Stand Strong in the Face of Rejection

[Christsfreeservant]

I am reading in John 18:1-27. It is a long passage so I am going to summarize much of it. So, please read it for yourselves.

Judas Iscariot, who was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, who had traveled with him in ministry for 3-3 ½ years, had just betrayed Jesus to the authorities. So he went to where Jesus was, and along with him were a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They came there to arrest Jesus, which they did.

First they led Jesus to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. And Peter and John (“the other disciple”) followed behind Jesus. John was known to the high priest, so he entered with Jesus into the courtyard.

“But Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, ‘You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.” (John 18:16-18 ESV)​

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“Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, ‘You also are not one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.” (John 18:25-27 ESV)​

Now, what is the back story behind all of this? First we read in John 13:2 that the devil prompted Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. And then Jesus predicted Judas’ betrayal without actually naming him other than he was one of the twelve. But he did signal that it was Judas. For Jesus said,

“’It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot. And as soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him” (John 13:26-28 NIV 1978).​

And who was Peter? He was one of Jesus’ closest disciples who also had traveled with him in ministry 3-3 ½ years. He was a faithful and dedicated servant of the Lord. He did have a tendency to be impulsive, though, and he was sometimes quick to respond to situations with actions and/or with words, often without thinking. So when Jesus told his disciples he was going away, Peter wanted to go with Jesus, and so he claimed he would lay down his life for the Lord. But Jesus responded to him with these words:

“Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” (John 13:38 NIV 1978)​

So Jesus Christ predicted both Judas’ betrayal of him and Peter’s denial of him. And what happened to Judas? He hung himself. From what I recall, there was no indication that he had repented of what he did. Peter, on the other hand, once the rooster crowed, remembered what Jesus said to him, and he began weeping in anguish (or bitterly). And he did repent, and he went on to be one of Jesus’ apostles and preachers of the gospel of Christ and an author of two of the New Testament books (1st & 2nd Peter).

Now, although Judas had a free will to choose Jesus or to reject him, still it was within the will of God that Jesus was to be betrayed to death. For Jesus came to this earth to die on a cross so that when he died he would put our sins to death with him, so that when we believe in him we are able to die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, in His power, strength, and wisdom (Romans 6:1-23).

And Peter also had a choice to deny Jesus or not to deny him, but it was within God’s permissive will that Peter would deny the Lord. Why? I believe that God allowed this in Peter’s life to humble him and to teach him the importance of faithfulness and commitment despite his surroundings, and despite what other people do to him or say about him. And that served him well all throughout his ministry when he had to stand up against people in authority who wanted him to stop speaking in the name of Jesus.

And Jesus told us, his disciples (if we are truly his disciples/followers), that if we believe in him, and if we follow him with our lives in obedience to his ways and to his commands, that we will be treated like Jesus was treated. So, if our lives are committed to the Lord Jesus, to doing what he says to do and to say, it should not surprise us if even people we are close to, who are our friends, or neighbors, or other professing Christians, and even family members, might betray us and/or deny us because of what we do in faith.

For if we are truly following the Lord, doing and saying the kinds of things he did and said, and if we are bringing to the people the truth of what the Scriptures teach, in context, and the truth of what Jesus and his NT taught us regarding the message of the gospel, and if we are exposing the lies and the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are, as did Jesus, and as did his NT apostles, we are going to have people betray us and deny us, too. And it hurts, especially if they are people close to our hearts.

But regardless of how other people treat us or what they do to us or say to us or about us, we must keep on keeping on in our walks of faith and obedience to the Lord. For Satan wants to use these people, with or without their permission, to destroy our lives. He wants to hurt us and to crush us in our spirits to the point to where we retreat and we give up. He was able to accomplish that in my life early on, so I had to go through a lot of trials before I finally stopped retreating and I stayed the course, all glory to God.

So, the encouragement here is to remain faithful to the Lord no matter what Satan throws your way. It never ever benefits anyone when we let the enemy defeat us. So, stay strong in the strength of the Lord, keep obeying him, keep serving him, and keep speaking the truth, in love, to the people. For many people are teaching lies, and so the people need to hear the truth. So we have to put aside any desires we have to be loved and accepted by others in order to love the people of this world enough to tell them the truth and to expose to them the lies so they will believe the truth and not the lies.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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