Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You More Afraid of People Than God? | The Gospels | John 18:15-27

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Why do we care so much about what other people think? Have you ever stayed quiet about your faith to avoid being judged or excluded? What can Peter's denial teach us about the fear of being on the outside? In today's episode, Patrick explores Peter's denial in John 18:15-27 and shows how Jesus meets our failures with grace instead of giving up on us. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 18:15-27

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. What scares you the most in life? I don't mean spiders or natural disasters or any other number of random things that could happen to anyone. I'm talking about the everyday things that scare you, that make you feel anxious, nervous, that keep you up at night worrying.

I think that for a lot of us, the answer is people. Not that we're afraid people are going to physically hurt us. No, what we fear is people disliking us. People saying mean things about us behind our backs. People hurting our reputation. People excluding us. People talking bad about us. People feeling negative feelings towards us. There's 50 different ways to say it, but I think you get the point. When you get into an argument with someone you care about or someone you respect reprimands you and tells you that you failed, or maybe a friend stops talking to you, or maybe there's just ten. in a relationship that you value, aren't those actually the things that keep you up at night? Even if they haven't happened, sometimes just the thought that they could happen keeps us up at night. So long as we fear conflict or a rupture in a relationship, it's often the scariest thing we face in

everyday life. Now, we talk a lot about people pleasing, and people pleasing is just doing things to make people like us. Some of us are people pleasers, some of us aren't. But today I'm talking about something much deeper. I'm talking about the reality that no, No one but sociopaths feels great when someone you like or respect doesn't like or respect you. That is deep. That is far, far deeper. And perhaps the fear we feel is rooted in humanity's tribal past. Not so long ago in our history, most humans lived in small tribes or villages.

And so to be excluded or exiled was to have your entire life ruined and probably ended. No one could survive without a tribe, without a group to protect you, to feed you, to farm with you, to hunt with you, to help you. we are fundamentally a social species, which is why social exclusion is so terrifying to us. Because to us, exclusion is death. Inclusion is life. I've often thought about this when I consider the life of Peter. He was arguably Jesus' most bold and courageous disciple, the one who walked on water, the one who cut off the year of Jesus' captors, the one who Jesus himself called the rock.

But then this happens. Let's pick up in John 1815. and read the whole passage. Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest,

came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there, and brought him Peter. You aren't one of this man's disciples too, are you? She asked Peter. He replied, I am not. It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. I have spoken openly to the

world, Jesus replied. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews came together. I said nothing in secret. Why do you question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said. When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. Is this the way you answer the high priest he demanded if i said something wrong jesus replied testify as to what is wrong but if i spoke the truth why did you strike me then anna sent him bound to caiaphas the high priest meanwhile simon peter was still standing there warming himself so they asked him you aren't one of his disciples too are you he denied it saying i am not one of the high priest servants a relative of the man whose ear peter had cut off challenged him didn't i see with him in the garden? Again, Peter denied it, and at that moment, a rooster began to crow.

Despite all of Peter's courage, he's crushed by that singular ancient fear shared by all humans, the fear of exclusion, the fear of exile, the fear of being on the outside. I don't think you could say he was people-pleasing. I mean, in context, he's actually arguing with everyone. He wasn't keeping the peace, and arguably he may not have cared what those specific people even thought about him. But in that moment, he was terrified that if he got pegged as a follower of Jesus, he would be ostracized by his people. He'd be cut off from his people. He'd be cast aside and forgotten, and that terrified him. It terrified him more than denying the king he'd loyally served for three years. So who are we to think that we're any better than Peter? That we could have remained

faithful when he didn't. I don't think I am. And that's a sobering thought. Because following Jesus today isn't easy either. Following him can make us feel like outsiders, make us feel excluded, make us feel weird, and that can cause us to trade away our most valuable treasure. Jesus. According to all the other gospel accounts, Peter went out and wept after this. He realized these weren't just convenient white lies. They were denials. He realized that he'd treasured being on the inside more than he treasured Jesus. And in a single moment, he knew that was a foolish choice. We'll have to wait a few chapters to see how his story resolves. So for now, I just want you to be self-reflective. I want you to ask yourself, what are the ways you've denied Jesus? They might have felt like

white lies, just little things to avoid the topic or not go there. But what are the ways you've set aside Jesus to fit in, to avoid being excluded? What are the ways you've pretended you don't follow Jesus just so you can be on the inside and not feel like you're going to be cut off? Jesus never gave up on Peter. He won't give up on you. But like Peter, the first step is honesty. It's going out and weeping over our failures, going out and repenting. Because it's only an honesty before Jesus that Jesus' grace can crack open our hearts and make us new.