Title: 13
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: pauld
Company: Auth Co

© 2002 Joe Griffin		02-12-26.CC02-72 /

Clanking Chains: Spiritual Advance Requires Follow-Up after Join-Up; Satan Sifts Peter, Luke 22:31-34; Peter’s 3 Denials; Luke 22:54-62
		32)	However, Jesus offers the means of recovery to them all:
Mark 8:34 - And He summoned the multitudes with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
		33)	There are twelve disciples and a large group of people present.  The protasis is a first-class condition says, “If any one who wishes to join-up with me, and you do.”  He knew there were some who had this desire including Peter.  But in order to complete the join-up the desire must be followed by specific decision making.
		34)	The issue on the cross was the self-denial of Jesus to the point of death on behalf of the human race.  The issue for those who follow the Lord is self-denial even to the point of death in service to Him.
		35)	In His statement to all those present the Lord challenged each person to join-up and follow‑up.  This can be seen in the sequence of His commentary:
		36)	The statement, “If anyone wishes to come after me,” is illustrated by the horse that rejects instruction after initial join-up.  This horse is sent back out to run the wall until he resubmits to Monty as his chairman.
		37)	The Lord has driven the disciples away by eye-on-eye contact and Peter in particular with the rebuke, “Get behind Me, Satan!”
		38)	He then sends out the message of what is required to join-up, “Let him deny himself.”  This is illustrated by the horse that drops his head to indicate his submissiveness to Monty and the desire to join-up with him.
		39)	The Lord has made it clear that joining-up requires each person subsequently “follow” Him, i.e., “Take up his cross”: self-sacrifice even to the point of death.
		40)	The horse places his trust in Monty Roberts when he enters the circle and allows Monty to be the chairman.  Likewise the believer when he joins-up must allow the Lord to be Chairman of his life.
		41)	This involves the discipline and training that is revealed in the Word and the punishment and correction that is necessary for spiritual growth.
		42)	After join-up, if you choose to follow the Lord then there must be the submissiveness to His mandates and motivation to perform the tasks assigned.
		43)	The believer is rewarded with great blessings for joining-up and these are amplified as he follows the Lord in trust and service.
		44)	Peter in particular is challenged here.  The invitation to follow the Lord requires self-denial and the willingness to put one’s life on the line for Him.
		45)	Peter is quick to verbalize loyalty to the Lord but when that loyalty is put under pressure he fails on three occasions.  These failures are explained by the fact that although Peter indicates by his words he “follows” the Lord, his mental attitude and his actions reveal otherwise.
		46)	On the eve of His arrest in Gethsemane the Lord realizes that Peter is still in mental-attitude denial.  We get the details about his failure to join-up and follow-up in:
Luke 22:31 -	“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has requested and received permission to sift you disciples as wheat;
v. 32 -	but I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
		1)	No believer can be tested by Lucifer without the Lord’s permission.  The pronoun “you” in verse 31 is the accusative plural of sÚ, su.  All the disciples are the target of satanic assault described metaphorically by the Lord as being “sifted as wheat.”
		2)	The sifting of wheat is a process utilized to separate the wheat grain from the chaff.  The severe pressure imposed by satanic assault will quickly reveal the loyalty of the individual in view.  If he has biblical integrity he will be loyal to the Word, illustrated by the wheat grain.  If he is without biblical integrity he will be loyal to human viewpoint, illustrated by the chaff. 
		3)	Judas Iscariot has already failed this test.  Peter is on deck.  The Lord prays that Peter’s faith will not fail him so that, upon recovery, he can strengthen his fellow apostles.  Jesus’ credentials at the heavenly throne are infinitely superior to those of Lucifer.  His prayer is ultimately answered.
		4)	However, at the moment, Peter has chaff in his soul although he embellishes his vocabulary with the pseudo grain of false courage:
Luke 8:33 - And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” 
5)	Within hours Peter will be emotionally attacking Malchus, the servant of the high priest, with a sword, a crime that could have caused all the disciples to be arrested for sedition.
John 18:10 -	Simon Peter having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off he right ear; and the salve’s name was Malchus.
6)	We know from our passage that the Lord miraculously reattached Malchus’s ear thus restoring order.  Peter almost fulfilled his own prophecy of at least going to jail and possibly even getting himself run through.
7)	Nevertheless, the Lord knew even when he heard Peter’s original boast that this attack on Malchus was macho bluster to soon be replaced by cowardice:
Luke 22:34 -	And Jesus said, “I say to you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you even know Me.”
8)	It was most likely Peter’s belief when he mounted his attack on Malchus that the Lord would retaliate against the entire Roman battalion as well as the representatives of the chief priests and Pharisees.
9)	That he did not was frustrating to Peter and his ignorance of Plan B caused him to become confused about what would next occur.
10)	Curious, he followed the Roman and Jewish contingent that held Jesus in custody.  It was at the Lord’s appearance before the court of Caiaphas the high priest that Peter’s three denials occur:
Luke 22:54 -	And having arrested Jesus, the Roman soldiers and Jewish officials led Him away, and brought Him to the house of the high Priest, Caiaphas; but Peter was following at a distance.
v. 55 -	And after they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them.
v. 56 -	And a certain servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him, too.”
v. 57 -	But Peter denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
v. 58 -	And a little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!”  But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
v. 59 -	And after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.”
v. 60 -	But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.”  And immediately, while he was still speaking, a cock crowed.
v. 61 -	And the Lord turned and looked [ ™mblšpw, emblepō ] at Peter.  And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny Me three times.”
v. 62 -	And Peter went out [ ™xšrcomai œxw, exerchomai exō ] and wept bitterly.
		11)	This is the second time Peter has said something that caused the Lord to turn and go eye on eye with him.  We have studied Mark 8:33 where Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!”
		12)	In Luke 22:61, while both were standing in the court of Caiaphas, all the Lord had to do was to turn and look at Peter eye on eye.  Not a word was spoken by either of them.
		13)	Peter had seen that look before by the Sea of Galilee.  Now here again he is the target of this severe stare that penetrated into his conscience and brought to mind the Lord’s warning of the night before, “I say to you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you even know Me.”
		14)	Knowing that he was guilty of betrayal, Peter was again driven back out to the wall.  There are two words in the context which indicate that Peter went into self-criticism and self-correction:
				™xšrcomai œxw, exerchomai exō -	 “went outside”
15)	Before analyzing the verb, exerchomai, we need to go back and review a couple of things from our very first excerpt from:
Roberts, Monty.  The Man Who Listens to Horses: The Story of a Real-Life Horse Whisperer.  (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), 23-24:
Often, like a child, the colt would reoffend immediately after being let back in, to test the disciplinary system and to gain back lost ground.  He might fight another colt or bother the fillies.  The dun mare came right back and disciplined him again.  Each time he sinned she drove him out and kept him out before letting him back in and welcoming him into the group with extensive grooming.  The third time he sinned, he practically owned up and exited by himself.
16)	Peter had “offended” before when he “rebuked” the Lord’s prophecy about His death in Jerusalem.  He saw the Lord’s severe look on that occasion along with a severe lecture.
17)	This time there was no lecture, only the look which was enough to stimulate the vector that recalled the Lord’s prophecy of Peter’s treble denial given the night before.
18)	It wasn’t the cock’s crow that brought the prophecy to mind but rather the look.  What happened next is similar to what the young colt does after having seen the severe look of the dun mare on several occasions.  Peter “owned up and exited by himself.”  This is brought out by the aorist active participle of the verb:
				™xšrcomai, exerchomai -	 “went”
aorist:	Culminative; denotes a process with emphasis on the end result:
active:	Peter produces the action of the verb.
participle:	Temporal; denotes punctiliar or finished action and may be translated in English by when, after, or while.
19)	The best translation of the verb is “after Peter had gone.”  Where he had gone is indicated next by the adverb:
œxw, exō -		“outside”: “After Peter had gone outside the court …”
The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the aorist active indicative of:
				kla…w, klaiō -	“to cry out loud”
aorist:	Ingressive; signifies a state or condition and denotes entrance into that state or condition.
				active:	Peter produces the action of the verb.
				indic.:	Declarative; a statement of fact.
Luke 22:62 -	After Peter had gone outside he began to cry out loud.
20)	Again we return to Monty Roberts for another equine illustration:
Roberts.  The Man Who Listens to Horses, 25:
When the dun mare squared up and faced the colt, she was holding up a Keep Out sign.  Before she would say, “I forgive you,” he had to say, “I’m sorry.”  If the colt paced with his nose to the ground, then he was asking for a chance to end his isolation and to renegotiate his position with her.  He was saying, “I am obedient, and I’m willing to listen.”

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