Fail Forward

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us in our worship today. It’s good to see you all here.

I have a few announcements to highlight from your bulletins as we begin. The men’s group will meet tonight at 6:30. All men are invited to attend.

We’ll be having our monthly deacon meeting tomorrow. If you’re a deacon, please try to attend.

This is the last week to bring in your hygiene items for Operation Christmas Child. You can drop those off in the Sunday school room across from Randal’s, and we’ll be having a new focus on our shoebox items starting next week.

Don’t forget our potluck breakfast on Easter Sunday at 8:30. Bring your favorite breakfast dish for everyone to enjoy. Coffee and juice will be provided.

And lastly, I’ll ask your continued prayers for Ralph and Sharon Griffin. For those of you who don’t know, Sharon is Joanne’s sister. Ralph was involved in a farming accident this past week. He is recuperating at UVA but unfortunately has lost his left arm. Even yet, the more we learn about what happened, the more we’re shown that God is good and that he’s watching over us all. So please keep Ralph and Sharon in your prayers.

Jesyka, do you have anything this morning?

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray:

Father we’re so grateful for this time to come together as one and worship you. We’re thankful for a week of blessings and your presence in our lives, thankful that you are already waiting for us in the week ahead to lead and protect us, and we’re thankful for this Easter season, and for the sacrifice you made for our sins. May Your Spirit speak to us. May Your wisdom and knowledge increase in us. May the love of Your Son grow in and through us, and may we be strengthened by your unending mercy and grace toward those who love you. For it’s in Christ’s name we ask it, Amen.

Sermon

We’re going to do something today that I don’t often do and don’t like to do, which is go out of order in the Easter story. I like to stay chronological whenever I can, but that’s hard to do this time of year. We have Palm Sunday next week, so of course I’ll be talking about that. And then it’s Easter, which is like Super Bowl Sunday for preachers.

But there are so many wonderful things included in the gospels that take place during that last week of Jesus’s life that even a year of Sundays couldn’t hold them all, so I decided to talk about one of those today. And it also happens to be my favorite story about Easter week.

That might seem like a strange thing on the surface, calling such a sad story in the life of Peter one of my favorites. But I call it a favorite because these verses have helped me so much and so often in my own life. And if they can help me, they’re going to help you as well. Because sooner or later, just like Peter, you are going to fail Christ. You are going to fail him horribly and completely. It doesn’t matter how holy you try to be or how righteous you try to remain. Doesn’t matter how confident in your faith you think you are or how wise you’ve become. In spite of all of those things, you are still utterly human. You are saved from sin but still trapped in sin, and so you can’t hope to always hit the mark that God says you should aim at. It’s important you know that, and it’s important you understand that God knows it too.

So that’s your first lesson today, and it’s a hard one. You are going to disappoint Jesus. And maybe some of you are thinking, “Well Preacher, I know that. Trust me, there’s not a day goes by that I don’t let Jesus down.” And to that I answer, Good. Good for you that you know that. Because the second you forget it, you’re on your way toward a very hard fall. The only thing worse than knowing you’ve disappointed Christ is thinking you never do.

Actually there is another thing that’s worse. You can think you’ve failed Christ so badly that there’s no coming back. There’s no fixing what you’ve done, and so you’ve missed out on God’s blessing, and you’ll never be right with Him again. If that’s you, then let this story speak to your heart.

Peter’s denial of Christ is recorded in all four gospels, but our focus this morning is going to be on Luke’s telling, and that’s found in Luke chapter 22. Turn there with me now and follow along, starting with verses 31-34. Jesus is speaking here, and he says,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”

Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”

And this is God’s word.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all place this warning to Peter after the first celebration of the Lord’s supper. The disciples are gathered with Jesus in the upper room, and Jesus looks at this disciple who has always been so fervent and so filled with fire and faith, and he says, “Simon, Simon . . . ”.

As soon as Peter hears this, his heart starts beating faster. He knows something’s not right. There’s a lot Jesus is saying in repeating that one name.

Look at the name Jesus uses. He says “Simon,” not “Peter.” Simon is his old name. “Peter” is the new name that Jesus had given him, a name that means “rock”. A name for someone who is solid and firm and steadfast. But he’s called “Simon” here because Jesus knows Peter won’t live up to his new name on this night. And when Jesus repeats that name, he’s using a Jewish way of speaking that does two things. It expresses both a loving concern, and a deep sadness.

“Simon, Simon,” he says, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat . . . ”

The devil already has Judas at this point. Judas has already arranged to have Jesus arrested that night. But the devil’s never happy to have just one of God’s people. He wants everyone. That’s what Jesus is really saying here. He starts in verse 31 by singling out Peter because his test is coming soonest. But in the Greek, the word “you” that appears twice in verse 31 is plural. Jesus starts out by talking to Peter, but when he says Satan wants to sift you like wheat, he’s talking to all of the disciples. He’s talking to you and me too.

What’s interesting here is that Jesus says Satan demanded that Peter be given to him. The devil wants Peter, but he has to ask God’s permission first. Reminds us of Job, doesn’t it? The devil couldn’t do anything to Job until God said okay. The devil can’t do anything until God says okay, because God is in control. God is always in control. And knowing how that works between God and the devil makes prayer seem a whole lot more important, doesn’t it? Especially when we ask our Father who art in heaven to deliver us from the evil one who wants to bring us harm.

We can ask a good question here, though — why would God ever allow the devil to do that to one of His children? Jesus answers that in verse 31. It’s so you may be sifted like wheat. Sifting wheat — shaking it, agitating it — is done to separate the wheat, which is the good bits, from the chaff, which is the bad bits. The devil thinks you’re all chaff. He wants to sift you so that your life will have trouble and you’ll fall away from your faith. God allows it so that those troubles scrub your life from everything that keeps you from increasing your faith. He’ll let the devil sift you so that you can see there really is good in you.

Still, this all sounds like bad news to Peter, doesn’t it? But then we have those beautiful words in verse 32: “ . . . but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus is back to speaking only to Peter here, because he’s in the most immediate danger. Peter’s going to be sifted tonight. And Jesus has prayed for Peter, but he doesn’t pray that Peter be spared from what’s about to happen. Jesus knows that Peter needs this trial. Peter even needs to fail this trial. But he does pray that the most precious thing Peter has will remain, and that’s his faith.

And here at the end of verse 32, we’re told the reason why God’s allowing Peter to go through this. Pay attention to this, because most often it’s the reason God allows you to suffer for a while under Satan’s attacks too. Jesus prays that after turning back to God, Peter will strengthen his brothers.

Only those who were once completely broken can comfort those who are broken now. God will sometimes allow you to suffer so that you can be a partner and a strength to the suffering. He will let you fall into sin so that you can learn how weak you are on your own and how strong you are with God, and then He’ll say, “Now that you’ve turned back to me, go help those who are lost.”

Peter, though, doesn’t want any of this. Not only does he not want to turn away from Christ, he says it’s impossible. “I’m ready to go anywhere with you, Lord,” he says. “I don’t care if it’s prison or even the grave. The devil doesn’t scare me. Let him do his worst. Bring it on. I’m ready.”

We’ve seen this attitude in Peter already. This is the guy who jumped out of a boat in the middle of a storm and actually walked on water until his doubts sunk him. When you see this kind of confidence in someone, it’s almost always a sign of weakness. We’ve said this before — the only thing worse than fearing the devil too much is fearing him too little. Jesus knows this. He understands what it’s like to have the devil after you. More than that, he understands Peter. Jesus even tries to warn him in verse 34 — “the rooster won’t crow this day until you’ve denied me three times.”

But Peter won’t listen. He’s too confident, and he falls as a result. Turn now to verse 54. We’ll be reading from there to verse 62:

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.

Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.”

But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.”

And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”

But Peter said, “Man, I am not.”

And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.”

But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.”

And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus has been arrested. Now he’s being led inside the house of the high priest. Peter, trying to prove what he said about never turning away, follows Jesus at a distance. He doesn’t go inside. Instead he joins a group of people gathered around a fire in the house’s courtyard.

Already the devil’s working, isn’t he? Peter’s keeping Jesus close enough to see but far enough away that he’s not at his master’s side. Trouble always comes when we treat Jesus that way. If you’re not standing beside Christ then the devil’s standing beside you.

But here’s another way the devil’s working: he’s right there in the middle of all these people gathered around the fire.

Bad company ruins good morals. Have you ever heard that saying? It’s true. It’s Passover and the beginning of harvest, but the night is cold. Maybe that’s why Peter joins these people around the fire. He also wants to blend in because it might be dangerous to be seen there alone. But as Peter sits here, a servant girl studies him by the light of the flames. Peter glances at her, then looks away. The girl keeps staring, and then she says, “This man was also with him.”

Other than Peter, none of the people around this fire are believers in Christ. In fact, none of them like Jesus at all. This servant girl can’t even bring herself to speak Jesus’s name. Look at what she says: “This guy here, he was with him.” Go to work nowadays, go to the grocery store or out shopping, you’ll probably find yourself in a group of people like this.

Now everyone around that fire is looking at Peter. He’s caught off guard, surprised by what this girl has said. And Peter — the strong one, the faithful one, the one who’s not scared of the devil at all, says right away in verse 57, “Woman, I don’t know him.”

It’s shocking, isn’t it? Here just a little while before, Peter said he would go to prison for Christ. He would even die at Christ’s side. “Everyone else might fall away,” he said, “but I never will.” And for a while afterward, Peter acts like it. He does follow Jesus to the high priest’s house. Peter was determined to prove to both Jesus and himself that he will never deny Christ, but in verse 57 he does it outright and without hesitation.

He says, “I do not know him,” and that’s awful on it own, but there’s also a deeper meaning to those words that’s even worse. Last week we talked about Jesus giving sight to the blind man. Remember how the Pharisees had threatened to excommunicate anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah? Part of that excommunication ritual was speaking five words to the person being banned from worshipping God anywhere. It was the final judgment. Those five words were, “We have never known you.”

Right here by this small fire, Peter has excommunicated Jesus from his life. He’s saying more than, “I don’t know him.” Peter’s saying, “I don’t love him, I don’t acknowledge him, I reject him.”

Peter says this. Peter, the one who refused to let Jesus wash his feet until Jesus said, “If I don’t do this, then you have no share with me,” at which point Peter replied, “Then wash my feet, Lord, and my hands and my head. Wash everything!” This is the man who so quickly and easily turns away from his master. Why?

For two reasons, and both of these are ways that Satan tries to tempt you away from your faith as well. First, Peter’s not in any real danger here, is he? These people by the fire don’t have any power. The authorities don’t care about the disciples, they just want Jesus. But Peter still gives in, and he gives in because of social pressure. Peter’s just plain scared. The people he sat with hated Christ, and so Peter just decides it’s better to go along with the crowd than stand up to the crowd.

But second, we have to remember what happened right before this. Part of the key to studying scripture is when you’re looking a particular passage or section, you also have to look at the sections that come right before and after. That gives you a larger picture of what’s happening.

Look at the section right before this one, in verses 47-53. What’s happening there? Jesus is being arrested, and in the scuffle that breaks out, verse 50 says that one of the disciples cuts the ear off of the servant of the high priest.

Guess who that disciple was? It was Peter. But then Jesus actually rebuked Peter and healed the servant’s ear. What do you think Peter felt in that moment? Here he’s trying to protect his Lord and show his worth and devotion, and Jesus gets mad at him. Peter had to be deeply hurt by that, even angry, all because he didn’t understand.

We keep coming back to this, don’t we? Time and again we meet people in the Bible who get into trouble and stumble because they can’t see the complete picture of what God is doing, and so they start doubting Him instead of trusting Him. Peter felt rejected by Jesus. Now, did Jesus actually reject him? No, of course not, and there’s another warning to never go by emotion alone. Peter felt rejected by Jesus, and so now he rejects Jesus.

Now back in verse 58, Peter has to get up and leave. He can’t stay at the fire and let these people whisper. But the people whisper anyway, and now a man comes up and tells Peter basically the same thing that the servant girl had — “You also are one of them.”

Again, you can almost hear the hate in that last word — “one of them.” Now all of a sudden, Peter might be in some real trouble here.

Verse 58 says this happens “a little while later.” The Greek is a little fuzzy there, but most scholars put this about fifteen minutes to an hour after Peter’s moved on from that campfire. That’s plenty of time for him to think about what he’s just done and vow to never do it again. But still, immediately he says, “Man, I am not.”

This is an even sharper denial than the first one. Peter told the servant girl that he didn’t know Jesus. Now he’s telling the man that he’s not a disciple. He doesn’t even follow Christ.

Then after another hour comes the most specific accusation against Peter. This next man in verse 59 has actual evidence that Peter is one of Jesus’s followers. “Certainly this man was also with him,” he says, “for he too is a Galilean.”

In John 18 we’re given more information about this third person who confronts Peter. He’s a servant of the high priest, and a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off.

But Peter still doesn’t give in. He says in verse 60, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.”

In Matthew’s account of this, Peter is cursing and swearing as he says these words. He’s telling this man, “I’m so far from being a follower of Jesus that I don’t even know what’s going on here. I just wandered by, minding my own business and living my own life.”

Two things happen as Peter says this. The first comes at the end of verse 60 — the rooster crows, just as Jesus said it would. The second is recorded in those first haunting words of verse 61.

While Peter’s in the courtyard, Jesus is being questioned in one of the high priest’s chambers. Many of those chambers were open in the front, looking out over the courtyard. Either that questioning is still happening when Peter made this last denial, or the questioning’s over and Jesus is being led away through the courtyard. In either case, the moment the rooster crows, Jesus turns and looks directly at Peter. And that look absolutely shatters Peter’s heart.

Because now Peter knows that he’s turned his back on his Lord. He’s cast Jesus out of his life. And there’s no way Peter can ever say that he didn’t. There’s no way Peter can say he was tricked or that he was misunderstood, because Peter didn’t do it just once, not just twice, he had denied Christ three times.

He thought he was saving himself. Instead Peter’s just damned himself, and he knows there’s no forgiveness for that, no coming back, no erasing it. All Peter can do is what Luke writes in verse 62: “And he went out and wept bitterly.”

I want you to think about those times you turned away. Those times you denied your Lord in some way. And maybe that’s you right now, today. I want you to think about those things you’ve done that you think there’s no forgiveness for and no coming back from, and then I want you to picture the expression on Jesus’s face as he turned to Peter in that courtyard. Picture that look. Hold it in your mind. Because that’s the same expression that Jesus gives you when you fall away.

What’s that expression look like? Anger? Judgment? Disgust?

If that’s the picture of Christ you have in your mind, get rid of it. That’s not the expression Jesus gives to Peter, and it’s not the one he gives to you. Not anger or judgment or disgust. Instead it’s an expression of three other things — Christ’s knowledge, Christ’s pain, and Christ’s love.

Let’s talk about Christ’s knowledge. Jesus wasn’t surprised that Peter did this. He knew Peter would, and even tried to warn him. What did Jesus say to the disciples while he was praying in Gethsemane? “Watch and pray so you won’t enter into temptation.” But Peter and the others had slept, and so the devil had walked right in. Peter was shocked. Jesus wasn’t.

And what does it say of Jesus’s knowledge that even with all that was happening around him and even with Peter trying to hard to go unnoticed in that crowd, Jesus knows exactly where to turn when that rooster crows? All that time, Peter was never out of the Lord’s sight. There was nothing Peter could do that Christ couldn’t see, no secret hurt Peter could feel that Christ didn’t know. That had to be the thought in Peter’s mind when in Acts, he begins his prayer after the ascension with, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all . . . ”.

The expression on Christ’s face was also one of pain, and no doubt that was the source of Peter’s bitter weeping. He had failed himself, which was horrible. But he had failed his Lord, which was unforgivable. If it’s true that we please Christ when we obey him, then we must hurt Christ when we deny him.

But his expression was also one of love, and it’s out of Christ’s abundant love that he looks to Peter and to you, because love is what defines our Lord. Here in this moment, after being lied about by false witnesses and spit upon by soldiers and rejected by priests, Jesus’s focus is on Peter, and pouring his love into Peter’s denying heart. And Peter weeps. He weeps just as we do when those false kingdoms of our sins and regrets crumble down on top of us.

Thankfully for Peter and for us, the story doesn’t end here. I have one more scripture for us to look at today. Turn to Mark chapter 16. On that first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus’s tomb and finds not a corpse, but two angels. Suddenly Mary goes from a grieving follower to the first person to share the news of Christ’s resurrection. The angels give her a mission, and in verse 7 of Mark 16, they say, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he’s going before you into Galilee.”

“Go tell the disciples,” the angels say. “And tell Peter especially.”

Most scholars agree that Peter probably wasn’t with the other disciples at this point. Not after what he did. He was too ashamed. But this man who knew he’d done something that should never be forgiven, this disciple who deserved to be denied just as he had denied his Lord, receives a message from the angels that Jesus has forgiven him. More than that, that Jesus still loves him, and loves him wholly and completely.

Mark is the only one of the gospel writers to record this. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Remember who Mark was. He was a disciple of Peter, and this gospel is a collection of both Peter’s sermons and Peter’s own memories.

It’s easy to see why the other three gospels would leave out the tiny detail of the angels mentioning Peter by name. It’s even easier to see why Peter would never forget it. Because he denied Christ, but Christ didn’t deny him. He ran away, but Christ stayed right at Peter’s side. Peter gave up on Jesus, but Jesus gives up on nobody.

Here’s what you need to remember about this story — Peter denied Jesus that night, but never never denied Jesus again. Christ’s forgiveness changed him once and for all. From that first Easter Sunday on, no one would ever call him Simon again. He was Cepheus, he was Peter, the rock.

And he would do as his Lord said. Peter would take the worst night of his life and learn from it in order to strengthen his brothers.

Who rallies the disciples after Jesus ascends into heaven? Peter.

Who speaks for the disciples to the crowds in Acts chapter 2? Peter.

Who preaches Christ and lives for Christ from that day forward with no regard for his own safety or for what anyone else thinks or says? Peter.

And let me ask you this: could Peter have become that person if God would have refused to let the devil go after him? Could Peter have ever understood the true peace and joy of forgiveness if he hadn’t denied Christ? I don’t think he could have.

Peter’s failure was terrible, but Christ turned it into the first chapter of Peter’s new and better life. From Easter on, the hot-head, the disciple ruled by emotion and impulse and overconfidence, becomes the apostle known for his humbleness and compassion and love. Because that’s exactly what Christ showed him.

That night in the courtyard had to be in the front of Peter’s mind when he wrote, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” He knew the truth of that statement. It almost ruined his life.

But that night in the courtyard also had to be in the front of Peter’s mind when he wrote, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” Peter knew the truth of that statement too. It had saved his life.

Do you see why this is my favorite story from Easter week? Because here’s the truth, and here’s what this story proves: you are going to fail. Jesus knows that. And yes, it hurts him whenever you fall away, but he also loves you even more. What’s important isn’t that you fail him, it’s what you do when you fail him.

If you think Christ can’t forgive you, if you think you could do anything that would cost you his love, then all you’re doing is cheating yourself, and limiting him. But if you turn back to Jesus, you’ll find he’s been waiting for you all along, and he’ll make sure that your failure doesn’t ruin your future or define your life. Turn back to Jesus, and he’ll make you fail forward. He’ll turn even your worst failures into blessings that shape your life. Just look at Peter.

There’s only one failure in life that you need to fear, and that’s found in Hebrews 12 — “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” Without that grace, you won’t make it. Without that grace, your failures will haunt you forever. But grace is what Christ has in abundance. It’s right there waiting for you. And if you’re ready to receive it, I invite you down here as we sing our closing hymn.

Let’s pray:

Father your forgiveness is something we crave, something we desperately need, something you are so ready to heap upon us, but also something we know we don’t deserve, and that is the thing that often keeps us fr8om coming to you. Like Peter, we fall away and sink into shame. But you’re always ready to send your angels after us, to lead us back to you, to pursue us. It’s a love we can’t comprehend. It’s a faithfulness to us that we can never have toward you. Help us to embrace that love, Father. Help us to cling to that forgiveness. Help us to set aside our failings and embrace your grace and your mercy. For it’s in Jesus’s name we ask it, Amen.