When Failure Saves You

Sermon Title: When Failure Saves You

Main Text: Luke 22: 54-62

Luke 22:54–62 ESV

54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 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.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 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.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

For the next few moments I want to speak under the subject entitled:

When Failure Saves You

Prayer

Father, we need a word from the Lord. Just one word from the Lord, will move all doubts

And cause the sun to shine And give peace of mind Speak Lord.

Open up our ears that we may hear your word,

Open up our eyes that we may see your word,

Open up our minds that we may understand your word,

And open up our hearts that we may receive your word.

It’s your time father, do what you do, in Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction

Have you ever failed before?

Not the small kind of failure where you miss a goal or make a mistake. I mean the kind of failure that sits heavy in your chest… the kind that keeps replaying in your mind long after the moment has passed.

The kind where you walk away thinking, “I can’t believe I did that.”

Maybe it was a decision you made in a moment of pressure.

Maybe it was something you said that you wish you could take back.

Maybe it was a moment when you knew exactly what the right thing was… and somehow you still chose the wrong one.

And when it happened, the emotions came quickly.

Embarrassment.

Regret.

Disappointment in yourself.

See church family, sometimes failure makes you want to hide. Sometimes it makes you want to explain yourself. Sometimes it makes you wonder whether people will ever see you the same way again.

If we’re honest in this place, every person in this room knows what failure feels like.

See failure in its simplest definition, means falling short of what was expected. It is the moment when our actions do not match our intentions…

But sometimes failure has a purpose we don’t see at first. See if you live long enough you’ll learn that failure will introduce you to lesson that were necessary in developing the best version of yourself.

See church family, sometimes failure is necessary because for many of us, we believe we have everything together. Before failure shows up, many of us feel pretty good about ourselves.

When everything is going well, we begin to believe that nothing is really wrong with us at all.

And if we be even more honest with ourselves, the reality is that it’s more dangerous as Christians. See for many of us as Christians, we measure our goodness based on our task-oriented accomplishments.

If I go to Sabbath School on time, I’m good. If I attend the morning prayer call every morning, I know I’m in the good graces of the Lord.

If I serve in a position at church, I’m on point with God. If I dress up to the nine for church, God will be pleased with me.

See many of us have convinced ourselves through the measuring stick of Christianity that completing task for God is the same as being in alignment with Christ.

However, the truth of the matter is that most of us if not all of us are not where we think we are in our relationship with God.

As I shared with you on last week, Satan’s greatest attempts to derail us are not wrapped in the gifting paper of obvious sin. What Satan uses as his greatest attempts to derail us is to get us in a place where we claim to be in relationship with God but in reality we are not.

In other words, Satan wants us in the position where we look the part of a Christian on the outside, but never really become a Christian on the inside.

And on last week we saw the dangers of thinking we are in alignment with Christ, when in actuality we are not.

I introduced or reintroduced you to a man named Peter, who was told by Jesus that Satan demanded to have him, that he might sift him like wheat. But Jesus also said, he prayed for him that his faith will not fail.

I shared with you last week that Peter’s response was that he was ready for the testing season. However, in reality, he was not ready.

I shared with you last week that the danger of our relationship with Christ is that we can have a false perception of where we are with God. And that false perception can be genuine. Peter truly believed he was ready for the test.

But don’t forget where Peter got things wrong. He had self confidence because of his loyalty to Christ rather than holding his hands up and surrendering and trusting God to carry him.

Trying to be a good Christian isn’t what God calls us to be. He calls us to trust in Him and He will guide us to be who He’s called us to be. Stop trying to prove to God that you are worthy. Because of the son of God, God already sees us as worthy!

Pause…

So, here in our sermonic text today, we are dropped into the actual test that Jesus warned Peter about from last week.

Jesus has been betrayed with a kiss, and taken into custody, and it is here where we find a loyal and genuine Peter getting exposed in his unaware misalignment with Christ.

Peter sees Jesus taken into custody and he follows him. He watches in a courtyard and it is here where he is pressed. For three times there are individuals who recognize Peter and says, you the one that was with Jesus.

And three times Peter denies these claims, and the rooster crows and we see that what Jesus predicted came true. And the Bible says that Jesus looked at Peter and Peter remembered what Jesus said and he left weeping.

And church family, this is remarkable. How do we get from this loyal, confident and courageous follower of Jesus, to him denying even knowing who Jesus was. I’m talking about the “touch Jesus and I’ll cut your ear off” Peter.

How did we get from that Peter, to I don’t know Him Peter?

And church family, before you judge Peter, the reality is that you and I are on the road of denial as well.

We are on our road to denying Christ

And here the Central Truth or the sermon in a sentence. You might want to write this down.

Devoted Disciples are not excluded from relational failure, yet God’s grace is found in exposing our failure so that we can see our true self.

Let me try that again…

Devoted Disciples are not excluded from relational failure, yet God’s grace is found in exposing our failure so that we can see our true self.

I believe today we can learn some important lessons from the steps that led up to Peter’s failure.

So the question must be asked today…

Subject

What are the steps that leads us to denial?

Complements

Point One: Distance

Now church family, stick close with me here, I don’t want you to miss where I’m going.

Peter’s belief on where he is in his journey with Christ is that he was ready to go with Jesus to prison and to death. Peter was told by Jesus that Satan wants him and Peter says I’m ready for the test. So ready that I will go with you to prison and to death.

However church family, look at verse 54…

Luke 22:54 ESV

54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance.

Notice how Luke intentionally calls out that Peter was following at a distance. The greek here for this phrase “following at a distance” is in the imperfect tense, meaning that Peter kept following from afar or far away.

Luke is showing us the tension between Peter’s promise and Peter’s behavior.

Please don’t miss this church family…

Here we find what a subtle (sut-tle) implementation of importance by Luke here which is called a narrative signal. See basically, Luke highlights that this following at a distance is exposing that Peter’s relationship to Jesus is already shifting.

Peter said earlier that he will go with Jesus to prison and to death, but now when things are in motion, Peter is physically distant.

This is important church…

See Luke suggests that Peter’s denial does not begin suddenly; it begins with distance. Peter’s failure to denial isn’t instant, it’s progressing.

Now before we get too ahead of ourselves and attack Peter, let me show something to you. See Peter does need some credit.

What you mean preacher?

The text here shows that Peter is not portrayed as a cowardly disciple who never cared about Jesus. Peter’s presence actually shows courage. Peter following Jesus after he is arrested is dangerous.

See if you remember, most of the other disciples fled entirely. And church family, this is the power of how the little things matter. Because Peter is genuine, but under pressure he’s unaware of his weakness.

See we can be genuine in our relationship with Jesus and still void intimacy. We can care deeply about Jesus and still fall out of alignment with Him. See this is not a focus on someone who isn’t about Jesus, this is about someone who misplace their confidence.

Peter thinks he is strong, but he isn’t as strong as he thinks. And we must be alerted of this false reality in ourselves that we are strong enough to push through pressure just because we love Jesus.

Don’t miss this church family… Because this is where you and I get tripped up on in our journey with Christ.

See Peter is still following… Let me try that again. Peter is still following Jesus. From the outside, if we saw Peter in church, we would be under the belief that Peter is who we all need to strive and Peter because he is following Jesus.

But church family, the details matter. While Peter is following, Luke says it’s at a distance.

I wish I had a church in here…

See Peter’s distance is not abandonment. He’s still present, however, the separation creates the conditions that invites what is to soon take place.

The danger in these last and evil days, are not solely on if you don’t go to church or if you don’t pray or if you don’t read your bible…

The danger of these last and evil days are that you and I can fall into the trap of following Jesus at a distance.

See following at a distance looks like saying, “its ok to work on Sabbath once a month because that won’t hurt nobody.

Following at a distance says, as long as I know the 3 angels message and prophecy it doesn’t matter how I treat people.

Following at a distance says, I’ll give money to salvation army or united way instead of the church because God doesn’t really mean be faithful in tithe and offerings.

Following at a distance says, after I take care of all the things I need to take care of, I’ll give God my left over time and serve in church once every 6 weeks.

Pause…

See Peter didn’t stop following, he just started following at a distance!

See the danger of our walk with God is that we convince ourselves that we can follow from a distance. And remember Peter is genuine. See what Luke highlights here isn’t about hypocrisy but about human weakness.

And because God is so gracious towards us, He will allow us to walk towards and experiecne failure to expose ourselves to ourselves.

Pause…

So, what are the steps that leads us to denial?

Well firstly, distance.

But secondly, the steps that leads us to denial is…

Point Two: Environmental Pressure

His distance in following eventually positions him with those opposed of who he is following.

He is accused of what we all desire to be accused of. (Yet pressure creates fear that leads to denial)

Close

Jesus is aware of Peter’s failure, yet He looks at him. (He is still attentive to Peter) - Luke is the only one that inserts this.

Peter is made aware of his failure by the look and his weeping reveals his heart of beginning repentance.

He look at the children of Israel,

He look at Job,

He looked at Esther,

He looked at Ruth

He looked at David,

He looked at Jeremiah,

He looked at the Three Hebrew Boys,

He looked at Jonah,

He looked at Levi,

He looked at Paul,

He looked at John

He looked at Me!

He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs,

For 2000, years ago…

Appeal

Journal Entry

Where in your life has distance formed between you and God?

2. Take some time to consider the environments shaping their spiritual lives.

Go through your network and identify if there is anyone negatively impacting your walk with God.

Ask God to help you remove them.