Fail to Watch & Fail to Pray

Mathew 26:69-75

By: Pr Peter Yoksan

(The Sermon Summary is compiled by Pipit M Jong)

Jesus had instructed Peter to pray 3 times in the garden of Getsemani but Peter instead of praying he felt asleep 3 times. In Mathew 26:69-75 we can see 3 points of the sequences of Peter's  denial of Jesus:
1. Peter pretended that he didn’t undertand the girl’s saying (v. 69-70)
2. Peter did not dare to admit that he knew Jesus (v. 71-74)
3. The sad ending of Peter's denial (v. 75)

Peter denied Jesus 3 times because he failed to watch and failed to pray 3 times. It was not because Peter did not know Jesus. He knew Jesus very well. There are 5 points to prove how well Peter knew Jesus very well:

1. He follwed Jesus from the begining (Mat. 4:17-19). Peter was one of Jesus's first disiples after Andrew introduced Jesus to him. 

2. Jesus healed Peter's mother in law from sick (Mat. 8:14-15). This showed Jesus knew Peter and even his family.

3. Peter walked on the water (Mat. 14:22-23). No other people in this world had ever walked on the water except Jesus and Peter because only Peter alone that dared to challange Jesus to give him that power. And he did walk on the water with Jesus.

4. Peter admitted Jesus as Mesiah (Mat. 16: 16). When Jesus was asking His diciples concerning who they thought Jesus was, Peter answered correctly by saying, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God" while other diciples answered Jesus was John the Baptizer, Elias, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

5. Peter witnessed Jesus with Moses and Elijah on the transfiguration's mount (Mat. 17:1-13). Peter together with James and John saw Jesus transfigured and Moses and Elijah also appeared and talking with Jesus.

Peter knew Jesus very well, yet denied Jesus. How much more us? Do we know our Lord well? Look at how did Peter deny his Saviour and Lord.

1. Peter answered that he did not understand what was the damsel’s saying.
2. Peter answered that he did not know who Jesus is.
3. Peter answered by swaring that he did not know Jesus.

One may think why a person that knew Jesus well such as Peter could still deny Jesus. There were 4 reasons why Peter deny Jesus:

1. Peter was influenced by the world
Peter was influenced by the world becuase he followed Jesus from far. He only wanted to see what would happen to Jesus when Jesus was arrested. In other words, Peter was an spectator. Notice what he did at verse 69! He sat with the servants in the High Priest's palace at that moment (v. 58). He wanted to warm himself by the fire from the house of the High Priest (Mark 14:54). He was shy to be seen together with Jesus thus he became easily mixed up with the world.
Many times, we are just like Peter. We tend to follow popular trends in this world. The things that many people have it, we want to have it too. We are just like the dead fishes that flow wherever the stream flow.

2. Peter was proud
Peter had boasted. He was the only one among other diciples who told Jesus that if Jesus was jailed he would follow to be in jail too, and if Jesus was going to die he would die with Jesus.
Are we proud like Peter? The are 2 kinds of proud people. First one are the people who are clever, rich and educated but they like to show off. They want other people to know about their capabilities so they will boast about their cleverness, money and education. Second one are those who are not smart,  not rich and have not much eduction but they like to pretend to be smart, to be rich and to be educated. Therefore, we must be carefull to not to boast about ourselves.

3. Peter was lazy
Mathew 26:36-46 told us that when he was asked to watch and pray, he did not do it. He used the time for praying to sleep.
Lazyness brings unpreparedness. This happen often times. We are lazy to prepare our duties. We are lazy to do our works. Although we do, many times we do it in hurry. Lazyness never will make us a better person.

4. Peter was afraid
We notice from the begining that Peter followed Jesus from far off. He did not rightly run away from Jesus. He wanted to see what would happen to Jesus, but since Jesus had became the enemy for those people he started to make a distance from Jesus hoping that people would not recognise him as Jesus' diciple.
Many times, we want to follow Jesus but we were afraid. Many Christian feel shy to be seen bringing Bible. Some shy to pray in the restaurant and some even shy to be seen toghether with their fellow Christians.  Afraidness can make a believer to be a worse Christian who dare not to show faith in public.

The above 4 reasons had brought Peter fail to watch and to pray and thus he had denied Jesus 3 times. So how did he overcome then? After repented and received the filling of the Holy Spirit Peter became the contrary person, with 4 criterias:

1. Peter was controlled by the Holly Spirit
He who was controlled by the world before but after he received the filling of the Holy Spirit he became a new person who admonish us in 1 Pet 2:11 that we are just as strangers and pilgrims and abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul.
Therefore, we must keep a distance from this world. Do not anyhow accept what the world offer. Do not be like a dead fish but be like a living fish that swims against the flow of this world.

2. Peter became a humble person
From a very proud person, Peter had turned to be a humbly person after his repentance. He taught us to be clothed with humility (1 Pet 5:5). The Lord love the humble but He will bring down the proud.
As children of God, one must learn to control his mouth not to boast about himself. It is very easy to show to other about our own greatness but let us remember the Apostle Peter.  Let us be humble one to another.

3.  Peter became a deligent person
After his repantance, Peter was not a lazy person anymore but instead he had became  deligently pray and meditade upon God's  Word. He even instructed believers to be sober and vigilant against the devil (1 Pet 5:8-9). The Book of Acts chapter 2 to 12 is one of the ministry of the Spirit through Peter.
Lets throw our lazyness. Be deligent in preparing in serving the Lord and in whatever duties that had laid upon us. Catch any opportunity to study and meditade God's Word. Learn from the ants. They use every opportunity to work and gather food. They never procastinate their duties.

4. Peter became a daring person
Peter who was from the begining a daring person had became a coward at last when Jesus was caught by His enemy. He who dared to challange Jesus to give him the power to walk on the water, and dared to use his sword to cut off one soldier's ear in Getsemani became very afraid at Jesus' last moments. But after his repentance he was given a courage spirit. Acts 1-12 was the proof text of his caurage. The most daring part Peter did where he left his profession as fisher of fishes to became the fisher of men. And according to church history he dared to die for Christ for he was crucified up side down in Rome.
Lets learn from Peter's example. Pray that God will give us the courage spirit so we will able to overcome our afraidness to not be shy to introduce Christ to others and not to be shy to show others that we are the children of God.

As a conclusion, lets restate the above 4 points lesson of Peter's examples:

1. Worldly become spiritually
2. Proud become humbly
3. Lazy become deligently
4. Afraid become daring

Data: Manify The Word (FEBC's 50th Anniversary Book, AD 2012)

Pipit M Jong is Mrs Peter Yoksan

She has BSc in Economics and MRE (FEBC class 2005)

And currently she teaches Hebrew Elementary and NT Studies at URBC (Upper Room Bible College)

By God's grace she has 5 children.

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