What Can We Learn From Peter's Failures?

Summary of Peter’s Life

Peter preached the sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2. Three thousand people get saved. Peter wrote 1 & 2 Peter. The Gospel of Mark was written as Mark listed to Peter talk about his time with Jesus. Peter walked on water. Peter healed the lame man. Peter was a pillar for the early church (Galatians 2:9). Peter appears to have been the spokesman for the disciples to Jesus many times. Peter was one of the three closest to Jesus. Peter was arrested and beat because he would not stop preaching.

God used Peter to do some great things. But Peter also...

Took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink in the ocean. Peter rebuked Jesus (told Jesus he was wrong). Peter was rash and cut off a mans ear. Peter denied Jesus three times and abandoned Jesus in one of his most trying times.

God is not limited by our failures.

Just because we mess up, does not limit how God can use us.

Rashness

Peter was rash when he cut off the servants ear. He jumped the gun. Peter in that moment listened to his heart rather than God. From a 40,000 foot view it may seem like Peter did a noble thing. Scriptures like Matthew 17:22-23 make it clear Jesus let the disciples know he must be crucified and die. The heart can be deceiving. Our emotions can cause us to make rash decisions that don’t honor God.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Sometimes in our rashness with well intentions we can fail. Peter was a failure in this moment. Did this stop God’s plan? No.

Jesus used the failure to still bring himself glory. Jesus worked a miracle in the midst of Peter’s mess. Jesus healed a severed ear.

Jesus showed grace in the mess of Peter’s failure. Jesus used Peter still to touch Malchus. Malchus was there ith the group persecuting Jesus but Jesus still showed him grace and brought healing. After this encounter do you think Malchus would ever forget Peter cutting his ear off and Jesus showing grace and instantly fixing it?

Saturating ourselves in Scripture can help us avoid this type of mistake. We need to be around the things of God so much they flow from us naturally.

How to avoid failure in rashness? 1. Saturate in Scripture. 2. Pause and pray.

Not Counting the Cost

Peter stood by Jesus and defended him. Peter followed to the temple for the first trial, but outside the temple Peter reached his limit on how far he would follow Jesus. Why?

Leviticus 24:16 ESV

Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

The penalty for what the Jews were accusing Jesus of was death. In the temple this could have been declared. Peter knew Jesus was powerful, seen Jesus do many things. But now Jesus was in handcuffs and was not acting in a way according to how Peter believed Jesus should act. This scared Peter, shattered Peter’s view of Jesus. I believe Peter was afraid to go in and denied Jesus because he was afraid of facing death, of being stoned. When we start to lean on our own understanding that leads to fear.

Peter failed because he had not truly counted the cost.

Peter failed because he leaned more on his understanding rather than God’s.

How to avoid failure of not counting the cost? Examine Luke 14:25-33 and reflect on it and make sure your life lines up with it. If you are not willing to put your life on the line for your faith, what do you need to do to change that? Push yourself to get out of your Christian comfort zone

How to avoid the failure of leaning on your own understanding? Come to the realization you do not have to always understand. Cling to the promises you know. Tell fear no by not making decisions based on your fears. Again pause and pray.

Our Relation with the I Am

Peter when asked if He is a disciple of Christ says, “I am not.” The Greek word used here for “I am” is eimi. The same word used for when Jesus says “I am.” That takes Peter’s denial even deeper. He gave the complete opposite answer Jesus gave in John 18:6. With one simple phrase he abandoned everything Jesus stood for.

Peter failed to recognize the omnipresence of God.

Even though Peter is not Jesus, that does not mean God’s presence was not there to protect him. But Peter failed to recognize this fact.

How to avoid the failure of not recognizing God’s omnipresence? Realize that this building is just a building. 1 Corinthians 12:27 reminds us we are the body of Christ. This building is not the body we are. God’s presence is not limited by a building.

Psalm 139:7–10 ESV

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

So let us stop making a distinction how we act at the church building and how we act away from it. Also again pause and pray. Something we have Peter did not have is the very deity of God dwells in us.

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

The Holy Spirit does not enter you as you walk into church and leave you as you walk out the door. If you are truly a believer the Spirit indwells in you. If you only feel guilty for doing sinful things here, but not away from here you are not a believer. You have a Judas faith.

Failure is not the End of You

Did Peter’s failures stop God for using Him? When Jesus changed Simons name to Peter, meaning rock. The day Jesus called Peter he intended him to be a leader. Peter did not know it, but he faithfully followed and Jessu molded him and showed him grace through his failures. We see Jesus “restore” Peter in John 21:15-19. Jesus ask him three times does he love him and commands him to feed the sheep. We see Peters faith really blossom even more in Acts, but did Peter get here overnight? No He walked with Jesus for three years. Befor he was a Jewish fisherman. At the end of these three years he was a Christian preacher. We are not our failures, we are not our careers, we are not our talents. their is nothing that says Jesus can’t take your life and do a complete 180 with it.