Famous Failures - Peter

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You could probably call them the original dirty dozen. It was the 12 men who went shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, His disciples who walked with Him for three years, who sat at His feet and drank in all of His teaching. It’s these 12 guys, or it got whittled down to 11, who actually changed the world.

You think about it, they are the ones who started the Christian Church as we know it. So all of them truly should be famous in our minds but I wonder, can you name all 12 disciples? When you think of the disciples, what are the names that come to mind for you? Names like Bartholomew, right? Names like Thaddeus, yeah, those are the disciples that we remember. Oh, they’re in there, honest, they are. They’re mentioned once and then forever forgotten. No, we think about disciples and we think Matthew, yeah, or John. And of course today, you’re going to have to think about Peter. Peter may well be the most famous of all the disciples.

If you look at the gospel writer of Matthew, Mark and John when they list the 12 disciples, Peter’s name appears first. He was definitely the leader of the disciples. When you look at scriptures, Peter is mentioned more than all the other disciples maybe combined. In biblical terms, Peter’s famous.

But Peter is also a failure. I mean, part of his notoriety is that threefold denial that he did in Jesus’ darkest hour, right? When he even cursed and swore that he didn’t know Jesus and wanted to have nothing to do with Him. Peter failed miserably on that night and yet Peter goes on to be the leader of the Christian Church in Jerusalem and, to this day, he is well honored and respected as one of the pillars, the founders, the fathers of our faith.

So this morning, we want to dig in and understand Peter, the man, a little bit more, take a look at his failure, of which, as I said earlier, you might be surprised what the failure really is and then, most importantly, what can we learn from him and what can God teach us through this man, this disciple, Peter?

So let’s get to know Peter a little bit more, shall we? Most of us probably understand he was a fisherman, right? Family business. Scripture reveals to us that his father was a fisherman. We know that he had one brother who was a fisherman. So fishermen are kind of rough, tough guys and they spend a lot of time at sea, so I have a feeling that he was kind of a big, burly type of guy, probably had rough hands, rough skin, being out in the elements and that. So get a picture of Peter and just the occupation he had.

Family-wise, we know that he did have at least one brother, Andrew. A little bit that we know about Andrew is that he also became a disciples of Jesus but, before that, it’s important to know this, he was a disciple of John the Baptist. Now let me just pause there for a moment. Every Jewish boy, as they were growing up, received a certain amount of education. They were trained in the Torah, the scriptures, the Old Testament, right? But the brightest and the best, their education would continue and then, of the brightest and the best, so the best of the best would be invited by a teacher or a rabbi to become their student or to become their disciple. So it’s important to note Andrew is invited to be a disciple. Peter is not. Andrew made the grade. Peter didn’t quite cut it. So Peter goes off into the family business and becomes a fisherman.

We know that Peter had an earlier encounter with Jesus before he actually became Jesus’ disciple. Andrew is the one who actually introduced his brother to Jesus. Andrew brings him in and he says, “This is my brother, Simon.” Jesus looks at him and says, “Yes, you’re Simon but, from now on, I’m changing your name. You’re going to be Peter.” But that’s not when he became His disciple. He became His disciple a little bit later. Do you remember the fishing story? Jesus is going along. Peter and Andrew, James and John have been out fishing all night long, haven’t caught a doggone thing, bad for business. They’re tired. They’re exhausted. Jesus comes up, steps into Peter’s boat, great honor, and says, “Would you cast out? I want to teach the people for a little bit.” So He begins teaching the people from the boat and then He says to Peter, “Listen, throw out your nets on the wrong side of the boat.” In other words, do everything which is opposite of what a good fisherman is supposed to do. Peter looks at Him and says, “I am just deadbeat tired but, because it’s you and I honor and respect you, Jesus, I’ll do it.” You remember what happens, right? He catches so many fish he doesn’t know what to do. He has to call in some other people to help him bring in the whole load of fish.

Now here’s my point to all of that, this is what scripture says next, “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell to Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord, I’m a sinful man.’” In other words, Simon Peter says, “I’m not worthy to be in your presence.” Remember, he didn’t quite make the mark. He is now at the feet of the greatest teacher that he has ever experienced in his entire life. On top of that, this miraculous catch of fish has come in. He says, “I am not worthy to be in the same boat with you, Teacher. Please go away from me.” Jesus quickly comes in and says, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you’ll catch men.”

They came into shore. They left everything and they followed Him. Now my point is this: What kind of loyalty do you think Peter had to Jesus? Peter hadn’t made the mark, didn’t make the grade to be a disciple and now, the greatest teacher he has ever encountered has invited him to be His student. Get the picture of the relationship between Peter and Jesus? There is a strong, strong loyalty. Keep that in mind as we look at Peter’s failure.

We know that Peter was a Galilean. Well, from ancient writings, we know a little bit about Galileans. Usually, when somebody was called a Galilean, it was said with contempt in their voice, “Oh, he’s a Galilean.” I’m not going to make any modern day equivalents because I’m sure to insult somebody. Galileans were a little bit impetuous, rough around the edges, kind of brash, argumentative, quick to action, quick to talk, that’s what Galileans were like. That certainly plays out in Peter, right? Just from your general knowledge of the gospel, Peter was always the first one to talk. Peter was always the first one to jump into action. He’s the only one who jumped out of the boat and says, “Jesus, I’d like to walk on water. I want to take a stroll on out there.” The rest of the disciples said, “Are you nuts? What is with that guy? He’s always talking.” But Peter, boom, he’s impetuous. He’s going to go out there and do that.

When Jesus is talking to His disciples, He says, “Who do people say I am?” Ah, various things. He says, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter’s the one who stepped up and says, “You’re the Christ. You’re the chosen one. You’re the Messiah.” That was Peter. When all the rest of the disciples left except for the 12 and Jesus says, “Well, aren’t you going to leave, too,” it’s Peter who says, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” He’s always the first one to talk, the first one to speak.

Is it any wonder then when Jesus says, “All of you will fall away from me,” that Peter says, “The rest of these yahoos, probably, not me, Jesus. Me and you, I’m always going to be there for you.” How about even in the garden when He’s arrested, who’s the guy who whips out his sword and chops off the ear of the servant? It’s Peter, right? He’s impetuous, he’s bold, he’s brash. Somebody would call him maybe a natural born leader. He certainly was a leader of the disciples. He was part of the inner circle of Peter, James and John.

So you have Peter. His name itself means “rock, unwavering.” What happened? Have you ever asked that question? What happened? Did all of a sudden he become quivering, fearful Peter who denies any association with Jesus? That doesn’t make sense.

This past week, I just wanted to focus on Peter so I didn’t look at the stories. I didn’t look at the detail. I just wanted to understand him as a man. And as I did, I said, “This isn’t adding up that, all of a sudden, he’s going to be so fearful that he’s going to try to avoid conflict, that he’s going to deny knowing Jesus.” Is his real failure the fact that he denied association with Jesus or is it something deeper?

I think the clue comes from the fact that this isn’t the first big failure scripture records of Peter. There was an earlier failure he had. You might recall I said Peter’s the one who announced that Jesus is the Son of God. He’s the Messiah, the Christ that they had long been waiting for, right? Moments later, Jesus starts telling the disciples, “I need to let you know that I’m going to be betrayed. I’m going to be handed over to the priest and teachers of the law and then I’m going to die and three days later, I’m going to be raised.” Peter pulls Him aside and rebukes Him. I’m not going to get into the fact that, just moments earlier, he calls Him the Son of God and now he feels qualified to rebuke the Son of God. I’ll leave that for another time.

Let’s deal with what Jesus then does after Peter tries to rebuke Him. Scripture says this, “But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter,” understand these words, “‘Get behind me, Satan,’” He said, “‘You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.’” That is the strongest rebuke that Jesus gives in the gospel. “Get behind me, Satan,” He says to Peter. Strong rebuke.

Peter failed to see who Jesus was. That’s the crux of it. Peter had a different idea of who Jesus was supposed to be. And Peter’s Jesus is not supposed to die. Peter’s Jesus doesn’t have any weakness. Peter’s Jesus is to lead them now for once and for all to free them from foreign oppression. Peter’s Jesus is to establish this new time, this Messianic time where the people of Israel would be established once again and they would be the leader of the world as they once had been known for. That was Peter’s Jesus. Peter’s Jesus was a leader. Peter’s Jesus was a king. Peter’s Jesus maybe even was a soldier, someone who led the revolution. But Peter’s Jesus doesn’t die. Peter’s Jesus doesn’t have weakness.

“Peter, do you have in mind the things of men or the things of God.” He had missed who Jesus really was and I submit to you the threefold denial stems from the same failure, the same failure to see who Jesus really was. It makes absolutely no sense to me that this brash, rough and tough guy who just moments earlier had cut off the ear of one of the servants is all of a sudden going to become quivering in the corner, scared to be associated with Jesus. That doesn’t line up for me. And I think there is a hint, a hint of what’s going on in the small little phrase in the gospel of Matthew. It says Peter follows along and he’s going to go with Jesus to see what’s happening. It says this, “He’s going to the Sanhedrin, but Peter followed at a distance right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guard,” and here’s the phrase, “to see the outcome.” All the rest of them ran away. If you’re scared, if you’re afraid of being arrested, if you don’t want to be associated with Jesus, why do you follow Him into the high priest courtyard? That doesn’t make sense. To see the outcome. He’s still looking for his Jesus, so he’s going to find out. “Is this the Jesus I’m going to follow?” Just a wink, just a nod, Peter is going to jump into action and let the revolution begin. “Let’s see what Jesus is going to do. Let’s see how He’s going to turn this around. Maybe He’s going to call down a legion of angels. Maybe, all of a sudden, an army is going to arise. Something’s going to happen here. I’m going to see the outcome of this,” because he’s still looking for his Jesus.

And it isn’t until Jesus meets him eyeball to eyeball does his failure come crashing in. I have to wonder if Jesus’ words were echoing in his mind, more than just the words that say, “You’ll deny me three times.” I wonder if he went back a little bit further and heard Jesus say, “Peter, you don’t have in mind the things of God but the things of men.” You’re looking for the wrong Jesus. Jesus came to be Savior Jesus. Jesus came to rescue mankind from their sinfulness, to restore them to their Father in heaven. Peter’s failure? He missed seeing the true Jesus.

Could Peter’s failure be our failure? In other words, I want you to honestly ask yourself in the next few moments what kind of Jesus are you looking for? What kind of Jesus is it that you want to follow? There are all kinds of Jesuses out there that people follow. I’ve named a couple of them for you. There’s groovy Jesus, peace, love, happiness. In other words, I’m going to follow the Jesus of love, the Jesus of love that everything is acceptable, everything is wonderful and we’re just all going to get along here. There’s no real right or wrong. It all depends upon your situation and, as long as it’s done in love and as long as it’s done caring, don’t try to tell me that one thing is right or that something is unacceptable because that’s not the kind of Jesus I follow. I don’t have a judgmental Jesus. I have a Jesus of love. That’s groovy Jesus.

The exact opposite, I call him sergeant Jesus. Yes, Sir. Let’s be obedient to God. This world will be a whole lot better place if we’d learn to become obedient to God, if we would listen to Jesus’ Word, if we would do Jesus’ Word. It’s black and white. There is right. There is wrong. There is no gray. Let’s be obedient and do what Jesus says and then things will be put right. That’s sergeant Jesus.

There are a lot of people who follow diamond Jesus. We saw that in Uganda. They were very blatant about it. Diamond Jesus says, “You give to the church and God will tenfold give back to you.” If you’re poor and you want to become rich, you just have enough faith, you just give enough of what you have right now, Brothers and Sisters, and God is going to bless you. That’s right, we’re going to have offering here right after the message and if you just dig deep into those purses and into those wallets and you just give it all to God, I tell you, by the end of the week, you’re going to be rich. You’re going to be rolling in money because that’s diamond Jesus. It’s prosperity. You believe in Him enough, He’s going to pour out His blessings.

One more. This one might hit home. How about genie Jesus? Genie Jesus, rub Him the right way, He gives you whatever you want. Yeah, that’s right. You pray to Jesus, you do the right things, you come to worship, you’re faithful to Him so you pray to Him and then He delivers to you. Now you say, “Well, that’s rather brash. That’s kind of crude.” Is it? Is it all that far from the mark? What do your prayers consist of? Are 80-90% of your prayers like my prayers? They’re petitions to God. “God, I need your help with this, this, this, this and this.” “God, I’d like you to deliver for me this, this, this and this.” And if you don’t believe in genie Jesus, then answer me this, why are you angry with Him when He doesn’t deliver? Why do you get angry at God when, all of a sudden, the relationship goes south but you say, “But, God, I prayed about this earnestly.” Why do you get mad at God when, all of a sudden, the cancer doesn’t go into remission and you say, “But I had so many people praying for me. What happened?” That’s genie Jesus. He didn’t deliver. He didn’t keep up His end of the bargain.

What Jesus are you looking for? Do you have in mind the things of God or the things of men? Could Peter’s failure be your failure?

Peter learned from his failure. In fact, Peter turned his failure so that it fueled his passion. It fueled his passion for the true Christ because, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, he saw the true Jesus, what He really was about. You can see it in his writings. We have two of his letters. In the first letter, he wrote this, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He’s given us a new birth and to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” He ends that section by saying this, “For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

You see, Peter finally got it. That’s what it’s all about. He was selling Jesus short. He had a limited view, a too small view of what Jesus is, an earthly king, a nation. Jesus has a heavenly kingdom and all nations come to Him. He had too small of a view of who Jesus was but now Peter sees that Jesus is Savior Jesus. That’s what He came for. He came to rescue us from ourselves. He came to accomplish what you and I cannot accomplish. He came to live a perfect life. You and I cannot do that. He came to make payment for all of our wrongs and all of our guilt and all of our shortcomings. We can’t do that. He came to hang upon a cross to feel the weight of the world upon Him, to go through hell and come out the other side and we can’t do that. To lay in a grave for three days and then to walk out alive and we can’t do that. But Savior Jesus can. And Savior Jesus did.

My Friends, if you really take a close look at it, everything else pales in comparison. Anything else that you can bring up about life, anything else you can think about is too limiting to what Jesus truly is and to what He truly accomplished. So much so, Peter went on to say this, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials.” Well, that’s an understatement. This is during the persecution of the church. They fear for their very lives being called Christian. Understatement. “So now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, may be proved genuine.” Peter sees even the bad things that happen in life as part of the way in which God fortifies our faith and secures our place in heaven. God even uses the muck of this world and the pain of this world to strengthen our faith to evermore secure our place in heaven.

See, it’s Savior Jesus. He came to rescue us, rescue us from our sins, rescue us from ourselves. Anything else pales in comparison. And Peter saw that. That’s the true Jesus. He doesn’t need to be anything more because that’s more than enough.

Have you seen the true Jesus? When I talked about the various other kinds of Jesus, did you just tune out on me? And say, “Oh, no, here it goes. Ron with those witty little comments about trying to describe Jesus.” Or were you convicted? Are you looking for a genie Jesus? Isn’t it time to see the true Jesus? Stop limiting Him. Stop seeing such a small God and see the mighty, awesome God that He is.

He’s Savior Jesus. He doesn’t need to be anything more than that because He did what we couldn’t do. He accomplished what we couldn’t accomplish. He rescued you and He had just one thing in mind, to spend an eternity with you. That’s Savior Jesus. Peter learned from his failure. He saw the true Jesus. He went on to be the head of the church at Jerusalem. He spent the rest of his life trying to show Savior Jesus to the world and I believe, with his dying breath, Peter is still trying to show the world the true Jesus.

This morning, it’s my prayer that you and I would know the true Jesus. Amen.

Copyright 2009 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church