Malchus go get, the mob go get Jesus Got it and he goes and he's the leader, right. So this is a guy of high stature, this isn't just some commoner, right. So that's important. The other thing to also know there's only two ways Peter could have cut this guy's ear off. Um, which is swinging horizontally Now, John tells us he's on his back.

Selena: 23:52

Yeah.

Ryan : 23:53

Swinging horizontally or swinging vertically? Okay, the Greek is very clear about the aggression of the swing. This isn't a precision strike. Like Peter isn't aiming to cut this guy's ear off, what is he trying to do? Trying to kill the man he's trying to kill the man he is trying to chop his head off, wow, which I honestly think would have been an even better story, did you imagine?

Selena: 24:16

To put a head back on a human.

Ryan : 24:17

Well, I thought the head goes wrong and Jesus says hey, give me a second, Let me go pick up the head, you know yeah but um didn't happen that way.

Imran: 24:25

Um but no, so peter is swinging to kill this man, making me bring people back from the dead. It's gonna be really unimpressive when I do it too but no.

Ryan : 24:35

So essentially peter is trying to do this death blow you know, malchus moves his head whichever way to kind of avoid the blow, and that's probably how his ear gets gets his ear chopped off, yeah, but but the authors, and that's probably how his ear gets, gets his ear chopped off. But. But the authors make a point, it cut off his ear. John makes a point it was his right ear. So why? Why is that important Now?

Imran: 24:54

I'm going to ask, because we just did this episode was set free on um, on Aaron and how the priestly family was established, and that they had blood put on their right ear, their right thumb and their right foot to really describe how they're supposed to listen to God's word and the spirit and to all action with their hand, need to be in honor of his, his word and his command, and they need to walk in the direction of that.

Ryan : 25:22

God so chooses, so there's something to do with that, because he's in a priestly position. Ah, geez, Now we're on the right track. Okay, For him to be the number two in the servant of the high priest. Therefore he's with the high priest doing priestly duties. That would have. That would mean that Malchus but also have to be what A priest, a priest right. What A priest, A priest right. So, from the family of Aaron, maybe It'd be a Levite.

Ryan : 25:44

It had to be a priest. Okay, that comes very relevant here. In a second To your point, you'd put the blood on the right ear. That symbolized what.

Imran: 25:53

That you're listening and being guided by the word. And what was?

Ryan : 25:56

Malchus' primary role as it associates to Jesus and to the high priest. Up to this point, he was sent out to go listen and report back to the high priest what you hear. So his entire job is with his ear, his ears, right, his ears go listen and then use your ears. Go listen and come report back to me what is being said. And they were supposed to be listening with. Why did they put the blood on the ear and on?

Imran: 26:25

the. What did you say? Oh, I said listening with the. Well, listening to learn and be led by.

Ryan : 26:30

Exactly To learn, to be led by, to receive any word God would have right To have be a tentative right In the heart. So that's a piece right. So you're already kind of on the track, right that's a piece right.

Imran: 26:42

So you're already kind of on the track right, but there's another element too.

Ryan : 26:44

There's another element with that too, but before we get, to that this is literally last week's episode.

Imran: 26:47

So for you all that are like what did he just say? That was last week's episode.

Ryan : 26:53

So let me ask you this question then, though so there's that right, there's a priest me element, but why was there such an emphasis on having to heal this man's ear after this happened? Like you know, I think people miss this too sometimes. Is that like a good example when Jesus heals the blind man going into Jericho? You know, the narrative tells us that there were lines of lame and sick people who would line Jericho because it was a rich city for people. As they walked in, jesus chose one of them to heal. You see what I'm saying.

Selena: 27:30

Yeah.

Ryan : 27:31

So we always see what Jesus heals, but we also don't we kind of miss the fact that for every person he heals, there's hundreds he doesn't. Yeah, right, so why does Jesus make an effort to heal this man and how does that impact everybody involved? Right, and it's very interesting, so one you already picked up on a priestly line element of this I think a lot of these would have been very known in terms of Jesus' day, what this symbolizes. I'm going to go through a few of them.

Imran: 28:05

historically, out of antiquity, I have a random question If a priest violated their oath, would they get their ear chopped off? We'll talk about it. We're going to talk about it. Leviticus is a wild book, all right, so we're going to talk about it.

Ryan : 28:18

So the first place I'm going to take you is to Babylon and the Code of Hammurabi. Have you ever heard of this before?

Selena: 28:25

No.

Ryan : 28:26

So the Code of Hammurabi has the oldest known, I guess, constitution you can say it was a set of rules that Babylon had put in place to govern their empire and it was kind of like it gave rights. It kind of set laws right with like for this breaking this law has this punishment right?

Ryan : 28:49

yeah, but the babylonians were non-jews right correct, but babylon is the ones who came in and actually conquered um, the northern kingdom um, and they brought them all to exile, like remember when we were talking about the, the samaritan woman, and how they left some there to kind of Like remember when we were talking about the Samaritan woman and how they left some there to kind of interbreed, but then they took the rest and brought them to Babylon. Yeah. Right, like that whole era right. Yeah.

Ryan : 29:12

So in Babylon, in the Code of Hammurabi, cutting off the ear was a punishment for a slave that had denied his master. So if, say, we were trying to run away or whatever situation came up, you're like, no, that's not my master. And they were able to prove, no, that's my slave. Um, the punishment for that would be they would chop off your ear and they would nail your ear to the doorpost of the master's home oh gross um, that was kind of the, you know the punishment for it so one way they could be like well, maybe this is a play of um here.

Ryan : 29:48

Malchus is trying to arrest. Malchus, a slave of the high priest, who should be a slave of Christ, is, um, you know, denying his master. Yeah. Therefore he receives the punishment right. That's one view, Um. In Egypt, the punishment for giving false testimony or proving someone was corrupt was to remove the ear. Geez um, so it's another.

Imran: 30:13

I feel like americans would commit a lot, a lot less crimes if we were going to mutilate the body as punishment.

Ryan : 30:18

We would have a lot of deaf people in congress. I could tell you that.

Imran: 30:23

A lot of people missing fingers and stuff.

Ryan : 30:27

So one could be this and remember the way things kind of develop over time. A lot of these ideals can be mixed. It's not always necessarily like these things kind of develop over time with an understanding of this is what that means, right.

Imran: 30:42

That has been lost to us right Things get intermingled a lot.

Ryan : 30:46

So one view of this is that, um you can maybe deduce, is that malchus, like we, always look at the high priest as kind of bad in the story, right, um, and he is bad in the sense that, no matter what he thought of jesus, he was doing things very unjustly, outside the law, right, so he was already betraying his office. But I think some of the things that maybe there's a possibility that we're a little harsher on is that the high priest was basing his decision off of information, probably from guys like Malchus. So if Malchus is not reporting accurately what he is hearing and what he is seeing, but it's more telling the high priest and the Sanhedrin what they want to know, you see what I'm saying? They're giving false testimony. Maybe that could have also been corruption. Hey, we'll pay you to report this instead, kind of thing.

Ryan : 31:41

Does that make sense? It could be that the high priest wasn't hearing about what Jesus was actually preaching, nor was he hearing, um, about what Jesus was actually doing. Um, so that is a possibility. So this could be a play of. Now you're receiving the punishment for bearing false testimony against Christ and being corrupt, right, um? In Persia, this is documented by aodotus in the histories. One would self-mutilate the heir to show that they have fallen out of favor with the king, or vice versa. They would self-mutilate so essentially, if-.

Imran: 32:18

All that I remember. We talked about the other culture that self-mutilated the galley priest. The galley priest that's crazy, that is absolutely insane.

Ryan : 32:28

So imagine being so angry with your government. I don't think a lot of people don't really have to imagine they have been but like in Persia, if it's like, I am so mad at my king, at my president, I'm going to chop my ear off, yeah.

Selena: 32:46

I mean we kind of see that with those.

Ryan : 32:47

So everybody, knows I do not like our king. Right, that's one. The other one would also be is that the king says you have fallen out of favor with me. Bob is your elf, so people know that he's not in my favor, so it could go both ways.

Imran: 33:05

There was a guy recently, the Air Force Lit himself on fire Lit himself on fire. It was in front of the Israeli embassy, I think, and he did die. He did die from his injuries. So that was just a few weeks ago.

Ryan : 33:13

Yeah, I mean, people will do it right.

Imran: 33:15

But again, that's wild. Imagine being so angry with your government that you set yourself on fire and kill you. It's like whoa.

Ryan : 33:23

Well, I think. So all those could be at play, right? I think again it could be, you know, a hybrid mesh of it, but I think the one that, if you had to choose one, would be this next one. So, within Israel's history, josephus documents this in Jewish wars, but there's this man named Hecronus, and Hecronus, um, came out of the Maccabean dynasty. So from the time between the old Testament and the new Testament, israel had a revolution against um, the Greeks, and they won their independence temporarily until Rome came in. Um, that time of governance was the time of the Maccabees. Okay, acronis was the high priest out of that dynasty during the time of Julius Caesar. Okay, now he was high priest of Israel when Julius Caesar was emperor over Rome, when Mark Anthony had come in and taken over. He had fallen out of favor with Mark Anthony and they. He said hey, you can't be high priest anymore. He was later than ring and stated came back. But then, when he had done that, his nephew had raised this rebellion against Rome, which got quashed pretty, pretty quickly as the.

Ryan : 34:43

Romans do. As punishment, they came to Hycronus and chopped off his right ear, essentially to say you can't be high priest anymore. Why that is important, and the reason that they chopped off his ear. Not only was that story probably very, very familiar to this generation, right, like we're talking within a hundred years, right? So everybody probably would have known this story, but the bigger piece with that, though, is that if you were to read in Leviticus 21, in order to serve as a priest, you could have no disfigurement or be deformed in any way. Really, so if you remember what if you become disfigured?

Imran: 35:25

later or be deformed in any way, really. So if you remember what if you become disfigured later, you're out.

Ryan : 35:28

This is why, do you guys remember when you did the one with Pastor David? I was talking about John Mark. Remember what his nickname was?

Selena: 35:37

The fingers, stubby fingers, oh yeah, that he had injured himself.

Ryan : 35:40

Why was he called stubby fingers? Because he had chopped off the tips of his fingers. Because he was from the line of Aaron, he was a Levite. And he did not want to be a priest.

Ryan : 35:50

So he mutilated himself, so he didn't have to go do that. Well, here is an example with Hycronus, where they mutilated his ear. So now he's no longer qualified under the law to be the high priest of Israel ever again. Wow, so that's their way of permanently removing him from that office which, as we talked about in the past, was kind of like your political authority for Israel under Rome, right? So now, what does that then mean for that's confusing.

Selena: 36:16

Yeah, if you got your ear put back on so well, so we'll talk about that, right?

Ryan : 36:20

so all that context there, right, let's kind of start breaking down these three individuals, right? Um? So why does jesus heal this man after this happens, right? Um, the first thing we need to understand is that Jesus' primary concern was to fulfill God's mission and his will, god's way under God's timing, and his mission was the cross. So that's why, you see, in verse 54, essentially, he goes after Peter for saying what you just did is taking us off the mission of what the?

Ryan : 37:00

scripture says how it's supposed to be done. Right, jesus is very concerned about doing this God's way, god's will, god's way under God's time, and Peter's kind of thwarting that. Right, how would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way? If you're acting the way, you're acting right, so that kind of gives you into a little clue. Right, think about it this way. Up until this point and we learned this through the four trials that Jesus goes through, we've gone through those before right, every one of those trials were pretty much unjust. Yeah, right, going from the trial with Anas to Caiaphas, to Pilate. Right, and the people. They were unjust. They had no just grounds to arrest Jesus, except if one of Jesus' disciples draws a sword and kills a man or assaults a man with a sword what can they now charge Jesus with?

Imran: 37:59

Assault or murder, insurrection, those were his disciples.

Ryan : 38:03

So Jesus is raising an insurrection.

Imran: 38:05

Yeah, because it would have had a valid claim His disciples attacking a high political official, exactly.

Ryan : 38:10

So now they can actually charge Jesus with insurrection.

Imran: 38:12

Yeah, so by restoring the ear to Malchus, you allow the process to Malchus, you allow the process to actually you have now removed.

Ryan : 38:22

You've removed the evidence of the sword Right, so which means how are you then going to still have? That's why he's upset with Peter.

Imran: 38:31

Yeah.

Ryan : 38:32

It's supposed to be this way.

Imran: 38:33

Yeah, cause then the story would just be Jesus was arrested for insurrection and killed and it'd be like, oh okay, that makes sense yeah, and he had that actual justification and they had proof and the gospels would read very differently. Look at Malchus' ear.

Ryan : 38:44

They lobbed off Malchus' ear, trying to take his head off, and now he got fired Right, so they wouldn't have had to do the sham trials, and then Peter would be the bad guy and all that. Well, we'll talk about Peter here in a second with that. But but yes, right, so by Peter striking Malchus, he gave the Jewish authority real justification to arrest him. And I think the big thing with Jesus, and I think the big takeaway for us of what this does for Jesus by by healing this man's ear, is that there had to be zero excuse for the Jewish authority or Rome to arrest Jesus and kill him Right.

Ryan : 39:27

There had to be no logical justification for it. Peter just gave him one. Unless Jesus heals him, yeah Right, which we'll talk about more here in a second.

Imran: 39:39

But so far does that make sense, right? Why did he? Why did he need to do it? So that you know as he prayed, so that things can be done yet not as I will, but as your, as you will. You know, that was his prayer twice, right? You know, please take this cup away from me, right? But if not, I'll do it, right, yeah, um, so then Peter messes it up, try to and that's that's the second point here Right?

Ryan : 40:03

So the first one is that by healing the ear and maintained an illegitimate arrest of Jesus and the charges that they eventually killed him for, right, yeah. The second thing goes to your point, which is that it shows that even the disciples actions, right, even though it seemed like it would have thwarted god's plan, could not yeah so he draws the sword, draws blood. Um, oh, now they have justification to arrest jesus. He's like hey, you, you can't come in and mess up. God's plan Takes the heals, the ear right.

Ryan : 40:40

And I think that is that should be very freeing for us. In a sense. We can't mess this up. Yeah.

Ryan : 40:48

You know what I mean. Like I think a lot of people feel this burden sometimes of like, if I get really engaged in ministry and I actually start going out there like I don't, I just don't think I'm good enough, I don't think I'm smart enough, I don't think I'm articulate enough, I don't, I'm not biblically literate enough, I'm going to mess it up. Yeah, right, I'm going to really mess up God's plans, right, and 29 palms or wherever you're at Right, it's like no, you can't. You can't, because even when you do mess up, god comes in and fixes it.

Ryan : 41:18

You know what I mean. You can't mess up. What God wants and that's one thing you see here is that Peter trying in an attempt to really thwart what God wanted from the beginning. He's still going to do it. God healed it right, he fixed it, to maintain that. But the last one is this, I think, going into Easter weekend, as we kind of anchor on Christ and start reflecting with Easter week notice, particularly out of John 18, it says that Malchus was on his back unarmed.

Ryan : 41:50

So Peter had the position. They had been overpowered. Jesus could have walked away if you wanted, right? Yeah, that's fair, they had been overpowered. Yeah, have walked away if you wanted.

Imran: 41:58

Right, um, yeah, that's fair. They had been overpowered. Yeah.

Ryan : 42:01

Peter takes and strikes him Right. But the biggest thing I think we need not my Jesus to to understand is that despite that and despite drawing blood, he says put your sword away. He heals the man and he says okay, now take me. And he says okay, now take me. I think the most important thing that we need to remember is that Jesus chose to go to the cross. He wasn't duped into it, he didn't fall into it, he wasn't tricked into it, he wasn't overpowered.

Imran: 42:29

He willingly and knowingly went to the cross for us and he demonstrates even prior to this that he knows how this is all going to play out, because at the last he tells the 12 that one of you will betray me tonight, and then Judas walks out. So it's like he identifies. At that time he could have walked away.

Ryan : 42:47

Yeah, when he's praying in the garden, he knows it's coming. Yeah, he could have walked away, but then, at this particular time when they come to arrest him, there could be no excuse. Yeah, jesus time when they come to arrest them, there could be no excuse.

Imran: 42:59

Yeah, jesus didn't willingly go, like they overpowered them and took him. It makes the point no they overpowered them. Jesus stopped them and then calmed them down and said okay, now come, take me.

Ryan : 43:08

He willingly went to the cross.

Imran: 43:09

There were also all those other instances throughout his ministry where he says the son of man must die, the son of man must die, and it says that disciples heard but didn't understand, heard but didn't understand. And then you get to the cross and it's like then they understood, you know, but then they truly. Actually it was until he rose and we talked about like what was left inside the tomb in that episode where it's like then they saw it and understood, you know. So, after all, hearing this for three years and then seeing him die, and then it wasn't until he rose and they saw they found out and it was like oh, now I get it.

Ryan : 43:40

But Jesus did Right and I think sorry.

Selena: 43:43

I'm just thinking about Malchus, like how do you go from your ear being chopped off and then Jesus putting it back on, and now you have to go and report to the high priest what happened?

Ryan : 43:53

So we're going to. We're going to talk about that with Malchus, because we're going to go through each one of these men. Okay.

Ryan : 43:58

But right, exactly Right, cause there's this whole other piece with Malchus Um. But before we move on to that, though, I just wanted to kind of close the circle with what you were saying about Christ and what his mission was. Right, yeah, he's the only man ever born who was born to die. That was his mission, he knew that and he remained in perfect faithfulness to God's mission. For that, right, god's will, god's mission, god's way, god's time, he willingly and chosenly went to the cross for us, and I think that is one big piece. When you see that, when you see Jesus healing this man and saying, now, take me, calming his disciples down, that's him saying I'm willingly choosing to do this for you. Um, I wasn't overpowered to do this, right, um?

Ryan : 44:45

But now let's talk about the Malchus piece. Now, what you're just saying, selena, right? So, um, malchus, the reporter, the enforcer, trusted confidant, right, he was now put in a bind. Right, because now there's probably a big piece of Malchus that wanted justice against Peter, right? I mean, peter just tried to kill him. He was unarmed, still lobbed off his ear, which probably, at the very least, like, yeah, my ears healed, but that hurt.

Imran: 45:14

You know what I mean. Like I still have the memory of all that. That's scary. Yeah, my ears healed but that hurt. You know what I mean. Like I still have the memory of all that. That's scary. You know what I mean. So he probably went to justice against Peter, also getting tackled and beat in the night before getting your ear chopped off.

Ryan : 45:25

Right trampled and just completely like. But there's this thing now, because they have Jesus, jesus willingly went with them. He has to now go back to the high priest and he probably had a bunch of blood on his garment.

Speaker 4: 45:39

He probably still had the blood. He was like what happened.

Ryan : 45:42

And so now he's in a bind, right, because, if he tells them the truth, well, one of his disciples chopped my ear off. But you have your ear off, yeah, but then Jesus healed it, and now it's like are we really going to arrest this man? Right? And then the Sanhedrin Jesus healed it, and now it's like are we really going to arrest this man, right? And then the Sanhedrin, the high priest are we going to arrest this man, cause now you're a trusted confidant just came and told you something incredible that just happened. Right, so, by being honest about it, that would have maybe offered him justification to go after Peter and get retribution We'll talk about that piece here in a second but that, ultimately, though, would have glorified Christ. You see what I'm saying. So he has a choice to make. Right, if I go report honestly, christ gets glorified, and now we can't do this right, or-.

Imran: 46:34

I mean also the crowd saw this happen, so-.

Ryan : 46:37

I mean to be fair, like if there's a big scruffle going on, the whole crowd's not seeing necessarily everything.

Imran: 46:42

Yeah, I guess there's also could have been others fights happening Right and then.

Ryan : 46:45

Jesus is very firm in his tone against Peter. Enough of this. Like it says, he's a command voice. Yeah, enough of this. He heals them. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Calms everybody down right, like you're not really noticing what's happening over here when you're in a brawl yeah right, like I'm focusing on the guy I'm fighting.

Ryan : 47:02

You know what I mean? Um, yeah, but the malchus, at the very least, would have known. It would have been the one who would would have given this message to the high priest, right? So it's so, he's kind of left in the spine, and then an element of that is that Jesus kind of gives them a second chance, right.

Ryan : 47:19

So, you're the ears for the high priest and you're the reporter. Now go report this. Take me and go report it. What do you do, malchus? Right? So it's a very interesting, and what's also interesting is we hear nothing about Malchus outside of this. I couldn't find anything in terms of extra biblical about where he turned up, like he certainly was, never became like a champion of the Christian faith in this time.

Ryan : 47:48

Um and I did read one commentary that kind of made the fact that he may have not even known his ear was chopped off, um, which is fair. It's not. Like you probably knew, he took a blow and there was blood and he was cut, um, but he it's not like somebody came and held a mirror up to him right away, like you do.

Ryan : 48:07

You're missing an ear right Like um Peter's like my God it seems to go pretty quick, and and Jesus healing it right Like Malchus may not even really realize what had happened. You know what I mean. So that is, I guess, a possibility. But I think the thing, though, with Malchus is, again, john makes the point it was his right ear. So what point is the author trying to make with that detail? Right, when you think back at Akronis right Now, remember he is probably a priest, he's a Levite. He just now got mutilated. If Jesus didn't heal him, what does that now mean for Malchus?

Imran: 48:59

That he can't be a priest anymore.

Ryan : 49:01

The position he holds, the stature he holds, his entire life, purpose and mission is done, yep Right. So by Jesus restoring the ear, he's not just restoring the ear right, which is obviously very inconvenient and still a blessing, but he's restoring his entire life. Yeah, you see what I'm saying. Yeah, he is restoring Malchus's life. Mm-hmm. His means of making money. All that has been restored to him, Mm-hmm so, but the fact that his right ear, right right, had always also represented authority, right?

Ryan : 49:38

To be on the right hand of God, seated on the right side of the throne, Like it always represented authority and power. So I think one of the things that's kind of being implicitly trying to communicate is that when Peter swung that sword, it removed Malchus' authority and power, Right? And Jesus says no, I'm going to restore that authority and power and give him that second chance to use that authority and power to actually go bear testimony and witness for me, right? You don't really know what Malchus reports. What you do know is the outcome, which is they ultimately still unjustly killed Jesus, right?

Ryan : 50:17

But, that's Malchus. After a whole lot of back and forth, yeah, he restored his position and purpose gave him a second chance to bear that witness, right, yeah? But now let's talk about Peter. Okay, Let me just ask you a question what do you think was the driving?

Imran: 50:52

motivating factor for Peter to do this. When are you going to be on the march? When are you going to tear down Rome and reestablish the Jewish kingdom and all that? I recall him having other conversations with Jesus about this, so I would argue this is in line with his character that he's demonstrated up to this point.

Ryan : 51:15

We're also constantly missing the full mission, correct?

Imran: 51:20

he's more like the violent overthrow of rome. The short-sighted like, not the. When you know, jesus talks about the kingdom, he was like here it is next week, us against them.

Ryan : 51:28

They're coming to take them. Here's our chance.

Imran: 51:30

Right, exactly that's like I'm honestly for. I'll say for me, for me it seems like an obvious response that peter would respond, did respond I think there's a little bit more to it though um well, first, what do you think?

Selena: 51:41

I would think fear, like if you see a group of people coming to, like if with weapons, I would think like okay, there, there's gonna be bloodshed and I don't want to die. Or like so i'm'm going to defend myself. So you think, it was more self-defense.

Ryan : 52:00

Fear, yeah, remember they weren't there to get Peter, they were there to get Jesus. And Jesus, leading up to this, jesus asked him who are you searching for Jesus of Nazareth? I am he. And they're like okay, we'll come with us. And that's when this, you know, drama goes down, right? So one of the clues, I think, to start us cause I think there's a few things with this Um, jesus tells him, um, put your sword back in its place, for all those who take up a sword will perish by the sword. We'll talk about that a little bit more, but then that's what he says Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will not at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? Right? So, in other words, jesus is saying to Peter do you think I need you to defend me? Right? So, from the very onset, there's this kind of assumption, implicit from Jesus' response, that Peter is trying to defend him. He's trying to go right, passionately. Go defend my Lord, I'm going to go defend my rabbi. Yeah.

Ryan : 52:59

And Jesus kind of looks at him like do you think I need you to defend me? Yeah, and I think this is a very interesting point, because how many believers do you know feel like they have a need to defend God?

Imran: 53:09

I think that's like a huge problem that we have with our political system right now is that people think that their job is to, like, force christ on everyone else and it's like that's not our job to do.

Ryan : 53:24

Well, not, it's not necessarily force christ, but we don't even need to defend god. God doesn't need us to defend him. You know what I mean. Like he does not need us to defend him. What he needs us to do is be obedient, what he told us to do. And how many times you see christians? Not do what he needs us to do is be obedient to what he told us to do. And how many times do you see Christians not do what God told us to do in terms of missionally?

Ryan : 53:42

and try to take on a different banner, to do a different mission than what he told us to do, which is, like I'm going to go defend God to the death. You see, I think this is a more common problem than people realize, but you see, people who are always searching for their hill to die on and they're looking for their excuse to defend God any way they can, yeah, and God never said Matthew 28, right, or 24, gosh, matthew 28.

Ryan : 54:15

Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, son and the Holy Spirit, and go defend me to the ends of the earth. No, it doesn't say that, right? So here you have, peter coming to try to defend Christ. And Christ is like I don't need you to defend me, and we have many believers. They're always trying to feel like they have to defend the gospel. He's like I don't need you to defend my gospel.

Ryan : 54:35

That's not what you're told to do. You're told to go be a witness, go proclaim the truth. You don't even need to defend it. You need to be prepared to give an answer for it. But you're not there to defend it. I don't need your defense. It's like I have legions of angels that can defend me. You know what I mean. And if I was going to need a human being's help in defending my gospel or defending my character, do you think I would say to you you know what I mean.

Ryan : 55:04

I'd go overpower. You know Albert Einstein or something you know. Not that we don't have a place in that, it's just the point being he doesn't need us to defend him, right? Yeah, he also doesn't ask us to. But I think there's another element with this, though. Earlier at the Lord's Supper, after Jesus says one of you will betray me, and of course Peter's kind of scoffing like it's not me, he's like no. But Peter, by morning, by before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times.

Imran: 55:36

He tells him that at the last supper. I thought that was a little bit later, okay.

Ryan : 55:40

Yeah, he tells him there. So what do you think, peter, in terms of his response to this? What's he kind of driving from and I think this is much his motivation is being driven from. He's trying to make a point right. He's trying to prove at the first available opportunity, I will not deny you Jesus, I'll be faithful to the death with you. Jesus, overcorrecting, you told me I'm going to deny you, I'm going to prove you wrong, I am going to be the first one to draw the sword and draw blood in defense of you, right? So I think there's a little bit of that at play. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I think there's some motivation there. But I also think the other thing is emotion. I think Peter had seen Malchus many times. He's seen Malchus challenge Jesus, always kind of coming up against him. He saw Malchus going back and whatever he's reporting back to the high priest, whether it was valid or not. But he never saw a changed heart from Malchus, even though he was there, right. And now he's here to arrest his rabbi unjustly, right? I think in that moment Peter got in a rage, he got in his emotion, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more. But I think what you see here is an emotional, impulsive response driven by the idea that he wants to try to prove himself. And again, this is another one.

Ryan : 57:12

How many times do you see Christians just trying to prove themselves? First of all, your opportunity to prove who I belong to. They'll make those hills that they'll die on. They'll choose something Young Earth, creationism. They'll choose a theological camp. The first thing that they can find, they plant their flag. I will die on this hill for you, jesus. I'm going to prove myself to you because I don't need you to prove yourself there. I need you to prove yourself that you belong to me and your love. That's what he says. This is how they will know you're my disciple, how you love one another. So you see people rushing into proving themselves to be disciples of Christ, outside of the confines of what Jesus told them, how you prove yourself Right, yeah, um there's a really great King and country song that that highlights that phrase.

Imran: 58:03

Uh, they will know we are Christians by our love. By our love. That song's really really good. Go listen to it. It's not the word, but it's like hey, it's really good song.

Ryan : 58:13

But. But let's kind of talk, though. Consequently, though Peter bobbing off this ear and what this does for Peter, with Jesus healing it. Yeah, peter just assaulted a man with a sword, particularly the number two to the high priest and then Jesus says stop, put your sword away, takes the, you know, heals the ear and then says take me and lets him go free and with him right along with it. Yeah, now Peter's like so I just assaulted this man with a sword and Jesus healed him, and now, is letting him go free.

Ryan : 58:48

What does that now mean for Peter? Judicially right, Legally speaking? I don't know. Right, think about it. Do you think they're just going to let that slide? Speaking, I don't know Right. Think about it Um, do you? Think they're just gonna let that slide? Do you think they're just gonna let? Ah, yeah, I mean this. You know the number two to the high priest and you yeah, you could argue that Peter was like the number two to Jesus.

Imran: 59:08

you know, actually he advocates for himself that way, and when he talks about himself in scripture it's just like a brawl right, Like when he you get in a brawl.

Ryan : 59:15

It's like who's the you're the number two, I'm the number two. Let's fight, you know? Um, but, yeah, like it's. So they're not going to let this slide. Yeah, and so when he chops off that ear, um, essentially, if Jesus didn't heal that ear, they would have also arrested Peter. Yeah, and Peter probably would have been crucified next to Christ. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, so by Jesus healing the ear, what has he now just done for Peter? Right, he saved his life. Yeah.

Ryan : 59:50

Again at that moment in a physical way, right, yeah, Christ is about to save his life on the cross too. But you know what I'm saying?

Imran: 59:57

I feel Right. He's crisis about to save his life on the cross too. But you know what I'm saying. Like Peter wouldn't even have realized that in the moment, though it was something he would have to like put together, we'll get to this.

Ryan : 1:00:02

He would have realized after and after he had calmed down. Yeah, exactly, and then you notice something about Peter. Things change with him, which we'll get to in a second Um but well, because the but the law wouldn't have necessarily demanded capital punishment for Peter, there certainly would have been something judicial. Yeah. Being that they were already arresting Jesus under false pretense and now they had this justification to kill him for insurrection they would have.

Ryan : 1:00:30

They would have certainly brought Peter along with them and probably killed him along with them, right, yeah? But by Jesus healing the ear, right, ear, right, he again removes the evidence of the sword and therefore he also removes the consequences of the sword. Remember what he says all the way back, and um was that verse um 52 put your sword back in its place, for those who take up the sword will perish by it. Yeah, in other words, peter, you just struck this man with your sword. You will now perish by the sword. Put it away. He heals the man's ear, he removes the consequences of the sword.

Ryan : 1:01:08

And this is kind of a typology for us about Christ is about to do on the cross, because, just as he took away the evidence of the sword and therefore takes away the consequence of the sword for Peter, what he does on the cross is he takes away the evidence of sin and therefore removes the consequences of sin from us by bearing our sin right. He removes the evidence of sin from ourselves and puts them on him. Therefore, we don't receive the consequences of that anymore. Therefore, we don't receive the consequences of that anymore. So you see, almost this foreshadow played out in this small little skirmish in the garden with Peter get applied across the entire world of what he's about to do on the cross. Does that make sense?

Ryan : 1:01:50

But the other thing I would also say this I think there was a sense of Peter, of him realizing this is unjust and he finally says you know what? You guys have abused your power of your position. I'm going to act and act justice. Right, you try to kill him. Right, symbolically, he takes off an ear to say you don't belong to be a priest anyways, remove your power, remove your authority. Jesus says stop, put it away, restores that man's authority and power of Malchus. But by restoring that ear he also then has removed the authority and power that Peter just had or that he thought he had, or that he thought he had to execute justice.

Ryan : 1:02:35

yeah, right, peter, I don't need you to defend me, nor do I need you to execute justice. Yeah, that's not your job.

Imran: 1:02:42

Yep Judgment belongs to the Lord.

Ryan : 1:02:44

Right. So he removed also his power to execute judgment that he thought.

Imran: 1:02:48

The power he thought he had to execute judgment, and that's another point. Right In the name of Jesus.

Ryan : 1:02:58

Just as he couldn't thwart God's plan of the cross, peter couldn't. Yeah, he also is not going to let people execute his judgment.

Imran: 1:03:02

Yeah, he can't thwart or enact God's justice. Exactly.

Ryan : 1:03:06

So, with all that said, right, you know, there was a lot of things that had kind of led into Peter and Peter was not being faithful to Jesus, Jesus's way. So that's worth noting. Jesus was not happy with how Peter had responded in this situation. But I would say this, and this kind of goes into our last piece of text here At least at this moment, peter, in his mind, was at least trying to be as faithful to Christ as he could be.

Ryan : 1:03:36

I'm going to go defend my Lord. I'm going to go defend my Lord. I'm going to go defend my rabbi unto death drew the sword. I'm going to prove myself that I'm not going to deny you Jesus. Yeah, I'm going to take this man out, right, I will do that for you, based on his understanding of the faith at that time. Right, which we weren't as wrong it right, yeah, now, knowing that then something changes, right. Um, they take jesus away. He gets brought into the high priest home. It says that peter follows him and he's in the courtyard right now. What happens? If you want to, let's see verse 69.

Selena: 1:04:10

I'm going to read what 69 through 75 and this is still in matthew 26, 26 now. Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said you also were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying I do not know what you mean. 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 again he denied it with an oath, I do not know the man. After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter certainly you two are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himselfplified Bible. How it explains that.

Imran: 1:05:15

Verse 74 says how it explains that. Verse 74 says then he began to curse, that is, to invoke God's judgment on himself and swear an oath. I do not know the man, so I imagine that it was something like I swear to God, I don't know him, and it's like now you've just invoked his name. We're going to talk about that a little bit more. It's a little bit heavier than that actually.

Ryan : 1:05:34

But before we do that, though, do you see the change, just the fear that's in him right now. An hour earlier, sword drawn, swinging, lobbing off ears for the defense of Jesus, and now he seems to have been falling into some cowardice. Yeah. Right, what changed?

Ryan : 1:05:54

And this is what I think is so relatable, because I feel like this is so many of us in a given day right In one moment I'm standing firm, sword drawn, like I'm fighting battles for Jesus and even being victorious, and then, just a couple hours later, I'm denying him.

Ryan : 1:06:13

And it's not that I'm denying him in terms of like rejecting like I do not believe in Jesus right, that's not that I'm denying him in terms of rejecting like I do not believe in Jesus right. That's not what we're talking about. What we do is we disassociate ourselves or we do our best to make sure that it's—we don't make it known who we belong to. So you're in a situation you hear people talk in a certain way or acting a certain way and you're like, hey, this isn't right, this isn't what I stand for, what my Lord stands for, and instead of speaking up and saying, hey, I'm not participating in this because of who I belong to, we instead take actions to say, hey, I'm just not going to let them know who I belong to. Does that make sense? Denying Jesus is not always in the positive affirmative of I don't know him. It also plays out in we just pretend like we don't know him to the world.

Ryan : 1:07:03

I'm just going to pretend like I don't know him. I'm going to pretend like I don't know what I know. I'm going to pretend like I don't know that what they're talking about right now is not God honoring.

Imran: 1:07:14

The question then becomes like well, why? Why would you pretend not to know Jesus? Why would you uh pretend to? Is it to be uh to have certain friends? Is it to appease a spouse, to appease a, a girl you're interested in or a boy you're interested in? Is it to get a certain position? Is to get paid more in a job you know?

Ryan : 1:07:36

Exactly, so exactly what changes from moment to moment that makes our faithfulness to Christ so fleeting, so weirdly conditional or fleeting is a good term- you see what I'm saying. So it's like what changed for Peter and I tend I think we tend to be very harsh with Peter on this too when I think this is how we, many believers, live every single day. Yeah.

Ryan : 1:07:56

That we play this story out over and over, that we read here with Peter of just being on fire in one conversation or in one situation, depending on who you're around, right and then in another environment, another situation, other people, whatever. It's completely different. Yeah, and what shifted for Peter? I think this may help the third person who comes and says no, no, your, your accent betrays you. You're a Galilean, like you're actually you're with. Jesus right Um wouldn't attack in the gospel of John.

Ryan : 1:08:30

It gives us another cool detail and it tells us that that was a relative of Malchus. Hmm.

Ryan : 1:08:37

Oh, you see what I'm saying. So Malchus who, hmm, oh See what I'm saying. So Malchus who, peter just lobbed his ear off. Right, jesus heals it. They take Jesus Now. Jesus is in. You know his trial. Essentially At the same time Peter's outside, the relatives of Malchus are coming in. They're like you're the one you were with him. I saw you in the garden. In fact, right Suspicion is coming up Like didn't you? Were you the one who struck him with a sword? Yeah.

Ryan : 1:09:01

So what do you think is going on in Peter's heart right now?

Imran: 1:09:06

I would go back to the fear thing with that's what I said.

Ryan : 1:09:09

It's like I don't want to get arrested.

Imran: 1:09:10

They know that I cut this guy's ear, jesus healed him, let him go.

Ryan : 1:09:14

Now I'm vulnerable and Jesus who was going to protect me?

Imran: 1:09:18

I thought is now arrested and he's in there. So what drove? The confidence that he had placed in Jesus is like shaking right now.

Ryan : 1:09:28

And what is driving Peter's unfaithfulness in this right now?

Imran: 1:09:31

I would say lack of understanding.

Ryan : 1:09:32

Well, it's fear, it's what you said.

Imran: 1:09:34

So it's fear, but it's fear coming from that lack of understanding, because he isn't seeing the greater purpose which they highlight earlier in the scripture that the disciples continuously failed to understand. When Jesus would say what his greater purpose is, you know, like if you really understood the greater purpose, then then he'd be like of course, jesus was arrested, he had to die because he's going to come again, but they just didn't understand.

Ryan : 1:09:54

Sure, I guess I'm trying to think. I'm just trying to bring it practical, though, right?

Imran: 1:09:58

Yeah, I would say yes, because this was my other point that I had that I was thinking earlier is that people will go out and be very emotionally fever on fire for the, for the faith, and then something challenges that faith or challenges their understanding, or they're presented with an argument they don't understand and then it kind of shatters, wavers and they have that fear of like do I actually know or believe what I'm thinking? I know and believe. So the counter to that would be go learn more right.

Ryan : 1:10:27

So you're not being shattered from a lack of understanding. That was my other point. Yeah, fear manifests itself in many ways. That could certainly be one of the fears right. Another fear could be is this self-serving or not? Right? So, Peter, at that moment, now that he's alone, saying, no, I do know him. In fact, I'm one of his disciples, In fact I'm his number two. Right, Take me Right.

Imran: 1:10:53

What does that now?

Ryan : 1:10:53

mean that he could die. You know what I mean. And for him, in that situation, right denying Jesus was very self-serving to him. But it was out of fear of what they were going to do, particularly when a relative of Malchus comes up and says no, you were there right.

Imran: 1:11:10

He's like I just tried to murder a man.

Ryan : 1:11:12

They saw me there. You see how fear is driving his behavior right now. And this is the question I asked the youth this morning. You ever sit back and think and just do an analysis, self-reflection, of your own life and where you are with things. How much of your fear drives your decisions and behavior? Yeah, have you ever really just thought about that? What? What drives me to do the things I do and how much of that is anchored in fear?

Imran: 1:11:40

I actually had that conversation with um I don't know if it was just with selena probably also with my psychologist and stuff uh about why I stay in the marine corps and part of it is tied to is tied to a little bit of a fear of the civilian side. It's like I'm confident I could go into civilian world and get a job that I would want and be feel fulfilled in. But, um, there's a part of me that's like but I feel comfortable in the job that is the Marine Corps.

Selena: 1:12:07

Yeah, exactly.

Imran: 1:12:08

I know what the next 10, 12 years of my life need to be in order to get to retirement.

Selena: 1:12:13

So the fear of getting out right.

Imran: 1:12:14

Yeah, the fear of the unknown. It's ultimately that fear of the unknown, you know um, which is a real thing.

Ryan : 1:12:20

Um, and I would even say like, like my first combat deployment. I remember getting on the white bus and I had this pit my stomach right like just that that anxiety, a lot of that fear, because you know what you're about to go into. You've never experienced any of it yeah right, no one's never like, and combat is one of those things you have to experience, right? Mm-hmm.

Ryan : 1:12:42

To understand it. And I just had this fear and this anxiety and just this knot right of like, I am willingly loading on this bus to go do this right. Then, the second time, right, get through that deployment, come back and we're getting ready to go again. And I still had that same feeling, but I had experienced combat right. So the first was like a fear and anxiety of the unknown. The second was a fear and anxiety of the known. You know what I mean. And it was like.

Ryan : 1:13:11

you never got away from it. You know what I'm saying. One of the elements with particularly Christian faith is that part of what Christ did for us, and part of what so many of his promises are anchored in, is to remove fear. Yeah, it's supposed to remove fear from us. You know, jesus never once makes a promise of happiness, never once. He never says follow me, I'll make you happy. Yeah.

Ryan : 1:13:36

But he promises follow me and I'll give you peace. Follow me, I'll make you happy. But he promises follow me and I'll give you peace. Follow me, I'll give you rest. Follow me, you don't have to be fearful anymore. And fear drives so much of people's behavior and how they think and the decisions they make, how they respond in situations, so much so that most of the time we're acting like peter here in the courtyard yeah not like peter in the garden, you know, and fear just drives so much.

Ryan : 1:14:05

Um, he was afraid at this moment. That was the one difference is, um, fear was driving his decision. So the question kind of for us is then, well, how, like that's great, right, you know, we broke it down right and, yes, I relate to the idea that I can be standing firm for Jesus in one moment and the very next I could be denying him, whether in action or in tongue or whatever. But what do we do to correct that right? Um, but what do we do to correct that Right, like, how do we get better at being more Peter drawn with a sword, but in you know, a spiritual way, not literally? Right.

Ryan : 1:14:47

Um cause. We already, we already covered it. That wasn't really necessarily the way Jesus wanted him to be faithful? But, but in terms of our heart, right yeah, in our heart being one that we are willing to draw a sword to the death for Christ, and that situation. How do I have more of those kinds of moments than me denying Christ?

Selena: 1:15:03

Right, that is a good question.

Ryan : 1:15:05

And I think one of the things we could get here, especially once you know that some of the motivating factors of why Peter did what he did, he was trying to prove himself. Jesus said you're going to deny me three times, like no, I'm not, in fact, my first opportunity. I'm going to prove to you, right, so now he was operating off a timeline that was of his own doing, not of what God wanted him to do. Right, you see him acting impulsively and emotionally. You see him Um, so I guess let's talk about that for the emotion piece. Right, think about, even in this last week of times you've been unfaithful to Christ. Maybe it's through your words, um things you've said to people, or about people cursing Um right, like any anything that you said. I know I was not being faithful to Christ in that situation just over the last week. How much of that was based off emotion. Absolutely.

Ryan : 1:16:08

Right. So I think one of the things is that an element that would help us become more faithful is to be able to get in control and master our emotions. And it's not that you that you change emotion, but that you master the emotion, right? That understanding just, and I think this is so important in today's society, because right now there's kind of this message that emotion is King. If you feel that way, then it's valid and it's truth. So that person made you feel a certain way, that person's evil right and they shouldn't be making you feel that way, then it's valid and it's truth. So if that person made you feel a certain way, that person's evil right and they shouldn't be making you feel that way because you have this emotion, that that emotion somehow validates truth, and that's not true. You see a good example of this with Jesus, with Lazarus' sister, mary and Martha. If you guys remember, when they're at the tomb, we did this his sister, mary and Martha. Um, if you guys remember, when they're at the tomb, we did this, I think, one week. Yeah.

Ryan : 1:17:02

And when they were at the tomb, um, they both kind of asked Jesus the same thing, but what you see is that their flow of emotions different. Yeah. So one flow of emotion, Jesus says, hey, I'm going to enter into that emotion with you. I'm going to weep with you.

Ryan : 1:17:22

The other their flow of emotion was not healthy and he, instead of getting into the emotion with her and saying, no, you're right, you're validated in your emotion, instead stops the flow. He says, no, your emotion is not correct right now. That is not truth. So in your emotion right now you're going. Your flow right now of emotion is leading you to think a certain way, act a certain way, which is not correct. Mm-hmm Right.

Ryan : 1:17:45

And he blocks the flow. One, learning how to do that for each other right when you're helping counsel somebody or assisting somebody like Assisting somebody like no matter what emotion it is right Sadness, anger, whatever.

Imran: 1:17:56

A good counselor doesn't just affirm everything that you're saying. Like a good psychologist or counselor or family therapist or whatever and this is just like general for those listening a good therapist or psychologist is not one that just affirms everything you say. If that's what you're looking for out of your counselor, then that's not going to help you. A good psychologist or counselor or family therapist is going to offer constructive criticism if you have those misplaced emotions, if you have those misplaced communications and offer help, you know. So if you just want someone to be a sounding board and just listen to whatever you say, like you can get a friend to do that, you know, and that would be a bad friend.

Selena: 1:18:33

I don't think that's a bad friend.

Imran: 1:18:39

You know a bad friend. Yeah, I don't think that's a bad friend. You know a good friend will give you constructive feedback.

Ryan : 1:18:40

They're going to tell you the things you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And we've all had the experience with somebody right, especially if you've been married but they're angry, right emotions coming out, you know, like hey, I don't think your emotion is valid and that sometimes make them eat yeah, there's a time to say that, um, but I'm just saying like uh, I would offer you don't say that while she's yelling at you, but you know what does that ultimately do?

Ryan : 1:19:01

Because the person who wants to be validated in the emotion and is already in their emotion going out and they get mad when somebody tries to block that emotion. They're out of control, they do not have control of their emotion. So at that point, and what does that ultimately lead to? Now they're angry with you, now you get in a fight and now you're not glorifying Christ and you're not being faithful. So the point is is one of the things I think you see here with Peter acting in his emotion and not being in control of it, is that if you want to start being more faithful, start acting and working to get control of your emotion. Yeah, because if you could get in control of your emotion, like you get that anger up and starting to come out and you're able to say, hey, stop, block it before I act or before I speak, then that's going to be able to just a little bit of extra time to do that and master, that is going to be able to have you start responding in a more faithful way. But what generally happens is most people are not controlled their emotion. They just let the emotion flow as it is and that, in your emotion will lead you into unfaithfulness. You know what I mean, cause now you're just trying to satisfy your emotion instead of trying to be, so you're being faithful to the emotion, not faithful to Christ. So what you need to be able to do is say I am very angry, I am. Instead, I'm going to respond this way, disconnected from my emotion. Um, so I'm able to get be not just faithful to Christ, but be in control of self, right? So I think most people's unfaithfulness kind of like what you see here with Peter is that he was in his emotion.

Ryan : 1:20:36

The second piece was the fear, right? So when we talk about what are we being anchored? Well, what was one of his biggest messages? I come to give you peace, to give you rest. You don't need to fear those things. That's why Jesus preaches like don't worry about what you're going to eat, don't worry about your clothes, don't worry If God takes care of the sparrows he's going to take care of you, right?

Ryan : 1:21:02

Fathers take care of their children. So if you believe you're a child of God, your father's going to take care of you. Don't stress about it, don't worry about it. Don't be in fear over it. Rest there. Don't stress about it. Don't worry about it. Don't be in fear over it. Rest there. Have peace there, right. So, also recognizing that one of the things Peter didn't have, or that he was full of, is that when you're in fear, so when you're in emotion, you act impulsively to that emotion, right. When you're in fear, you also then begin to act in a way that tries to regain control of a situation because you're fearful of it. So the more control over it I have, the less fearful I need to be Right. And the problem is when you do that is that you end up trying to be be in control of situations you were never meant to be in control of. Yeah.

Ryan : 1:22:02

You know what I mean and nor do you have the capacity to control, and because I think there's an implicit understanding within us that, oh, I can't control this. That's where stress and anxiety and all that comes in, right. So it's like so I'm afraid and I try to get control of the situation, but I can't get control of the situation because the situation is bigger than me.

Imran: 1:22:21

Fear is the beginning of the fear is the beginning of a lack of trust. Right, you know it's like. If you're feeling insecure and afraid about where your life is headed, I would offer you know, pray, study, read the word and, just like we talked about with the ears, listen, you know, be led by the spirit and you'll find that peace and that. Rest there, because the answer is not there for you to manifest. The answer is going to be given to you by the Spirit. The whole point of the gospel not the whole point, but one of the points of the gospel is that you are not being led by your own designs anymore Now. You're being led by the Spirit.

Imran: 1:23:05

So you have to allow yourself to be led, and that's what gets rid of the fear.

Ryan : 1:23:10

Commonly reflect on two things right, what did Christ teach of how I should act? Right? And then reflect on God's promises. Because if you're constantly remembering like wait, I remember God sees me, I remember God provides, I remember God will never leave me. I know God is going to lead me. I also, the Spirit is going to comfort me. The Spirit right. You're constantly focusing on God's promises, paired with what God teaches you on how to behave, how to act, how to speak right. When you're constantly doing that and that's always at the forefront of your mind, notice how more faithful you become, not just in that relationship with Christ, but in all your relationships. Right, and I'd also want to throw this one out there Focus on the little things as much as the big things. Jesus says those who are faithful with little will be faithful with much. If you ever notice this and, rand, you had brought this up earlier in verse 74, by the third person to come, it says. Then he began to curse and to swear. I do not know the man.

Ryan : 1:24:20

So to swear is a swearing of like swearing an oath of which, so he's bearing false testimony, which is against the law. By the way, he's lying, yeah, but he's bearing false testimony which is against the law, by the way.

Ryan : 1:24:32

He's lying, yeah, but he's invoking the name of God to pretty much say, kind of like, I swear to God, I don't know him, right, but you do know him. And he just swore by God, yeah, right. So that's big no, no, number one. So the two, the two things that Peter I just let me make this point the two things Peter chose to prove his disassociation with Christ right was that he swore an oath that wasn't true, right. And the other thing was he cursed, like that is very plainly, he was cussing, yeah, right, like the whole idea of cussing and cursing. And right, Like you could argue, those are two separate things in terms of the etymology of words. Right To say stop cursing. What you're invoking is a language that elicits certain responses or certain ideals on something that are improper. It's essentially porn for the mouth.

Imran: 1:25:44

So it's like the two things— so you're degrading language Like porn, degrades sex, degrades relationship. Cursing degrades language. It degrades communication, and that's what c degrading language like porn, degrades sex, degrades relationship right.

Ryan : 1:25:52

Cursing degrades right, which it degrades communication, and that's what cussing does, right Like I. One of the um. I was told this young like when I was gosh. I don't even remember how old I was, but one of the things I remember a Sunday school teacher telling me was that you should strive to be intelligent enough to be able to speak without cursing. Yeah, right, like cursing.

Imran: 1:26:14

I remember hearing something like that as well in like elementary or middle school.

Ryan : 1:26:17

But if you think about, it cursing English teacher means that you, particularly as a believer, means you do not have control of self, to the point you can't control your words. But it also means that, um, that you're too stupid to use other words. Right, and it's like you're not stupid to use other words, you're not too stupid that you're unable to so right.

Imran: 1:26:39

So therefore you know. But I but it's.

Ryan : 1:26:42

but you could argue, I think I I see it a lot with the Marines on the base, I see it a lot with the younger people, that the big scheme of things are always kind of like, well, cursing is not that big of a deal, like you know.

Imran: 1:26:53

premarital sex that's a big deal, and you know that. But but because they'll say premarital sex is not a big deal? All right, you got to test. You got to test drive the car for you before you buy it. Right.

Ryan : 1:27:03

Right what? But? But notice it was too. It was swearing and cursing that Peter used to prove his disassociation. It was the little things, yeah, right. And so it's not about being faithful and just the big things, right. The big event when somebody comes to take Jesus away and you draw that sword, and you know what I mean. It's the little things. It was the little things that he chose to be unfaithful in, to disassociate himself from Christ.

Imran: 1:27:29

It's interesting that after that no one else asked him. So after he swore and cursed, they were like, yeah, that can't be the same Peter Can't be him.

Ryan : 1:27:36

He can't belong to Jesus if he's cussing. He can't belong to Jesus if he's swearing. You know oaths that aren't you know what. I'm saying yeah, it was the little things that disassociated him.

Imran: 1:27:47

I think that that's interesting too, because this and this is impactful for me, because obviously I struggle with cursing a lot, but it is generally those that are not faithful that are very flippant. God's name has power, right, so to invoke, to say like oh my God, to say oh my God, it should be a actual statement of like, wonder and love and it's like oh my God, right. And then you know, uh, but to use it to do to react, derogatory, or to defame, or to out of anger, um, or inappropriately associate yeah, or yeah, any, any inappropriate association of god's name with, with some xyz thing in your life is is deeply offensive.

Imran: 1:28:41

um, and then to say like, oh, my effing god, like, like, something like that, like now you're enacting that curse, that word, that invokes that response right up with God's name, and it's like that's pretty intense when I had made a kind of a commitment back to faithfulness right, and we've talked about it a lot on the podcast for me.

Ryan : 1:29:01

but now I was still a Marine and started going back to church regularly and ended up talking to another Marine who was in my unit. We went to the same church, didn't know that. I kind of found this out. But what killed me and this kind of gets to the last thing I kind of wanted to close here with is he found out I was a believer and he's like really I wouldn't have guessed. Yeah, right, and that's what do you mean. And what he told me was the way I talked.

Ryan : 1:29:34

it was my cussing right, the way my words how I talked he was like there's no way, I wouldn't have guessed that like he, like he was almost like it's like wow, great, that's awesome. I I would have never guessed that right like um, but that kind of that, that's painful Right.

Ryan : 1:29:50

And I want you to notice that after Peter denies him three times, he says he remembered before the rooster crows. You will deny me three times, so he remembered what Jesus told him. Then he says he went out and wept bitterly. Right, so the response like there should be something. And I'm not saying that like if you go out and stub your toe on your couch this week and a word flies out which isn't okay, but that you should, then go into your bedroom and start weeping bitterly, right, or maybe you should. But that's what I'm saying. But there should be at least some part of you that says that wasn't right. I lost control Again, impulsive emotion, I stubbed my toe.

Imran: 1:30:36

And all of a sudden, you forget everything about your faith.

Ryan : 1:30:39

I am angry because I stubbed my toe and I do not have control of self to be able to control my words at that point. So I'm impulsively emotion and now I've become unfaithful.

Imran: 1:30:49

It's like you're being led by the spirit, led by the spirit, and then a little bit of pain happens and all of a sudden you're being led by. I'm in my emotion.

Ryan : 1:30:54

Yeah and um, so there should be a part of you that a little bit of pain, a little bit of fear, when you say it that you kind of look failures of like man, I messed up big right and that's not who I want to be and it's not a reflection of Peter's heart or his love for Christ. The problem is in this particular situation, with his fear, with the emotion, everything going around, that is, that Peter just loved himself a little bit more, which is how most people live day to day as believers and or at least moment to moment. Right, there's some moments I'm like no, I'm selfless, and there's other moments I'm like no, I'm living for myself in this moment. Yeah.

Ryan : 1:31:41

And and that's everybody Right Um, it's very interesting. This whole night was full of of emotion. Um, because when they were praying in the garden and Jesus comes back and he finds them sleeping, you know if you could go back and read it, but you'll never. You know to detail that. A lot of people just skim over. It tells you why they fell asleep. It wasn't just that like it was a long day and they were bored, or whatever the phrase it uses. I'm trying to remember the exact phrase it uses. You have it in front of you, love. It's a little clunky, but essentially the phrase is equivalent in our language as that they cried themselves to sleep. So have you ever cried so much that you're tired, you're exhausted? You? Know what I mean.

Ryan : 1:32:29

I think everybody's had an experience of. They've just been crying for a long time and now they're exhausted, their eyes are dry and they cry themselves to sleep. It tells you that. I think it says that they were sleeping for sorrow, I think is the term it uses. I think that's the phrase sleeping for sorrow, but that essentially means they cried themselves to sleep and it just shows that this is already an emotionally charged night. So, in their emotion going through and how impulsive they were with everything right, their emotion was driving behavior and then their fear was it says because their eyes were heavy, at least in the NIV.

Selena: 1:33:07

What verse is that?

Ryan : 1:33:07

Yeah, well, NIV is not the best with this. What verse is?

Selena: 1:33:07

that.

Ryan : 1:33:20

Well, niv is not the best with this NASB, esb is a little bit pure to the original and those it uses the actual phrase. That's kind of like a like I said, it comes to our unfaithfulness. We let our emotion drive us and then it switches and we then let our fear drive us. You know what I'm saying and Christ is supposed to be Lord over both. But I want to leave with encouragement, right, because I don't want to just be like you should feel very ashamed when you are unfaithful and go weep bitterly, right. That's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is for the believer who has a heart for Christ, that's kind of the natural response. Yeah, when you're unfaithful to anybody you love, you're always going to have that remorse and a lot of times it leads you to weeping bitterly.

Ryan : 1:34:03

Right, but I want to leave you with the last piece in John, chapter 21. Um, you know, jesus told him to meet him in Galilee. He would go meet him there after he resurrected Um, so they're waiting and this is I think it's in verse 15 through 17. Um, I don't know if you're you're open to it, but you can read it. But essentially it says this Jesus pulls Peter aside. So the disciples are out there fishing. They see this man over there cooking fish on the shore, like, oh, that's Jesus. So they excitedly go over and meet Jesus. Right now they're eating fish and they're camping and this great, beautiful reunion.

Ryan : 1:34:48

But then it says that Jesus takes Peter aside and walks him off, kind of has this one-on-one moment with him. And it says that he asks him three times Peter, do you love me? And Peter says Lord, you know I do. He says, well then, go feed my sheep. He says but Peter, do you really love me? He says Lord, you know I do. He says, well, then, go take care of my sheep. Then he asks him a third time Peter do you love me?

Ryan : 1:35:14

And then it says Peter became sad. Essentially he's asking him a third time I've told you I love you, do you not believe me? And invokes he denied him three times. Then he just asked him in the positive do you love me? And every single time he says well, then, go, do what I told you to do. So the response to us because we will all be unfaithful this week If you are truly and particularly going into Easter week in terms of reflection, as you're going in and you're trying your best to be faithful, but then maybe your fear takes over, your anxiety takes over your fear takes over your emotion takes over. Whatever there's going to be a moment, you're unfaithful, you're going to be like I feel bad about that.

Ryan : 1:36:04

Notice what Jesus' response is hey, do you love me? Yes, lord, you know I do.

Ryan : 1:36:12

Okay then go do better next time, right, you're going to go be unfaithful again. You're going to feel bad. Hey, do you love me? Yes, just go do better next time, right, and just understand that you do not need to live in the condemnation, right? The danger is when you do something you're unfaithful and you stop feeling bad about it. That's when you start getting into the level of abusing grace, right. But if you're unfaithful and you're like, ah man, I just messed up again.

Ryan : 1:36:44

Know that Christ looks at you and says well, do you love me, lord? You know I do Just go do better next time. And if you're focused there, right, if you only reflect on the failure but you never reflect on the promise, right, that's just going to lead you into depressed Christianity. And the story of Easter week is one of celebration of what he did for us, for the freedom we could live in. We don't need to live in that guilt and that condemnation anymore. So don't exist there, right, use it as a mechanism, right.

Ryan : 1:37:15

The spirit will use, you know, that, that kind of conviction and sadness sometimes to beat you up enough to where you finally change. Because there comes a point where you're like I'm so tired of just constantly failing and just being ridden with grief because of what I keep doing, and you're eventually like I'm just done with it, right, because it's not worth it anymore. Right, and so the Spirit does use that mechanism, but don't let Satan use that same mechanism to pervert your thought process on it. That you need to exist there.

Ryan : 1:37:50

Remember, jesus told Peter he would deny him three times before Peter had done it and he had still accounted for all that failure of Peter and even before then had told him but it's on this rock I'm going to build that my church right. Like Peter got accounted for all of Peter's stupidity before Peter ever realized his own stupidity. You know what I mean. So while your failures this week may be new to you, they were not new to God. He already paid for it on the cross. So don't anchor on the failure. Anchor on Christ's love for you as we go into Easter week.

Imran: 1:38:29

I absolutely love that. Ryan, I was taking a look at Matthew 5 while you were closing out there, because one of your earlier questions was, or one of your earlier statements was, that we shouldn't just focus on all the wrong things that we've done, but also know what the right things, or celebrate the successes as well. And I was thinking about, like, well, how do we know what it right things or or celebrate the successes as well? And, um, I was thinking about, like, well, how do we know how to what it means to be successful? Um, or what success looks like? And, uh, what popped in my, in my head while I was thinking about it was the uh, jesus's sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes, and I recommend that, uh, you take some time this week and if you're trying to think through, it's like, well, how do I? Uh, what am I supposed to? How do I know that I'm demonstrating the right things, that I'm living a life that is demonstrating the right things? It's like, well, jesus gives a lot of practical examples, um, in his Beatitudes, um, sermon, and I'm not going to read through the entire thing here but, um, he tells us who we need to be. He see, be Be one that is poor in spirit, and he's talking about your own spirit, so you're pursuing and being led by his spirit, not by our own.

Imran: 1:39:36

Be one that mourns. Be someone that is meek. Be someone that is hungry and thirsting for righteousness. Be someone that is merciful. Be someone that is pure of heart. Be someone who is a peacemaker. Be someone who's not afraid to be persecuted because of their righteousness right. Be someone who is not afraid to be insulted or persecuted because of what they say for the kingdom, right. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven is what Jesus says.

Imran: 1:40:08

So, so, and there's a lot more that said in that, in that uh sermon that he gives, and I hope that you take that and you know. Now crack it open and read the whole thing. Um, because there is plenty in the Bible that demonstrates and shows how we are supposed to live. Um. And so, if you're uh new to the faith, or even uh well in your faith, and you're struggling with like well, what does right look like? Um, because I'm trying to live a life that is a walk, uh, that is walking in in his faith, it's like well, the the. The way to do that is to study the way to do that. It's under it's uh to gain that understanding.

Ryan : 1:40:46

And listen to what the spirit's telling you, because God has a better discipleship plan for you than you know Ryan and ran or Selena would ever have for you. Absolutely so there may be things in your. You know, maybe cause we focus on cussing, you may feel like, oh, I got to really stop cussing this because they you know they talked about it. Well, maybe the spirit's actually working on something else in your element.

Imran: 1:41:07

Right, hey, we'll get to cussing first. You have to figure out your adultery, adultery or marriage Right.

Ryan : 1:41:13

Let's figure out how to to save your marriage right now and get you serving your wife and and get you um serving your children and get you leading it, you know what I mean.

Imran: 1:41:22

Like like absolutely, We'll get to cussing Let If you have the ability to stop cussing, do it.

Ryan : 1:41:29

But the point is, is that be led by the spirit, not led by a podcast? Yeah.

Ryan : 1:41:34

And you really need to get into prayer to start understanding. What does the spirit want me to do? Where am I being unfaithful that the spirit is beating me up on right now that I need to start being faithful in and you're going to be like Peter, right, you're going to have your victories to failures, but you also get God's grace. So a good way, I guess, to really close it out when Jesus says those who live by the sword will die by the sword, that also means those who live by grace will die under grace. So you operate under grace if you live by grace. So understand, nothing about your unfaithfulness changes your position with God. Um, so, so don't don't be beat up this Easter week and, if anything, reflect on your unfaithfulness, because Christ paid for it on the cross. So that should give you all the more reason to go in to celebrate.

Imran: 1:42:27

Yeah, don't be afraid, because it's already been paid for. You know, go forward, as you said, go forth and sin no more, right, you know? So, go forth and sin no more. All right, we love you all. Hope you enjoyed this episode, ryan. Thank you so much.

Selena: 1:42:42

I hope you all go into this Easter week motivated and energized and we will see you next week on the next episode of Real Bible Stories. If you would like more information or want to check out archived sermons and Bible studies, please check out the church website at palmsbaptistchurchcom or check them out on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Real Bible stories can be found wherever podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week, sweet.