Main Idea: The first step to take after failure is forward.

Today we want to talk about how we can overcome failure. During these Sundays before Easter we are considering the days and hours of Jesus’ passion and suffering to remind us that we as well have our own days of passion. There are times in our lives where we suffer the pain of trouble, crisis, failure and despair. We have been learning that through our own days of passion we gain new knowledge of who God is and we identify more deeply with Christ himself. Edith Stein says, "Whoever belongs to Christ must go the whole way with him. He must mature to adulthood: he must one day or other walk the way of the cross to Gethsemane and Golgotha."

We only know of one who actually went the whole way with Jesus from Gethsemane to Golgotha and that is the disciple John. The others ran away after his arrest but there was one who came close to going the whole way but failed—Simon Peter. There are few of us who do not know the story of Peter’s failure but I’m not sure we are as familiar with the way Peter overcame the despair of his failure. What we see in Peter’s life is that the first step to take after failure is forward.

Before we get into the story of Peter’s failure and how he overcame the obvious despair of that failure there’s something about Peter’s very nature that clue’s us in as to how he overcame his failure. What you discover about Peter was a particular resilience that he had to come back after he failed. For instance, when Jesus told him to push out into deeper water to catch fish, Peter told Jesus basically, "You stick to preaching and we’ll do the fishing;" but he obeyed and discovered a deep connection with who Jesus was (Luke 5:1-11). Then there was the time that he saw Jesus walking on water and he wanted to do it too. He got out of the boat, walked on the water and sank only when he took his eyes off Jesus. (Matt. 14) There was also that little incident on the occasion of Jesus’ transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus along with Peter, James and John. Peter tells Jesus that he will build three shrines, one for each. God tells Peter to "sit down and listen!" (Mark 9). There are many other examples but Peter just kept coming back. Even after his denial of Jesus you still find him with the disciples (Matt. 27). There was something about Peter that just made him hang on even when he blew it.

What you see is that even though Peter failed he had a perspective that his failure wasn’t final or terminal. John Ortberg says, "Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcomes." (If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat, p. 22) Peter possessed something that psychologist Martin E. Seligman calls "learned optimism." "Learned optimism" is opposed to what he also calls "learned helplessness," which is the giving up reaction that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter, so you quit. A person with learned optimism believes, instead, that their failures are only short term, very specific and recognizes that there are some factors that you just can’t control. Whenever Peter developed his belief that failure wasn’t terminal I don’t know. But when it mattered most, in his days of passion, it fueled his ability to overcome his despair.

What was the story of Peter’s failure that brought him to such despair? Let’s go back a little in the story. A few hours before Peter’s denial, he had joined with the other disciples in sharing the Passover meal with Jesus. During that meal Jesus tells them that one of those with him would betray him. They all deny it and Peter, being Peter, does so more sternly. He says, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will" (Matt. 26:33). Jesus tells him, "I tell you the truth, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times" (Matt. 26:34). Peter, again being Peter, won’t hear of it so he says, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you" (Matt. 26:35).

We don’t know what Jesus said but the next place Peter shows up is in the Garden of Gethsemane. As Matthew records the arrest of Jesus he tells about one of the disciples bringing a sword and when Jesus was seized he fought back by cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant. (Matt. 26:50-51). Matthew doesn’t say who it was but John does: it was Peter! Peter was ready to fight and fulfill his vow, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!" Peter wasn’t giving up without a fight.

Matthew records Peter’s trailing along as Jesus was arrested and then tried. He sits by a fire outside the home of the high priest while Jesus is inside. I don’t know what happened to Peter, why when one minute he has a sword in his hand and the next he totally fails, but it happened. Three different ways he was asked if he wasn’t one of Jesus’ followers: "You also were with Jesus of Galilee" (v. 69); "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth" (v. 71); and, "Surely you are one of then, for your accent gives you away" (v. 73). Two teenagers and a nameless face in the crowd create the opportunity for the failure of Peter. To each accusation he increasingly denied his association with Jesus: "I don’t know what you are talking about" (v. 70), "I don’t know the man" (v. 72), and finally he began to curse, "I don’t know the man!" (v. 74).

It was, though, that at the end of the third denial that maybe things got quiet enough for Peter to hear the rooster crow. Matthew solemnly writes, "Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly." (Matt. 26:75)

Now if the writers of the Gospels only left us with the phrase, "And he went outside and wept bitterly," then we would be left with a picture we are all too often familiar. That picture is that failure is final! Once we have blown it then we are forever doomed and can never rise above our failure. Peter may have gone outside, wept in despair over his failure, couldn’t bear to look at his Savior on the cross and gone into hiding. Yet when you hear the stories of the women finding the tomb empty you find Peter running to see if it was really true. In whatever way Peter may have failed, he didn’t let his failure paralyze him. Instead he took a step forward. It may have been only one step but he at least took a step. He just won’t quit! How did he do this and how can we do the same when we experience failure!

The first clue comes in Luke 24:34. It’s the story of the two disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the road outside of the city of Jerusalem. When they get to the other disciples, they say, "The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon." Then Paul writes of Jesus specifically appearing to Peter (I Cor. 15:5a). We don’t know when it happened, where it happened or how it happened but it’s just obvious that one of the people Jesus wanted to see after he arose was the one he had last looked in the eyes after he denied him three times. What brought Peter out of his despair was he encountered Christ!

I believe the first step you and I can make after failure is to step toward God. That encounter with Jesus Christ can come in unlimited ways but the fact is that is the first place we need to go but the last place we think to go. We imagine that God couldn’t want someone like us and that any sense of hope is gone. Yet the risen Jesus made it a special point to find Peter. If you are going to overcome your failure then as soon as possible get alone with God and let him meet you face to face.

The next thing you see is that Peter chose to stay close to the people who knew him best. The Angel tells the women in Mark 16:7, " 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.' " The Angel knew where Peter was—with the other disciples! I have no doubt that there was a lot of blame and accusations flying around that room wherever they were hiding. Yet whatever guilt and obvious blame and shame for which Peter felt responsible, he stayed close to people who knew him for who he really was.

Whenever we fail we want to hide. It’s a natural response. We may be ashamed, feeling guilty, hurt, broken, confused and the less we have to do with another human the better off we are. Yet the Bible says that we are to "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16). The way to healing passes through our relationships with those who know us best. When you fail, fight the desire to hide from those you really need.

For a man like Peter, being idle wasn’t an option. While Jesus told them before he died about his crucifixion and resurrection, he hadn’t told them what they were to do after those events. So Peter one day announces, "I’m going out to fish" (John 21:3). It made perfect sense! For only the last three years of his life had had been traveling around with Jesus. The previous years of his life had been spent fishing. It was what he knew best. I don’t believe it was a desire to forget his calling but just a way to fill in the gaps until things were clearer. He took action! He did the one thing he knew to do to start over!

Taking action is a very powerful thing. "The reason many people become paralyzed in discouragement is because they fail to devote the time or energy to understand what was involved in the first place, and then they fail to take action toward change…In any arena where you are concerned about failure, the single most destructive thing you can do is nothing." (Ortberg, p. 143-144). It is imperative for us to take action, start over—do something in spite of our failure. It’s simply making a decision to do the next right thing! That one positive step will move you closer to the door of the cave rather than staying hidden in the dark. Start over!

The occasion of Peter’s going fishing just happened to be the perfect opportunity for Jesus to give Peter a clear chance to settle his past once and for all. John tells us that when they had caught nothing that Jesus appeared to them on the bank and told them to fish on the other side of the boat. When they did, they caught a huge number of fish. They immediately knew it was Jesus and Peter, being Peter, threw himself over the side and ran to Jesus on the shore. After a breakfast of fish and bread, Jesus and Peter have a very intimate conversation. Just as Peter had denied Jesus three times, so Jesus asks Peter three times if he really loved him. Each time Peter, more aggressively, reaffirms his commitment and his love for Jesus. Jesus in turn gave Peter the responsibility to care for his followers! "Feed my lambs" (Jn. 21:15), "Take care of my sheep" (Jn. 21:16), and, "Feed my sheep" (Jn. 21:17). Through these challenges Peter reaffirmed his commitment to Christ.

When we fail we lose sight of what we have been called by God to do and to be. Down inside of you is that innate giftedness that has come to you by God’s grace. Your failure may be a result of failing to follow who you really are and trying to be what you are not. You have always felt a drawing to a certain calling in your life and now more than ever is the time to say, "Yes!" You have failed to hear what your life itself is saying, "Stop trying to be what you are not!" Jesus called Peter to a different kind of fishing. Through that he said out loud what he really felt about his commitment to Jesus. If you are going to overcome your despair when you fail, you must find a way to verbalize your commitment to Christ and to others!

There’s one last thing that we find Peter doing and that is when he was told to wait for the promise of God’s power he waited obediently. Jesus said to the disciples, "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) That is exactly what they did! Peter knew that he was now in a better place than when he started. He had encountered Christ, stayed close to the other disciples, started over and reaffirmed his own sense of calling. Now he’s told to wait for the power to come into his life. I am sure that sitting still was difficult for Peter but Jesus had made it clear that he was through with fishing and there was something greater for him.

When we sense we have somewhat worked through our failure and we are getting farther from the despair and pain, we may think we are ready for anything. Yet God still has us on hold. He sends us reminders that we are not ready, that the same things that got us into failure are the same things that are still there. So we are left to wait obediently on God. John Ortberg says, "Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active and sometimes painful clinging to God…it is the continual, daily decision to say, ‘I will trust you, and I will obey you. Even though the circumstances of my life are not turning out the way I want them to, and may never turn out the way I would chose, I am betting everything on you. I have no plan ‘B,’" (Ortberg, p. 181). Waiting obediently may be hard but it is in waiting that the power returns.

"Then Peter remembered…and he went outside and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). "Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb" (Luke 24:12). Peter shows us literally that the first step to take after failure is forward. That’s what you need to hear this morning. "This is your life, and these are your failures. No helicopter is going to come and whisk you always. No genie will pop out of a bottle to rescue you. No magic eraser will make things disappear. This is your life. You can’t get out of it so get into it. Take one step forward trusting God in an area where you feel failure!" (Ortberg, p. 147). The first step to take after failure is forward. True failure is refusing to take a step at all!

(Several quotes were used in this message from If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg, Zondervan, 2001.)

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org