Ep 84 Our Consistently Inconsistent Faithfulness - The Real Story of Peter at Jesus’ Arrest - Real Bible Stories - A Bible Study Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Imran (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories.
Join us as we deep dive intothe historic, religious,
cultural, political andemotional context surrounding
the real lives of real people inthe Bible and the stories we've
all grown to love.
Hello and welcome to Real BibleStories.
I'm your host, emran Ward, andwe are joined by my wife, selena

(00:28):
.

Selena (00:28):
Hey.

Imran (00:29):
And our teacher, pastor Ryan Brown.
What's going on?

Ryan (00:31):
everyone it's going well, I just never get over it, your
introductions.
So I don't know how manyepisodes 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 asEmran Ward.

Imran (00:47):
Yeah, but do you know why ?
I don't put Selena's full name,because she told me not to.

Ryan (00:53):
That's all it is.
I think it will cause moreconfusion.
Oh man, he just threw me offfor the whole podcast now
because he changed up the.
I don't know what to do.

Imran (01:01):
But I will, yeah, but I'll say that that's.
I always say either Emron Wardand Selena or Emron and Selena,
because Selena was like don'tever, don't ever say it, don't.

Ryan (01:09):
She doesn't want to get hit up on social media.

Imran (01:12):
Yeah, I'd be like, why don't you take your husband's
last name, like her last name isCruz contrast.
I love her.
Now people know that's a secret, yeah right.
Well, her phone number is andher social security number.
But for those that are joiningus for the first time, welcome,

(01:33):
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.
Palm Sunday.
We're recording this on PalmSunday, getting ready to go into
Easter, uh, this weekend and,uh, big celebrations all planned
, as there should be bigcelebrations planned all over

(01:54):
the world because of such anamazing thing took place.
If you didn't know, you'regoing to learn more about it in
this week's episode.
So, uh, we did have anotherepisode recorded prior to this,
but Ryan was so excited afterhis, after teaching in youth
today, and he's like, all right,we're going to record this
message that I gave today, causeit was really, really good, and
so he's impassioned, he'srehearsed because he literally

(02:16):
did this, this morning, thismorning, but I wasn't able to do
all of it and that was part ofprobably my problem.

Ryan (02:21):
Was that part?

Imran (02:22):
of probably my problem was that whenever I have a bunch
of stuff, I'm like people needto know and you can't hit that
in a 30 minute sermon, when wedid the Bible studies at the
church, ryan would often runinto our guided discussion time
because he had so much to gothrough.
So it was an hour of Biblestudy and then 30 minutes of
guided discussion and he wouldalways run into it and he's like

(02:42):
I'm sorry, I took some of yourtime, but it's just so much and
it's definitely part of thereason why I wanted us to have
this, uh, this discussion here,and it's also definitely why
these podcasts are always likean hour and a half because there
is, he does that deep levelstudy.
So, um, in honor of that, uh,let's jump into it for this week
.
So where are we?
Where are we touching on forthis episode?

Ryan (03:03):
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 tostart at least there.
Um, what do you mean by it's agarden story?
It's when Jesus and hisdisciples are in the garden of
Gethsemane and when Jesus getsarrested.

Imran (03:19):
So no, I mean, but like, what do you mean by it's a
garden story?

Ryan (03:22):
Are there a?

Imran (03:22):
bunch of garden stories.

Ryan (03:23):
Well, it's actually very interesting If you ever notice
how much happens around or in agarden.
In the Bible, you know the mostobvious.
If you were to look at, ofcourse, the Garden of Eden,
where everything starts right,and there's actually a lot of
parallels that are alwaysinteresting.
So, for example, like in thisparticular you know, the Garden
of Gethsemane, when Jesus isgetting ready to do his passion

(03:46):
right, he's going to go to thecross.
He knows that.
You almost see this exactreversal of God, reversing what
was done in the original Gardenof Eden.
Right, so like.
So, for example, do not eat ofthat tree or the fruit of that
tree or you'll certainly die.
Right, so they take the fruitfrom the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil.

(04:07):
And because they did that,there was a curse.
It says that there's going tobe a promised seed.
Who comes and fixes all thisand 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 goingto produce thorn and thistle for
you.
Your labor with your hands isgoing to be more difficult.

(04:30):
So you kind of get this idea ofwhat Adam and Eve took from the
tree, now God takes and putsback on the tree.
Because this reference to feet,to now Jesus' feet are pierced,
because labor is going to beharder with the hands.
They pierced Jesus' hands.

(04:50):
The crown is going to producethorn 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 (05:01):
Crown of thorns.
There we go, yeah yeah, yeah.

Ryan (05:03):
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 theworld.
So as one led to death, he nowis going to do something that
leads to life, and so when I saya garden story, it kind of
brings in this motif that yousee in a garden biblically.
That's really cool.

(05:23):
But the story is also, by theway, it's in all four of the
Gospels and it's not uncommonfor certain stories to be shared
across, obviously, but forthere 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.

(05:45):
Which means that this story inparticular is of great interest
to every gospel writer.
And every gospel writer iswriting to different audiences
at different times, right?
And each one of their audienceshave kind of different
sensitivities that they'reconsidering right.

Imran (06:03):
So what's kind of cool is you get these different— the
audience of the gospel at thetime so you get these different.
Considering, right.
So what's kind of cool is youget these different-.

Ryan (06:05):
The audience of the gospel at the time.
So you get these differentdetails right and the certain
details are kind of left out, tonot just the theological point
that the author is making butalso the sensitivities that
exist around it.
So they'll leave certain thingsout for sensitivities, but also
it's like it's not necessary tomake this point right.
So you actually kind of getthis really interesting um

(06:28):
collaboration between the fourof what happened and each one
offers different details, thatkind of um, you know, give you a
fuller picture of what happenedExactly.
Yeah, and the story is also oneof cause, you could say three
redemptions coming off this oneevent it kind of anchors on.

(06:48):
So it's an important story andit's one that we, I think most
people, have heard about, butone that I don't think people
have really ever just thoughtabout how significant it was in
terms of the narrative of Easterweek right, particularly the
night before right, he's aboutto get arrested.

Imran (07:05):
Talking with Palm Sunday going.
When he enters.
What was the city that heentered?
Where they laid the palm leavesdown, jerusalem?

Selena (07:13):
So he enters.

Imran (07:13):
Jerusalem and then the whole week where he's arrested,
tried four times and then-.
He is welcomed as essentially aconquering king.

Ryan (07:22):
On Sunday, by Tuesday, tuesday, wednesday, he's
flipping tables in the temple.
Yeah, um, really makeseverybody mad.
Um, they start plotting to killhim and that's probably within
that week that Judas makes hisdecision to betray Jesus, and
then by Thursday night, or yeah,I mean so it's like his arrest,
his trial evening to Friday notPassover Last Supper.

(07:45):
The Last Supper that alsohappens.
They go to the garden and thenhe's arrested.
So by Friday he's dead.

Imran (07:52):
Which is just fascinating , that the majority of the
stories you hear or that youwould maybe commonly know about
Jesus' life are all from thatone week.
It's like he had three years ofministry and then 30 years of
life before that.
Uh, but a lot of it anchors onthat Palm week.

Ryan (08:12):
Over 30% of the gospels are committed, in terms of
narrative, to the last week ofJesus's life.

Imran (08:17):
Wow, um, and so most of the detail is there.

Ryan (08:20):
You get half a chapter of his birth right and we make a
whole month for Christmas butfor.
Easter.
Um, you know, over 30% of allyour new Testament writing or
gospel writings, are committedto 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 theperspective we're going to take

(08:43):
with this story is in reallyjust kind of anchoring on
fleeting faithfulness.
You know the the idea of um.
I'll just tell example.
This is the same story I toldthe youth this morning, but um
had me and my wife had the kids.
We were traveling to Utah.
So a long drive from 29 Palmswe're driving to see her family

(09:08):
in Utah and we're talking Bible.
Right, I'm talking something.
I don't even remember what itwas.
It was something brilliant.
I was really excited by it andI'm like this is just how do not
people not know?
you know we're all fired uptalking.
Bible and all these things, andas I'm driving and we're
talking Bible we're allimpassioned by talking scripture
, Me and my wife this guy comesand cuts me off in a very

(09:29):
dangerous way where I had toslam on my brakes and not hit
him and immediately switch oneoff.
I'm barreling down that hornfor probably anywhere between
five to 35 seconds.

Imran (09:39):
Five to 35.

Ryan (09:41):
Oh my God, rolling the window down, screaming at this
person that you're an idiot.

Imran (09:44):
You're an idiot.

Ryan (09:44):
You're an idiot.

Imran (09:45):
You're an idiot.

Ryan (09:45):
You know, like just switch.

Imran (09:48):
Absolutely, oh no.

Ryan (09:50):
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 takingnotes Like, ah, this is how you
probably respond to mentally.

Selena (09:59):
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 andbelievers, right Is that in one
moment I could be allimpassioned and just in the
spirit and excited and that, andthen, in the very next moment,
I could be doing somethingthat's dishonoring or something
that is a betrayal to the wayChrist wants us to be and how he

(10:25):
wants us to act.
Right.
And it's like why, how doesthat happen?
And it's a struggle.
I think everybody, if they'rehonest, has right.

Imran (10:36):
I think, more than just the faithfulness piece as well,
because it's like you feel thatin marriage sometimes too, it's
like I love my wife and then mywife would do something and then
like, in a sense, it's like youknow what I hate my wife and
then my wife would do somethingand 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 toanything, yeah, any relationship
.
This is true of right and um.
You know we talked in youthlast week about the betrayal of
Jesus with Judas and you know,we always, we always look at
Judas as, like this, obviously abad guy right and the gospel

(11:07):
writers are also very harsh withhim.
You know he betrayed Jesus for30 pieces of silver, but if
you're honest with yourselfbecause I know this is true of
myself I have betrayed Jesus forfar 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 thesense of um rejecting him, but
in the sense of dishonoring,dishonoring relationship right
Not being faithful.
Yeah.
And the idea is that in anygiven relationship in the world,
we have an expectation offaithfulness within that scope.

(11:42):
Right so your relationship withyour parents, you having your
idea of what that means for yourparent to be faithful to you.
What does a faithful fatherlook like?
What does a faithful motherlook 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 goodconversation that married people
should have, or at least Iencourage engaged people to have
before they get married?
Oh, absolutely.
Is what does each one think?
What you know, Selena, what doyou consider unfaithfulness and
cheating?
And Rand, what do you considerRight, yeah, now you may think

(12:16):
it's like oh, common sense,right, like it's not, but it's
not.
There's some, like you talk tothem, like they have a complete
breakdown.
They're like I caught myhusband watching porn, which
obviously isn't okay, but to herthat's cheating, right.
He's like well, I, I don't.
And if you talk to him, he'slike well, I, I never thought it
was okay, but I definitely Ididn'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 theyhad a big fight because he held
the door open for another woman.
Wow, like they were walking inI 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 offelt like you were being
unfaithful.
You know, at the very least itwasn't honoring in her view.
It doesn't matter if you thinkthat'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 thinkit's also interesting on like a
country-wide scale scale too,because there's countries
establish treaties andrelationships and that stuff and
so you can see that betrayaltake place on a country level
scale.

Ryan (13:22):
You know, like our commitment our commitments to
Ukraine or Russia's commitmentsto their allies, and all that
and I think, though, like thelargest 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 inthat relationship.

Imran (13:41):
You expect them to be faithful to you.
Yeah, however, you're definingfaithfulness.

Ryan (13:44):
Right, and then they'll sometimes do things that you say
that you weren't being faithfulto me, like that was an
unfaithful act as a friend, as abrother, as whatever.
So the whole point is that wehave expectations of
faithfulness and relationship.
That means our relationshipwith Christ.
He has expectations offaithfulness, right, so kind of
anchoring there, right, and howwe can betray Jesus or be

(14:05):
unfaithful to him for far lessthan 30 pieces of silver, right?
Well, we're going to get intowith this story particularly
it's anchored on threeindividuals, these different
levels of faithfulness, but onein particular, which is Peter,
and how you could go from beingon fire, like 100 percent, like
willing to go to your death forChrist, right, sword drawn, to

(14:32):
denying him three times.
Yeah, right, it's like how doesthat happen?
Why does that happen?

Selena (14:36):
In a night?
Right yeah, within a couplehours, 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, andthen within a couple hours I'm
in an argument with my wife oryou know what I mean Like how
does this happen?
Right, and I think we can learna lot of things out of this
story.
So we're going to kind of breakit down a bit.
So I don't know, Selena, youwant 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 whowere with Jesus stretched out.

Ryan (15:09):
Sorry, I'm sorry.
Let me just set the context ofit real quick.
Yeah, this is.
They're in the garden, jesusjust got done praying.
They see Judas.
This is post the last supper,right?
So this is that night.
After the Lord's supper, theygo to the garden to pray.
This is when the disciples fallasleep, 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 fellasleep, which we often miss.

(15:32):
But they're praying.
And then Jesus is under a lotof pressure, right.
And then we see Judas come upwith 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'restarting off tonight is, after

(16:10):
Judas betrays him with a kiss,he says you betray the son of
man with a kiss, and then theycome 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 whowere with Jesus stretched out
his hand and drew his sword andstruck the servant of the high
priest and cut off his ear.
Then Jesus said to him put yoursword back in its place, for
all you, for all who take thesword, will perish by the sword.
Do you think that I cannotappeal to my father and he will

(16:34):
at once send me more than 12legions of angels?
But how, then, should thescriptures 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, youcould read it in chapter 18.
It actually tells us that, um,they come to seize Jesus.
But you know, there's ascruffle, and essentially, this
servant who got his ear cut off,um one, we get a detail that it

(17:04):
was his right ear, whichbecomes 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 whenthis occurs.
That matters in terms of thecontext of how this is going
down.
Okay, really, to the point ofwhat 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 atthe Amplified Bible.
It says in verse 35, at thatmoment Jesus said to the crowds.
And then in NIV it says in thathour Jesus said to the crowd I
did not know there was more thanlike a couple people there.
Like what does he mean by thecrowds?

Ryan (17:48):
was it a lot of people there in this garden?
A whole group came, yeah, a lotof.
I probably like a company ofsoldiers essentially to arrest
Jesus but when we remember wedid this when we started talking
about, we mix up the 12 anddisciples.
Often, when we read scripture,the Bible always refers to
Jesus's.

(18:09):
We would call the 12 disciplesright, the 12.
It always says his 12, the 12.
Okay.
Then there's disciples.
He had many disciples, yeah,tons of disciples, right?
So it wasn't.
There was this inner group of12 that he kind of like his
deacons, right, yeah, but thenhe so it wasn't.
There was this inner group of12 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 thetime, right so?

Ryan (18:33):
this isn't some small intimate moment between like
Jesus and 12 against you know afew 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'treally know, but this isn't like
ones on ones here, like this isthis is a crowd thing.
This is a like.
Think of like a riot in a city,downtown, where you have the

(19:07):
police on one side with theirshields and a crowd on the other
side.
Right, it's a clash, yeah,right.
And within that, which is thepoint I was making earlier, is
that the servant of the highpriest pretty much falls down on
his back, which is when he getshis 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 iswhen 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

(19:28):
details we get from John, infact we get.
We know.
When it says one of those whoare with Jesus, we find out in
John it was Peter.
Yeah, peter is the one who drewthe sword.
And we also find out the nameof this servant of the high
priest.
His name is Malchus.
So we're really in this wholesituation where we're going to
talk about beyond the crowds,right, we're going to talk about

(19:49):
those three men Jesus, malchusand Peter in this whole story to
kind of let you know because Ithink this also creates a false
impression with us.
When it says a slave of thehigh priest or a servant of the
high priest, we kind of get thisimpression of, I don't know,
like a peasant right, like in asense 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 aservant of the high priest, that
is true but that's not a claimof his stature.
What this guy really was wasprobably the high priest number
two.
This was his trusted confidant.

(20:37):
This was essentially hisexecutive officer to go do his
bidding.
So when you read the gospelsand you ever hear, and the
Pharisees listened and they wentand reported to the high priest
what Jesus was preachingMalchus was probably there.
This was probably Malchus andhis crew.

Imran (20:55):
So he wasn't arrested by Romans, he was arrested by
Jewish a Jewish company ofsoldiers from the Jewish
authority within Jerusalem.
That's also okay, Because Idefinitely thought he was
arrested by Rome because he wasbrought before Rome.
But he was brought.
You're right, we talked aboutit in the episode talking about
the trials.
He was brought before the highpriest first and then brought to

(21:17):
.

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 andthen 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 clubslike 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 toeverybody 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 therewith like an, a warrant is like
reading you your articles andthen 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 itwasn'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 thedisciples have seen Malchus.
Nor is this the first timeMalchus has ever seen Jesus.
Malchus had been therelistening to Jesus preach, and
probably seen some of the thingsJesus did.
Some even think that it wasMalchus who, when they were
trying to entrap Jesus, and says, well, there were some

(22:29):
Pharisees that came Like, somethink, well, that probably was
Malchus.
He was probably one of the onestrying 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, becausewhat we're talking about is
somebody who the disciples haveseen before.
Malchus has seen before.
So it's not like, this is theirfirst time meeting.

Imran (23:08):
So it kind of adds some, but also the crowd would know
who he is too, so it would makesense that he was able to get
all the way in without it seemslike without much resistance,
before he gets his ear choppedoff.

Ryan (23:17):
It's also why he probably wasn't armed, because that's
another point John makes he wasunarmed.
Why would he be unarmed ifeverybody else is coming with
clubs?
Because he's the commander,he's doing it.
High priest goes to MalchusMalchus go get, the mob go get
Jesus Got it and he goes andhe's the leader, right.
So this is a guy of highstature, this isn't just some
commoner, right.

(23:37):
So that's important.
The other thing to also knowthere's only two ways Peter
could have cut this guy's earoff.
Um, which is swinginghorizontally 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 clearabout the aggression of the
swing.
This isn't a precision strike.
Like Peter isn't aiming to cutthis guy's ear off, what is he
trying to do?
Trying to kill the man he'strying to kill the man he is
trying to chop his head off, wow, which I honestly think would

(24:14):
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 pickup 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 fromthe dead.
It's gonna be reallyunimpressive 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 headwhichever way to kind of avoid
the blow, and that's probablyhow his ear gets gets his ear
chopped off, yeah, but but theauthors, and that's probably how
his ear gets, gets his earchopped off.
But.
But the authors make a point,it cut off his ear.
John makes a point it was hisright 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 howthe priestly family was
established, and that they hadblood put on their right ear,
their right thumb and theirright foot to really describe
how they're supposed to listento God's word and the spirit and
to all action with their hand,need to be in honor of his, his

(25:18):
word and his command, and theyneed 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 priestlyposition.
Ah, geez, Now we're on theright track.
Okay, For him to be the numbertwo in the servant of the high
priest.
Therefore he's with the highpriest doing priestly duties.
That would have.
That would mean that Malchusbut 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.

(25:44):
It had to be a priest.
Okay, that comes very relevanthere.
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 sentout to go listen and report back
to the high priest what youhear.
So his entire job is with hisear, his ears, right, his ears
go listen and then use your ears.

(26:17):
Go listen and come report backto me what is being said.
And they were supposed to belistening with.
Why did they put the blood onthe ear and on?

Imran (26:25):
the.
What did you say?
Oh, I said listening with the.
Well, listening to learn and beled by.

Ryan (26:30):
Exactly To learn, to be led by, to receive any word God
would have right To have be atentative right In the heart.
So that's a piece right.
So you're already kind of onthe 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 lastweek'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 meelement, but why was there such
an emphasis on having to healthis man's ear after this
happened?
Like you know, I think peoplemiss this too sometimes.
Is that like a good examplewhen Jesus heals the blind man

(27:15):
going into Jericho?
You know, the narrative tellsus that there were lines of lame
and sick people who would lineJericho because it was a rich
city for people.
As they walked in, jesus choseone 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 thatfor every person he heals,
there's hundreds he doesn't.
Yeah, right, so why does Jesusmake an effort to heal this man
and how does that impacteverybody involved?
Right, and it's veryinteresting, so one you already

(27:51):
picked up on a priestly lineelement of this I think a lot of
these would have been veryknown in terms of Jesus' day,
what this symbolizes.
I'm going to go through a fewof them.

Imran (28:05):
historically, out of antiquity, I have a random
question If a priest violatedtheir 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, allright, 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 thisbefore?

Selena (28:25):
No.

Ryan (28:26):
So the Code of Hammurabi has the oldest known, I guess,
constitution you can say it wasa set of rules that Babylon had
put in place to govern theirempire and it was kind of like
it gave rights.
It kind of set laws right withlike for this breaking this law

(28:48):
has this punishment right?
yeah, but the babylonians werenon-jews right correct, but
babylon is the ones who came inand actually conquered um, the
northern kingdom um, and theybrought them all to exile, like
remember when we were talkingabout the, the samaritan woman,
and how they left some there tokind of Like remember when we
were talking about the Samaritanwoman and how they left some
there to kind of interbreed, butthen they took the rest and

(29:08):
brought them to Babylon.
Yeah.
Right, like that whole eraright.
Yeah.
So in Babylon, in the Code ofHammurabi, cutting off the ear
was a punishment for a slavethat had denied his master.
So if, say, we were trying torun away or whatever situation
came up, you're like, no, that'snot my master.

(29:29):
And they were able to prove, no, that's my slave.
Um, the punishment for thatwould be they would chop off
your ear and they would nailyour ear to the doorpost of the
master's home oh gross um, thatwas kind of the, you know the
punishment for it so one waythey could be like well, maybe
this is a play of um here.
Malchus is trying to arrest.

(29:49):
Malchus, a slave of the highpriest, who should be a slave of
Christ, is, um, you know,denying his master.
Yeah.
Therefore he receives thepunishment right.
That's one view, Um.
In Egypt, the punishment forgiving false testimony or
proving someone was corrupt wasto remove the ear.

(30:10):
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 tomutilate 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 bemixed.
It's not always necessarilylike these things kind of
develop over time with anunderstanding 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, alwayslook 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 ofjesus, he was doing things very
unjustly, outside the law, right, so he was already betraying
his office.
But I think some of the thingsthat maybe there's a possibility

(31:09):
that we're a little harsher onis that the high priest was
basing his decision off ofinformation, probably from guys
like Malchus.
So if Malchus is not reportingaccurately what he is hearing
and what he is seeing, but it'smore telling the high priest and

(31:30):
the Sanhedrin what they want toknow, you see what I'm saying?
They're giving false testimony.
Maybe that could have also beencorruption.
Hey, we'll pay you to reportthis instead, kind of thing.
Does that make sense?
It could be that the highpriest wasn't hearing about what
Jesus was actually preaching,nor was he hearing, um, about
what Jesus was actually doing.

(31:51):
Um, so that is a possibility.
So this could be a play of.
Now you're receiving thepunishment for bearing false
testimony against Christ andbeing corrupt, right, um?
In Persia, this is documentedby aodotus in the histories.
One would self-mutilate theheir to show that they have

(32:13):
fallen out of favor with theking, or vice versa.
They would self-mutilate soessentially, if-.

Imran (32:18):
All that I remember.
We talked about the otherculture 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 peopledon't really have to imagine
they have been but like inPersia, 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 isthat the king says you have
fallen out of favor with me.
Bob is your elf, so people knowthat 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 Israeliembassy, I think, and he did die
.
He did die from his injuries.
So that was just a few weeksago.

Ryan (33:13):
Yeah, I mean, people will do it right.

Imran (33:15):
But again, that's wild.
Imagine being so angry withyour 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, youknow, a hybrid mesh of it, but I
think the one that, if you hadto choose one, would be this
next one.
So, within Israel's history,josephus documents this in
Jewish wars, but there's thisman named Hecronus, and Hecronus

(33:45):
, um, came out of the Maccabeandynasty.
So from the time between theold Testament and the new
Testament, israel had arevolution against um, the
Greeks, and they won theirindependence temporarily until
Rome came in.
Um, that time of governance wasthe time of the Maccabees.

(34:05):
Okay, acronis was the highpriest out of that dynasty
during the time of Julius Caesar.
Okay, now he was high priest ofIsrael when Julius Caesar was
emperor over Rome, when MarkAnthony had come in and taken

(34:27):
over.
He had fallen out of favor withMark Anthony and they.
He said hey, you can't be highpriest anymore.
He was later than ring andstated came back.
But then, when he had done that, his nephew had raised this
rebellion against Rome, whichgot quashed pretty, pretty
quickly as the.
Romans do.
As punishment, they came toHycronus and chopped off his

(34:47):
right ear, essentially to sayyou can't be high priest anymore
.
Why that is important, and thereason that they chopped off his
ear.
Not only was that storyprobably very, very familiar to
this generation, right, likewe're talking within a hundred
years, right?
So everybody probably wouldhave known this story, but the

(35:10):
bigger piece with that, though,is that if you were to read in
Leviticus 21, in order to serveas a priest, you could have no
disfigurement or be deformed inany way.
Really, so if you remember whatif you become disfigured?

Imran (35:25):
later or be deformed in any way, really.
So if you remember what if youbecome 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 thetips of his fingers.
Because he was from the line ofAaron, he was a Levite.
And he did not want to be apriest.
So he mutilated himself, so hedidn't have to go do that.
Well, here is an example withHycronus, where they mutilated
his ear.
So now he's no longer qualifiedunder the law to be the high

(36:02):
priest of Israel ever again.
Wow, so that's their way ofpermanently removing him from
that office which, as we talkedabout in the past, was kind of
like your political authorityfor Israel under Rome, right?
So now, what does that thenmean 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 threeindividuals, right?
Um?
So why does jesus heal this manafter this happens, right?
Um, the first thing we need tounderstand is that Jesus'
primary concern was to fulfillGod's mission and his will,
god's way under God's timing,and his mission was the cross.

(36:44):
So that's why, you see, inverse 54, essentially, he goes
after Peter for saying what youjust did is taking us off the
mission of what the?
scripture says how it's supposedto be done.
Right, jesus is very concernedabout doing this God's way,

(37:08):
god's will, god's way underGod's time, and Peter's kind of
thwarting that.
Right, how would the scripturesbe 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 littleclue.
Right, think about it this way.
Up until this point and welearned this through the four
trials that Jesus goes through,we've gone through those before

(37:29):
right, every one of those trialswere pretty much unjust.
Yeah, right, going from thetrial with Anas to Caiaphas, to
Pilate.
Right, and the people.
They were unjust.
They had no just grounds toarrest Jesus, except if one of
Jesus' disciples draws a swordand kills a man or assaults a

(37:54):
man with a sword what can theynow 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 highpolitical 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 allowthe 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 thengoing to still have?
That's why he's upset withPeter.

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 andkilled and it'd be like, oh okay
, that makes sense yeah, and hehad that actual justification
and they had proof and thegospels 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, sothey wouldn't have had to do
the sham trials, and then Peterwould be the bad guy and all
that.
Well, we'll talk about Peterhere in a second with that.
But but yes, right, so by Peterstriking Malchus, he gave the

(39:05):
Jewish authority realjustification to arrest him.
And I think the big thing withJesus, and I think the big
takeaway for us of what thisdoes for Jesus by by healing
this man's ear, is that therehad to be zero excuse for the

(39:25):
Jewish authority or Rome toarrest Jesus and kill him Right.
There had to be no logicaljustification for it.
Peter just gave him one.
Unless Jesus heals him, yeahRight, 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, asyou will.
You know, that was his prayertwice, right?
You know, please take this cupaway from me, right?
But if not, I'll do it, right,yeah, um, so then Peter messes

(40:00):
it up, try to and that's that'sthe second point here Right?

Ryan (40:03):
So the first one is that by healing the ear and
maintained an illegitimatearrest of Jesus and the charges
that they eventually killed himfor, right, yeah.
The second thing goes to yourpoint, which is that it shows
that even the disciples actions,right, even though it seemed
like it would have thwartedgod's plan, could not yeah so he

(40:27):
draws the sword, draws blood.
Um, oh, now they havejustification to arrest jesus.
He's like hey, you, you can'tcome in and mess up.
God's plan Takes the heals, theear right.
And I think that is that shouldbe very freeing for us.
In a sense.
We can't mess this up.

(40:47):
Yeah.
You know what I mean.
Like I think a lot of peoplefeel this burden sometimes of
like, if I get really engaged inministry and I actually start
going out there like I don't, Ijust 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 notbiblically literate enough, I'm
going to mess it up.
Yeah, right, I'm going toreally mess up God's plans,

(41:10):
right, and 29 palms or whereveryou're at Right, it's like no,
you can't.
You can't, because even whenyou do mess up, god comes in and
fixes it.
You can't mess up.
What God wants and that's onething you see here is that Peter
trying in an attempt to reallythwart what God wanted from the
beginning.
He's still going to do it.

(41:30):
God healed it right, he fixedit, to maintain that.
But the last one is this, Ithink, going into Easter weekend
, as we kind of anchor on Christand start reflecting with
Easter week notice, particularlyout of John 18, it says that
Malchus was on his back unarmed.

(41:50):
So Peter had the position.
They had been overpowered.
Jesus could have walked away ifyou wanted, right?
Yeah, that's fair, they hadbeen overpowered.
Yeah, have walked away if youwanted.

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 thinkwe need not my Jesus to to
understand is that despite thatand despite drawing blood, he
says put your sword away.
He heals the man and he saysokay, now take me.
And he says okay, now take me.
I think the most importantthing that we need to remember
is that Jesus chose to go to thecross.
He wasn't duped into it, hedidn't fall into it, he wasn't

(42:25):
tricked into it, he wasn'toverpowered.

Imran (42:29):
He willingly and knowingly went to the cross for
us and he demonstrates evenprior 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 betrayme tonight, and then Judas walks
out.
So it's like he identifies.
At that time he could havewalked 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 arresthim, there could be no excuse.
Yeah, jesus time when they cometo 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 theyoverpowered them.
Jesus stopped them and thencalmed 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 sonof man must die, the son of man
must die, and it says thatdisciples heard but didn't
understand, heard but didn'tunderstand.
And then you get to the crossand it's like then they
understood, you know, but thenthey truly.
Actually it was until he roseand we talked about like what
was left inside the tomb in thatepisode where it's like then

(43:30):
they saw it and understood, youknow.
So, after all, hearing this forthree years and then seeing him
die, and then it wasn't untilhe rose and they saw they found
out and it was like oh, now Iget 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 andthen Jesus putting it back on,
and now you have to go andreport to the high priest what
happened?

Ryan (43:53):
So we're going to.
We're going to talk about thatwith Malchus, because we're
going to go through each one ofthese men.
Okay.
But right, exactly Right, causethere'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 youwere saying about Christ and
what his mission was.
Right, yeah, he's the only manever born who was born to die.
That was his mission, he knewthat and he remained in perfect

(44:17):
faithfulness to God's mission.
For that, right, god's will,god's mission, god's way, god's
time, he willingly and chosenlywent to the cross for us, and I
think that is one big piece.
When you see that, when you seeJesus healing this man and
saying, now, take me, calminghis disciples down, that's him

(44:37):
saying I'm willingly choosing todo this for you.
Um, I wasn't overpowered to dothis, right, um?
But now let's talk about theMalchus 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'sprobably a big piece of Malchus

(45:02):
that wanted justice againstPeter, right?
I mean, peter just tried tokill him.
He was unarmed, still lobbedoff his ear, which probably, at
the very least, like, yeah, myears healed, but that hurt.

Imran (45:14):
Like I still have the memory ofall that.
That's scary.
Yeah, my ears healed but thathurt.
Like I still have the memory ofall that.
That's scary.
So he probably went to justiceagainst Peter, also getting
tackled and beat in the nightbefore 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 thehigh 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 hisdisciples chopped my ear off.
But you have your ear off, yeah, but then Jesus healed it, and
now it's like are we reallygoing to arrest this man?
Right?
And then the Sanhedrin Jesushealed it, and now it's like are
we really going to arrest thisman, right?
And then the Sanhedrin, thehigh priest are we going to
arrest this man, cause nowyou're a trusted confidant just

(46:04):
came and told you somethingincredible that just happened.
Right, so, by being honestabout it, that would have maybe
offered him justification to goafter Peter and get retribution
We'll talk about that piece herein a second but that,
ultimately, though, would haveglorified Christ.
You see what I'm saying.

(46:24):
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 seeingnecessarily 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 commandvoice.
Yeah, enough of this.
He heals them.
Those who live by the swordwill die by the sword.
Calms everybody down right,like you're not really noticing
what's happening over here whenyou're in a brawl yeah right,
like I'm focusing on the guy I'mfighting.
You know what I mean?
Um, yeah, but the malchus, atthe very least, would have known

(47:05):
.
It would have been the one whowould would have given this
message to the high priest,right?
So it's so, he's kind of leftin the spine, and then an
element of that is that Jesuskind of gives them a second
chance, right.
So, you're the ears for the highpriest and you're the reporter.
Now go report this.

(47:26):
Take me and go report it.
What do you do, malchus?
Right?
So it's a very interesting, andwhat's also interesting is we
hear nothing about Malchusoutside of this.
I couldn't find anything interms of extra biblical about
where he turned up, like hecertainly was, never became like
a champion of the Christianfaith in this time.

(47:48):
Um and I did read one commentarythat kind of made the fact that
he may have not even known hisear was chopped off, um, which
is fair.
It's not.
Like you probably knew, he tooka blow and there was blood and
he was cut, um, but he it's notlike somebody came and held a
mirror up to him right away,like you do.
You're missing an ear right Likeum Peter's like my God it seems

(48:11):
to go pretty quick, and andJesus healing it right Like
Malchus may not even reallyrealize what had happened.
So that is, I guess, apossibility.
But I think the thing, though,with Malchus is, again, john
makes the point it was his rightear.

(48:32):
So what point is the authortrying to make with that detail?
Right, when you think back atAkronis right Now, remember he
is probably a priest, he's aLevite.
He just now got mutilated.
If Jesus didn't heal him, whatdoes 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 isdone, yep Right.
So by Jesus restoring the ear,he's not just restoring the ear
right, which is obviously veryinconvenient and still a
blessing, but he's restoring hisentire life.
Yeah, you see what I'm saying.
Yeah, he is restoring Malchus'slife.
Mm-hmm.

(49:22):
His means of making money.
All that has been restored tohim, Mm-hmm so, but the fact
that his right ear, right right,had always also represented
authority, right?
To be on the right hand of God,seated on the right side of the

(49:43):
throne, Like it alwaysrepresented authority and power.
So I think one of the thingsthat's kind of being implicitly
trying to communicate is thatwhen Peter swung that sword, it
removed Malchus' authority andpower, Right?
And Jesus says no, I'm going torestore that authority and
power and give him that secondchance to use that authority and

(50:04):
power to actually go beartestimony and witness for me,
right?
You don't really know whatMalchus reports.
What you do know is the outcome, which is they ultimately still
unjustly killed Jesus, right?
But, that's Malchus.
After a whole lot of back andforth, yeah, he restored his
position and purpose gave him asecond chance to bear that

(50:26):
witness, right, yeah?
But now let's talk about Peter.
Okay, Let me just ask you aquestion what do you think was
the driving?

Imran (50:52):
motivating factor for Peter to do this.
When are you going to be on themarch?
When are you going to tear downRome and reestablish the Jewish
kingdom and all that?
I recall him having otherconversations with Jesus about
this, so I would argue this isin line with his character that
he's demonstrated up to thispoint.

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 talksabout the kingdom, he was like
here it is next week, us againstthem.

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 itseems like an obvious response
that peter would respond, didrespond 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 andI don't want to die.
Or like so i'm'm going todefend myself.
So you think, it was moreself-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'llcome 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 thisUm, jesus tells him, um, put

(52:23):
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 littlebit more, but then that's what
he says Do you think that Icannot appeal to my father and
he will not at once put at mydisposal more than 12 legions of
angels?
Right?
So, in other words, jesus issaying to Peter do you think I

(52:44):
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 togo defend my rabbi.
Yeah.
And Jesus kind of looks at himlike do you think I need you to
defend me?
Yeah, and I think this is avery interesting point, because

(53:05):
how many believers do you knowfeel 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 nowis that people think that their
job is to, like, force christ oneveryone 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 defendhim.
Like he does not need us todefend him.
What he needs us to do is beobedient, what he told us to do.
And how many times you seechristians?
Not do what he needs us to dois be obedient to what he told
us to do.
And how many times do you seeChristians not do what God told
us to do in terms of missionally?
and try to take on a differentbanner, to do a different

(53:46):
mission than what he told us todo, which is, like I'm going to
go defend God to the death.
You see, I think this is a morecommon problem than people
realize, but you see, people whoare always searching for their
hill to die on and they'relooking for their excuse to
defend God any way they can,yeah, and God never said Matthew

(54:08):
28, right, or 24, gosh, matthew28.
Go, make disciples of allnations, 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 comingto try to defend Christ.
And Christ is like I don't needyou to defend me, and we have

(54:30):
many believers.
They're always trying to feellike they have to defend the
gospel.
He's like I don't need you todefend my gospel.
That's not what you're told todo.
You're told to go be a witness,go proclaim the truth.
You don't even need to defendit.
You need to be prepared to givean answer for it.
But you're not there to defendit.
I don't need your defense.
It's like I have legions ofangels that can defend me.

(54:51):
And if I was going to need ahuman being's help in defending
my gospel or defending mycharacter, do you think I would
say to you you know what I mean.
I'd go overpower.
You know Albert Einstein orsomething you know.
Not that we don't have a placein that, it's just the point
being he doesn't need us todefend him, right?
Yeah, he also doesn't ask us to.

(55:12):
But I think there's anotherelement with this, though.
Earlier at the Lord's Supper,after Jesus says one of you will
betray me, and of coursePeter's kind of scoffing like
it's not me, he's like no.
But Peter, by morning, bybefore the rooster crows, you're

(55:35):
going to deny me three times.

Imran (55:36):
He tells him that at the last supper.
I thought that was a little bitlater, okay.

Ryan (55:40):
Yeah, he tells him there.
So what do you think, peter, interms of his response to this?
What's he kind of driving fromand I think this is much his
motivation is being driven from.
He's trying to make a pointright.
He's trying to prove at thefirst available opportunity, I

(56:03):
will not deny you Jesus, I'll befaithful to the death with you.
Jesus, overcorrecting, you toldme I'm going to deny you, I'm
going to prove you wrong, I amgoing to be the first one to
draw the sword and draw blood indefense of you, right?
So I think there's a little bitof that at play.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think there's some motivationthere.
But I also think the otherthing is emotion.

(56:26):
I think Peter had seen Malchusmany times.
He's seen Malchus challengeJesus, always kind of coming up
against him.
He saw Malchus going back andwhatever he's reporting back to
the high priest, whether it wasvalid or not.
But he never saw a changedheart from Malchus, even though
he was there, right.
And now he's here to arrest hisrabbi unjustly, right?

(56:52):
I think in that moment Petergot in a rage, he got in his
emotion, and we're going to talkabout this a little bit more.
But I think what you see hereis an emotional, impulsive
response driven by the idea thathe wants to try to prove
himself.
And again, this is another one.

(57:12):
How many times do you seeChristians just trying to prove
themselves?
First of all, your opportunityto prove who I belong to.
They'll make those hills thatthey'll die on.
They'll choose something YoungEarth, creationism.
They'll choose a theologicalcamp.
The first thing that they canfind, they plant their flag.

(57:32):
I will die on this hill for you, jesus.
I'm going to prove myself toyou because I don't need you to
prove yourself there.
I need you to prove yourselfthat you belong to me and your
love.
That's what he says.
This is how they will knowyou're my disciple, how you love
one another.
So you see people rushing intoproving themselves to be

(57:53):
disciples of Christ, outside ofthe confines of what Jesus told
them, how you prove yourselfRight, yeah, um there's a really
great King and country songthat 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'slike hey, it's really good song.

Ryan (58:13):
But.
But let's kind of talk, though.
Consequently, though Peterbobbing off this ear and what
this does for Peter, with Jesushealing it.
Yeah, peter just assaulted aman with a sword, particularly
the number two to the highpriest and then Jesus says stop,

(58:33):
put your sword away, takes the,you know, heals the ear and
then says take me and lets himgo free and with him right along
with it.
Yeah, now Peter's like so Ijust assaulted this man with a
sword and Jesus healed him, andnow, is letting him go free.
What does that now mean forPeter?
Judicially right, Legallyspeaking?

(58:53):
I don't know.
Right, think about it.
Do you think they're just goingto let that slide?
Speaking, I don't know Right.
Think about it Um, do you?
Think they're just gonna letthat slide?
Do you think they're just gonnalet?
Ah, yeah, I mean this.
You know the number two to thehigh priest and you yeah, you
could argue that Peter was likethe number two to Jesus.

Imran (59:08):
you know, actually he advocates for himself that way,
and when he talks about himselfin scripture it's just like a
brawl right, Like when he youget 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 letthis slide.
Yeah, and so when he chops offthat ear, um, essentially, if
Jesus didn't heal that ear, theywould have also arrested Peter.

(59:36):
Yeah, and Peter probably wouldhave been crucified next to
Christ.
You see what I'm saying?
Yeah, so by Jesus healing theear, what has he now just done
for Peter?
Right, he saved his life.
Yeah.
Again at that moment in aphysical way, right, yeah,
Christ is about to save his lifeon the cross too.
But you know what I'm saying?

Imran (59:57):
I feel Right.
He's crisis about to save hislife on the cross too.
But you know what I'm saying.
Like Peter wouldn't even haverealized that in the moment,
though it was something he wouldhave to like put together,
we'll get to this.

Ryan (01:00:02):
He would have realized after and after he had calmed
down.
Yeah, exactly, and then younotice something about Peter.
Things change with him, whichwe'll get to in a second Um but
well, because the but the lawwouldn't have necessarily
demanded capital punishment forPeter, there certainly would
have been something judicial.

(01:00:23):
Yeah.
Being that they were alreadyarresting Jesus under false
pretense and now they had thisjustification to kill him for
insurrection they would have.
They would have certainlybrought Peter along with them
and probably killed him alongwith them, right, yeah?
But by Jesus healing the ear,right, ear, right, he again
removes the evidence of thesword and therefore he also

(01:00:43):
removes the consequences of thesword.
Remember what he says all theway back, and um was that verse
um 52 put your sword back in itsplace, 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 thesword.
Put it away.

(01:01:03):
He heals the man's ear, heremoves the consequences of the
sword.
And this is kind of a typologyfor us about Christ is about to
do on the cross, because, justas he took away the evidence of
the sword and therefore takesaway the consequence of the
sword for Peter, what he does onthe cross is he takes away the
evidence of sin and thereforeremoves the consequences of sin

(01:01:25):
from us by bearing our sin right.
He removes the evidence of sinfrom ourselves and puts them on
him.
Therefore, we don't receive theconsequences of that anymore.
Therefore, we don't receive theconsequences of that anymore.
So you see, almost thisforeshadow played out in this
small little skirmish in thegarden with Peter get applied
across the entire world of whathe's about to do on the cross.

(01:01:46):
But the other thing I would alsosay this I think there was a
sense of Peter, of him realizingthis is unjust and he finally
says you know what?
You guys have abused your powerof your position.

(01:02:07):
I'm going to act and actjustice.
Right, you try to kill him.
Right, symbolically, he takesoff 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 healso then has removed the

(01:02:29):
authority and power that Peterjust had or that he thought he
had, or that he thought he hadto execute justice.
yeah, right, peter, I don't needyou to defend me, nor do I need
you to execute justice.
Yeah, that's not your job.

Imran (01:02:42):
Yep Judgment belongs to the Lord.

Ryan (01:02:44):
Right.
So he removed also his power toexecute judgment that he
thought.

Imran (01:02:48):
The power he thought he had to execute judgment, and
that's another point.
Right In the name of Jesus.

Ryan (01:02:58):
Just as he couldn't thwart God's plan of the cross,
peter couldn't.
Yeah, he also is not going tolet people execute his judgment.

Imran (01:03:02):
Yeah, he can't thwart or enact God's justice.
Exactly.

Ryan (01:03:06):
So, with all that said, right, you know, there was a lot
of things that had kind of ledinto Peter and Peter was not
being faithful to Jesus, Jesus'sway.
So that's worth noting.
Jesus was not happy with howPeter had responded in this
situation.
But I would say this, and thiskind of goes into our last piece
of text here At least at thismoment, peter, in his mind, was

(01:03:33):
at least trying to be asfaithful to Christ as he could
be.
I'm going to go defend my Lord.
I'm going to go defend my Lord.
I'm going to go defend my rabbiunto death drew the sword.
I'm going to prove myself thatI'm not going to deny you Jesus.
Yeah, I'm going to take thisman out, right, I will do that
for you, based on hisunderstanding of the faith at
that time.
Right, which we weren't aswrong it right, yeah, now,

(01:04:02):
knowing that then somethingchanges, right.
Um, they take jesus away.
He gets brought into the highpriest home.
It says that peter follows himand he's in the courtyard right
now.
What happens?
If you want to, let's see verse69.

Selena (01:04:10):
I'm going to read what 69 through 75 and this is still
in matthew 26, 26 now.
Now Peter was sitting outsidein the courtyard and a servant
girl came up to him and said youalso were with Jesus the
Galilean.
But he denied it before themall, saying I do not know what
you mean.
And when he went out to theentrance, another servant girl

(01:04:33):
saw him and she said to thebystanders this man was with
Jesus of Nazareth.
And again he denied it with anoath, I do not know the man.
After a little while thebystanders came up and said to
Peter certainly you two are oneof them, for your accent betrays
you.
Then he began to invoke a curseon himselfplified Bible.

(01:04:55):
How it explains that.

Imran (01:05:15):
Verse 74 says how it explains that.
Verse 74 says then he began tocurse, that is, to invoke God's
judgment on himself and swear anoath.
I do not know the man, so Iimagine that it was something
like I swear to God, I don'tknow him, and it's like now
you've just invoked his name.
We're going to talk about thata little bit more.
It's a little bit heavier thanthat actually.

Ryan (01:05:34):
But before we do that, though, do you see the change,
just the fear that's in himright now.
An hour earlier, sword drawn,swinging, lobbing off ears for
the defense of Jesus, and now heseems to have been falling into
some cowardice.
Yeah.
Right, what changed?
And this is what I think is sorelatable, because I feel like

(01:06:00):
this is so many of us in a givenday right In one moment I'm
standing firm, sword drawn, likeI'm fighting battles for Jesus
and even being victorious, andthen, just a couple hours later,
I'm denying him.
And it's not that I'm denyinghim in terms of like rejecting
like I do not believe in Jesusright, that's not that I'm
denying him in terms ofrejecting like I do not believe
in Jesus right.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
What we do is we disassociateourselves or we do our best to

(01:06:25):
make sure that it's—we don'tmake it known who we belong to.
So you're in a situation youhear people talk in a certain
way or acting a certain way andyou're like, hey, this isn't
right, this isn't what I standfor, what my Lord stands for,
and instead of speaking up andsaying, hey, I'm not
participating in this because ofwho I belong to, we instead

(01:06:46):
take actions to say, hey, I'mjust not going to let them know
who I belong to.
Denying Jesus is not always inthe positive affirmative of I
don't know him.
It also plays out in we justpretend like we don't know him
to the world.
I'm just going to pretend like Idon't know him.
I'm going to pretend like Idon't know what I know.

(01:07:07):
I'm going to pretend like Idon't know that what they're
talking about right now is notGod honoring.

Imran (01:07:14):
The question then becomes like well, why?
Why would you pretend not toknow Jesus?
Why would you uh pretend to?
Is it to be uh to have certainfriends?
Is it to appease a spouse, toappease a, a girl you're
interested in or a boy you'reinterested in?
Is it to get a certain position?
Is to get paid more in a jobyou know?

Ryan (01:07:36):
Exactly, so exactly what changes from moment to moment
that makes our faithfulness toChrist so fleeting, so weirdly
conditional or fleeting is agood term- you see what I'm
saying.
So it's like what changed forPeter and I tend I think we tend
to be very harsh with Peter onthis too when I think this is
how we, many believers, liveevery single day.
Yeah.
That we play this story out overand over, that we read here

(01:07:59):
with Peter of just being on firein one conversation or in one
situation, depending on whoyou're around, right and then in
another environment, anothersituation, other people,
whatever.
It's completely different.
Yeah, and what shifted forPeter?
I think this may help the thirdperson who comes and says no,
no, your, your accent betraysyou.

(01:08:20):
You're a Galilean, like you'reactually you're with.
Jesus right Um wouldn't attackin the gospel of John.
It gives us another cool detailand it tells us that that was a
relative of Malchus.
Hmm.
Oh, you see what I'm saying.
So Malchus who, hmm, oh Seewhat I'm saying.
So Malchus who, peter justlobbed his ear off.

(01:08:40):
Right, jesus heals it.
They take Jesus Now.
Jesus is in.
You know his trial.
Essentially At the same timePeter's outside, the relatives
of Malchus are coming in.
They're like you're the one youwere with him.
I saw you in the garden.
In fact, right Suspicion iscoming up Like didn't you?
Were you the one who struck himwith a sword?
Yeah.

(01:09:01):
So what do you think is going onin Peter's heart right now?

Imran (01:09:06):
I would go back to the fear thing with that's what I
said.

Ryan (01:09:09):
It's like I don't want to get arrested.

Imran (01:09:10):
They know that I cut this guy's ear, jesus healed him,
let him go.

Ryan (01:09:14):
Now I'm vulnerable and Jesus who was going to protect
me?

Imran (01:09:18):
I thought is now arrested and he's in there.
So what drove?
The confidence that he hadplaced in Jesus is like shaking
right now.

Ryan (01:09:28):
And what is driving Peter's unfaithfulness in this
right now?

Imran (01:09:31):
I would say lack of understanding.

Ryan (01:09:32):
Well, it's fear, it's what you said.

Imran (01:09:34):
So it's fear, but it's fear coming from that lack of
understanding, because he isn'tseeing the greater purpose which
they highlight earlier in thescripture that the disciples
continuously failed tounderstand.
When Jesus would say what hisgreater purpose is, you know,
like if you really understoodthe greater purpose, then then
he'd be like of course, jesuswas arrested, he had to die
because he's going to come again, but they just didn't

(01:09:54):
understand.

Ryan (01:09:54):
Sure, I guess I'm trying to think.
I'm just trying to bring itpractical, though, right?

Imran (01:09:58):
Yeah, I would say yes, because this was my other point
that I had that I was thinkingearlier is that people will go
out and be very emotionallyfever on fire for the, for the
faith, and then somethingchallenges that faith or
challenges their understanding,or they're presented with an
argument they don't understandand then it kind of shatters,

(01:10:22):
wavers and they have that fearof like do I actually know or
believe what I'm thinking?
I know and believe.
So the counter to that would bego learn more right.

Ryan (01:10:27):
So you're not being shattered from a lack of
understanding.
That was my other point.
Yeah, fear manifests itself inmany ways.
That could certainly be one ofthe fears right.
Another fear could be is thisself-serving or not?
Right?
So, Peter, at that moment, nowthat he's alone, saying, no, I
do know him.
In fact, I'm one of hisdisciples, In fact I'm his

(01:10:49):
number two.
Right, Take me Right.

Imran (01:10:53):
What does that now?

Ryan (01:10:53):
mean that he could die.
And for him, in that situation,right denying Jesus was very
self-serving to him.
But it was out of fear of whatthey were going to do,
particularly when a relative ofMalchus comes up and says no,
you were there right.

Imran (01:11:10):
He's like I just tried to murder a man.

Ryan (01:11:12):
They saw me there.
You see how fear is driving hisbehavior right now.
And this is the question Iasked the youth this morning.
You ever sit back and think andjust do an analysis,
self-reflection, of your ownlife and where you are with
things.
How much of your fear drivesyour decisions and behavior?

(01:11:32):
Yeah, have you ever really justthought about that?
What?
What drives me to do the thingsI do and how much of that is
anchored in fear?

Imran (01:11:40):
I actually had that conversation with um I don't
know if it was just with selenaprobably also with my
psychologist and stuff uh aboutwhy I stay in the marine corps
and part of it is tied to istied to a little bit of a fear
of the civilian side.
It's like I'm confident I couldgo into civilian world and get
a job that I would want and befeel fulfilled in.
But, um, there's a part of methat's like but I feel

(01:12:03):
comfortable in the job that isthe Marine Corps.

Selena (01:12:07):
Yeah, exactly.

Imran (01:12:08):
I know what the next 10, 12 years of my life need to be
in order to get to retirement.

Selena (01:12:13):
So the fear of getting out right.

Imran (01:12:14):
Yeah, the fear of the unknown.
It's ultimately that fear ofthe unknown, you know um, which
is a real thing.

Ryan (01:12:20):
Um, and I would even say like, like my first combat
deployment.
I remember getting on the whitebus and I had this pit my
stomach right like just thatthat anxiety, a lot of that fear
, because you know what you'reabout to go into.
You've never experienced any ofit yeah right, no one's never
like, and combat is one of thosethings you have to experience,

(01:12:41):
right?
Mm-hmm.
To understand it.
And I just had this fear andthis anxiety and just this knot
right of like, I am willinglyloading on this bus to go do
this right.
Then, the second time, right,get through that deployment,
come back and we're gettingready to go again.
And I still had that samefeeling, but I had experienced
combat right.

(01:13:02):
So the first was like a fearand anxiety of the unknown.
The second was a fear andanxiety of the known.
And it was like.
you never got away from it.
You know what I'm saying.
One of the elements withparticularly Christian faith is
that part of what Christ did forus, and part of what so many of

(01:13:23):
his promises are anchored in,is to remove fear.
Yeah, it's supposed to removefear from us.
You know, jesus never oncemakes a promise of happiness,
never once.
He never says follow me, I'llmake you happy.
Yeah.
But he promises follow me andI'll give you peace.
Follow me, I'll make you happy.
But he promises follow me andI'll give you peace.
Follow me, I'll give you rest.
Follow me, you don't have to befearful anymore.

(01:13:44):
And fear drives so much ofpeople's behavior and how they
think and the decisions theymake, how they respond in
situations, so much so that mostof the time we're acting like
peter here in the courtyard yeahnot like peter in the garden,
you know, and fear just drivesso much.

(01:14:05):
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 usis then, well, how, like that's
great, right, you know, we brokeit down right and, yes, I
relate to the idea that I can bestanding firm for Jesus in one

(01:14:28):
moment and the very next I couldbe denying him, whether in
action or in tongue or whatever.
But what do we do to correctthat right?
Um, but what do we do tocorrect that Right, like, how do
we get better at being morePeter drawn with a sword, but in
you know, a spiritual way, notliterally?
Right.
Um cause.
We already, we already coveredit.

(01:14:48):
That wasn't really necessarilythe 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 drawa sword to the death for Christ,
and that situation.
How do I have more of thosekinds of moments than me denying
Christ?

Selena (01:15:03):
Right, that is a good question.

Ryan (01:15:05):
And I think one of the things we could get here,
especially once you know thatsome of the motivating factors
of why Peter did what he did, hewas trying to prove himself.
Jesus said you're going to denyme three times, like no, I'm
not, in fact, my firstopportunity.
I'm going to prove to you,right, so now he was operating

(01:15:26):
off a timeline that was of hisown doing, not of what God
wanted him to do.
Right, you see him actingimpulsively and emotionally.
You see him Um, so I guesslet's talk about that for the
emotion piece.
Right, think about, even inthis last week of times you've

(01:15:46):
been unfaithful to Christ.
Maybe it's through your words,um things you've said to people,
or about people cursing Umright, like any anything that
you said.
I know I was not being faithfulto Christ in that situation
just over the last week.
How much of that was based offemotion.
Absolutely.

(01:16:08):
Right.
So I think one of the things isthat an element that would help
us become more faithful is tobe able to get in control and
master our emotions.
And it's not that you that youchange emotion, but that you
master the emotion, right?
That understanding just, and Ithink this is so important in
today's society, because rightnow there's kind of this message

(01:16:30):
that emotion is King.
If you feel that way, then it'svalid and it's truth.
So that person made you feel acertain way, that person's evil
right and they shouldn't bemaking you feel that way, then
it's valid and it's truth.
So if that person made you feela certain way, that person's
evil right and they shouldn't bemaking you feel that way
because you have this emotion,that that emotion somehow
validates truth, and that's nottrue.
You see a good example of thiswith Jesus, with Lazarus' sister

(01:16:52):
, mary and Martha.
If you guys remember, whenthey're at the tomb, we did this
his sister, mary and Martha.
Um, if you guys remember, whenthey're at the tomb, we did this
, I think, one week.
Yeah.
And when they were at the tomb,um, they both kind of asked
Jesus the same thing, but whatyou see is that their flow of
emotions different.
Yeah.
So one flow of emotion, Jesussays, hey, I'm going to enter

(01:17:21):
into that emotion with you.
I'm going to weep with you.
The other their flow of emotionwas not healthy and he, instead
of getting into the emotion withher and saying, no, you're
right, you're validated in youremotion, instead stops the flow.
He says, no, your emotion isnot correct right now.
That is not truth.
So in your emotion right nowyou're going.
Your flow right now of emotionis leading you to think a

(01:17:42):
certain way, act a certain way,which is not correct.
Mm-hmm Right.
And he blocks the flow.
One, learning how to do thatfor each other right when you're
helping counsel somebody orassisting somebody like
Assisting somebody like nomatter what emotion it is right
Sadness, anger, whatever.

Imran (01:17:56):
A good counselor doesn't just affirm everything that
you're saying.
Like a good psychologist orcounselor or family therapist or
whatever and this is just likegeneral for those listening a
good therapist or psychologistis not one that just affirms
everything you say.
If that's what you're lookingfor out of your counselor, then
that's not going to help you.
A good psychologist orcounselor or family therapist is

(01:18:18):
going to offer constructivecriticism if you have those
misplaced emotions, if you havethose misplaced communications
and offer help, you know.
So if you just want someone tobe a sounding board and just
listen to whatever you say, likeyou can get a friend to do that
, you know, and that would be abad friend.

Selena (01:18:33):
I don't think that's a bad friend.

Imran (01:18:39):
You know a bad friend.
Yeah, I don't think that's abad friend.
You know a good friend willgive you constructive feedback.

Ryan (01:18:40):
They're going to tell you the things you need to hear,
not what you want to hear.
And we've all had theexperience with somebody right,
especially if you've beenmarried but they're angry, right
emotions coming out, you know,like hey, I don't think your
emotion is valid and thatsometimes 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 thatwhile she's yelling at you, but
you know what does thatultimately do?

(01:19:01):
Because the person who wants tobe validated in the emotion and
is already in their emotiongoing out and they get mad when
somebody tries to block thatemotion.
They're out of control, they donot have control of their
emotion.
So at that point, and what doesthat ultimately lead to?
Now they're angry with you, nowyou get in a fight and now
you're not glorifying Christ andyou're not being faithful.
So the point is is one of thethings I think you see here with

(01:19:24):
Peter acting in his emotion andnot being in control of it, is
that if you want to start beingmore faithful, start acting and
working to get control of youremotion.
Yeah, because if you could getin control of your emotion, like
you get that anger up andstarting to come out and you're
able to say, hey, stop, block itbefore I act or before I speak,

(01:19:45):
then that's going to be able tojust a little bit of extra time
to do that and master, that isgoing to be able to have you
start responding in a morefaithful way.
But what generally happens ismost people are not controlled
their emotion.
They just let the emotion flowas it is and that, in your
emotion will lead you intounfaithfulness.
You know what I mean, cause nowyou're just trying to satisfy

(01:20:08):
your emotion instead of tryingto be, so you're being faithful
to the emotion, not faithful toChrist.
So what you need to be able todo is say I am very angry, I am.
Instead, I'm going to respondthis way, disconnected from my
emotion.
Um, so I'm able to get be notjust faithful to Christ, but be
in control of self, right?

(01:20:29):
So I think most people'sunfaithfulness kind of like what
you see here with Peter is thathe was in his emotion.
The second piece was the fear,right?
So when we talk about what arewe being anchored?
Well, what was one of hisbiggest messages?
I come to give you peace, togive you rest.
You don't need to fear thosethings.
That's why Jesus preaches likedon't worry about what you're

(01:20:51):
going to eat, don't worry aboutyour clothes, don't worry If God
takes care of the sparrows he'sgoing to take care of you,
right?
Fathers take care of theirchildren.
So if you believe you're achild of God, your father's
going to take care of you.
Don't stress about it, don'tworry 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.

(01:21:13):
Rest there.
Have peace there, right.
So, also recognizing that oneof the things Peter didn't have,
or that he was full of, is thatwhen you're in fear, so when

(01:21:36):
you're in emotion, you actimpulsively to that emotion,
right.
When you're in fear, you alsothen begin to act in a way that
tries to regain control of asituation because you're fearful
of it.
So the more control over it Ihave, the less fearful I need to
be Right.
And the problem is when you dothat is that you end up trying

(01:21:57):
to be be in control ofsituations you were never meant
to be in control of.
Yeah.
You know what I mean and nor doyou have the capacity to control
, and because I think there's animplicit understanding within
us that, oh, I can't controlthis.
That's where stress and anxietyand all that comes in, right.
So it's like so I'm afraid andI try to get control of the

(01:22:18):
situation, but I can't getcontrol of the situation because
the situation is bigger than me.

Imran (01:22:21):
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 andafraid about where your life is
headed, I would offer you know,pray, study, read the word and,
just like we talked about withthe ears, listen, you know, be

(01:22:45):
led by the spirit and you'llfind that peace and that.
Rest there, because the answeris not there for you to manifest
.
The answer is going to be givento you by the Spirit.
The whole point of the gospelnot the whole point, but one of
the points of the gospel is thatyou are not being led by your
own designs anymore Now.
You're being led by the Spirit.
So you have to allow yourself tobe led, and that's what gets

(01:23:08):
rid of the fear.

Ryan (01:23:10):
Commonly reflect on two things right, what did Christ
teach of how I should act?
Right?
And then reflect on God'spromises.
Because if you're constantlyremembering like wait, I
remember God sees me, I rememberGod provides, I remember God
will never leave me.
I know God is going to lead me.
I also, the Spirit is going tocomfort me.

(01:23:30):
The Spirit right.
You're constantly focusing onGod's promises, paired with what
God teaches you on how tobehave, how to act, how to speak
right.
When you're constantly doingthat and that's always at the
forefront of your mind, noticehow more faithful you become,
not just in that relationshipwith Christ, but in all your

(01:23:50):
relationships.
Right, and I'd also want tothrow this one out there Focus
on the little things as much asthe big things.
Jesus says those who arefaithful with little will be
faithful with much.
If you ever notice this and,rand, you had brought this up

(01:24:12):
earlier in verse 74, by thethird person to come, it says.
Then he began to curse and toswear.
I do not know the man.
So to swear is a swearing oflike 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, bythe way.

(01:24:32):
He's lying, yeah, but he'sinvoking the name of God to
pretty much say, kind of like, Iswear 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, numberone.
So the two, the two things thatPeter I just let me make this
point the two things Peter choseto prove his disassociation

(01:24:55):
with Christ right was that heswore an oath that wasn't true,
right.
And the other thing was hecursed, like that is very
plainly, he was cussing, yeah,right, like the whole idea of

(01:25:16):
cussing and cursing.
And right, Like you could argue, those are two separate things
in terms of the etymology ofwords.
Right To say stop cursing.
What you're invoking is alanguage that elicits certain
responses or certain ideals onsomething that are improper.

(01:25:38):
It's essentially porn for themouth.

Imran (01:25:44):
So it's like the two things— so you're degrading
language Like porn, degrades sex, degrades relationship.
Cursing degrades language.
It degrades communication, andthat's what c degrading language
like porn, degrades sex,degrades relationship right.

Ryan (01:25:52):
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 whenI was gosh.
I don't even remember how old Iwas, but one of the things I
remember a Sunday school teachertelling me was that you should
strive to be intelligent enoughto be able to speak without
cursing.
Yeah, right, like cursing.

Imran (01:26:14):
I remember hearing something like that as well in
like elementary or middle school.

Ryan (01:26:17):
But if you think about, it cursing English teacher means
that you, particularly as abeliever, means you do not have
control of self, to the pointyou 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 notstupid to use other words,
you're not too stupid thatyou're unable to so right.

Imran (01:26:39):
So therefore you know.
But I but it's.

Ryan (01:26:42):
but you could argue, I think I I see it a lot with the
Marines on the base, I see it alot with the younger people,
that the big scheme of thingsare always kind of like, well,
cursing is not that big of adeal, like you know.

Imran (01:26:53):
premarital sex that's a big deal, and you know that.
But but because they'll saypremarital sex is not a big deal
?
All right, you got to test.
You got to test drive the carfor you before you buy it.
Right.

Ryan (01:27:03):
Right what?
But?
But notice it was too.
It was swearing and cursingthat Peter used to prove his
disassociation.
It was the little things, yeah,right.
And so it's not about beingfaithful and just the big things
, right.
The big event when somebodycomes to take Jesus away and you
draw that sword, and you knowwhat I mean.
It's the little things.
It was the little things thathe chose to be unfaithful in, to

(01:27:26):
disassociate himself fromChrist.

Imran (01:27:29):
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 (01:27:36):
He can't belong to Jesus if he's cussing.
He can't belong to Jesus ifhe's swearing.
You know oaths that aren't youknow what.
I'm saying yeah, it was thelittle things that disassociated
him.

Imran (01:27:47):
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 isgenerally those that are not
faithful that are very flippant.
God's name has power, right, soto invoke, to say like oh my
God, to say oh my God, it shouldbe a actual statement of like,

(01:28:17):
wonder and love and it's like ohmy God, right.
And then you know, uh, but touse it to do to react,
derogatory, or to defame, or toout 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

(01:28:39):
is is deeply offensive.
um, and then to say like, oh, myeffing god, like, like,
something like that, like nowyou're enacting that curse, that
word, that invokes thatresponse right up with God's
name, and it's like that'spretty intense when I had made a
kind of a commitment back tofaithfulness right, and we've

(01:29:00):
talked about it a lot on thepodcast for me.

Ryan (01:29:01):
but now I was still a Marine and started going back to
church regularly and ended uptalking 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 thiskind of gets to the last thing I
kind of wanted to close herewith is he found out I was a

(01:29:25):
believer and he's like really Iwouldn't have guessed.
Yeah, right, and that's what doyou mean.
And what he told me was the wayI talked.
it was my cussing right, the waymy words how I talked he was
like there's no way, I wouldn'thave guessed that like he, like
he was almost like it's like wow, great, that's awesome.
I I would have never guessedthat right like um, but that

(01:29:48):
kind of that, that's painfulRight.
And I want you to notice thatafter Peter denies him three
times, he says he rememberedbefore the rooster crows.
You will deny me three times,so he remembered what Jesus told
him.
Then he says he went out andwept bitterly.
Right, so the response likethere should be something.

(01:30:10):
And I'm not saying that like ifyou go out and stub your toe on
your couch this week and a wordflies out which isn't okay, but
that you should, then go intoyour bedroom and start weeping
bitterly, right, or maybe youshould.
But that's what I'm saying.
But there should be at leastsome part of you that says that
wasn't right.

(01:30:30):
I lost control Again, impulsiveemotion, I stubbed my toe.

Imran (01:30:36):
And all of a sudden, you forget everything about your
faith.

Ryan (01:30:39):
I am angry because I stubbed my toe and I do not have
control of self to be able tocontrol my words at that point.
So I'm impulsively emotion andnow I've become unfaithful.

Imran (01:30:49):
It's like you're being led by the spirit, led by the
spirit, and then a little bit ofpain happens and all of a
sudden you're being led by.
I'm in my emotion.

Ryan (01:30:54):
Yeah and um, so there should be a part of you that a
little bit of pain, a little bitof fear, when you say it that
you kind of look failures oflike man, I messed up big right
and that's not who I want to beand it's not a reflection of

(01:31:19):
Peter's heart or his love forChrist.
The problem is in thisparticular situation, with his
fear, with the emotion,everything going around, that is
, that Peter just loved himselfa little bit more, which is how
most people live day to day asbelievers and or at least moment
to moment.
Right, there's some moments I'mlike no, I'm selfless, and
there's other moments I'm likeno, I'm living for myself in

(01:31:40):
this moment.
Yeah.
And and that's everybody RightUm, it's very interesting.
This whole night was full of ofemotion.
Um, because when they werepraying in the garden and Jesus
comes back and he finds themsleeping, you know if you could
go back and read it, but you'llnever.
You know to detail that.
A lot of people just skim over.

(01:32:01):
It tells you why they fellasleep.
It wasn't just that like it wasa long day and they were bored,
or whatever the phrase it uses.
I'm trying to remember theexact phrase it uses.
You have it in front of you,love.
It's a little clunky, butessentially the phrase is
equivalent in our language asthat they cried themselves to

(01:32:23):
sleep.
So have you ever cried so muchthat you're tired, you're
exhausted?
You?
Know what I mean.
I think everybody's had anexperience of.
They've just been crying for along time and now they're
exhausted, their eyes are dryand they cry themselves to sleep
.
It tells you that.
I think it says that they weresleeping for sorrow, I think is

(01:32:43):
the term it uses.
I think that's the phrasesleeping for sorrow, but that
essentially means they criedthemselves to sleep and it just
shows that this is already anemotionally charged night.
So, in their emotion goingthrough and how impulsive they
were with everything right,their emotion was driving

(01:33:04):
behavior and then their fear wasit says because their eyes were
heavy, at least in the NIV.

Selena (01:33:07):
What verse is that?

Ryan (01:33:07):
Yeah, well, NIV is not the best with this.
What verse is?

Selena (01:33:07):
that.

Ryan (01:33:20):
Well, niv is not the best with this NASB, esb is a little
bit pure to the original andthose it uses the actual phrase.
That's kind of like a like Isaid, it comes to our
unfaithfulness.
We let our emotion drive us andthen it switches and we then
let our fear drive us.
You know what I'm saying andChrist is supposed to be Lord

(01:33:43):
over both.
But I want to leave withencouragement, right, because I
don't want to just be like youshould feel very ashamed when
you are unfaithful and go weepbitterly, right.
That's not what I'm trying tosay.
What I'm trying to say is forthe believer who has a heart for
Christ, that's kind of thenatural response.
Yeah, when you're unfaithful toanybody you love, you're always
going to have that remorse anda lot of times it leads you to
weeping bitterly.

(01:34:03):
Right, but I want to leave youwith the last piece in John,
chapter 21.
Um, you know, jesus told him tomeet him in Galilee.
He would go meet him thereafter he resurrected Um, so
they're waiting and this is Ithink it's in verse 15 through

(01:34:24):
17.
Um, I don't know if you'reyou're open to it, but you can
read it.
But essentially it says thisJesus pulls Peter aside.
So the disciples are out therefishing.
They see this man over therecooking fish on the shore, like,
oh, that's Jesus.
So they excitedly go over andmeet Jesus.
Right now they're eating fishand they're camping and this

(01:34:46):
great, beautiful reunion.
But then it says that Jesustakes Peter aside and walks him
off, kind of has this one-on-onemoment with him.
And it says that he asks himthree times Peter, do you love
me?
And Peter says Lord, you know Ido.
He says, well then, go feed mysheep.
He says but Peter, do youreally love me?
He says Lord, you know I do.

(01:35:07):
He says, well, then, go takecare of my sheep.
Then he asks him a third timePeter do you love me?
And then it says Peter becamesad.
Essentially he's asking him athird time I've told you I love
you, do you not believe me?
And invokes he denied him threetimes.
Then he just asked him in thepositive do you love me?

(01:35:28):
And every single time he sayswell, then, go, do what I told
you to do.
So the response to us becausewe will all be unfaithful this
week If you are truly andparticularly going into Easter
week in terms of reflection, asyou're going in and you're

(01:35:50):
trying your best to be faithful,but then maybe your fear takes
over, your anxiety takes overyour fear takes over your
emotion takes over.
Whatever there's going to be amoment, you're unfaithful,
you're going to be like I feelbad about that.
Notice what Jesus' response ishey, do you love me?
Yes, lord, you know I do.

(01:36:12):
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 nexttime, right, and just understand
that you do not need to live inthe condemnation, right?
The danger is when you dosomething you're unfaithful and
you stop feeling bad about it.
That's when you start gettinginto the level of abusing grace,

(01:36:35):
right.
But if you're unfaithful andyou're like, ah man, I just
messed up again.
Know that Christ looks at youand says well, do you love me,
lord?
You know I do Just go do betternext time.
And if you're focused there,right, if you only reflect on
the failure but you neverreflect on the promise, right,

(01:36:56):
that's just going to lead youinto depressed Christianity.
And the story of Easter week isone of celebration of what he
did for us, for the freedom wecould live in.
We don't need to live in thatguilt and that condemnation
anymore.
So don't exist there, right,use it as a mechanism, right.
The spirit will use, you know,that, that kind of conviction

(01:37:19):
and sadness sometimes to beatyou up enough to where you
finally change.
Because there comes a pointwhere you're like I'm so tired
of just constantly failing andjust 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 doesuse that mechanism, but don't

(01:37:40):
let Satan use that samemechanism to pervert your
thought process on it.
That you need to exist there.
Remember, jesus told Peter hewould deny him three times
before Peter had done it and hehad still accounted for all that
failure of Peter and evenbefore then had told him but

(01:38:01):
it's on this rock I'm going tobuild that my church right.
Like Peter got accounted forall of Peter's stupidity before
Peter ever realized his ownstupidity.
So while your failures thisweek may be new to you, they
were not new to God.
He already paid for it on thecross.
So don't anchor on the failure.

(01:38:24):
Anchor on Christ's love for youas we go into Easter week.

Imran (01:38:29):
I absolutely love that.
Ryan, I was taking a look atMatthew 5 while you were closing
out there, because one of yourearlier questions was, or one of
your earlier statements was,that we shouldn't just focus on
all the wrong things that we'vedone, but also know what the
right things, or celebrate thesuccesses as well.
And I was thinking about, like,well, how do we know what it

(01:38:50):
right things or or celebrate thesuccesses as well?
And, um, I was thinking about,like, well, how do we know how
to what it means to besuccessful?
Um, or what success looks like?
And, uh, what popped in my, inmy head while I was thinking
about it was the uh, jesus'ssermon on the Mount the
Beatitudes, and I recommend that, uh, you take some time this
week and if you're trying tothink through, it's like, well,
how do I?
Uh, what am I supposed to?

(01:39:11):
How do I know that I'mdemonstrating the right things,
that I'm living a life that isdemonstrating the right things?
It's like, well, jesus gives alot of practical examples, um,
in his Beatitudes, um, sermon,and I'm not going to read
through the entire thing herebut, um, he tells us who we need
to be.
He see, be Be one that is poorin spirit, and he's talking
about your own spirit, so you'repursuing and being led by his

(01:39:34):
spirit, not by our own.
Be one that mourns.
Be someone that is meek.
Be someone that is hungry andthirsting for righteousness.
Be someone that is merciful.
Be someone that is pure ofheart.
Be someone who is a peacemaker.
Be someone who's not afraid tobe persecuted because of their
righteousness right.

(01:39:54):
Be someone who is not afraid tobe insulted or persecuted
because of what they say for thekingdom, right.
Rejoice and be glad, becausegreat is your reward in heaven
is what Jesus says.
So, so, and there's a lot morethat said in that, in that uh
sermon that he gives, and I hopethat you take that and you know

(01:40:15):
.
Now crack it open and read thewhole thing.
Um, because there is plenty inthe Bible that demonstrates and
shows how we are supposed tolive.
Um.
And so, if you're uh new to thefaith, or even uh well in your
faith, and you're strugglingwith like well, what does right
look like?
Um, because I'm trying to livea life that is a walk, uh, that

(01:40:39):
is walking in in his faith, it'slike well, the the.
The way to do that is to studythe way to do that.
It's under it's uh to gain thatunderstanding.

Ryan (01:40:46):
And listen to what the spirit's telling you, because
God has a better discipleshipplan for you than you know Ryan
and ran or Selena would everhave for you.
Absolutely so there may bethings in your.
You know, maybe cause we focuson cussing, you may feel like,
oh, I got to really stop cussingthis because they you know they
talked about it.
Well, maybe the spirit'sactually working on something
else in your element.

Imran (01:41:07):
Right, hey, we'll get to cussing first.
You have to figure out youradultery, adultery or marriage
Right.

Ryan (01:41:13):
Let's figure out how to to save your marriage right now
and get you serving your wifeand and get you um serving your
children and get you leading it,you know what I mean.

Imran (01:41:22):
Like like absolutely, We'll get to cussing Let If you
have the ability to stop cussing, do it.

Ryan (01:41:29):
But the point is, is that be led by the spirit, not led
by a podcast?
Yeah.
And you really need to get intoprayer to start understanding.
What does the spirit want me todo?
Where am I being unfaithfulthat the spirit is beating me up
on right now that I need tostart being faithful in and

(01:41:50):
you're going to be like Peter,right, you're going to have your
victories to failures, but youalso get God's grace.
So a good way, I guess, toreally close it out when Jesus
says those who live by the swordwill die by the sword, that
also means those who live bygrace will die under grace.
So you operate under grace ifyou live by grace.
So understand, nothing aboutyour unfaithfulness changes your

(01:42:14):
position with God.
Um, so, so don't don't be beatup this Easter week and, if
anything, reflect on yourunfaithfulness, because Christ
paid for it on the cross.
So that should give you all themore reason to go in to
celebrate.

Imran (01:42:27):
Yeah, don't be afraid, because it's already been paid
for.
You know, go forward, as yousaid, 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 (01:42:42):
I hope you all go into this Easter week motivated and
energized and we will see younext week on the next episode of

(01:43:06):
Real Bible Stories.
If you would like moreinformation or want to check out
archived sermons and Biblestudies, please check out the
church website atpalmsbaptistchurchcom or check
them out on Facebook, Instagramor YouTube.
Real Bible stories can be foundwherever podcasts are found.
Thank you again and we will seeyou next week, sweet.

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

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep 84 Our Consistently Inconsistent Faithfulness - The Real Story of Peter at Jesus’ Arrest