Introduction: For twenty-two years Bill Buckner had a solid career in Major League Baseball. In 1986 Buckner was playing first base for the Boston Red Soxs. On October 26 of that year Boston was in the World Series playing the New York Mets in Game Six. In the 10th inning of Game 6 the Red Sox had taken a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th, but the Mets had tied the score and had Ray Knight at second with two out and Mookie Wilson facing reliever Bob Stanley. Wilson reached out and slapped a 3-2 pitch from Stanley down the first base line. Buckner, the first baseman, was waiting to field the ball. However, Buckner didn't get his glove low enough. The ball rolled through Buckner's legs for an error, and Knight scored from second base to give the Mets an unbelievable 6-5 victory. It was a single, a dribbler, an easy out, a little league ground out to first base. The Mets came back to win Game Seven and the Series.

Buckner said, "I knew it was going to be a close play at first because the guy (Wilson) runs so well. The ball went skip, skip, skip and didn't come up. The ball missed my glove. I can't remember the last time I missed a ball like that, but I'll remember that one." Buckner collected 2,715 hits, batted .289 and won a National League batting championship over a 22-year career that most players would die for. But Buckner, a three-time 100-RBI man, never will escape the infamy of an October night in 1986 when he let an innocent-looking ground ball scoot between his legs. That mistake on Buckner’s part destroyed a career that was exemplary. Just to show you that our mistakes can live on Buckner’s glove and cleats from that series were sold in 1999 a Sotheby’s Auction House.

I don’t know what became of Bill Buckner or truly how he handled that failure. I do know that the major difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure. In other words, how we see failure, how we respond to failure, is going to be absolutely critical in determining whether we get back up correctly and really learn from our failure. We’re all going to fail. The question is not, "Am I going to fall?" "Am I going to fail?" The question is, "Am I going to learn from my failure or am I going to let it destroy me?" I want to talk to you this morning about the response to failure — how we respond to the setbacks of life. I have observed it wasn’t the degree of our failure that probably messed us up as much as if we had a wrong response to that failure.

Visualize something with me for a moment. Imagine a horizontal line representing reality, this is just kind of the level plane of life that we live in. Now imagine another line above that one. This line represents our expectations, the things that we hope to be and hope to be able to accomplish. Now, between the reality line and the expectation line, that gap between those two lines is called disappointment. When we’re disappointed, we’re disappointed because we didn’t become who we wanted to become, or we didn’t get to achieve what we thought we would achieve. In other words, our failure to rise up and meet those expectations, many times, causes us to be greatly disappointed. Now if that continues, in fact, if the gap widens, we go from disappointment to discouragement. Then finally after a while, it’s just despair and we give up. How we respond to our difficulties, our setbacks, and our failures is vital in helping us to either overcome them or be overcome by them.

What are some wrong responses that all of have to failure in our life? John Maxwell points to some that I think we can all understand: Blow Up: Sometimes when I mess up or sometimes when I fail, I have a tendency to blow up, to get mad. Cover Up: Other times when I fail, my response is cover up. Speed Up: Sometimes when I fail, my tendency is to speed up. In other words, you kind of trip a little bit, and you just say, "Okay, I’ll make up for lost time," and you just kind of rush right through the next thing. Back Up: Then there are times when I fail, and what I really want to do is I just want to back up. In fact, sometimes I want to back up and say, "Oh my goodness, what did I do?" Give Up: I think the worst response that I have sometimes of failure is I want to give up. I just throw up my hands and I reach the place of despair where the gap between reality and expectation has become so wide that finally I realized, "I’m not going to make it. I’m not going to get where I want to go. I’m not going to achieve what I thought I was going to achieve."

This morning I want us to revisit this story of Peter’s failure of being faithful to Jesus and denial of Jesus. Whenever we think we have blown it we can always go back to this story and find hope. We can find hope because Jesus sought out Peter to restore him. Peter’s response to his failure and Jesus restoration can guide us as face our own time of failure.

I. The Gift of Hope for Real Failure (John 13:36-38, 18:1-18,25-27; 21:1-17)

To gain a more complete picture of this story you need to go back a few hours and for us a few chapters. The event we return to is Peter’s statement of refusal to deny his relationship with Jesus in John 13:36-38, "Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow later. Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times.’" Remember that in this chapter Jesus has washed the disciples' feet. When Jesus came to Peter he couldn't imagine Jesus lowering Himself to wash his feet so he refused Him. Jesus told him that if He didn’t wash his feet then he had no part as His disciple. Peter responded with such emotion, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." (John 13:9). When Jesus informed the group that one among them would betray Him, Peter affirmed his sole allegiance to Jesus, even if everyone else should fail. He said, "I will lay down my life for you." Jesus responded, "Will you lay down your life for me? Listen very closely, Peter, a rooster will not crow before you deny me not once but three times."

We are not told what Peter’s reaction was, John only records Jesus’ words in John 14 through John 17. In John 18 we find Jesus and his disciples leaving the room where they had shared the last supper and going to a garden that we know as Gethsemane. While they are there Judas escorts a contingent of Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders to the garden to arrest Jesus. Jesus identifies himself as the one they are seeking and asks that they let the others go. Now listen to verses 10 and 11: "Simon Peter therefore having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter, ‘Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?’" Peter came to the garden with Jesus, not to pray but to fight. In his emotion this time he doesn’t just speak his allegiance, but he attacks an aggressor! In the face of Jesus’ arrest Peter was ready to die! He wasn’t giving up without a fight!

When all the others had gone Peter still followed Jesus. There was another disciple who followed as they took Jesus away but we are not sure whom it was. It could have been John. We just don’t know. Peter and this unnamed disciple follow Jesus to the home of the High Priest whose name was Caiaphas. The homes of people of power like Caiaphas had a walled access to the street with a small gate through which you entered. The courtyard was open, facing a series of rooms where guests were received and business was conducted. Jesus was taken into such a room for interrogation by the Jews.

As Peter and the unnamed disciple approached the gate the unnamed disciple enters without a problem. The slave-girl knows the first disciple but doesn’t know Peter. As she lets Peter in she asks him a question phased in such a way to get a negative answer, "You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?" Before he even thought, Peter said, "I am not." Denial number one. Understand that Peter has affirmed his faithfulness to Jesus when no one else did or was even asked. He had carried a sword and used it to defend Jesus when they were surrounded. When all the others had ran out into the night Peter followed Jesus, risking his life. Yet when a teenager at the gate asks a thoughtless question, "You with Him, too?" Peter failed.

I can only imagine how Peter felt. Yet, Peter, already having failed once, tries to blend into the crowd and gathers around the fire warming himself. In the light of the fire the slaves and officers begin looking at Peter. He was not one of their group and obviously unknown to them. They can’t figure out why he’s there. Then they ask, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" Before he could gather his courage Peter lost it again and said, "I am not." Denial number two.

How long before the last question was asked we don’t know. One of the group, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off says, "Did I not see you in the garden with Him?" Again, when you’ve blown it twice, what’s one more time? Peter says, "No!" Then as soon as he speaks a rooster crows. John doesn’t record Peter’s reaction. Luke in his gospel does. "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had told him, ‘Before a cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:61-62).

Peter, unable to recover from the moral freefall, denies his relationship with Jesus. When the rooster crowed the eyes of Jesus met his. When His eyes met Peter’s the full effect of the guilt, the shame, the failure flooded his own heart and he left the fire and the crowd in absolute grief. Isn’t it amazing – it was the question of a teenager, the comfort of a crowd and an accusation by an unknown that attributed to the downfall of a truly courageous follower of Jesus Christ.

There is a pattern to our failure. It starts with arrogance. That feeling of smugness of apparent success or invincibility. Like Peter’s, "I’ll die for you" statement. Then there follows the unanticipated, blindsided, surprise attack catastrophe. "You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?" Almost instantly the consequences of failure erupt -- prosperity, security, reputation, health, relationships, to name a few—are lost. What follows the clear evidence of failure? Sometimes blame for others, denial, bitterness and anger, defiance and retribution. Peter, though, "wept bitterly."

I want us to look at Peter’s life because he handled his failures correctly. It would seem though that Peter has reached the point where he just gave up because after Peter has not only denied the Lord, he has gone back fishing. However Jesus will not allow Peter to remain in his failure. Jesus comes down to the seashore at Galilee. He gets some charcoal, and he begins to build a fire, and he’s cooking breakfast for the disciples. From a distance they recognize who it is, and come up to the shore.

I’m going to read one verse; John 21:9, and this is interesting. "When they got there, they saw that a charcoal fire was burning and fish were frying over it, and there was bread." I want to stop here for a moment because the phrase "charcoal fire" is only used one other time in the gospels. It happens to be used when it describes Peter’s denial of the Lord. Remember he was warming himself by a charcoal fire when one came up and said, "You’re one of the disciples," and he denies the Lord. Now, of all of the five senses we have, the sense of smell is the one that you never lose and never forget. It’s the one that stays with the memory longer than any others.

When Peter came charging up on the shore of Galilee that day the first thing he did when he came out of the water is he smells that charcoal fire. I have no doubt in my mind that his mind immediately raced back to the fact that just a few weeks previous, it was by the charcoal fire that he had denied the Lord without question. Yet it would be by the fire that Peter is restored. The evil one would have come alongside of Peter and thrown up his failure just like he wants to throw up the failures that you and I have had in our life. But there are four things that Peter did this day that if we do, we can real hope for our failure.

Get God’s perspective about your failure (John 21:15-17): If we get God’s perspective about our failure , that will be the first step to experience real hope for our failure. In verse 15, after breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes Master, you know I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Then he asked him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes master, you know I love you." Jesus said, "Shepherd my sheep." Three times Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" In fact, by the third time, Peter is becoming exasperated. He said, "Master, you know everything. You know that I love you."

Now isn’t it interesting that Jesus simplifies the relationship that we have with him with one single qualification. The question is, "Do you love me?" May I say if I would have been Jesus and Peter would have denied me, I don’t think I would have asked him the question when I met him again, "Do you love me?" I think I would have wanted to confront him in a way he wouldn’t forget. Yet Jesus understood that at the heart of Peter’s failure was a love problem, a relationship issue. So Jesus as always, in your life and in my life, when we fail, always comes directly to what the issue is. So number one, get God’s perspective on your failure. In Peter’s life, his problem was a love issue.

Get serious about God’s priorities in spite of your failure: You see, Jesus not only asked Peter if he loved him, but he said, "Peter, let me ask you this question. Do you love me more than these?" He could have been asking, "Peter, do you love me more than these other disciples that are gathered up here on the shore today?" That would have cut deep because you remember it was Peter who, in the upper room before the death of Christ, boasted, "Lord, I can’t speak for the rest of these disciples, but let me tell you one thing. I’m going to stand by you. You can count on me." Yet Peter is the one that messed up.

So for Jesus to say, "Peter, do you love me more than these?" I think what he was asking when he said, "Peter, do you love me more than these?" I don’t think he was talking about the other disciples. I think he was talking about the boats and the nets and all the fishing gear. Because when Peter failed Christ, his first response was to go back to the world that he loved and knew. Jesus understood that if he was ever going to get back up and follow him successfully he was going to have to make a decision of who he was really going to serve. "Peter, do you love me more than these?" He asks that question of me. He asks that question of you. When we fail we can go back to the way we were or focus on what God wants us to be.

Get on God’s agenda for your life (Jn.21: 15-17): Jesus tells Peter what his agenda for Peter is and repeats it clearly. He tells him he is to, "tend my sheep…shepherd my sheep…feed my sheep". I believe Jesus was saying, "Peter, I just want you to understand that as you follow me for the rest of your life, up until now you kind of called the shots, did your thing, had a lot of options." But he said, "It’s not going to be that way anymore." Here Peter began to really understand what our Lord’s agenda for Peter was.

God has an agenda for each of us. When we fail we lose sight of that. We wonder what our purpose is and what happened to all our plans and ideas. We are tempted to walk away from God’s purpose. What must happen is that we return to Him and open our life once again to His agenda for us.

Get focused on God’s direction for your life (Jn.21: 19, 22): Notice the repetition of these words, "follow me …you follow me…" The fourth thing that Jesus said to Peter and he says to us is, "Make up your mind to focus on Christ." In verse 19 when Jesus commanded Peter to follow him, I want you to notice what happened. He said, "Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple that Jesus loved following right behind." Get the picture. So Jesus has said, "Peter, I want you to know that now in the remaining years of your life I want you to go lose your options. You’re going to go where you don’t want to go. Things are going to happen to you that you don’t in the least want to happen to you. Through it all I want you to follow me." Now Peter is getting up, and he’s starting to follow Jesus, but he notices that John is right over here. He kind of turns around and notice what it says. He noticed John and then he said, "Master, what’s going to happen to him?"

Do you know what Peter was saying? He was saying, "Hey, I know discipleship is tough. I’m willing to take up my cross. I guess I’m willing to go where I don’t want to go. But let me just say something to you, Lord. Before I follow you, I’ve got a question and that is John over here. Is that all going to happen to him too?" In other words, "Lord, I want to tell you right now, I don’t mind suffering as long as John suffers. I just want you to know, Lord, it could be tough, but Lord, I want to tell you something. If it’s going to be tough on me, I don’t mind that as long as it’s tough on everyone."

You see, one of the toughest things about our failures is when we’re at our lowest point, we look around, and there are some, but they don’t seem to be failing. There’s some that don’t seem to be messing up. There are some that just seem to be going the right direction and climbing the heights and we’re kind of falling in the aisle and stumbling. We look around and we say, "Dear God, I don’t mind failing, but could we all fail together?" Here’s the good news and the bad news. The good news is we all fail together. But the bad news is the evil one would like you to think that your failure is bigger than anyone else’s, and that your day is darker than anyone else’s, and your situation is more helpless than anyone else’s. But Jesus says to you, to me, to all of us, to Peter, "Focus on me."

Conclusion: Peter really is the failure we all know and we all know his failure. We know it because it’s ours. The question is, "Do we know the grace Peter found?" God’s perspective, priorities, agenda and direction can all become lost when we fail. He still waits by the fires of our failure to restore us. The choice is ours to accept His perspective, priorities, agenda and direction. We can wallow in our failure or receive His grace.

The Legend of Bagger Vance is a movie about a mythical golf match, set in 1930s Savannah, Georgia, involving golf legends Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, and hometown ace Rannulph Junuh. As a teenager, Junuh (played by Matt Damon) had tremendous promise as a golfer. But after his World War I tour of duty, he is marred psychologically and loses interest in golf. Content to gamble and drink, Junuh is a recluse until his former girlfriend invites him to join Jones and Hagen in an exhibition match. Throughout the movie, Junuh seeks to find purpose in his life, though he is fearful of what that purpose might be.

During the exhibition match, with four holes to play in the final round, Junuh successfully overcame his several strokes deficit and took a two-stroke lead. But by the sixteenth hole, he trails again. On the seventeenth hole, he slices his tee shot deep into the woods. As he enters the dark forest to find his ball, panic overtakes him. The steam evaporating from the ground triggers memories of smoking battlefields where he watched all his company die. His hands tremble and he drops his clubs. Upon finding his ball, he calls it quits. He remembers why he quit playing golf and started drinking. Just then, Bagger, his golfing mentor, finds him and asks which club he'd like from his bag. He proceeds to tell Junuh that his problems have to do with the grip the past holds on him.

"Ain't a soul on this entire earth got a burden to carry he can't understand," Bagger consoles. "You ain't alone in that. But, you've been carrying this one long enough. It's time to lay it down." Junuh admits, "I don't know how!" Bagger replies, "You got a choice. You can stop, or you can start walking right back to where you've been and just stand there. It's time for you to come out of the shadows, Junuh! It's time for you to choose!" "I can't," Junuh protests. "Yes, you can," Bagger counters. "You're not alone. I'm right here with you. I've been here all along. Now play the game. Your game. The only one you were meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. Now's the time!"

Today you may need to hear the Lord Jesus say, "I know you have failed. Understand you're not alone. I'm right here with you. I've been here all along. Now play the game. Your game. The only one you were meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. Now's the time!"

Sunday, September 23, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org