School of Failure

'm sure many of us could attest to the fact that in our lives, there have been times when we have been schooled by failure.

Any hands?

Schooled by failure.

You can learn a lot from success, you really can, but arguably, you probably will and I will learn more from failure.

It's not easy nor fun to learn life lessons this way, but it's effective and the Apostle Peter is a man who was schooled by failure.

We're going back a little bit, backtracking in Mark's Gospel to pick up on Peter's failure.

And then we move directly to Mark's version of the cross at Easter.

In an attempt to understand what Peter learned, I want us to spend time in 1 Peter, the letter that Peter wrote from Rome to the believers in West Turkey, and just consider what did he learn over 30 years from reflecting on what we'll read about now in the Gospel account.

So there are three failures that we read about, or his failure occurs in three parts.

And so we'll look at that and also some verses from 1 Peter 5.

Lesson number one from Peter's school of failure is, choose humility over pride, less I and more thy.

1 Peter 5, Peter writes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

So, 1 Peter, as I just said, he's written from Rome to believers in West Turkey.

It's probably around the mid-60s, so that gives Peter 30 years of reflection.

Do you think he has learned something about humility over this time?

Yeah, for sure.

And he's speaking from experience.

Choose humility over pride, Peter says.

If there was ever a disciple who you might describe as impetuous, Peter's the one, isn't it?

He's the guy that jumps out of the boat and literally walks on water towards Jesus who is walking on water and then he falls in.

He's also the one who several times tells Jesus the way he should do things.

You know, yes, no, Lord, I've got it all planned out.

He's the sort of guy who I think has a personality that says, I say what everyone's thinking.

That's our man Peter.

He's the one who John tells us took the sword and chopped off the high priest's servant's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane.

So Mark 14, 27 to 31 is the fateful scene of Peter's greatest and most impetuous, most bold claim.

They had just finished the Thursday night last supper and Jesus really quite shockingly explained verse 27, you will all fall away.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

That's from the prophet Zechariah.

But after I have risen, Jesus says, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.

Peter declared, even if all fall away, I will not.

Truly I tell you, Jesus answered, today is tonight before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown me three times.

But Peter insisted emphatically, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you, and all the others said the same.

Lots of I commitments, I will, I will never, as I read this, it reminded me of 1990s worship songs.

Jesus, lover of my soul, I will never let you go.

I think Graham, the author, I can't remember his name, Jeff Bullock, I think he changed it over time to you will never let me go.

It was a style, I think, in the 90s in particular, where we set a lot of eyes, and there's a sense of intimacy about that.

But you know what I found just profound in reflecting and considering?

When the Lord Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, He's about as a human being to take on the greatest challenge any human being will ever take on in the name of the Father.

He doesn't say, I've got this, dad.

I'll do this.

I will never let you down.

Isn't that profound?

Jesus says what?

Not my will, but yours.

I'm scared.

I'm scared, Lord.

I don't know if I can even make it, but I surrender my will.

Thy will be done, as he taught in the Lord's Prayer.

Remember, the most powerful thing the will has is to surrender.

Amen?

That's the most powerful thing that the will can't, won't lose the capacity to do.

Willpower is a limited resource, but the will can always surrender.

Peter Boldly claims, I'll never disown you, Lord.

But in 30 years on, he has learned God opposes the proud.

Why is that?

Why do you think God opposes the proud?

I think part of the answer is found in Isaiah 14, because pride is at the core of spiritual rebellion.

Isaiah 14 is normally attributed to the story of Lucifer's fall from heaven, the archangel, leading the demonic rebellion.

I'm going to read from verse 12 of chapter 14 of Isaiah, how you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn.

You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations.

You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds.

I will make myself like the most high, but you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

Peter has learned by 1 Peter 5, less I and more thy will be done.

Peter writes, humble yourselves under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

That's what he's learned over the time.

That it takes patience to be humble.

Immaturity is not patient, and immaturity is often proud rather than humble.

Wouldn't you agree?

There's a link between immaturity and pride.

Due time, humble yourself, trust the Lord.

Submit your will to his, and in due time, he will lift you up.

James 4 says, Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money.

Well, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow, James says.

What is your life?

You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say with humility, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.

As it is you boast in your arrogant schemes, all such boasting is evil.

Lesson number one from Peter's School of Failure, is choose humility over pride, less I and more thy.

Lesson number two is abandon outcomes to God, let go, let God.

Peter writes in his letter to the churches of Turkey, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

What a beautiful verse.

Cast all your anxiety on him.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

Peter could have learned that from all sorts of places over his life, but I reckon a poignant moment in his School of Failure happened as he warmed himself by the fire.

Mark 14, verse 53.

Jesus has been arrested from the garden.

They took Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law, came together.

Peter followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest.

There he sat with the guards and warmed himself by the fire.

The other disciples have already fled, so Peter is showing himself to be, I guess, living up to his bold claim.

He's the one who follows, yet at a distance, and he warms himself by the fire.

But the Greek word here means light.

He warms himself by the light.

And I think it is fair to say that there is a chilling juxtaposition going on in Mark's retelling of the story.

The light of the world is inside, with the Sanhedrin, either 23 member, or 71.

And he's being judged.

The light of the world, who guided Peter over the last three years.

The light of the world, who is light into a dark future.

We don't know the future, but Jesus does.

He's the light of the world, and he says, I'm telling you, I'll shine a light on the future.

What's gonna happen is I'm going to die.

And then I will rise again from the dead.

I'm shining my light.

I'm the light of the world.

I'm shining my light.

The path ahead is clear.

The light of the world that Peter knows is in getting judged.

And Peter's outside, lured to follow a different light.

A much smaller light.

He's right in the middle of what we talked about a few weeks ago, a liminal moment.

A threshold space between what has been and what will be.

That's the moment he's in, isn't it?

It's a liminal moment.

A threshold moment.

He is about to pass from bold claims to crushing failure of nerve.

He could, by choosing a different response, here in this moment, he could move from bold claims to equally bold martyrdom.

And we could be telling the story of Peter's courage, his faithfulness, but it's not the way that the story unfolded.

It's genuinely, I think, an anxious moment, don't you think?

He has all these hopes, and he's at a distance wondering, how is this going to play out, and what am I going to do now?

What comes to mind for you when you think of a liminal anxious moment, a threshold moment between what has been and what maybe could be?

Sometimes health experiences, moments that come to mind.

I had a spot on my lip about a year and a half, two years ago.

I went to the GP, he said, that's probably worth checking out, so he sent me to a specialist, and the specialist looked at the spot on my lip, and he also looked inside my mouth and saw something under my tongue that he quite strangely said, oh, mate, that looks bad.

He's like, yeah, mate, that looks bad.

You should go to an oral facial surgeon who does specialises inside the mouth.

I said, oh, OK.

So I went to someone I'd seen before, a lovely specialist, and I'm outside Hornsby Hospital, waiting to go in to see him, and talk about a liminal moment of fear.

I was thinking, OK, well, you know, cancer is something that many of us go through, and we never know when it's going to turn up, if it does.

But I was sort of saying, Lord, throat cancer is not what I picked, if I was picking anything.

And I was packing death.

Anyone remember that saying from the 1980s?

I was packing death.

And I remember saying to myself, oh, this is what it means like to be anxious.

I am really scared in this moment.

And I went in and we had scans and praise the Lord that on that occasion, the worst didn't turn out.

It does some other times.

But we know about those health moments, I think, many of us.

And sometimes the answer comes back and the threshold changes from what has been to what will be.

And everything has changed.

But can you think of times where sin has crouched at your door?

Like sin crouched at Cain's door.

And its desire is to have you, God said in Genesis.

And we're there thinking, oh, Lord help.

Or maybe we don't say Lord help and we don't respond in these liminal moments, these threshold spaces the way that we really would like to.

Now Peter has this and he's warming himself by the light.

And he is about to fail monumentally.

Thirty years later, now an old man, he hears that there are disciples in West Turkey packing death under persecution.

What does he write?

Cast all, all your anxiety on him.

Why would you do that?

He's learned.

Because he cares for you.

And I think that the truth we can take from is abandon outcomes to God because he is good.

Amen.

Because we can't control tomorrow.

So you've got to get to the point somewhere.

I'm going to trust you, Lord.

And Peter couldn't do it.

What he needed to say was, I'm going to abandon the outcome of my holding on to my testimony that, yes, I am one of his disciples.

You're right, young girl.

Come what may.

Because I trust that God is good.

He's on the other side of this moment.

Abandon outcomes to God.

In fact, it's an enormous part of learning how to be a mature Christian, isn't it?

I trust you, Lord, and I'm abandoning the outcome to you.

I'm going to let go and let God.

Lesson number two.

When living through a liminal threshold filled with anxious thoughts between what's been and what will be, abandon the outcome to God.

Let go and let God.

And lesson three is stay alert and of sober mind.

Resist, stand, believe.

Peter writes in his later version of himself, 1 Peter 5, 8, be alert and of sober mind.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around looking like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings, and the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ.

After you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

To Him be the power forever and ever.

Amen.

Peter has learned over his time that there are times in life that it is profoundly unhelpful to be drowsy and unalert.

There are times when you need to be ready for action.

You need to be sober because he has experienced it.

There are times when you see the spiritual enemy of our souls, the evil one, and he is prowling around ready to devour someone who is not sober and alert.

What happened for Peter back in Mark chapter 14 is while Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by.

When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.

You also were with that Nazarene Jesus, she said, but he denied it.

I don't know or understand what you're talking about, he said, and went out into the entryway.

When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, this fellow is one of them.

Again he denied it.

After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.

He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, I don't know this man you're talking about.

Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.

Then Peter remembered the word, Jesus had spoken to him before the rooster crows twice, you'll disown me three times, and he broke down and wept.

Peter's failure, his greatest failure, to deny his Lord, and more than that, curse his Lord.

It's not clear who he's cursing, but there's a very good chance he's cursing the Lord.

His threefold denial matches his threefold failure to stay awake in Gethsemane.

I don't know or understand, Peter said to the girl, it's an echo of so much of the disciples' experience, isn't it?

Just a bit dull.

Jesus often said, do you still not get it?

I've been with you so long.

But there was a dullness, a failure to understand in the disciples.

Peter is not alert and sober, he's dull and fuzzy when it matters most.

The Christian apologist, Justin Marta, one of the defenders of the faith in the second century, said the Jewish rebel leader Bar Kokhba gave Christians the choice between death and cursing Christ.

It was something that was quite commonly used to siphon out who the real Christians were.

Because they knew in history, first two years, 200 years, so much persecution of the church, they knew a genuine Christian would never curse the Lord.

So it's like, you can die or you can curse the Lord.

So if you're a Christian, you're meant to die.

We're going to kill you.

But if you're not a Christian, there's an easy way to prove it.

Just curse the Lord.

No one's going to curse the Lord if they're really a Christian.

But that's what Peter did.

Peter calls down curses very likely on Jesus himself.

Then he broke down and wept.

The school of failure.

Think about the Bible and think about any character that comes to mind.

Would you agree that it is the constant underlying plot of the Biblical narrative, characters are schooled by failure?

Everybody.

You might find one or two, maybe, that we just don't get that part of their story, but it is the overwhelming plot of the Biblical narrative.

Human beings need the amazing grace of God.

So I want to encourage you, if you feel like a failure in this season of life, or maybe it's a prevailing sense you have about yourself, join the club.

We are failures outside of Christ, because the Bible says clearly, we've all sinned, and we fall short of the glory of God.

Would you give Stephen Walters a warm welcome as he shares about his failure and God's restoration on the screen?

Is there anyone who has a testimony of failure, you ask?

Yes, I do.

I know failure is a part of life.

We find that out very young.

With first steps comes first falls.

Learning to ride a bike involves a few scratches.

Our first difficult test or assignment we might have to repeat.

There are some things in life you don't expect to fail at.

The things you are passionate about, committed to and believe in.

My first marriage.

Growing up in a Christian family, my parents and many others were positive relationship examples.

Strong, healthy marriages.

Marriage is for a lifetime.

A special union created by God.

I was in a romantic relationship at an early age and was married at 20 years old.

I was aware of the brokenness of the world.

However, I didn't believe that divorce was in my story.

Through life's brokenness, this relationship did divide and eventually divorce.

Shock was a part of this journey for me.

As the unthinkable becomes reality, and my foundations in life and love are shaken.

What's happening and why?

Can it be fixed?

What is God's plan in all of this?

I won't go into the details of my fight for reconciliation or the times I was able to minister from my brokenness.

But facing failure, I'm so glad we have a supernatural God.

He is mightier than the trials we face, and I needed to have my identity securely in Him.

For a long season, I was taking it day by day, needing to hold on to Jesus, who was holding me together.

When doubt and feelings would tell me you're not good enough, I would need the truth that Jesus is enough.

He knows me and loves me fully.

God led me gently to a spiritual place where I received His healing after this relationship was completely over.

As time passed, I never thought I would marry again, but be used by God to encourage others.

This year Kathleen and I will celebrate seven years of marriage.

God did a work in me, opening my heart and my mind to something very special.

I am so glad for God's restorative grace in my life.

Thank you Yeah, I really appreciates Stephen being vulnerable and courageous in sharing that testimony.

In Mark's Gospel, where we came to this last mention of Peter, it's his last part of the story in the Gospel of Mark.

If we didn't have John tells us a bit about his restoration and also the Book of Acts, he just drops off the face of the earth.

We don't know about Peter, the failure.

But after Jesus had been executed on the cross and buried for three days and the two women had found the tomb empty with an angel sitting inside.

Do you remember what the angel says?

Don't be alarmed, he says to the women.

You're looking for Jesus, the Nazarene who was crucified.

He has risen.

He's not here.

See the place where they laid him, go tell his disciples and Peter.

Isn't that amazing?

An angel from heaven, tell his disciples and Peter.

He's going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you will see him just as he told you.

Known and loved, it's a lovely way to finish the month, I think.

And Peter, two words that describe known and loved.

I remember you, Peter.

And Peter gets recommissioned by Jesus.

It's in the end of John's Gospel where it's done in an intimate way.

But we know that Pentecost comes, the Book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, and it's Peter who is finally the rock, and he is filled with the Spirit and he's given a message to tell, and he stands up and he preaches this anointed sermon, and 3,000 people come to follow Christ.

Peter, the forgiven failure.

Hallelujah.

As Stephen said, God's restorative grace.

How good is it?

It's a genuine question, not a rhetorical one.

How good is it?

Restorative grace.

Restorative grace.

Are you a failure?

Have you let yourself down, and more importantly, the Lord down, yesterday, last week, 20 years ago?

It's hard sometimes to move past that sense of being a failure, isn't it, of the guilt and the shame.

If you know anything about the Gospel, that's counter to the good news, amen?

To stay in guilt, to stay in failure, is to not appropriate what Jesus accomplished in the death and resurrection of the Gospel, amen?

We are given by faith in Christ a new beginning, and that's what the whole Gospel of Mark is all about.

It's the Gospel of New Beginnings.

At the center of the good news of Christianity is new beginnings for everybody.

Everyone who wants a new beginning, by the grace of God, through faith in Christ, we can have a new beginning, a fresh start.

It's what baptism symbolizes.

Stay alert, Peter says.

Be in the Word of God.

I think he is saying to us.

Remain close to the Holy Spirit.

Walk in step with the Lord in those liminal spaces at those threshold moments.

Surrender yourself to the Lord and He will lift you up, strengthen you, guide you, and protect you.

Resist, stand, believe in the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

To Him be the power forever and ever.

Amen.

Choose humility over pride, less I and more thy.

Abandon outcomes to God.

Let go, let God.

Stay alert and of sober mind.

Resist, stand, believe.

Thank you Lord so much.

We are so grateful that you've provided in Christ what we desperately need, a second chance, a new beginning.

There are many dozens of people in this room standing with hearts full of thanks.

We give you all the praise, Lord God, for your mercy that is new to us today.

And we thank you Lord Jesus that you did not make a bold claim that you couldn't go through with.

Your apparent failure on the cross was nothing at all to do with failure.

You're winning the battle, the lamb slain, and now you are risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, and you are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and your name is above every other name, and it's our great privilege to sing of these truths now.

For your glory, Amen.

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