54 Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. 55 After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them. Luke 22:54–55

This is a familiar story. Peter’s denials of Jesus in the courtyard. It’s normally preached and taught as a subplot to the Lord’s trials before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate, which it is. Meanwhile back in the courtyard.

It all depends on your particular temperament how you react to Peter’s responses to the three indictments. He’s either a coward or courageous. Either when given the chance to testify as to his loyalties to Jesus he buckled under pressure, or he “denied” Christ while covertly putting himself in the courtyard of the man he just tried to kill, to somehow come to Jesus’ aid, or to backup John who was allowed into the court. {John 18:15)

The fact that Jesus stared him down when the cock crowed the third time (Acts 22:61) and Peter went out and “wept bitterly,”(Acts 22:62) and had to be restored by the risen Lord later (Luke 24:34), pretty clearly indicates he had acted cowardly and shamefully. Before we cluck our tongues at him as Chuck Swindoll is fond of saying, perhaps we’re all guilty of this?

But there’s hope. The same man who said he didn’t know the man three times, for heaven’s sake, in the presence of thousands on the day of Pentecost, took his stand and declared to them:

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” Acts 2:22-24

Comeback of the centuries.