Deniers Restored

Have you ever had a close friend who really let you down...or even betrayed you? How difficult was it to get over that “let-down”...that betrayal? Were you able to forgive that person? Were you able to continue your friendship with him or her in the same way, or did your friend’s unfaithfulness cause a shadow to fall between you that just won’t go away?

Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is like no other relationship on earth. The friendships we form with others in our lives can be--OUGHT to be--very special. Friendships within families, playmates and classmates at school, colleagues we work with, folks in the neighborhood we meet across the fence. But the Proverbs in the Bible speak of a “friend who sticks closer than a brother.” The Lord Jesus Christ is that kind of Friend.

When Jesus lived here on this earth 2,000 years ago, He had come on a wonderful, divine mission: “to seek and to save that which was lost.” His was an eternal rescue mission, seeking to save sinners from the eternal punishment in hell they truly deserved. Jesus was the eternal Son of God, and yet He was also a human being like you and I. And one of the genuine human needs that Jesus experienced was the need for friendships.

Jesus was kind and friendly to everyone He met, I am certain. But there were some people He befriended on a much deeper and more personal level than others. This is true for all of us and it is surely true of Jesus. His special, closest friends included two women of Bethany named Mary and Martha, along with their brother Lazarus. They opened their home for Jesus and His disciples to come and rest after their labors of healing and teaching.

But His closest friends of all were most likely the twelve disciples Jesus chose to instruct in private, teaching them the deeper truths about His kingdom and His plans.

Can you just imagine what it would have been like to have the Lord Jesus as a close friend, sharing with you his hopes and his dreams, his needs and his fears? Yes, Jesus was their Rabbi, their teacher, whom the Twelve held in high honor and reverence. After all, John the Baptist had pointed out Jesus of Nazareth as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” So, anyone that Jesus later chose to be in His inner circle of disciples would feel awed and privileged to be so chosen. But Jesus was much more than their Teacher. He was their Friend as well.

And what a friend Jesus was! Here was a friend who could do wonders--heal sick people with the touch of His hand, or even by speaking a word! A friend who could fill the fisherman’s net after that fisherman’s boat had fished all night and caught nothing! Here was a friend who never uttered an unkind word or acted with selfish, prideful motives. A friend who truly cared about you even when you had nothing to offer but yourself. Here was a friend you could be totally honest with and never fear that He’d take advantage of the secret things you told Him.

Jesus gathered his twelve special, closest friends around Him. He Himself was the perfect Son of God...the ultimate, perfect Friend of sinners. But the twelve friends He chose were far from perfect. They were every bit as fallible as sinful friends could be.

On the night when Jesus needed friends the most, the night His worst enemies came to arrest Him, try Him and have Him killed...on that very night, it was one of His closest friends who betrayed and turned Jesus over to them. Judas Iscariot sold His Master and Friend for thirty pieces of silver. Later, Judas was so stricken with guilt and remorse that he threw the money away and went out and committed suicide. Sadly, he never even gave Jesus the chance to forgive him for his betrayal.

But what about Jesus’ other closest friends? All of them were with Him at the Last Supper there in the Upper Room. They were all there when they agreed with Simon Peter who proclaimed: “Even if everyone else forsakes you, I would never forsake you. I would go to prison, or even to death for you, Jesus!” They all said the same. Imprisonment...even death...nothing was too high a price to pay to remain faithful to their Best Friend of All.

We all know what happened. The Garden of Gethsemane was a place of agonizing prayer for Jesus, where He sweated great drops of blood because the Cross of Calvary lay before Him where He’d be forsaken by His Father. And yet not one of the disciples could stay awake for one hour to pray along with their Master and their Friend. When Judas came and brought the mob to arrest Jesus, all His friends had the opportunity of fulfilling their pledge... “go to prison...even to death...” But they all ran away.

Human friendships are so often like that. We might have the best intentions of being the best of friends. Of remaining steadfast, loyal and true. But when the going gets tough, when our friend is facing opposition and mocking and deadly danger, so often our good intentions are not enough and our courage takes a holiday.

But the ultimate friendship failure is modeled for us in the denials of Simon Peter. Peter was one of Jesus’ inner circle of three. Peter, James and John were three of the first ones Jesus called to follow Him there by the Sea of Galilee. Peter and John actually "followed at a distance" as the mob dragged Jesus to the home of the high priest that awful night. Someone in the priest’s home knew John by sight and allowed him admittance, and John spoke on Peter’s behalf so that Peter could enter the courtyard and see what would happen to Jesus.

Of course, if Peter had wanted to be pointed out as one of Jesus’ followers, he wouldn’t have “followed at a distance.” He would have been at his Master’s side during the trial. But he wanted to conceal the fact that he had been with Jesus. And when some of the other people in the courtyard began to recognize Peter, this is when his pledge of friendship was put to the ultimate test. Have you ever made friends with an unpopular person? Or has a close friend ever become unpopular and you were faced with the choice of affirming or denying your friendship? This was Peter’s predicament.

When Jesus began His ministry, His popularity began to grow and grow. People were excited by this new prophet who could do miracles, heal people and feed thousands by multiplying a young lad’s lunch. During such times of high popularity it was fun and thrilling to be a close friend of Jesus of Nazareth!

Now, however, friendship wasn’t fun and exciting anymore. It was demanding. It was dangerous. To remain a friend of Jesus could be highly costly and even deadly. Perhaps Peter was recalling Jesus’ words: “If any man would follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me...If anyone confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father; but if anyone denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father in Heaven.”

Peter’s friendship failed him that day. Just as Jesus had predicted in the Upper Room, Peter denied three times that he was Jesus’ friend and disciple. He denied that he’d even heard of Him. Jesus also predicted that this denial would take place “before the rooster crows.” And as Peter heard the voice of that crowing bird, his gaze just happened to meet the eyes of Jesus Himself as the Master glanced out into the courtyard. What a moment that must have been!

How lost Peter must have felt! “I’ve denied Him just as He said I would! I’m a traitor! I’m a wretched sinner! I’ll never be forgiven for this! It’s all over!” Peter went out of the courtyard and broke down and wept bitterly. When was the last time you or I wept bitter tears over our sins? For every time we sin against God or other people, we are betraying our Lord Jesus, who died on the cross in our place to pay for all our sins. To save us from our sins and give us the power to say “no” to sin in the future.

So was Jesus’ friendship with Peter coming to an end? Was there indeed no hope, as Peter feared? What does Jesus, the Friend of sinners, do with fallen disciples--friends who let Him down and give in to the pressure that bids us deny Him? You and I are so often tempted to sin against this best of Friends. Is there hope for you and me?

First of all, there IS hope, because Jesus PRAYS for His friends. In the Upper Room He told Peter, “Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you. When you are restored, strengthen your brethren.” And in His prayer to the Father later that night He thanked Him that He would “lose none of those you have given to Me.”

Second, there is hope, because Jesus INCLUDES His fallen friends. After His resurrection, the angel at the empty tomb instructed the women who beheld them: “Tell the disciples...and Peter that I will see them in Galilee.” Jesus made sure that as soon as possible after His victory over death and sin, even the most unworthy of His friends would know they had not been excluded in His atonement for sin or in His plans for the future!

Third, there is hope, because Jesus VISITS His fallen friends. Paul tells us that Christ’s personal post-resurrection appearances included a separate personal visit to “Cephas”--the Aramaic translation of the name Peter. Apparently, it was at this one-on-one meeting that Jesus heard Peter’s personal confession and Peter received Jesus’ blessing of total forgiveness for his denials.

Fourth, there is hope, because Jesus RESTORES His fallen friends. After strengthening Peter’s faith after the resurrection, the Lord met with seven of His friends by the Sea of Galilee where He served them breakfast. It was here that He challenged Peter with His three-fold questioning: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And not once, not twice, but three times, Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus told him, letting Peter know that their friendship was far from over. In fact, it was just beginning. And Peter would become one of the Lord’s greatest church leaders and evangelists.

Jesus is still the sinner’s ultimate Friend. He came to give His life for those who hated and despised Him. Those who denied and betrayed Him. And to those who simply trust Him to save them, He grants full forgiveness and eternal life and friendship with Him and the Heavenly Father. And our Jesus PRAYS for His friends. He INCLUDES them in His plans. He VISITS them in His Word and by His Spirit. And He RESTORES them when they fall.

If you are feeling lost and alone today, feeling like a failure...like you have let God down and could never be forgiven...DON'T be like Judas and give up to despair. Run to Jesus, the BEST FRIEND a fallen sinner could ever have. Trust Him to welcome you, pray for you, include, visit and restore you. "None who come to Me," Jesus says, "will I ever cast out."

MNA
9/11/16