The Charcoal Fire (John 18:15-27)
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jeremy_1_05-20-2026_110906: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10-minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts.
We are getting into the final moments of the life of Jesus, at least his earthly ministry, and last week we saw him get arrested. And now all these final moments have kicked into place. Things are escalating rapidly.
Back in chapter 13, we saw Peter and Jesus have a very awkward conversation where Jesus has to explain reality to Peter, and it's not the way Peter envisions it. Here's what we read, John 13:36. " Simon Peter asked, 'Lord, where are you going?'
And Jesus replied, 'You can't go with me now, but you will follow me later.' 'Why can't I come now, Lord?' he asked. 'I'm ready to die for you.' Jesus answered, 'Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter, before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you [00:01:00] even know me.'" Now, this is a harsh thing for Peter to hear.
When he's declaring, "Hey, I'm absolutely there for you. I would die for you," and Jesus is like, "You're so far away from that. Not only are you not going to die for me, you're going to deny me three times." And now we're gonna get to chapter 18, where we're gonna see that take place. And you might be thinking, "Okay, this was five chapters ago.
A long time has passed. This is the day." So, this is a day later, chronologically, and there's been a lot of teaching we've looked at in the last chapters. But chronologically now, a day after Peter declares this, we're gonna see it come to pass. John 18:15. " Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples."
He had just been arrested. "That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he was allowed to enter the high priest's courtyard with Jesus. Peter had to stay outside the gate. [00:02:00] Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. The woman asked Peter, 'You're not one of that man's disciples, are you?'
'No,' he said, 'I am not.' Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. They stood around it, warming themselves, and Peter stood with them, warming himself." Now, the first verse here implies that this is probably a reference to the author of the gospel. He does this a number of times where he references someone, but he doesn't name him, so a lot of scholars believe this is a reference to the author himself.
And based on what is said here, he is likely in the lineage of a Levitical priest. And so he's talking about this interconnection he has with the high priest. He seems to be on good terms with everyone, and he's the reason Peter gets invited in, because whoever this other person was, he knew everybody, and so he was able to vouch for Peter, and Peter gets [00:03:00] in.
Now, after Peter gets in, things quickly start to fall apart. He then immediately denies that he was following Jesus at all. You almost get the sense that Peter is trying to figure out who's got the power now, and the dynamics are different. And so he's realizing his friend here, who also followed Jesus, he's in with these priests, and so Peter starts to try to impress them and like, "Hey, I gotta be in with this group and, and downplay the role that I have with Jesus."
And then the verse says that he's standing by a charcoal fire warming himself. And I love this detail because you see in the midst of all of this turmoil, Peter's trying to find safety. He's trying to find comfort. He's literally trying to, figure out how to regulate himself in the midst of this turmoil.
And again, we can, you know, wanna dunk on Peter for what is gonna take place here, but we also understand that feeling of trying to cling to something when everything around you is [00:04:00] going crazy. Verse nineteen Inside, the high priest began asking Jesus about his followers and what he had been teaching them.
Jesus replied, "Everyone knows what I teach. I have preached regularly in the synagogues and the temple where the people gather. I have not spoken in secret. Why are you asking me this question? Ask those who heard me. They know what I said." Then one of the temple guards standing nearby slapped Jesus across the face.
"Is that the way to answer the high priest?" he demanded. Jesus replied, "If I said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I am speaking the truth, why are you beating me?" And then Annas bound Jesus and sent him to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now notice the order of the questions that Jesus gets asked here.
The first question is about his followers. The second question is about his teaching. See, they are worried about the political effects of Jesus and [00:05:00] those who follow him. Today, we often try to portray Jesus as this harmless spiritual teacher with some fun ideas if you want to entertain them. That is not how they envisioned him at all.
They are scared of this movement of people who are believing in Jesus and in these ideas. Now notice that Jesus only answers the second question. He doesn't even get into his followers. He talks about the things that he has been teaching and then he is slapped for the way that he responds to the high priest.
Again, we don't normally portray Jesus as a person who did not show the expected, respect to the spiritual authorities in his day. Today, we might tell people they need to fall in line or they need to defer to authority, and yet even Jesus was accused of not following or not submitting properly to authority.
Let me get to verse [00:06:00] twenty-five. Meanwhile, as Simon Peter was standing by the fire warming himself, they asked him again, "You're not one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it, saying, "No, I am not." But one of the household slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Didn't I see you out there in the olive grove with Jesus?"
And again, Peter denied it, and immediately a rooster crowed This is obviously a low point for Peter. He has denied Jesus three times. He has heard the rooster crow, just like Jesus predicted. There's an almost comical way in which John records this. He says that a relative of Malchus, who we found out his name last week, because last week as we saw, Peter cuts this guy's ear off.
And so you have Malchus' relative, who was evidently there, saw that, and [00:07:00] then is like, "Wait a minute, you look familiar." Like, you can imagine, I watched you cut off the ear of a relative of mine. That might have left an impression on this guy. Now he sees Peter in a different context, and Peter's denying having any role with Jesus.
And so this relative is like, "Hey, wait a minute, I remember you. You cut off my relative's ear, and now you're here saying that you have nothing to do with Jesus." So Peter goes from declaring that he's ready to die for Jesus to denying Jesus three times, all in a twenty-four-hour time period.
It's a tough look to go from this bold declaration to reality. Have you ever had really good intentions that you couldn't deliver on? Like, you believed you would commit to that gym or that diet, but then you [00:08:00] remembered how much you love snacks, right? Or those more serious things in our life. You believed you would be there for a friend, but then you went silent when you realized what it would cost you.
Yeah. Or you believed you would leave a relationship that was unhealthy, but you stayed to avoid the conflict. Or you believed you would create real change at your job, but you played it safe when there was pushback Have you ever known the right thing to do, but you chose safety instead? You decided to warm yourself by the charcoal fire.
Yeah, I mean, we know what it feels like to be Peter. We know that moment of I want this to be true of me, and then yet when we're tested, we discover it's not actually true. We can't live up to what we want to be true. Now, we're gonna see Jesus [00:09:00] directly address Peter's failure here later in chapter 21.
We're gonna see that we don't have to be defined by our failures. Not only that, that Jesus keeps inviting us forward, that these verses that we just read will not be the thing that defines Peter's life. And your failures don't have to be the thing that defines your life either when you keep following Jesus to what's next.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
