Crucifying Self-Faith; Luke 22:54-62

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 9/28/2025. After the fracas in the Garden, Jesus is arrested and taken to the mansion of the High Priest for a clandestine midnight trial with the Sanhedrin. Peter follows at a distance and ultimately joins a group of servants and officers at a fire in the courtyard awaiting the outcome. While he is there he is recognized as a close disciple and famously denies that he even knows Jesus three times. Dramatically, Jesus' prophecy is fulfilled as the rooster crows even as he is uttering his last denial. We will analyze Peter's behavior and ponder his motives. But primarily we will key on the painful destruction of Peter's self-faith, so bombastically asserted earlier when he assured Jesus he would follow Him to prison or to death. We will delve into the tension between Peter's self-faith that is being destroyed and his Kingdom faith that is being strengthened through trial. Ultimately we will realize the deep Theological truth that Kingdom Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, and that a crucial part of the process of our own sanctification is the necessity of crucifying our self-faith so that Kingdom faith will grow.