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Church of the Nazarene – Harrisonburg
Stories of Your Life Part 4: Peter
Great desperation is met with great forgiveness.
Welcome back to our Sunday morning teaching series “Stories of Your Life”.
As a church family we are seeking to understand the meaning and the impact of Passion week through the perspectives and stories of key people involved.
As we continue in our teaching series today, we will look at the story of a man who probably experienced many feelings of guilt, shame, and regret following his great failure.
To be a disciple of Jesus doesn’t prevent us from failing-even failing historically- for all the world to see.
As common of an experience as failure can be in our story-It doesn’t have to be final. As we will see in the story of Peter, your failure doesn’t have the power to define your future- Only your savior can do that!Luke 22:54-61
Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”
Peter denies the Lord, not just once, but three times. He betrays Jesus completely.
This was a complete and utter failure. There’s no other way to describe it. Peter had failed.
The truth is, we all can relate to failure. Failure is a reality in this world.
But this is not a story of failure.
This is a story of how we respond when we fail, and even more important, how our Father responds when we fail.How would Peter respond to failure?
How would Jesus respond?
John 21:1-17
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
There is a clear parallel between Peter’s 3 denials and Jesus’ 3 questions. For each of the times Peter had denied Jesus, he now affirms His love.
Once we examine what Jesus is commanding Peter to do (‘feed my lambs’, ‘take care of my sheep’, ‘feed my sheep’ ) we see that Jesus is not just forgiving Peter, rather Jesus is commissioning Peter for ministry.
Peter is never the same:-He’s there on the day of Pentecost as the Spirit of God moves in a powerful way.-He’s there as the church is born and as he immediately begins to preach and 3,000 people were saved and baptized.
-Peter is there, healing and preaching.
-He’s thrown in jail and keeps preaching.
-He’s persecuted and he keeps proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.
Before when Peter faced opposition, he folded and ran away. But now, in the face of opposition, he is bold, he is obedient. And he becomes one of the most influential leaders the church has ever known.
Peter knew Jesus. Did Peter fail? Yes. But even in the midst of his bitter weeping, it’s clear that He knew Jesus.
Peter knew Jesus well enough to know His grace.
He knew enough to know that if he came running after Jesus, he would not be rejected.
Peter knew His grace.
The question is: Do we?Bottom Line:
Peter’s story isn’t so different from ours – great desperation met with great forgiveness.
Scriptures for future study/reflection:
Matthew 18:21-22
1 John 1:9
Hebrews 8:12
Acts 10:43
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