Defined by the love of Jesus
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John 18:12-27
I. Denying Jesus
In today’s Gospel we meet Peter…afraid and paralyzed by fear. This may the worst day in his life, so far. I can only imagine…the leaders of Israel, the power of the Roman army …perhaps the greatest powers of the known world…those leaders are all declaring war on Jesus. They came in force – carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons – and arrested Jesus. Not to mention that Jesus had been telling the disciples that, soon, he would be beaten and killed. Suddenly, it’s all happening.
For Peter, his whole view of the world is turned upside down. All he sees is chaos, violence, and these religious leaders are calling in the Romans …and all in the name of God.
II. Rumors and Rhetoric of the End Times
Right now, in 2026 in America, we are also surrounded by violence and wars…and I’ve even heard rhetoric by some that the most recent war on Iran, is part of God’s plan to bring about Jesus’ return and the end of the world. Some people literally teach that our current US President is “chosen by God” to bring about Jesus’ return by following a plan that, people who believe this, claim is laid out in the Bible. Whether you’ve heard these rumors or you’ve just generally heard about Armageddon, a Rapture, or being “Left Behind.” I think it’s worth saying a few words about this today. We will return to Peter, I promise.
But first, let me say clearly, that this teaching about Armageddon is a complete distortion of the Bible according to a vast majority of Biblical scholars. It’s a relatively modern distortion, that dates – not to Biblical times, but to the early 1800’s.
It began with a man named John Nelson Darby who essentially patched together different parts of Scripture (including verses from the Book of Revelation, and Daniel, and 1 Thessalonians). He grabbed verses here and there, taking them out of context, and pushed them together like a jigsaw puzzle (like forcing puzzle pieces together – even if the picture isn’t right. You know, a piece with a bump and another piece with a hole – If you push hard enough you can get them to stick.) He forced these things together to develop a framework to interpret the Bible. This same man who created theories of a “rapture”, and dispensations. There is a lot to discuss, and major theologians see enormous errors in his teaching. But, I want to point to 3 basic challenges:
1. He patches together verses in ways that have nothing to do with their original contexts.
2. He suggests a worldview that is mechanical and disjointed and world history that is scripted by the Bible.
3. The image of God that results is very difficult to reconcile with what we see through the central message of the Bible: a consistent and loving God.
One of my seminary professors, Dr. Craig Koester, put it simply, saying that this whole teaching,
“[It] obscures the Bible’s central message of God’s will for life, well-being, [and] new creation…Not for the annihilation of the world but rather for its redemption…God is deeply invested in the well-being of the world.”
Nonetheless, the popularity of Darby’s views grew in the United States throughout much of the 20th century. By the time of the late Cold War, ideas that started in the 1800s had shaped the political beliefs of millions of evangelical Americans. Maybe some of you remember Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970. That was this philosophy and Lindsy offered language for evangelicals to explain current events.
This is still the language and faulty theology being used by some leaders today in America to interpret current events as God working out annihilation for God’s will to be done through the US government.
Yes, Jesus said that He will come again. That’s true. Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars before He comes again. But even Jesus says, only the Father knows when that will be. There is no framework revealed in some secret way to predict a date when that will come.
The Book of Revelation is very important, and we still read it devotionally and in worship. It was written as resistance literature to encourage the first Christians who were oppressed by the Roman empire – which was committed to a genocide of Jesus’ followers. In the context of chaos, the book of Revelation reminds us today that God is with us, even when things are falling apart.
III. Denying Jesus
This brings us back to today’s Gospel, Peter is terrified. But, unlike most of the other disciples, Peter still followed Jesus and the soldiers …all the way to the court. Others abandoned Jesus, but Peter and another disciple stay close by. But, then he’s confronted. Peter responds in fear, “No, I don’t know him. I’m NOT one of his followers!” Three times, he pretends not to be associated with Jesus…and then the rooster crows. It is just as Jesus predicted.
Maybe Peter was confused, afraid, even ashamed…some complicated mix that leaves him paralyzed. And he denies he as anything to do with Jesus.
IV. Forgiven and Defined by God’s love
Other Gospels tell us that Peter wept when he heard the rooster. And then Peter disappears. In the days that follow, we don’t see Peter showing up. When Jesus is whipped or carries the cross to calvary – Peter is not there. When Mary and John stand at the foot of the cross. Peter is nowhere to be seen. Is he still afraid? Perhaps he’s also ashamed that he didn’t try to stop the arrest… but he had tried – he swung his sword at a soldier coming to arrest Jesus, and Jesus stopped him and told him not to live by the sword. Peter must have been confused.
Have you ever really failed at something?
You must know how hard it is to get beyond a failure. You might hear those messages in your head, “you’re an idiot!”; “you can’t do anything”; “nobody wants you around”; “you blew it – you can’t do anything”. We humans can be really hard on ourselves. I don’t think that was so different two thousand years ago.
Peter had to be beating himself up as Jesus was tortured and killed. He failed…and it is so easy to define yourself by your failures. I really believe that’s what was going on for Peter.
But…just a few weeks later, we find this same Peter in the second chapter of Acts. And what is he doing? He’s preaching boldly to thousands of people right there in Jerusalem. He preached the gospel of Jesus. He called people to repent and believe. And 3,000 people come to faith that day! Is this same lying, denying, failure, Peter? He became the first leader of the church...the ROCK upon which the Church is built.
What happened in those few weeks between the rooster crowing and Acts 2?
Peter might have been scared, shamed, and defined by his failure for a while. But when Jesus rose from the grave – Jesus came to Peter. He looked Peter in the eye, loved him, forgave him, and commissioned him to “feed my sheep”. We won’t come to that part of scripture until after Easter. But I can’t resist telling you the good news here: you and I are not defined by our failures any more than Peter was. Jesus proclaimed Peter forgiven, and loved, as a child of God empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus powerfully reminded Peter that he was not defined by his fears and failures – Jesus defined Peter as a child of God, restored by the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
As we look at Peter’s fears and failures in the midst of the chaos of his time, I want to take the lesson Peter learned as a gift to you and me today. You are a beloved child of God. Even when we are weak, Jesus is strong. If you have a failure or weakness that you just can’t let go of today…I want you to remember that is NOT what defines you. Come to Jesus again today and lay that failure or weakness at His feet. Jesus loves you, forgives all your failures and weaknesses, and is with you now, like He was with Peter. You are a forgiven child of God. Go with the power of Christ to be defined by God’s love.
Jesus wants to use you and me in the great working out of God’s will in this world.
V. Standing up as a follower of Jesus
You and I have a role to play in these troubling, chaotic times that we face today. Our roles are to stand with Jesus, be fed by the Word of God, and speak and to act boldly for life, well-being, and new creation.
First ... PRAY: Let’s pray for world leaders. Let’s pray for people personally involved in war – soldiers and people huddled in basements in Tehran, Jerusalem, Ukraine, and Gaza. And let’s pray for ourselves ... that we can say “yes, we are among Jesus’ disciples” as we stand against any “might makes right” approaches.
Second ... let’s open our Bibles: and re-read the beautiful story of Jesus. Remember God coming as a vulnerable baby among the poor. Remember the beatitudes as a window into heaven’s way of being in this world. Remember Jesus’ compassion as he wept at Lazarus’ tomb, and the power of God’s love in the face of death with Lazarus’ resurrection and Jesus’ rising from the dead. In the Bible that we discover that our faith is centered in the love, service to the least of these, forgiveness, and new creation in Christ.
Finally ... let’s turn our ‘thoughts and prayers’ into action: Let’s let the whole world know that annihilation is not God’s way to usher in a new world. Let’s use our economic resources, our social media presence, and our connections in our community to model the true gospel among our neighbors. You are defined as children of God prepared to treat even distant neighbors with God’s love and to speak like Jesus: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’
Pastor Doug Cox