Loyalty is hard to come by these days. People don't stay with the same companies for very long anymore. Either employers have lost their loyalty to their workers or vice versa. Students don't stay at the same colleges and universities as much anymore. There is a lot of jumping from one school to another. Professional athletes don't stay with the same team very long either. From one year to the next you never know who will be on you favorite team, even if you follow them very closely. Families are not even loyal to each other anymore. Look at how families have been fragmented by divorce and strife. How can you explain this lack of loyalty in our society?

One explanation might be is that we live in a more global world. In 2005, you can travel around the world without being rich or famous. Because of the internet you can email and chat with people who live just about anywhere on this planet. Cable news stations keep us up to date on every event in every country. Because we live in a more global world, we are not stuck in our own little bubbles.

Another explanation for not being loyal anymore comes from a much darker place. It comes from our own selfishness. Loyalty means not thinking about yourself, your own needs, and your own wants. Loyalty means putting the good of the team first. It means thinking of how you can help your company. It means standing up for something even if it is not the most popular or even a winner. Loyalty means standing by your family no matter what because that is your responsibility.

But selfishness does not think of the good of the team. Selfishness does not think of how it can benefit others. Selfishness and disloyalty are buddies.

Very few things hurt as much than when someone is not loyal to you. In our Scripture lesson for this evening, we are shown a painful picture of Peter. He gave up his loyalty to Jesus to save his own skin. As you watch the events unfold, see the sin in Peter, but also think about yourselves. Ask yourself, "I know all that Jesus did for me. How can I deny him?"

We left off our series on Sunday with Jesus being betrayed and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The company of soldiers and officials led Jesus away to be put on trial. All the disciples ran away - sort of. They fled but then Peter and John followed behind the party so that they could see what was happening.

They loved their Lord but this was misguided love at this point. Jesus had clearly told them they would struggle when they came face to face with his arrest, trial, and execution. The Lord even told the soldiers to let the disciples go. This should have alerted the disciples to the fact they should not have followed. But as we have noted before, Peter just doesn't listen.

So Peter get to the High Priest's house and goes to the middle of the courtyard. He sits down with Jesus' enemies and warms himself by their fire. Is he dumb? Is this extremely dangerous? Yeah, he's the guy who cut off the High Priest's servant's ear just shortly before this.

So why did Peter do this? Matthew's gospel account tells us that Peter wanted to find out what the outcome of Jesus' trial would be. Here again Peter just doesn't listen. Jesus told the disciples exactly what the outcome would be. Matthew 26:1-2 says, "When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 'As you know, the Passover is two days away - and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.'" It doesn't get any clearer than that! Peter just doesn't listen! Maybe you know a person like this. He is so bold, so brash, such a know-it-all, you can't tell him anything. He just won't listen to you.

Now you might be saying, "Peter's motive was good, so you can't fault him for this." Good motives don't always make it right. We often try to justify our sins by finding good reasons for disobeying Jesus. Peter put himself in jeopardy by warming himself at the fire of Jesus' enemies.

There is a warning for us in this. Avoid places and situations that put you directly in path of being disloyal to Jesus. Say you are a party or get together with a group of worldly friends. The drinking starts to get out of hand and an unbeliever says to you, "I thought Christians couldn't do this." If you cower and fail to call sin a sin, you might say something like, "Being a Christian doesn't mean you can't have a good time." You place yourself by the fire of Jesus' enemies and deny the Lord.

Look at how easily it happened to Peter. He promised to be loyal to Jesus even to the point of death. All it took was the question of a lowly servant girl to get him to crumble. "Woman, I don't know him!" Peter said. How sad this story is. We expect someone like Peter to stand tall and shine in this moment. But Peter fails. In fact he fails three times. Peter's loyalty disappears in an instant. He denies knowing Jesus. He denies being one of his followers. Matthew's gospel even tells us that he calls down curses upon himself to prove that he is not one of Jesus' disciples.

Dr. Adolph Hoenecke wrote in a sermon about this that Peter was in essence saying the following, "I would rather myself be damned than to have been such a godless scoundrel as to have stood with this Jesus." Peter would rather have gone to hell at this point than to admit he even knew Jesus Christ. His loyalty to his master had tragically vanished.

It is really heart wrenching for me to even think about it, because I am Peter. If you really think about it too, you are Peter also. Selfishness destroys our loyalty to Christ. How many times have you been wishy-washy with your faith when you are around unbelievers? I know some of you really work hard to not let your Christianity interfere with your lifestyle. I have heard some say that they think every belief is good as long as you are sincere about it. Do you find it hard to speak up in defense of Jesus?

It is a struggle to remain loyal to Jesus especially when we are sitting at the campfire of Jesus' enemies. This is done when you intertwine your lives with unbelievers. It is done when you fill your lives with the sinful trappings of this world. We are guilty of being disloyal to Jesus. We are just as guilty as Peter because our sinful words and actions say to Jesus, "I don't know the man!"

Then the rooster crows. Our disloyalty to Jesus dawns. And Jesus looks right at us. Has Jesus looked at you recently and found you being disloyal to him? Imagine the look on the Savior's face. It is a look of deep, sorrowful reprimand - The Lord had rejected me. I deserve his rejection. In my disloyalty to him, I have denied him and now he must deny me before his Father in Heaven.

I am sure that Peter felt that reprimand in Jesus' stare. But if it were only this, Peter would have been left in despair. He would have struggled and lost as Judas did. And so there had to be so much more in the look that Jesus gave to Peter and the look he gives to us when we are not loyal to him. In that look we see a loving a compassion that knows no boundaries. In those loving eyes of Jesus, Peter was pulled back from despair.

In our most guilt ridden moment's Jesus looks at us also with loving compassion. And we can confidently say, "My Savior still loves me." Otherwise he would not have come to earth to live for me. Otherwise he would not have endured the sufferings of Good Friday and the cross. Otherwise he would not have risen from the tomb on Easter Sunday.

If Jesus did not love me he would not have given us his Holy Word, which confronts our disloyal hearts and comforts them with the gospel. If Jesus did not love me he would not remind us of our salvation through our Baptism. If Jesus did not truly love us he would not have given us the forgiveness of sins in Holy Communion.

We can never hear it too much that Jesus loves us. That is the essence of the Gospel message. He loves us and gave himself for us. That is the message that Peter got from the look of Jesus. That is the message we get from the Word and Sacraments.

2 Corinthians 7:10 says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret." And so we can go outside and weep bitterly as Peter did. We have seen the depth of sin. But we have also seen our joy, comfort and hope of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Here are a few simple lessons from tonight's Scripture:
1. Listen to Jesus. Don't just hear the words, but listen and obey him.
2. Keep your distance from temptation. Don't snuggle up by the fires of the Jesus' enemies.
3. Stand up for Jesus. Don't be selfish and disloyal to the Savior.
4. See the face of Jesus. He will comfort you in despair by showing his love for you.

Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon." AMEN.