4-5-26 Peter's Second Chance (Easter)

Join our "special guest" Peter as he recounts his experience surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Transcript

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Good morning. Thank you for having me today. Grace and peace from the Lord. I am the Apostle Peter. And I want to share a little bit about my life, and everything that I have to say is found in the Gospels, especially in the one that was written by my brother John. You know, this is a time to share, and my life was changed one day when I was out fishing with my brother and my cousins, and Jesus comes walking along and he says, follow me. And we abandon our nets, we abandon our boats, we followed him, and it was the beginning of an incredible adventure. He gave me a new name along the way. See, my name is Simon, but Jesus said, from here on out, you will be Cephas. That's the Aramaic word for rock. Petrus, Peter, the Greek word for rock. It was a great name, a name to live up to. Strong, solid, something you could count on, Rocky, the guy that was there that you could depend on. I intended to show Jesus that I could live up to that name. See, Jesus was like no other person I had ever met. No other man was like him. He taught people about God as if he had been in the very presence of God bringing the message to us. He healed people, including my mother-in-law, when she had a terrible fever. He caused the blind to see, he caused the lame to be able to walk, he caused the deaf to hear. He led us and he taught us and he loved us along the way. He was devoted to us. I was the one who first recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. He asked, Who do people say that I am? And we told him various things. And he said, Who do you think I am? And I said, You are the one, the one sent by God, the very Messiah, the Son of God. I was very proud of doing that. He said, God himself had revealed that to me, not human things. When others left him, when they got upset at his teaching and went away, it was I who answered for the twelve and said, Where else could we go, Jesus? You are the one who has life. You are the one that can bring us eternity. We'll not abandon you. I would follow Jesus anywhere he led. So you can imagine my feelings and how sad I was when he told me that where he was going, me and the others could not go. It was that night that we were gathered together for the Passover meal, the night before he was betrayed, and he got us all together, and after supper, he took a towel and wrapped it around him, and he came and started washing our feet. The master washing the disciples' feet. When he came to me, I said, No, I will never let you do this. And he said, Unless I do this, you have no place in me. And then I said, Well, Lord, if you're going to do that, then wash my feet and my hands and my head too. And he said, No, this is all you need to be cleansed. I didn't understand at the time, but later I realized he was doing symbolically what he would do for us eternally by cleansing our sin away. But I argued with Jesus later that night when he said, I could not follow him. I said, Jesus, you know, you know I will follow you anywhere. I will fight for you. I will be there when you need me. And then Jesus said, Will you, Peter? Will you? Before the cock crows in the morning, you will have denied me three times. What? Me? No way. The rock, the solid one, the one that recognized? Not me. I would fight and I would die for him instead. And folks, I did fight for him. I drew my sword and I cut off the servant of the high priest's ear. And Jesus told me, there in the garden, when they come to arrest him, put away your sword, Peter. He healed the man's ear. And then he said to those that came with swords and staves, I'm the one you're looking for. I'll come with you. Let these go, meaning me and the other disciples. He traded himself over for us. He gave himself up for us, the one that had the power to do something completely different. The one who had been betrayed by one of his own followers. I couldn't believe this was happening. I couldn't believe God's Messiah was doing this. So I followed along to see what would happen next, in expectation at some point he would show his power. God would deliver him. We came to the high priest's house where they were putting him on trial. They were able to get me into the courtyard. And as I went into the courtyard, the maid came up and said, You, you're one of his followers. And I denied him. I said, No, I'm not. I'm not his follower. As Jesus is admitting his role in front of the high priest, I denied it to the woman. And another one said, Your accent gives you way. You're a Galilean, too. You too were with him. And I said, No, I wasn't. And then a third one said, I think I saw you in the garden with him. And I denied with a curse. At that moment, I heard the rooster crow, and Jesus turned and looked at me. It was the worst thing I could have ever done. The rock turned to sand. Three times I denied him. In his hour of greatest need, I failed him. I, who said I would follow him anywhere, got scared, got panicked, got nervous, got self-focused, got afraid. I didn't understand what was going on. I didn't realize yet that he had to die. And die he did on the cross. They tried him, they found him guilty of blasphemy. They beat him, they made him carry a cross as far as he could go, and then they nailed him to that cruel cross. Where was his rock? Where was his follower? Where was his loyal guy that he could always count on? Hiding, afraid, feeling the guilt and the shame and all that went with it. He did spiritually on that cross what he did symbolically when he washed our feet clean. And I was devastated by my own failure to be there to support him. I loathed myself. I hated myself for that. I was in sorrow and grief, but that was not the end, folks. That was not the end. Today is resurrection day. Today is the day that we call the Lord's day. Today is about second chances. Jesus is alive, and I know because I saw the empty tomb. It happened a few days after the crucifixion. Some of the women went out to care for Jesus' body where he had been buried. And they came back telling us his body is not there. The tomb is empty. And John and I ran. John was faster than me. He got there quicker, but I went inside the tomb and there laid where Jesus' body was, all folded up. The cloth that had been on his face, the things that had wrapped him up. He was not there. Later that day, he appeared to me and the other disciples after he had already appeared to the women. Jesus alive with the marks of his death on his very hands and feet and sighed. Jesus, the Lord, alive, resurrected in power. Jesus confirmed to be the one that he said he was. We were celebrating. We were so excited. We were so overjoyed that Jesus was with us again. But this is the question I had, folks. This is what lurked inside my mind and my heart. What did he think of me now? What did he think of the one who had denied him three times in his very presence? What did he think of the one he had counted on who had not been there for him? I wish so much that I could go back and change that, transform that, but none of us have the power to go back and change our past. None of us have the ability to redo things in life. But this isn't the end of the story. It happened again when we were fishing. I said to the other disciples, I'm going fishing, and they said, We'll go with you. And seven of us went out and we went in the boat, and all night long we cast our nets. Usually the fish are there, but none were caught. And then as dawn was breaking, we saw somebody on the shore by a little fire. And he yells, Did you catch anything? And we said, No. And he says, Throw the net over the side of the boat one more time. And when we did, the net almost broke. There were so many fish in there. John said, It's the Lord. And I grabbed my clothing and I jumped into the water and swam to shore because I couldn't wait to see him. He was standing there with a little fire and some fish on the fire. And then I went back and I helped him pull in the net a hundred and fifty-three fish caught in the net and yet it didn't tear apart. And then we gathered around the fire. And that's when it happened. Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And I said, Lord, you know I loved you. And he said, Feed my sheep. And then again he said, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And I said, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said, tend my flock. And the third time, he said, Simon, do you love me more than these? And I said, Lord, you know everything. You know how much I love you. And he said, Feed my lambs. And then he said those fateful words that made me understand everything had changed. Look with me in John 21, 18 and 19, and see if you can catch that there. Very truly I tell you, Jesus said, When you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten the belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go. He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God. After this, he said to him, Follow me. Did you catch that? The exact same words he told me when he first arrived in my life. Follow me. Three times he asked me if I loved him. Three times I told him yes. Just like I had denied him three times. And then he took me back. He said, Follow me. See, when I had denied him, I'd really not denied who Jesus was. He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God. He was the one that was sent for our salvation. That didn't change. When I denied him, I had denied who I am. I had said I was not a follower of Jesus, but I am. He took me back. He accepted me. He gave me a second chance and washed away all the shame, all the guilt, all the sin that was there. And follow him I did. From that point on, I stood up in front of crowds, filled with the Holy Spirit that came upon us in Pentecost. I talked to anybody that would listen to me. I was threatened. I was beaten. I was thrown in prison. I wrote letters to the churches. I traveled all over the Roman Empire sharing Jesus Christ. And yes, the day came in Rome where I was taken and I was crucified with the one request that they would crucify me upside down because I did not deserve to die the same way that my Lord did. Jesus took me back. I became his disciple and followed him. Will you follow him? Maybe there's something in your past that's like a ball and chain around you that won't let you go. But he has the power to overcome that. Maybe you've got issues that you struggle with every day. Maybe it's temptations, maybe it's addictions, maybe it's mental issues or spiritual issues or things that have happened in your past that just can't seem to be gone. Maybe you want to do good, and yet it's so easy to hurt those around you or to hurt yourself. Maybe there's just that longing in your heart, that knowing that life has to be more than the cycle, the rat race that I'm in. It has to be more than the daily grind and the difficulties that I'm dealing with. He has the power to deliver you from your past. He has the ability to wash you clean, to get rid of not only your sin, but your guilt and your shame. He has the ability, the power to give you a second chance. Those things that are so difficult to come by in life. Not only does he have the power to do that, that's exactly what Jesus wants to do. To accept you back, to love you, and to provide for you the future you could never reach on your own. He's like no one else you'll ever get to know. And because he is alive, you can get to know him. You can invite him into your heart, you can follow him, you can learn what it means to be forgiven, to be included, to be a part of the very people of God, with the future that God has planned as your future. This is resurrection day. This is Easter, the day that we celebrate that because Jesus Christ is alive, you and I can have a second chance, and sometimes a third and a fourth and a fifth chance. Will you please pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the incredible love that you showed us through your son Jesus Christ. The incredible love that compelled him to go to the cross that we might have life through him. Lord, teach us what it means to be your people, to serve you and glorify you. We thank you, we honor you, and we praise you for Jesus. And we pray these things in his name. Amen.