What Is Your Greatest Forgiveness?

Hi, I'm Matthew. My co-hosts, Brianna, Michael, Paul, and I have found life beyond Mormonism to be brighter than we were told it would be.

Join us for discussions about our journeys from Mormon to Jesus. I'm Brianna from the Outer Brightness Podcast. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. What's your biggest failure? Where have you blown it more than any other time in your life? But what has been your biggest forgiveness, your biggest restoration, where God took that failure and turned it into something magnificent? Well, that's what we're talking about today on Experience Truth.

I'm Stu Epperson. We're looking at the denial of Peter, likely, most likely, the most dark moment in the life of this apostle who denied Christ after pledging his full support. With me is a special guest today, the Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore, to read the passage and guide us through these questions.

Robbie, we just have a couple more questions to the end here, but this is so deep. Christ has been betrayed by Judas, stabbed in the back, betrayed with a kiss. Now he's being denied by Peter, the one that he thought was the one who would lead the church, the one that he had so many hopes for.

Read the passage to will you, Robbie, and then we'll get into the final questions here. So Luke 22, 54 through 62, having arrested him, they led him and brought him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed at a distance. Now, when they'd kindled a fire at the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them, and a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, This man was also with him. But he denied him, saying, Woman, I don't know him. And after a while, another saw him and said, You are also of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not.

Then after about an hour passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean. But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying. Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord.

How he had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So Peter went out, and he wept bitterly." So here we have Peter denying Christ three times. Now, some interesting points about this particular passage of Scripture that some folks may not know. It's in all four of the Gospels, the denial of Peter. Matthew 26, verses 69-75, Mark 14, 66-72, and John chapter 18, verses 15-27 record this. Matthew and Mark tell us of Peter's repeated cursing and swearing and oath. Mark records two rooster crows, and John combines the three denials with the three corresponding events of Christ's trials, and records that the third accuser is actually a relative of Malchus. So he gives us that detail, whose ear was cut off by Peter. John also tells us how Peter gains access to the gated courtyard area, but only Luke records the famous look, which we talked about that, when it says when Jesus looked at Peter. Imagine being on the receiving end of the gaze of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to close, by the way, today with a poem by slave trader, derelict, pagan, profane man by the name of John Newton, who was radically saved, converted, and became a huge Christian author, and wrote songs and everything.

He wrote a poem called, The Look, that's been recorded as a song. I'll read that at the end of this broadcast. Robbie, on Experience Truth Today, we're looking at the Scriptures, we're journeying through the book of Luke every week. You've got two more questions here in the bottom.

Hit us with, I guess, that one right there. What is the difference between Peter here, in other words, Peter at this situation, and Peter at Pentecost? How was he restored? Yeah, so something happened between this event, this betrayal, the depth of Peter's depravity and sin, where he betrayed the one who came to save him, the one who called him, the one who even renamed him, the rock, from Simon to Peter. Here he's betrayed Christ three times. Something happened between that event and the event of Pentecost, where here you have this strong, bold leader of the Church standing up, preaching the Gospel. Thousands come to Christ, he leads the early Church, he's a bold disciple apostle, he's doing signs and wonders. It says they're even looking to touch a handkerchief that Peter had touched, right, so they could be healed by it. He just has this power of the Holy Spirit running through him.

So what was the difference? John 21, Jesus has made some breakfast, the disciples have been fishing, Peter comes in, Christ asks them three times, do you love me? And it's a great study, and if you nuance the different Greek words for love there, you got agape, you got phileo, you got all these ones, but Jesus, Peter, who denied Christ three times, Jesus, in John chapter 21, restores him. But not once, but three times.

One for each of those denials. And it's very powerful, Robbie. But it's neat to see how Christ, and this is a great question, can Christ take your worst blow-up, your worst total sin, evil that you've done? Everyone listening to me right now, you've messed up beyond maybe what you think, you've never even shared someone, your sin and your shame. Can Jesus heal that? Can he bring about healing? And not only does Jesus forgive Peter for this horrible betrayal and denial, but he fully restores him.

He fully says, now you're going to feed my sheep. So he restores you so that you can go and do something supernatural, so that he can use you to heal and touch others. So every one of us are broken vessels. Every one of us are bruised, broken, struggling human beings, and God takes the tragedy of our sin and the evil and the darkness and the pain of our past, Robbie, to restore us so that we can be used mightily. And this is exactly what Jesus eventually did with Peter. But if you look at the text here, Peter denies him three times. The Lord turned and looked at Peter, verse 61, and then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So Jesus had said it.

His word is true, even in predicting this kind of thing. So Peter went out and he wept bitterly. So we have a totally different Peter here, at the bottom of the bottom, from a Peter at Pentecost who's boldly preaching and bringing souls to Christ. But isn't it awesome to see how God transformed that man? There's so much there, because to me another interesting comparison is, if you'd been at dinner that night with Judas and Peter, I think Judas knew what he was going to do, and it was not a surprise to him what he did, because he wasn't wearing the mask that Peter was. This one caught Peter completely by surprise. And I really think Jesus was teaching him through allowing these three people to tempt him in three obviously different ways to penetrate this mask that Peter had that was actually keeping Peter from his full strength and his full glory. And so by removing not one but two but three different coverings that Peter had been relying on to get through life, he was able to actually connect with God, like you said at the very beginning. That what was standing between him, why was he following at a distance? It's because, like me, my wife can tell you all the reasons that I keep her at a distance that I'm not aware of.

And if you really want an interesting exercise sometime, ask your wife. How do you feel like I'm holding you at an arm's length? And oh my goodness, she'll give you a Jesus example.

Here's some masks you're wearing. And there's a sound that happens in this story, and I don't know what the sound is in your life, but it's the rooster crow. So here's a question. Do you think that Peter ever heard a rooster crow the same again? You think about it later on in his life.

He's out preaching somewhere in Antioch or something. It's early in the morning. He's getting up for his prayers and he hears a rooster crow. What do you think went through his mind?

Here's a question. What's your rooster's crow? What is that sound that you associate your greatest failure with? And when your enemy brings up your failure, do you go to the one who carried your failure on the cross? How has God used your failures to lead others to him? And so here you have another man, Saul, a terrorist, murdering, bloody murdering the early Christians, Acts 8.1. He says he was fuming, he was ravaging the early church.

They're like a wild animal, ripping people out of their homes and putting them in prison for their faith. And yet he became one of the greatest missionaries of the early church. So God restored. Now, yeah, Peter and Judas, what a contrast. Both failed, but only one truly repented and received the offer of Christ's grace. And look at how mightily that Peter was used after that to strengthen the brethren and lead many to Christ. So I love what one preacher said. He said, God threw our sin into the sea of forgetfulness, and he put up a sign that said, no fishing.

So there's a real powerful restoration. And so I want to close with this poem, Robbie, but hit us with those last two questions real quick for people to kind of rhetorical to get people thinking. How has his grace healed and restored you, even at your lowest point? And how can my life be an open confession of Jesus and the gospel? Meaning that at this point, Peter needed Jesus.

Peter didn't know he needed Jesus like he ended up needing him. Right. Yeah. So your failures, a lot of your failures show up in the form of scars. We all have scars. You won't have those scars in heaven, but one person in heaven will have scars in his hands, his feet, and his eyes. Jesus. And the reason that he does have scars is to get us there, because those scars, by those stripes, we are healed.

Isn't that cool? And so while we have these scars on earth, they're simply to show him, to point to the one who eternally bears in his body our sins on the cross and what he did for us. So this is a powerful story, so I want to challenge everyone out there to think about your failure, but think about God's grace and your failure, and how are you using that to share with people out there who are struggling, who are empty, who are hurting. You have a story. Tell your story. Tell his story of what he's done in your life, okay? So this is what John Newton wrote.

It's called The Look. It's actually a song by Sovereign Music that's put together. Maybe one time we'll play it. We can't play it for this episode because we're out of time, but listen to this song that was turned into a song, a poem by John Newton, a former slave trader who had all kinds of scars, who scarred a lot of people, brutal profane man, but got radically saved, and actually got on the campaign to free slaves. And he wrote another song called Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound That Saved a Wretch Like Me.

But this is what he wrote. He wrote, I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood, who fixed his loving eyes on me as near his cross I stood. And never till my dying breath will I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me into despair. I saw my sins. His blood had spilt and helped to nail him there.

But with a second look, he said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom paid. I died that you might live. Forever etched upon my mind is the look of him who died, the lamb I crucified. And now my life will sing the praise of pure atoning grace that looked on me and gladly took my place. For thus, while his death my sin displays, for all the world to view, such is the mystery of grace. It seals my pardon, too. So that look Jesus gave to Peter was, yes, a look of absolute guilt.

You were caught. But there is a look of powerful grace that changed everything in Peter's life as he looked in the eyes of Jesus, as Christ looked into him. And as he looks into you, what does he see? And are you allowing those eyes to penetrate your heart and his word to penetrate your heart to change and to correct and to transform your heart by his mighty grace?

We're done. This week on Experience Truth. Thanks for being here.

Thanks for listening. Go share the truth. Study the word. Memorize the word. Read the word. Teach the word. Hear the word. Are you under a steady diet of scripture? Are you going to a church that teaches the Bible, God's word? Not just about the Bible, but from the word of God, because that's what's so powerful that points to the Savior, the author, Jesus Christ himself. We'll be back here next time. I'm Stu Everson. We'll be back here next time with more Experience Truth on Truth Talk. This is the Truth Network.