Peter the Failure
The Overheard • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We have spent the last several weeks in a sermon series looking at the interactions of Jesus with people between his resurrection and the ascension. Next week will be Pentecost Sunday and we will look at the last interactions Jesus had with his followers before his ascension into Heaven and what that means for us and what it should cause us to do. Along the path to this morning we have seen Jesus interact with the women outside the tomb, with Cleopas and his companion on the way to Damascus, with the ten in the upper room, with Thomas, and last week we saw as he met with seven of his disciples as they fished in the Sea of Galilee. This morning we are catching up with a famous interaction between Jesus and Peter on the same shore as those same seven men watched on.
Peter has had a pretty rough couple of weeks, because we know the story this morning happens somewhere between 8 days after the resurrection when Jesus appeared to speak to Thomas, and the 40 days before his ascension into Heaven. Peter is know for being bold and strong and brash in his faith for Jesus, remember, on the night of Jesus capture as they sat in the upper room eating their last meal together Peter was pretty full of himself, he thought he was much more sold out for Jesus than he really was and when Jesus tells them he will be leaving and they cannot follow this is Peter’s response.
37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
And Jesus responds John 13:38
38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
And this would be a crushing blow to his demeanor, he loved Jesus he really though he was going to be able to do exactly what Jesus wanted and he thought he was strong in his love for Jesus and Jesus basically told him he wouldn’t.
And if we are honest, there are times in our lives when we find ourselves exactly like Peter did, where we think we are much closer to Jesus than we really are.
And look at what happens next with Peter, he has defended Jesus when they came to take him away, and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers, willing to fight for Jesus and Jesus has told him that is not the way it was supposed to be.
John 18:10-11
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
And then while Jesus was on trial Peter followed him and was standing just a little distance off where he could hear what was going on but hopefully not be seen.
17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”
The first denial of the night.
18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
The second denial of the night.
26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
The third denial of the night and it concludes with the rooster crowing
And we have given Peter some hard times over the last few weeks wondering how he could go back to fishing, how he could possibly go back to his old life. Granted we did try to lump ourselves in there with him and talk about how when things get difficult and we feel like Jesus isn’t with us we tend to forget the promises he made, often times allowing our experiences to speak to our faith instead we should allow our faith to speak to our experiences and that’s so good I’ll say it again this week. But one thing we miss in all of that, one thing we miss in all of this experience between the day Peter denied Jesus and this day as he sits with Jesus, is the thing that happens every single morning; the rooster crows.
Every single morning since the day he denied Jesus Peter has had to listen to the crows of roosters every single morning, calling his failure out loud, right to his face. There are some sights, sounds, smells that are engrained into our memory and every time we hear/see/smell it brings us back.
I asked a buddy and he said every time he smells fresh cut grass it immediately takes him back to his days playing baseball as a kid.
I asked Jennifer, and I knew before she even told me what her answer would be, but for her is the smell of an old leather cigarette case, it always reminds her of her mom. There doesn’t even have to be cigarettes in the case but it reminds her of her mom and brings back those memories as a child.
For me, there are a couple of things I hear and it brings back some good memories, if someone says is it good or bad? It always reminds me of a man named Nate we went to church with when I was a youth pastor in South Georgia. He was a special needs young man and his nurse was a member of our church and she would bring him to church all the time. Well, Nate, loved wrestling, or for those of us that know, wrasslin, and he’d always come up during, or after church and ask about wrasslers, and he’d say, “Jake the snake, he good or bad,” and so if you are near me and you ask about anything and you say, the words “good or bad” just know in my head that is exactly what my brain turns it into.
There are a couple of more I could share, but I’m sure if you were to think about it, maybe even in this moment you are already thinking about things the moment you see/hear/smell them that bring back all the memories. Some of them for sure are memories of your failures and not the happy moments in your life and you can empathize with Peter in these few days as he is listening to this rooster crow every morning. It makes me wonder if some of the reason Peter has brought his buddies out here on the water is so he can get away from that miserable sound. At least out here he doesn’t have to hear it, there won’t be any true way for him to listen to some stupid rooster if they are too far away for him to hear.
When I think about the rooster speaking Peters failures to him over and over it reminds me of the tactic of the enemy in our lives. The enemy loves to tell us of all of our failures and mess ups, sometimes he uses other people to do that, but often times he uses the voice in our heads as we speak to ourselves about how messed up and useless we are for not just the kingdom, but the world in general.
So what happens here, just as day was breaking Jn 21:4 tells us, just as the crow would normally be going about his business Jesus shows up on the edge of the water to talk to his disciples. I think there is a lot of significance in this, there is a lot of significance as we talked about a new day brings new blessings, but also for the life of Peter. For the first time in as many days, this is the first morning he hasn’t heard the rooster, and instead the voice calling to him is the voice of hope and love.
The disciples come to shore and Jesus has a charcoal fire going with fish on it to feed his friends. And I don’t want you to miss the significance of that, John tells us that for a reason, because remember, when Peter had denied Jesus he was standing around a charcoal fire, so this scene is happening in much a similar setting to the night Peter denied Jesus. After they disciples all sit down with Jesus to eat, Jesus has some business he needs to deal with in regards to Peter and here is where the story picks up. What we will see this morning is this whole encounter is about the Standard of discipleship, it involves a call to love, a call to sacrifice, and call to obey.
The call to love in spite of his failure starts here:
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
You know what is interesting here, is Jesus hasn’t called Peter Simon since the very first chapter of this book when he said this Jn 1:42
42 … “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
And in the entirety of this Gospel from that moment forward Jesus had called him Peter, until this moment when Peter had went back to his old life and was living the life he knew before he met Jesus, but he doesn’t just completely throw it out, he’s not just Simon, he’s Simon Peter. Much has been talked about this initial question, is he asking if he loves him more than he loves the other disciples, but that would be weird because Jesus has continuously told them to Love one another. Some posit it could mean more than his boat and his nets and all his fishing stuff, but that would be a little weird because there has been no discourse on material stuff in any of this gospel. More likely, the question is Peter, do you love me more than everyone else loves me. And this makes a lot of sense when it comes to Peter, remember he had already told Jesus no matter what everyone else does I will never leave you. And Peter could be in a trap here, he could say Yes I love you more than everyone else, and think again more highly about himself than he really needs to, or if he says no He doesn’t love him more than everyone else, which could be true it might leave the thought he doesn’t love him at all, so he gives a safe answer… You know I love you… not I love you more than everyone else loves you, just a simple. You KNOW I love you.
This whole questioning we are about to see takes us back to the upper room where Jesus told his disciples if you love me you will keep my commands, so here he asks him if he loves him, upon Peter’s “yes,” Jesus gives him the command, “Feed my lambs.” Notice, he the change from fisherman language to shepherd language.
16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Notice, here Jesus doesn’t ask if he loves him more than these, maybe Jesus noticing that Peter has stepped aside from this question the first time.
17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
A third time, prominent here, and it is unclear whether Peter has been grieved because he thinks Jesus doesn’t know he loves him, because he felt the need to ask him three times, or because he is reminded of his three time denial of Jesus. What is clear, however, is John wants us to understand this as speaking exactly to the scene we spoke of earlier. It is clear the intentions are to show Peter has been restored, his failures are behind him and there is a new path forward for him.
And as Jesus has called him back into discipleship, we have seen this call to love, not just Jesus but his sheep, and we will see the next step in our call to discipleship is the call to sacrifice. Look at what he says to Peter next.
18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
What is interesting is most scholars agree this was written before Peter was actually crucified, but what most don’t agree on is if Jesus was actually talking about the manner in which Peter would be killed. Scholars agree Jesus was predicting his martyrdom, but not his crucifixion, but what is important here is Jesus is telling Peter you will have to give your life for me, still, Follow Me. And the call to discipleship is a call to sacrifice, granted most of us won’t have to give up our lives to follow Jesus, but most of us will have to give up something, and the point here is we should be willing to give up our lives should it be required.
The last part of this call to discipleship is the call to Obey.
19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Look, follow me, do what I have told you to do, you must follow me. The mark of a true disciple is one who loves, sacrifices for, and obeys Jesus.
Let’s finish this chapter in closing
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”
22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
And through it all, Peter just like us looked at the people around him and said, Jesus what about John? What is it you require from him? And Jesus looked at him and said, Peter who cares about him, are you going to follow me?
Church this morning, Jesus tells us the same thing, we cannot look at the people around us, what they are doing, or even what they are saying about us. We just have to follow him. So in the pursuit of discipleship, are you ready to love Jesus with everything in you? Are you ready to love him more than any of the things of this world, because you need to understand, he is better than anything this world has to offer you. Are you ready to love him like you actually believe that this morning? Secondly, are you ready to sacrifice for him? And while that may not mean giving your life to him, you know what it may mean? Giving away your comfort, speaking to people who may not be receptive and call you names for sharing your faith. Sacrifice may mean giving up family or friends who are leading you away from him. Lastly, are you ready to obey him? In the story this morning, Jesus changed Peter from fisherman to shepherd, and while that isn’t the call for everyone of our lives, the great commission still applies to each and every one of us. Are you willing to follow him into the world and obey him to share with those around you, because like we have already said this morning, Jesus is the greatest thing we have to offer anyone. There is nothing you could offer to someone that is greater than Jesus. So are you ready to love, sacrifice and obey?
