Easter Sermon

Hope for Sinners of the World

Mark 16:7

If you brought your Bibles turn with me over to the gospel of Mark, chapter 16. The Gospel of Mark chapter 16 and in a moment, we are going to read Vs. 7 of Mark 16.

Many of you are probably experiencing a little PTSD right now. A little post-traumatic stress disorder, because we have just spent more than two years in the gospel of Mark, but I promise you this is not a rerun of the resurrection story. This is something that stood out to me that we didn’t get to spend enough time talking about.

The tittle of the message this morning is, Hope for sinners of the world. So, if you are not a sinner, or you have never sinned, you can go ahead and check out, this is not going to apply to you. But if you know anything about Jesus Christ, then you know the bible teaches us we are hopeless sinners in this world. Our text this morning is a message of hope from God for all who have sinned. (Mark 16:7)

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Pray)

Mark’s record of the resurrection adds two little words we don’t find in the other gospel stories. These are two little words that offer hope to everyone who has ever failed God. Mark adds the words, “and Peter.” The angel at the empty tomb told the women “But go tell His disciples and Peter.” But why does the angel say, “and Peter?” Well, I am certain the risen Savior told him specifically to include those words.

If you remember it was Peter who failed Christ miserably during His arrest and trial. To make matters worse, it was Peter who swore his allegiance to Christ and said, “I will never deny you, but I am willing to go with you, even unto death.” But then, it was Peter who would proceed to deny Christ three times and claim he never knew the man.

So, can you imagine how the words “and Peter” must have rung in his ears when he heard them? The women report back to the disciples and there was Peter, slumped in the corner full of guilt and shame. But, at the words, “and Peter” he perked up. “What did you say?” “Are you sure that’s what the angel said?” “Say it again, are those his exact words?”

The scholars teach us that Mark’s gospel is a record of Peter’s account. That Peter dictated what Mark wrote. And I can only imagine, as Mark was writing the story of the resurrection that Peter was starring over his shoulder saying, “don’t forget, and Peter.”

Also, don’t forget it was Mark himself who had failed God himself on Paul’s first missionary Journey. He became homesick and he left the group early. So, you can bet Mark’s words are accurate. And what these two little words teach us is, the risen Savior offers hope to all who have failed God.

From Peter’s life, I want to give you three reasons the risen Savior can turn our failures into hope.

First, failure cannot be hidden from the Savior’s eyes. From the beginning, when Adam first sinned, the automatic human response to failure has been to try and hide from God, to try and cover it up. Yet it is irrational, because it is impossible, yet we still try to do it. But I want you to notice, Jesus saw Peter’s failure before it happened.

Look at Mark 14:29-30, Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

Jesus predicted that Peter would fall away, and Peter insisted he would never do such a thing. But what came as a surprise to Peter was no surprise to the Savior. Jesus knew Peter better than he knew himself. And the same thing is true in your life, and in mine. Jesus knows about every sin, every failure, and every mistake we will ever make. Yet He chooses to save us.

Notice, Jesus saw Peter’s failure when it happened. Luke’s gospel takes us to the incredible scene of the mock trial of Jesus. As He stood on trial, at the palace of the high priest, Peter was outside in the courtyard denying He ever knew Him. And while Peter is still speaking the words, a cock crowed. And Luke 22:61 tells us at that very moment, “the Lord turned and looked at Peter.”

Can you imagine that look? It was a look of heartbreak. It was a look of disappointment, but it was a look of love, because it didn’t surprise Christ as much as it surprised Peter. And we are told Peter went out and wept bitterly. I wonder if we would fall into sin, as often as we do if we were given the look Peter saw that day. I don’t think we realize the Lord is always with us and He is always watching us.

Notice Jesus saw Peter’s failure after it happened. We see that from the words of our text this morning in Mark, where he says, “And Peter.” That teaches us that Jesus wasn’t going to sweep Peter’s sin under the rug. He wasn’t going to act like it never happened. He acknowledged that Peter had failed, and He was going to seek to restore him.

We need to understand we cannot hide our failures from the eyes of God. He knows every horrible thought before we think it. He knows every condemning word before we say it. He knows how we are going to fail Him today, tomorrow, and next week. He doesn’t overlook them, and He doesn’t want us to overlook them either. He wants us to confess our sins and not cover them up.

1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Don’t you want to have that type of cleansing in your soul, in your conscience? We must confess our failures to God.

I heard a story this week about a college student who took his dirty clothes, all bundled up in a sweatshirt, down to the dorm laundry room. He was so embarrassed by how dirty his clothes were, he never unbundled them. He simply pushed them into the washing machine, and when the washing machine stopped, he pushed the bundle into the dryer, and then finally he took the whole bundle back to his room. What do you think he found? His clothes got wet, and his clothes got dry, but they never got cleaned.

God’s Word tells us not to keep our dirty laundry bundled up inside of us where it can never get cleaned. We have to confess our sin so that we can be forgiven and begin to heal. Even if we think we have gotten away with sin in the moment, God has a way of never letting us forget. He has a way of bringing it to our attention until we deal with it.

So, the words, “and Peter” tell us that failure cannot be hidden from the Savior’s eyes. We are only fooling ourselves if we think we are hiding it. The truth always comes out and we are better off going to God immediately to confess. The first step in the recovery of failure is confession.

The second reason the risen Savior can turn our failures into hope is, failure cannot separate us from the Savior’s love.

I don’t want to continue to bash Peter this morning. It could have just as easily been you, or me. But it is hard to imagine someone blowing it in a worse way than Peter did.

Peter spent three and half years with the Lord. Jesus taught Peter directly. He saw the miracles. He fed the thousands with a loaf of bread and a few small fish. He was a part of the inner circle. He saw the glory of God on the mount of transfiguration. And if there was ever a time Jesus needed the support of His friends it was during that long dark night in the Garden of Gethsemane. But Peter failed Him.

To make matters worse the final words Jesus heard from Peter that night was his denial. Peter had to live with that. It’s an awful thing to live with, when your final words to someone you love, are not what you want them to be. Peter spent a dark Saturday night thinking, “the last thing Jesus heard me say and do was to deny Him.”

Peter’s mistakes in life are included in scripture to give us hope even in our worst failures. We don’t have to live with guilt and shame. We don’t have to walk around with our head held low because of the mistakes we have made. The words “and Peter” show us there is no failure that can separate us from the love of God. Christ’s love was greater than Peter’s failures and Christ’s love is greater than all your failures.

We know Christ’s love sent Him to the cross so we could be forgiven of our sin. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” We need to understand that God’s love alone is not enough to forgive our sin. To satisfy God’s righteousness and justice there must be a penalty paid for our forgiveness, and that’s what Jesus did on the cross. So, while God’s forgiveness is free to us, it was costly to God.

And while Peter was denying Jesus, Jesus was dying for Peter. The same thing is true in your life, and in mine. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this; while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” That’s why to receive God’s love and forgiveness we must turn from our sin and trust in the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s promise to us is we will not perish but have eternal life.

Also, we know God’s love is based on grace and not on human effort. Notice Jesus didn’t say, “Peter, you blew it, and now we are going to have to work out a way, for you to pay me back.” Notice He doesn’t say, “if you try really hard, and you get your act together maybe I will forgive you.” God’s grace doesn’t work like that.

Grace is undeserved favor. That means you can’t do anything to earn it. You can’t qualify for it by being a good person. All you can do is receive it and accept it. The way you receive it is by honestly turning your heart toward God and saying, “Lord, I have sinned against you. I don’t deserve your mercy. I realize Jesus died to pay the penalty I deserve. I ask for your forgiveness. When we do that, God’s grace floods our life, and He cleanses and makes us new.

The problem is human pride wars against God’s grace. We think we are special. We think God sees something in us that’s valuable, and that’s why He forgives us. It’s not until we humbly recognize we can never be good enough for God, that we are ready to receive Grace.

A good friend of mine recently told me he believed all religions were the same. That the Christian, the Muslim, and the Hindu were all equal, because they all teach you to be a good person in life. The problem is no other religion has a cross. So, no other religion has grace.

All the religions of the world teach you must be good enough to please God to go to heaven. Only Christianity teaches you can never be good enough to please God. So, God did it for you. He sent His only Son to die on a cross so you could be saved, that’s grace.

And because God’s grace doesn’t depend on human effort it means there is hope for every sinner in the world. It means no matter who you are or how great your sin, nothing can separate us from the love of God. All of us can turn to Him in repentance and faith.

So, we have seen that failure cannot be hidden from the Savior’s eyes, and we have seen that failure cannot separate us from the Savior’s love. And now I want you to see that failure cannot prevent us from the Savior’s service.

You see if being used by God was based on how good Peter was, he never could have been an Apostle, or at least he would have been demoted to the bottom of the apostle ladder. But what we see is sometimes God takes those who have failed the worst and makes them His trophies for all to see. Remember it was Peter who preached on the day of Pentecost, and over three thousand were added to the church that day. God uses are failures to grow us and teach us.

I heard a story about a junior executive at IBM who got caught up in some risky business and lost the company 10 million dollars in one day. When the companies founder Tom Watson called him into his office the young man blurted out, “I guess you want my resignation?” And Watson said, “you’re kidding me, right?” I just spent 10 million dollars on your education.” (In Christianity Today [8/9/85], p. 67.)

The scriptures are clear, Peter was educated through his failure, and the same thing will be true in your life. Not one mistake you have ever made will be wasted by God. If you give it to God, He will use it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly will all be used for His glory.

We know Peter failed God because of his pride. He said, “even though all may fall away, I never will.” But we know he learned a lesson because years later he would write in 1 Peter 5:5, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Peter got caught off guard by a young servant girl and he denied Christ, but later he would write in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” Peter learned through failure, and so will we.

Now it’s important to understand, just because God uses are failures to grow us and mature us. That doesn’t mean we stop turning away from the sin so we can fail more often. Grace isn’t a get out of jail free card. It means God uses the mistakes we have made for His glory and our good.

The good news is the risen Savior offers eternal life and forgiveness to all people, and it doesn’t matter how badly you have failed God. But you have to personally ask and receive His offer of love by faith.

On New Years Day 1929, Georgia Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. The game is infamous today because of a man named Roy Riegels who played for the University of California. Now known as wrong way Roy, he recovered a fumble, became confused and ran 65 yards in the wrong direction. His teammates tackled him just before he could score a touchdown for the other team.

All of that happened just before half time and at the half everyone wondered what coach Price would do with Roy. As the team sat in the locker room, devastated by what just happened, Roy sat crying with a towel over his head. Normally at half time the coach comes up with something inspirational to say to the team, but this time coach Price was at loss for words.

The time came for teams to go back onto the field and begin the second half. Everyone expected coach Price to bench Roy, but instead the coach said, “lets go men, the same team that played in the first half is the same team that will play in the second half.

Roy looked up and said, “I can’t do it coach. I have ruined the game for everyone. I can’t face the fans. I can’t face the University of California.” Coach Price put his hand on Roy’s shoulder and said, “Roy get up and get back out there. The game is only half over.” When the game ended the Georgia Tech players said they have never seen a man play football harder than Roy Reigels in the second half.

You may have never failed like Roy Reigels, in front of a stadium full of people in a way that will be remembered forever. But I have no doubt that each and everyone of us have failed God at some point. It was the great Apostle Paul that said, “The saying is trustworthy, and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.”

Peter might argue with Paul about who the worst sinner was, but both would agree about God’s grace is amazing to those who have failed Him. So, the angel’s words to the women at the empty tomb, “Go tell His disciples and Peter.” Teach us, “the game is only half over.” The question is, will you accept the Savior’s grace, and go out and play the second half? [1]

[1] Sermon is based on, Cole, S. J. (2017). Hope for All Sinners (Mark 16:7). In Easter Sermons. Galaxie Software.