Peter

Good morning, gcc. Great to see you guys. Before we go any further, would you join me for a second in just giving some thanks to our worship team who leads us so effectively every week.

Before most people ever walk in here on Sunday mornings, there have been hours of investment in getting ready for the time we share together. So really appreciate everybody, students, it's great to have you with us and I so appreciate you guys being front and center down here. That's always very encouraging to any of us who are up here. I want you guys to think back with me to that time when you were a kid on the playground and it was time to pick teams for dodgeball or basketball or kickball or whatever sport was up on that particular day. And usually, if your playground experiences were anything like mine, usually the two most athletic, take charge kids weren't so much chosen as captains, they just self appointed, right?

They just took charge and decided that they're going to choose teams and they immediately began sizing up their options because they're both competitors and they want to win. So they usually would pick the biggest and strongest and fastest kids and their friends first. And the smaller you were, the weaker you were, the less coordinated, the less connected, the less popular you were, the more likely you were to be the last one picked. Anybody ever had experiences like that? Okay, that's kind of how playgrounds work every place I ever was as a kid.

Now that's sort of how life works in many cases as well. I mean, average students don't usually get recruited by Ivy League schools. Middle of the road athletes don't usually get scholarships or get drafted to the big leagues. Ordinary looking people don't typically become supermodels. So it's natural for us to expect God to choose people in the same way.

Who's pretty, who's popular, who's talented, who's charismatic, who's been voted most likely to succeed. And what we've been seeing for the last few weeks is that that is not at all how God's kingdom works. For the past few weeks we've been looking at the lives of real people in the Bible. We started with the prophet Moses, then we looked at King David, followed by the woman at the well that we read about in the Gospel of John, chapter four. Last week we looked at the apostle of Matthew, the apostle Matthew, all people who were far from perfect, but whom God redeemed and restored and used in some really powerful ways.

And our final stop on this five week journey is a guy by the name of Simon Peter. Peter was A fisherman in a town called Bethsaida, right on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. And he first encountered Jesus through his brother Andrew, who was also a fisherman. Andrew had encountered Jesus previously and and he had become convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. He was the one that the Jews had been hearing prophecies about and had been awaiting for centuries.

And so Andrew came and told Peter, I found him, you got to come and meet this guy. Well later, in a nearby village called Capernaum, Jesus healed Peter's mother in law of a high fever. And then on another day still very early in Jesus ministry, as he taught by the Sea of Galilee, beautiful body of water, Jesus got into Peter's fishing boat and he asked him to push out into the water. And Jesus continued to teach. Jesus then told Peter to go out into deeper water and to let down his nets.

Now at this point in time Peter had been fishing all night without catching a thing. But suddenly he caught so many fish that his nets began to break and he had to call another boat over for help. And the catch was so heavy that both boats began to sink under the weight. So Peter and his fishing buddies were amazed at what they had just seen. And Peter fell at Jesus feet.

And this is what he said. He said, go away from me Lord, I'm a sinful man. I don't belong in your presence. But going away was not Jesus plan at all. Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid.

From now on you will fish for now people. So they meaning Peter and his brother Andrew and another pair of brothers named James and John. They pulled their boats up on shore. They left everything and followed him. And that's how Peter's journey with Jesus began.

He and James and John became Jesus inner circle. Every time Jesus apostles are listed by name in the gospels, Peter's name always comes first in the list. Peter shared several experiences with Jesus that a lot of other people missed. For example, Peter got to be there and see Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus, a Jewish synagogue leader from the dead. That night when Jesus disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus came walking toward them on the water, most of the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost and they were terrified.

But Peter actually had the audacity to ask Jesus for permission to come to him. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water with Jesus. Only Peter got to experience that. Peter witnessed Jesus transfiguration, this moment when Jesus glory and his connection with God became momentarily and just awe inspiringly visible. When Jesus miraculously produced a coin in the mouth of a fish to pay a tax.

Peter was the one who found that fish. And it was Peter that Jesus sent along with John to prepare the upper room for his last supper with his disciples. Peter seemed to grasp Jesus identity more quickly than the other disciples did. When Jesus asked his friends who they thought he was, Peter was the one who answered, you are the Messiah. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus promised to that he would build his church on the foundation on the rock of Peter's confession. The name Peter, which in the Greek language is petros, as in petrified, it means rock. So Jesus had a little fun with Peter's name when he said, on this rock, on this Petros, on this Peter, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. That means that before Dwayne Johnson, Peter was the OG rock. He's the real deal.

But even though Peter had a stronger clue than some of the other disciples who Jesus was, he didn't grasp Jesus mission quite so quickly. I mean, right after Peter made that confession, Jesus began explaining how he would go to Jerusalem and how he would be killed and then rise from the dead. And Peter pulled Jesus aside and said, say stuff like that. Stop it. So Jesus came back at Peter pretty strong.

He said, get behind me, Satan. If Jesus ever calls you Satan, you need to think hard about whatever it is that you just said or just did. He said, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

Peter's expectations of Jesus and his misconceptions about Jesus were on the verge of interfering with Jesus mission. Well, Jesus last supper with the disciples gives us another look at Peter's passionate heart. Jesus predicted over that meal that one of his disciples would betray him, that they would all abandon him. And it was Peter who spoke up and said, even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Later in the meal, Jesus told his disciples he was going somewhere where they couldn't go just yet.

And Peter asked, lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Then Jesus answered, will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly. I tell you, before the rooster crows, before tomorrow morning, you will disown me three times.

So Peter doubled down and he declared, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. Well, after the meal, Peter went to pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he fell asleep so Peter awoke to a mob that had come for Jesus, and he wasn't about to let his friend be taken without a fight. So Peter drew his sword. But his clumsy swing managed only to cut off a man's ear.

So Jesus stopped what was happening. He healed the man, and then he allowed himself to be arrested, at which time Peter fled. Peter had some courageous intentions, but once he began thinking about what might happen to him if people began to associate him with Jesus, he got scared. So just as Jesus had predicted, Peter denied three times that very night to three different people that he even knew who Jesus was. And after Peter's third denial, right on cue, a rooster crowed.

And the Gospel of Luke tells us that at that moment, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Can you imagine that? I mean, in the crosshairs of his master's piercing gaze, Peter remembered Jesus prediction. And he went outside and he wept bitterly. Peter blew it, and he knew it.

He had talked really big and then failed to deliver. He was embarrassed. He was ashamed. He had turned his back on Jesus. And he felt like everything that happened to Jesus after that moment, his arrest, his mockery of a trial, his scourging, his crucifixion, Peter felt like that was somehow his fault.

You know, an unresolved rift with somebody that we care about can be a really heavy weight to carry. You ever have an argument with your spouse right before one of you had to leave town for a few days?

That's heavy. Or maybe you've had a falling out with a close friend or a family member, and the days have turned to years since you last spoke. Some of us maybe wrestle with regret because we allowed that rift to go on so long that that other person died. And now resolution is no longer possible. Well, early on the Sunday morning following Jesus crucifixion, some women went to visit his tomb.

When they got there, they found the stone rolled away from the entrance. They found an angel sitting there who said what angels typically always say. Don't be alarmed. Don't be afraid. Angels are pretty terrifying to look at.

They said you were looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. But he is risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples.

And Peter, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. Tell his disciples. And Peter. The angel singled Peter out.

He mentioned him by name. Jesus knew that Peter was torn up with regret, and he wanted Peter to know that he was still on the team. So his angel told the women, you be sure and tell Peter that Jesus still has a place for him. When Peter and John heard that the tomb was empty, they took off running. John got there first, but Peter was the first one to actually step inside the tomb.

And scripture tells us that neither of them understood in that moment that Jesus had risen from the dead. They weren't sure what had become of him exactly. Jesus ministry hadn't gone the way they'd expected and they weren't sure what to do with that. So some of them went back to the life that they had known pre Jesus. And for Peter and a few of the other disciples, that meant fishing.

In the final chapter of John's Gospel, John chapter 21, Peter and six other disciples are back on the Sea of Galilee. They fished all night, and once again they didn't catch a thing. Early the next morning, Jesus stood on the shore. But they didn't recognize him immediately. This man on the shore, this stranger on the shore told them to throw their nets on the right side of the boat.

And rather than argue with the stranger dispensing bizarre fishing advice, they just decided to go with it. And all of a sudden their nets were so full of fish that they weren't able to pull them in. And that's when it clicked. That massive catch of fish took Peter back to the day when Jesus had first called him. Peter jumped out of the boat.

Scripture says he swam about 100 yards to shore to get to Jesus. The other disciples were a little more responsible. They took care of the fish and the boats and they came to shore themselves and, and when they got there, they found that Jesus had built a fire. He'd baked some fish and some bread and so they sat down with him and they ate filet o fish sandwiches for breakfast. This is long before McDonald's outlawed eating fish sandwiches.

Before 10:30am in ancient Israel. I mean there were no holds barred. It was a free for all in the fast food industry. But then came this pivotal, life changing conversation. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these.

Jesus grabbed a quiet moment and he cut to the heart of what Peter had probably been feeling since the night he denied him. Jesus called him Simon son of John, not Peter the rock, but Simon John's boy, the identity he'd grown up with. And I wonder what Peter thought when Jesus used that name. Do you suppose his last three years with Jesus sort of flashed through his mind as an instant replay? Maybe he thought back to the Day that Jesus first climbed into his boat and asked him to push off from shore.

Do you suppose Peter recalled the parables that he heard Jesus teach? Maybe the miracles he'd seen him perform? Or do you suppose he was just stuck on that bold but empty promise he had made to Jesus? I'll never disown you. I'm willing to die for you.

Peter had pledged his allegiance to Jesus and fallen way short. So Jesus asked him, do you love me, Peter? Yes, Lord. Peter said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my lambs, Peter, if you love me, then shepherd my followers lead and care for my people.

Again Jesus said, simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter 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. Peter had blown it. And Jesus repetitive question reminded him again and again that his loyalty had been tested and he had failed. But rather than make yet another bold and lofty claim, yes Jesus, there are no limits on my love for you.

Peter more or less said, I'm done with big talk. At this point, Jesus, you know everything, including my heart. You know exactly how much I love you. And then again Jesus said, feed my sheep. Because Jesus still had plans for Peter.

If you love me, Peter, serve my church. Jesus said. And then he added this very truly. I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.

And then we get this footnote in the Gospel of John that says Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then Jesus said to him the very same words he'd said to him that first morning that he climbed into his boat on the Sea of Galilee. He said, follow me. And about 35 years later, those words of Jesus came true. Around A.D. 68, as the emperor Nero in intensified his persecution of Christians, Peter was crucified, according to church history, upside down because he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus had.

But rather than deny Jesus again, Peter died for him. And in between this moment with Jesus after breakfast on the Sea of Galilee and that death that Peter died upside down on a cross, a number of different things happened in Peter's life. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. And 3,000 people became followers of Jesus that day. In between that breakfast and Peter's death, God used him to miraculously heal people, including raising the dead.

In between that breakfast and Peter's death, Peter was beaten for his refusal to stop preaching. And he rejoiced that he'd been found worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. In between that breakfast and Peter's death, Peter followed God's lead in taking the message of Jesus beyond the Jewish world and persuaded other church leaders that the gospel was truly for all people. In those in between years, Peter experienced God's miraculous deliverance from prison. He wrote letters encouraging persecuted Christians to stand strong and trust God in their suffering.

We call those letters the New testament books of first and second Peter. And in those intervening 35 or so years, Peter relayed his memories of life with Jesus to a younger man by the name of John Mark, who wrote another book that you and I know as the Gospel of Mark. And I think of Peter as a hero for all of those reasons. But along with Peter's bold faith, Scripture tells us at numerous points of Peter's impetuous tendency to speak and to act without thinking so we also read of multiple ways in which he dropped the ball as a follower of Jesus. Peter was flawed.

He stumbled and he fell often, sometimes hard. He disowned Jesus not once, I mean, not even twice, but three times. So in a personal, redemptive way that was as dramatic as Peter's failure, Jesus pulled Peter aside and asked whether he still loved him. Not once, not even twice, but three times. Knowing Peter's memory was still haunted by that night of denial, Jesus uniquely reaffirmed Peter's calling as a disciple, that he still had plans for him, that Peter's failure didn't void God's calling.

And for the next three and a half decades, God used Peter powerfully as a preacher and church leader. Jesus found Peter in the wreckage of his regret and he repurposed him for ministry. And that's because Jesus Call is bigger than our failures. Jesus Call is bigger than our failures. Your failures, my failures.

His purpose for our lives is bigger than any of that. Have you ever thought about what would have happened if Jesus hadn't shown up on the beach that morning?

What if he hadn't served his friends filet o fish sandwiches for breakfast? What if he hadn't had that heart to heart talk with Peter? Would Peter have spent the rest of his life wallowing in regret? Would he have just gone back to his fishing career and completely missed the mission that Jesus had called him to see. Over the last few weeks, we looked at the lives of several flawed heroes.

Moses, who learned that God was bigger than his excuses. And David, who learned that God's grace was greater than his moral failures. The woman at the well who learned that God's kingdom is bigger than people's prejudice. It was bigger than her checkered past. We saw last week that Matthew learned that there was a way back from selling out everything that he had once stood for.

And Peter learned that Jesus call is bigger than our failures.

I wonder, do you see yourself at all in the life of Peter? I mean, maybe you remember a time when you were spiritually on fire and you were willing to do whatever God asked of you. You were willing to go wherever he called. But then somewhere along the way, you disappointed yourself by doing something you had thought you would never even be capable of doing. And maybe you felt disqualified ever since.

Or maybe you went to college, but your faith did not and you've been unsure what you believe ever since. Or maybe you've made a series of bad financial decisions and you still feel like you're living under that cloud. Maybe you're embarrassed by some sexual decisions that you now deeply regret. Or maybe you once sensed God calling you to serve him full time in ministry, but you ignored that calling and it's been collecting dust in the attic ever since. Maybe you've allowed an addictive appetite for gambling or alcohol or pornography or prescription drugs or food or sugar or shopping to control you.

Perhaps you just invested so much time and energy and effort in your career that your marriage and your family and your spiritual life have withered from neglect. We could go on. You could fill in the blank. Whatever regret you are convinced has made you ineligible to be used by God. I just want to encourage you to take it to that beach in Galilee.

When Peter jumped out of the boat and he swam to shore and Jesus served him breakfast, Jesus didn't say to Peter, you are such a screw up.

Jesus didn't say, so, Peter, how does it feel to be the president of the Hypocrisy Club? Jesus didn't say, what's wrong with you? None of that. Jesus had just died for every sin. Peter's, yours, mine, everybody's.

And he had just returned from the grave to demonstrate his power to make all things new. And in that moment, his focus was not on Peter's past. It was on the present. And it was on the future. Jesus asked Peter, do you love me?

And I'm convinced that he asks each of us that very same question. Do you love me? You know, Jesus doesn't rattle off a list of everything we've ever done wrong and rub our noses in it. That sort of accusation and guilt tripping is actually the devil's specialty. Jesus doesn't point out all the ways that we're inferior to other people.

He doesn't say, get out of here and come back when you've got your act together. Instead, Jesus asks us to trust that whatever we're ashamed of, he's already died for, he's already dealt with it. He calls us to repent of that means to turn away from that dead end life, to recognize that the direction we're headed if we're not following him is not going to fulfill us, it's not going to complete us. Repentance means to turn away from whatever it is we're seeking as a counterfeit God and to turn toward Jesus instead. And he calls us to surrender everything to him as our Lord and Savior.

And anytime we come to the place of saying, Jesus, I want to surrender everything to you, we have to recognize that in that moment we don't fully understand what everything is. None of us ever do. We continue to follow Jesus and He continues to show us new areas of our lives that are yet to be surrendered to His Lordship. It's an incremental process, but it begins with our saying, jesus, I don't know what everything is, but I want to give all of it to you. I want to surrender.

I want to follow. And then he invites us, flaws, regrets, baggage and all to join him in loving and serving others. Do you love me? Jesus asks. And only you can answer that question.

I can't answer that for you. We can't wishfully answer that question for other people in our lives that we love. Only you can answer that question. But if the answer is yes, then God can use you. And that means that today could be a turning point for you.

Is it time for you to move forward? Is it time for you to get back in the game? Is it time for you to renew your focus? It's always the right time to press on. It's always the right time to get back in the saddle.

It's always the right time to serve. It's always the right time to care for others. It is always the right time to take whatever gifts or abilities or resources God has entrusted to you and surrender those to him for the building up of his kingdom. God finds us in our brokenness and he repurposes us for ministry. There's a section in the New Testament Book of Second Corinthians, chapter 4 where the apostle Paul makes this kind of cryptic statement.

He says that we have this treasure. He's referring to the Gospel, the message of Jesus. He says we have this treasure in jars of clay, terracotta pots that are easily broken. He says we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. A lot of times the people that we admire are people who have fame and fortune.

Elite athletes, superstar musicians, movie stars, intellectual geniuses, business successes. We look at those sorts of things and the reality is if God only did his work through those sorts of people, it would be easy for them and for the rest of us to convince ourselves that all that good is being done because of those abilities, because of those talents, because of that wealth, because of that fame. But what Paul stresses is that this treasure of the gospel exists in broken, flawed, imperfect people. To demonstrate that it was never about us to begin with. It's all about the power of God.

Jesus call is infinitely bigger than our failures. Will you give him yours? Let's pray. Lord God, we're grateful that you invite us. Not because of our credentials or qualifications, but God because you love us, because you have created us, because you knew us before we messed our lives up with sin.

You have watched us, Father. You know exactly who we are. You know exactly what we need. And at our worst, at our lowest moments of brokenness and rebellion, you put on flesh and you suffered and died in our place to remove that barrier of sin from between us forever. And God, we thank you for that.

Lord, I know that in this room there are many people just like me who have regrets. Chapters of our lives we wish we could go back to and do over lessons we wish we'd learned sooner. Mistakes that we repeated more times than we ought to have before we we finally figured things out. And Father, many of us are still struggling. And we're thankful, God, that you love us right where we are.

I just pray that you would would help us, Lord, to see the reality and the power and the accessibility of your grace. Because of Jesus. God help us to give you whatever we need to let go of in order for you to truly be Lord in our lives. Father, we love you. We're grateful for your amazing love for us.

And we ask you to show us what our next step as your followers looks like. We pray these things in Jesus name. So great to be with you today. Before we go this morning, I want to invite our Next Step team to make their way on up here to the front. And we just want to let you know that if God is speaking to you, that may have something to do with this morning.

This may be something that's been ongoing in your life for some time now. But if you sense God prompting you to take a next step, whatever that looks like, whether that's a habit that you need to turn away from, a step of surrender, like baptism that we just celebrated with Blake and Cohen a little while ago, whether it's getting better connected in Christian fellowship, whatever that looks like, we want you to know that now is always a time when we can make that step. And there are several of us here who would love to do anything we can do to come alongside you and help you to do that. There are a couple of easy ways you can reach out to us. Let me first begin with all of our friends online, just anytime, day or night.

Text the word next to 317-707997 and a member of our team will get back in touch with you, and we can begin a dialogue that way. But for all of us who are here in the flesh this morning, it's great to see your faces. There'll be several of us down in front of the stage right after the service who would love to talk with you, pray with you, help you get connected to people, resources, whatever we can do to help you follow God's lead in this next chapter of your life. God's grace, Jesus Calling is bigger than our failures. So let's give him this moment and everyone after it.

Have a powerful week. Good Bye.