May 03, 2009 - Pastor Tim

FAILURE NEED NEVER BE THE LAST WORD

Luke 22:31-34, 54-62

I’d like to invite all the kids to the front for the beginning of my sermon this morning, for I’d like to first talk to you…I was about the age of some of the youngest of you sitting here with me this morning when I asked Jesus to come into my heart. And it was the best decision I’ve made in life, and the most significant! And as I was growing up, I wanted with all my heart to please the Lord. But I have to admit that there were times when my performance was less than what I wanted it to be.

One scene that comes to my mind was when I was in 5th grade. Are any of you fifth graders? Miss Ridelle was my teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Findlay, Ohio. Hers was a no-nonsense kind of class. She was tall, had her hair pulled back in a bun, and wore reading glasses on the end of her nose or let the glasses hang around her neck. You didn’t mess around with Miss Ridelle! She was stern! Not a lot of fun!

Maybe some of you have this problem, too, but when I was in school, my mouth got me in trouble more than once. Our report cards used to have a comment section that said, “whispers too much,” and, as I recall, that was checked more than once in my elementary years! So it was no surprise that my mouth got me in trouble with Miss Ridelle, too. My friend David Brewer and I were evidently about the last ones out of the classroom for recess one day, and in the area of the classroom sectioned off for our coatroom, we made some not-so-kind comments about the stern Miss Ridelle. And when we looked up, do you know who was standing there listening to us?! It was Miss Ridelle! She scowled and made some comment about what we’d said, and we went scurrying off to the playground.

Now, I told you I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was a child, and I wanted to please God with all my heart, but when something like that happened, I knew I wasn’t pleasing God at all! It wasn’t that I got caught—I shouldn’t have said such a thing to begin with! She was my teacher, and I was taught to show respect to those who were over me in such a way. I was embarrassed—not just that I’d gotten into a little trouble, but that I would have been so unkind to begin with!

I remember another scene from my teen years when I got angry and really lost my cool with some friends who thought they’d done something funny in trashing my dad’s car that I’d been able to drive to our camp. It was so un-Christlike!

Have you ever had such things happen to you? You’re not alone. We all have.

This morning I’m continuing in a series of sermons I’ve called “Looking at the Cross through Resurrection Eyes.” What I’ve been attempting to do is to look at scenes we know so well from the hours before Jesus was arrested and crucified. But I’ve especially wanted to look at them through the lenses of those who experienced the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The crucifixion of Christ seemed so terrible, so dreadful, so final…but all that changed when Jesus rose from the grave.

This morning we’re going to look at someone who failed Jesus miserably in the last hours before Christ’s crucifixion. It was Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples—one in whom Jesus had placed an incredible amount of trust and confidence. But when the heat was on, Peter fell flat on his face. But the good news of our sermon this morning is that that’s not how it all ended. And what I want each of us to realize this morning is that our failures need not be the last word in our lives either. Others may continue to bring them up to us and our day-by-day circumstances may even seem to remind us of our failures, but through Resurrection eyes, we see forgiveness and restoration. Even though there are times when we all have to acknowledge that we’ve failed the Lord, He wants us to see the ultimate victory that is ours through His Resurrection power.

Let me pray for you…(then dismiss to sit with their parents).

Let’s read a couple of passage from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 22, that both set the stage for and then describes Peter’s huge failure—

[Read Luke 22:31-34, 54-62, NIV]

The pre-Resurrection view of things is pretty much a scene of failure and defeat. That’s how it was for Peter. Oh, he hadn’t intended for it to be that way. He was genuinely determined to follow Christ. When Jesus spoke about the realities that he and the others would soon desert him and deny that they even knew him, Peter boldly explained, “Master, I’m ready for anything with you. I’d go to jail for you! I’d die for you!”

But what Jesus was saying to Peter in this passage is that Satan had it out for Peter and the others. He said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat…” Satan was out to prove that even the disciples would fail under severe testing—and they did. Peter’s response was called a “denial.” The word “deny” is used in the New Testament as the polar opposite of the word “confess.” We are to “confess” or “acknowledge” Christ but “deny” ourselves—disown our private interests for the sake of Christ. But Peter did the exact opposite. He denied Christ in order to save his own hide.

But what I think we need to note is that Peter’s denial, though it was serious and was symptomatic of a low level of faith, did not mean that Peter had ceased, within himself, to believe in the Lord. No doubt that his denial was so contrary to his former spiritual state that he would need to “return” to Christ, he would need to “turn back” to Christ. And he did.

Immediately after Peter’s third denial of Christ, he heard the rooster crow, and immediately he remembered what Jesus had said to him. Just then Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. I can only guess, but I have thought that Jesus’ penetrating look at Peter in that moment communicated devastating disappointment, utter sadness, but, even then, there had to have been love and forgiveness in Jesus’ eyes, even if Peter didn’t recognize it as such right then. And Peter ran from the scene immediately, weeping bitter tears of remorse.

The account of Peter’s denial presents a sober and utterly real picture of this prominent leader of the Early Church. Peter was not without flaw. In the moment when it counted the most, Peter had denied any knowledge of Jesus or any relationship with him! But this very open and honest scene from Peter’s life—one I’m guessing he originally wished no one else would ever know about—offers a deep spiritual lesson about humility and the spiritual conflict which we all face.

You see, we can all relate to Peter! And, if we’re near-sighted about the matter, that’s where we remain: in a state of failure and defeat. The account of Peter’s denial brings before us the difference between real faith and sentimental faith—faith that doesn’t have much substance. Sometimes we Christians get caught up in sentimental faith, saying, “Oh, I wish I could have been in Jerusalem in those days and walked with Jesus, had been one of those children sitting in His lap, had heard Him speak out on the mountainside, and watched Him heal people as He did so many times!” But I don’t know that it would have changed much of anything for us. The twelve disciples were with Him night and day for three years, and yet in those final hours before His Crucifixion—the time when He likely needed them the most—the disciples were guilty of jealousy, selfish ambition, denial and defection. Being with Jesus for three years hadn’t changed that much about their lives after all!—or at least didn’t seem to have if we judge only by those scenes!

But we can all relate to Peter, can’t we? When we’re honest with ourselves, we know that there have been times when we too have failed the Lord miserably! And all too often, those failures seem to define us—at least within our hearts. We struggle to see past them.

• It may be that you “exploded” in anger with your wife and kids—and while you sit in your church pew today looking nice and proper, you know that they know your failure.
• There are certainly women here today who are sadly haunted by an abortion they consented to years ago—and men who encouraged it…and you somehow wonder if God can ever forgive.
  * We know statistically that even men in the church are struggling these days with the allure of pornography—and with the shadow of defeat it brings with it as our minds are polluted with thoughts and images that have no place in the mind of the follower of Christ.
• Maybe you cheated on a test—and you know it was wrong. Maybe you’ve gotten into the habit of cheating on assignments when the pressure’s on—and while you try excusing it away, deep down you know it’s wrong. You failed the Lord!
• Maybe your sin was premarital sex, or maybe you were unfaithful to your spouse—and you struggle to feel clean and whole because you’re constantly reminded of your failure.
• Perhaps it’s something that seems so comparatively benign—like a sharp tongue that easily beats others down. You’d like to believe that it doesn’t really matter, but, when you’re honest with yourself, you have to quit making excuses and acknowledge that your unkind, uncaring, insensitive words and attitude are so very far from the character of Christ—yet over and over you have failed Him by the way you’ve treated people.
• Maybe it’s the way you’ve disrespected your parents by the way you’ve spoken to them or the attitude you’ve had—and no one has to tell you how the Lord is grieved that you’d do so.
• Perhaps your repeated failures have been in the trap of alcohol or drug abuse. You know, the longer I live the more I believe that our church’s stance of total abstinence from alcohol is the wisest approach to not opening the door for the tremendous devastation alcohol has brought into so many lives and so many homes.
• Maybe your past has been so messed up that you carry so many scars from it that you’re sometimes not sure if God or anyone else will ever be able to completely see beyond it. Perhaps you fear that the failures in your past define you—define who you are and limit what you can ever be.
• Perhaps you’d identify with those who see their greatest failure in life being an indifference to the cause and mission of Christ in our world today. D.L. Moody once lashed out as a loving critic to certain parts of the church for its misappropriation of her energies, saying that the church reminded him of firemen straightening pictures on the wall of a burning house.

Someone once defined real failure as “living without knowing what life is all about, feeding on things that do not satisfy, thinking you have everything, only to find out in the end you have nothing that matters.” And sometimes it’s not the giants that defeat us, it’s the mosquitoes.

Sounds pretty defeating, doesn’t it? And it is, from the pre-Resurrection viewpoint. But that’s not the side of the Resurrection in which we live! Christ invites us to see these things from the Resurrection side of life! And the post-Resurrection view is one of victory and redemption!

Let’s go back to Simon Peter. John’s Gospel fills us in on a wonderful post-Resurrection scene that Peter had with Jesus. It’s found in John 21. Jesus had appeared to the disciples along the Sea, where they had been together so many times before. And with those same penetrating eyes that had connected with Peter after the third denial, Jesus looked at Peter and asked him, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Three times Jesus asked him pretty much the same question, and Peter’s words affirmed his love for Jesus, and Jesus reinstated the lofty mission of Peter’s life. And he repeated to Peter the words by which he had first called him three years earlier by the shores of the sea—“Follow me.” The message was clear: “The failure is behind you now, Peter. I have restored you. I love you, and I want you to get on with the life I’ve given you.”

And the Post-Resurrection reality is that Peter and the other disciples became the leaders of the Early Church—establishing the Body of Believers of which we are a part today! Christ depended upon Peter and the others! He trusted them—even though they had all failed Him. Do you realize how remarkable that is? While Simon Peter often looked more like a sandpile than a rock, by the grace of God he became The Rock that Christ had seen in him all along.

So, what’s the Post-Resurrection view of you? How does the Resurrected Lord see your life? Is He determined to define you by your failures? No, our transformation and conversion are made possible by the death of Christ, His Resurrection, and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That’s what enables us to discover forgiveness and new life. It’s what provides for the many second chances God offers by His grace! The Resurrected and Living Lord wants to invade our lives and rebuild us from the inside out. And the truth is that God can even use our past failures as a means of offering hope and encouragement to others who may somehow feel that their failures are the last word in their lives.

I always loved math, but I sure was glad my pencil had a good eraser! God’s grace offers a wonderful eraser for our lives! We don’t need to be defined by our failures…but we do need to openly and honestly admit our sin and our failures to the Lord. We dare not continue to excuse them away. And the truth is that we’re powerless without His grace in our lives, without His Resurrection power which redeems our past and restores us to fellowship with Him.

One of men who was smack dab in the middle of one of our nation’s most embarrassing moments of moral failure was Chuck Colson, a political ally of President Richard Nixon. In those months after the Watergate scandal was uncovered, Colson went from White House conference rooms to a prison cell. And in the midst of despair and his very public failure, Colson found Christ and experienced God’s forgiveness and the new life that only God can bring. He later wrote,

“When the frustration of my helplessness seemed greatest, I discovered God’s grace was more than sufficient. And after my imprisonment, I could look back and see how God used my powerlessness for his purpose. What he has chosen for my most significant witness was not my triumphs or victories, but my defeat.” (Charles Colson)

God has a marvelous way of turning our endings into beginnings.

You’ve failed many times—though you certainly don’t remember them all. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You probably almost drowned the first time you tried to swim! Did you hit the ball the first time you swung a bat? Heavy hitters, the ones who hit the most home runs, also strike out a lot. My point is this: You need not let failure seal your destiny. Don’t let it defeat you or define you! Our Resurrected Lord forgives sin, restores lives, and empowers victorious living! God does not want you to give up on your faith simply because you have failed. He urges you back up on your feet so that you can move forward—and He urges us on with delight, perhaps like a parent teaching a toddler how to walk!

Let me share something else Chuck Colson wrote—

“The kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a cross, a holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat; healing through brokenness; finding self through losing self.”(Charles Colson)

And so this morning, I proclaim to you the Resurrected Lord, our Creator God, whose handiwork in the lives of people shouts of grace that never tires of fresh starts. He is the God of starting-over, of new beginnings! And He takes all the failures of our lives and composts them like a gardener does with decomposing organic matter that seems like garbage to the common eye. And in this process He brings new life and beauty and a fresh new day. And he hydrates withered human hearts with downpours of His unending love. And that God—our Heavenly Father—stands before you today proclaiming that failure need never be the last word in your life.

Welcome to Valley Shepherd

Passion for God, Compassion for people.

At Valley Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, you’ll find a welcoming community. We are a family of believers in Jesus Christ. We are united in our love of people and our heart for the Treasure Valley. Come meet us on Sundays or learn more about us through our website; we’d love for you to find a home here.

Our services happen every Sunday morning at 10:45 at our new church building in south Meridian. To find us, head south of I-84 on Meridian Rd and turn west onto Maestra.

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