Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Luke 22 is where you have to start. And if I can't explain this morning with a heart of love.
We've all blown it. And it's not surprising to God that we have. or that we will. And but you and I oftentimes when we have blown it can Get to a point where you feel like, well, because I have What's the use in trying? What's the use in Trying to get back to where I was.
There's no use. you know, and we can kind of go a wrong direction. after it. I want you to look just real quick at the passages that Brother Frank read, and I want you to see something interesting before we talk about the failure. of Peter.
We could go to a number of Bible characters today, but... I got to be honest, of all of them. We could go to David. David really blew it. We could go to a number of them, but.
There's something about the fact that Peter did this to Jesus himself.
Now, when we sin, we're doing it to Jesus. But the fact that here's Peter who had lived with him, walked with him, served with him. And the remorse, the regret, the guilt. That Peter felt. But we have to start in Luke 22, verse 31.
This is The day before the crucifixion, and Jesus is meeting in the upper room. Notice verse 31, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold. In other words, And I want you to listen to me. Satan hath desired to have you. Which is the case for every one of us.
But he's letting Peter know something.
Now I want you to notice real closely. Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you. as wheat. This word sift literally means to separate. What he is saying is, Peter, Satan is desiring to separate you from your faith.
He's desiring to expose your weakness. Everything that you believed and held to, and you left a fishing career, you left your boat, you left the fish, and you followed me, but Satan is now wanting to separate you from that commitment that you've made. Then notice what he says, but I have prayed for thee. that thy faith Notice closely, fail not. And when thou art converted...
Strengthen thy brethren.
Now, are we talking about when you when you finally get saved, Peter? No. We know from context of Scripture that Peter was already saved. Let me explain. This word converted comes from a Greek word which is epistrepho, which doesn't mean a whole lot to you, but let me tell you what it means.
It means to come back, to return. It's used in scripture both of turning to God in salvation and of turning back to God. in restoration. In this verse, Peter is already a believer. He's followed Jesus for years.
In Matthew 16, he has confessed him as the Christ. He has believed.
So we know that Peter was saved and he even left everything to serve Christ and became a disciple, a real disciple, not just calling himself one. He actually did what everybody else talks about.
So, converted here is not talking about his initial salvation. It means Jesus is literally saying, Peter, Satan wants you badly. And he wants to sift you, and he is going to try to separate you from your faith. And if you notice here, Jesus never prays that Peter would not fail. He never says, but I have prayed for you that you won't fail.
Jesus already knew he was going to. How many of you believe Jesus knows all things? Jesus already knew what was going to happen. He knew that Peter was going to fail. What he prayed was: I'm praying that your faith.
won't fail. In other words, when you mess up, Peter. Jesus is laying this out for when you mess up, Satan is going to try to separate you from that faith. And not only by sin, but by guilt. Even after you mess up, now Satan's going to do everything he can do to get you to sin.
And then, once he gets you to sin, he's going to do everything he can do to beat you up with guilt. That somehow, in one of those, he can separate you from your faith. And Jesus says, Peter, I've prayed for you, not that you won't fail. I know you will. But I prayed that your faith won't.
fail. And then of course we know Peter's response. Boy, he could really talk, couldn't he? My dad always said that Peter was his favorite Bible character. Because Peter was a motor mouth.
He always talked and thought later. Look at verse 33, and he said unto him, Lord, I am ready. Phew. Can I challenge you something today? You're not ready.
Carwin, look at me. You're not ready. For everything Satan's going to throw at you. If you think you're ready, you're already in trouble. Peter says, Lord, I'm ready to go with thee.
Both into prison? And to death.
Sounds good. Jesus said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day. before thou shalt Three times, thrice deny. Not that you love me, not that I. that you follow me.
You're going to deny that you even know me. This big commitment that Peter made, Jesus says this in less than 24 hours. you're going to break that commitment three times.
So are you with me this morning? Jesus was not surprised. that Peter failed. He was not surprised that Peter blew it. Can I challenge you this morning?
Jesus is not surprised. that you have either. Jesus tells Peter three things here, and I just wanted to get into it. They're not on the screen, but. First, Jesus says, Peter, there's going to be a sifting.
And I want everybody here at Kerwin to know in your life. Satan is desiring to sift you.
Well, preacher, Satan can't separate me from what I believe. I believe what I believe.
Well, that's true. But to live out your faith means coming to God's house. It means being around God's people. It means getting into God's word. It means sharing the gospel to others.
And Satan is doing everything he can do to separate you from that faith. And Satan will do everything he can do to get you out of church and been out of shape. There will be a sifting. Second, Jesus says there will be a supplication. Did you notice what Jesus said?
But I prayed for you. And I want you to know today Jesus prays for you. Do you know that? That the Son of God Praise for you individually. He knows what Satan's trying to do.
And he knows you're going to fail. Third, there's going to be a strengthening. He says, but when you're converted, when you return, when you come back. You're going to be uniquely gifted now to strengthen. The brethren.
So, number one, tonight, if you're keeping notes, well, tonight, me and I already, it's a busy day ahead, so. I'm already behind the ball, I guess. Number one, I want you to see the failure of Peter. The failure of Peter. Uh Now we go to Luke 22, verse 54.
This is a little bit later in the day. The Bible says then they took him, Jesus, and led him and brought him into the high priest house. Notice this. And Peter followed afar off. Notice first the distance.
He created This failure began because he allowed a distance between him and Christ. And I want you to know the beginning of every failure you and I have. is allowing a distance to be there. Allowing that closeness to slip.
Now, you can blame it on anything else you want to, and you can say, Well, I was just tempted more than I was able, and we can say a lot of things, but I'll tell you why it happens because somewhere along the way, we allowed a distance in our relationship with Christ. Peter, what did Peter just say earlier in this passage and just a few hours before that? I'm ready to go with thee. But now, already, he's not with him, he's away from him.
Now he's afar off. Notice, secondly, I want you to see the danger he courted in verse 55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together, Peter sat down among them.
Now, obviously, they're bringing in Jesus to be tried and to be scourged and all these things. And here we are that Peter just told Jesus, I'm going to go with you.
Now he's created a distance. And notice now, now he's sitting among them.
Now he's not just away from Christ, but now he's getting closer to the world. And a distance with Christ always brings us closer. to the world.
Now he's among them. He was supposed to be with him, he said, but now he's among them, the danger that he courted. And by the way, can I tell you something? You're courting danger when you now feel more comfortable around the world. Then you do the people of God.
Now I know there's hypocrites in church. But there's hypocrites in NASCAR too. There's hypocrites in the golf course too. I've seen them. They're in the woods for an hour.
I hear a ball hit 13 times and somehow they only got a bogey when the hole is done. There's hypocrites everywhere you go. But normally There's a distance and then there's a danger. Notice third, the denial he committed. Look at verse 57, and he denied him, saying, woman, I know him not.
This woman sees him and she says, Hey, aren't you with woman? I know him not. The denial he committed. I want you to notice in verse 58 we see the drift, he continued. And after a little while another saw him and said, Thou art also of them.
Now what do you mean them? That means that Jesus, although he was being scourged, there were some disciples that at least stayed around him. She didn't say you're with him, she says, you're with them. But Peter had decided to go afar off, and Peter was now among them instead of where he should be. And now another person sees and says, Hey, you're with them.
And notice what he says here. Man I am not.
Now we see the Drift he continued. Just kept going and going and going.
Next, we see the direction he chose. Look at verse. And about the space of one hour, after another confidently affirmed, saying, Wait a minute. You're lying. Of a truth, this fellow was with him.
For he is a Galilean and Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest.
Now he three times has gone from A denial to drifting further. To now he's chosen a direction. I want you to notice Next, the discovery he was confronted with. Verse 60, and Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. Notice this, and immediately while he yet spake, the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter.
Peter, could you imagine that look? Can you imagine Peter seeing Jesus who just said, Satan's coming at you. And I'm just praying for you that your faith won't fail. And Peter opening up his mouth, I'll follow you. I'm ready to die.
I'm ready to go to prison. And he's afar off, and he gets among them. And now he denies. And as soon as the sound of The crowing Jesus looks upon him. Notice, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord.
How he had said unto him before the cock crow, Thou shalt deny me. Thrice.
So, where does this end up? Look at verse 62, the next verse. We see the devastation he carried. And Peter went out and wept. Bitterly.
Help. I blew it. Can you imagine if there has ever been anybody that felt like they have blown it worse than Peter feels right here? Notice the succession here. We went from distance to danger to denial to drift.
decision and then to devastation.
Now here's what's interesting. This is the last time Peter is specifically mentioned. Until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is not mentioned during the scourging. He is not mentioned.
During the beginning of the crucifixion, he's not mentioned. During the crucifixion, It's not mentioned where he was.
Now, I can't imagine.
Now, the Bible does tell us some of the people that were there when Jesus was crucified.
So, I have a feeling if Peter was there, something would have been said. But what we realize is that Peter denied him, realized what he's done, realized how badly he blew it, and now. He's too ashamed. Too full of guilt. to watch the very man he denied.
Die for his sin. I don't know if he was there. If he watched from a distance. I just don't know. Have you ever blown it?
There might be some of you sitting here today. You're like, preacher, help. I've blown it. What do I do?
Well, I want you to notice number two, the forgiveness of Christ. And by the way, can I tell you something? When you have blown it, when you have failed, there is always forgiveness. available. No, I'm not saying that Earthly humans might Forgive you.
They might not forgive you. And they might not forgive you for a while. But I will tell you what is guaranteed is that when you come to Christ, he will forgive you.
Now, we come into a territory here where we don't know a lot about, but I do want you to know something a little bit interesting.
Now, I want you to notice this first passage in Mark chapter 16. We've not heard anything about Peter. He denies Christ. Jesus goes to the crucifixion. He's obviously put into the tomb.
He's there three days. But in Mark 16, here's what's interesting. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man.
So we know these individuals. I won't go into all that right now. But here, part of Jesus' inner circle, they come to the sepulcher. They come to the tomb. And they see a young man sitting on the right side, and he's clothed in a long white garment.
And we believe obviously this to be an angel, and they were afraid. Look at verse 6. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted. Don't be afraid. He says, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified.
And here's the great news: He is risen, He is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.
Now that right there is why we meet on Sunday mornings. Every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection. of Jesus Christ. But I don't know if you've noticed this next little part. He says, but go your way.
Tell the disciples. And Uh Peter. That he goeth before you. into Galilee. And there ye shall see him.
as he said unto you. The other disciples didn't deny Jesus. The other disciples didn't curse and swear and deny that they even knew Jesus, and yet an angel from heaven tells them, He's risen, he's not here. Go and tell the disciples, and make sure you specifically tell Peter.
So we go to Luke 24. We're going to pick it up in verse. 30 and this is where Kenny Baldwin, if you were here during our wonderful revival this week, I hate if you missed it. If you could have come and didn't, shame. Shame.
Look at verse 30. And it came to pass as he sat at meet with them, who's them?
Well, Jesus is on the road to Emmaus, and here's two disciples talking, and they're talking about Jesus, and Jesus shows up and They begin talking to Jesus about Jesus, but they don't know it's Jesus. And Brother Kenny went through all that. We're not going to belabor all that. And here they are talking with Jesus, starts in Genesis all the way to the end, and He declares the whole thing. And man, they're just taking all this in.
And finally, He gets done, and He's going to go on without Him. But they make Him come to the house, and they break bread and they eat. And I have even shared before, it's a powerful thing that they didn't know him until he handed them the bread. And Brother Kinney so wonderfully brought it out that probably what made them realize this is Jesus, when he gave them the bread, he sees the nail-scarred hands. And they knew it was him.
So look at this if you would. He took bread and blessed it and broke and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him. And he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures?
And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them, and noticed, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto who? The guy that did the worst. That's one of the guys that gets to see him the first.
So, what is going on here?
Well, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3. I want you to see this verse. For I've delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, that is the Aramaic for Peter, rock. He was seen of Peter. Then of the twelve.
So what we know is One of Jesus's first of rising From the grave defeating death, hell, and the grave. Was to go. And first, number one, have a private. meeting with Peter. He said, well, what was said, wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't I like to know? Mm. We don't know. Because we have a Savior. That keeps things private.
And not only that, we have a Savior that forgives. And here's what I want you to know today. You might have blown it. But you have a loving Savior that wants to forgive you. He doesn't want to further crucify you.
He doesn't want to further guilt you. What I can tell you, what did not happen in that meeting, is for Jesus to all of a sudden show up, Peter's there, and for Jesus to say, well, what do you have to say for yourself? See, I knew you'd do it.
Now that's what we might do. Let me say that again. That's what we might do. Oh, okay, there's five of us. Hold on.
Don't tell me you haven't done that to your kids. Don't tell me you haven't done this to others. That's something we might do. But when you and I come to Jesus, He doesn't slap us in the face with every mistake we've made. Notice there's a private meeting.
Second, there is personal mercy. You say, how do you know, preacher, because of what's coming after. What we know from three occasions, and when the Bible mentions something specifically three times, it is of great importance. There's a message there, and what we see is that there was a private meeting, there was personal mercy, and what we can see from the end, third, there was powerful grace. And I do want you to know that when you've blown it and when you've messed up, God will give you mercy and He will give you grace.
God will not hold to your account what you deserve, but He will deposit into your account what you have not earned. You see, before Jesus restored Peter publicly, He reassured him privately.
Sometimes the Lord heals us in secret before he uses us in public. Number three. We'll be done. The fellowship. of restoration.
So all we know is Jesus Made sure. that he and Peter had some moments together. I don't think it was long. I think it was very brief. But it was important enough that the Bible mentions it three separate times.
And what we can take if nothing else from that is when you fail, Jesus is not done with you. We got to go to John 21 and We'll end here, but I want you to notice first in John 21, it's an interesting chapter. Jesus has been seen of over 500 people at this time. He's had this one brief meeting with Peter, but nothing else. Obviously, you know, it was not a long period of time from the resurrection to where Jesus ascended back into heaven.
But we have an interesting story in John 21. Look at verse 1. We see first the return to the boats. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And on this wise, he's getting ready to tell us he showed himself again.
Look at verse 2. There were together Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Here's a group of the disciples. And verse 3: Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee.
And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately. Notice, and that night they caught... Nothing. Does that sound familiar? This is exactly what happened when Jesus, all the way back, originally called Peter to be a disciple.
Peter goes fishing. That was his job. Fished all night, caught nothing. And Jesus comes and he says, Listen, I want you to cast your nets on the other side and go out a little further, cast the nets in. And Peter says, Listen, we've caught all night, we've caught nothing.
We're already cleaning the nets for you. And Jesus says, No, just go out there and drop them on the other. And as soon as they did, the Bible says there were so many fish that they couldn't get them up with the nets. And Peter literally comes to shore, believes, puts his faith and trust, and begins to follow Jesus. And Jesus said, I'm going to make you a fisher of men.
But now he's blowing it. Hey, there's a lot of us Jesus is called to do certain things. that we blew it. Once you look at verse 4, we see the reminder of the miracle.
Now at least Peter knows that Jesus still loves him and At least Peter knows that he's not going to hold this against him. He did meet with him, he did see him. Verse 4, but when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not. That it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them children Have you any meat?
In other words, did you catch anything? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship. And ye shall find. Whoa, that sounds Familiar.
They cast, therefore, and now They were not able to draw it for the multitude. official. What's going on here, folks? Look at me. The miracle that Jesus did in Peter's life when he called him.
Is the same miracle he's going to do in Peter's life?
now that Peter had failed him. Just because you have failed him. Doesn't mean he's done with you. And it doesn't mean that he doesn't still have a purpose for your life. And it doesn't mean that he can't still do the same miracles for you.
that he did before you messed up. I want you to notice, I love this, the realization of the master. Look at verse 7. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved, John, said unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Now they realize, and notice this now, when Simon heard that it was the Lord. He girt his fisher's coat unto him. For he was naked. I don't want to go fishing with this guy. I got to be honest with you.
I like to fish. I love to fish. But I'm not going with him. Notice this. And he sat on the boat.
worried and wondered. Feeling awkward and guilty. of what he had done. to Jesus before the crucifix. Doesn't say that.
The Bible says as soon as Peter heard that it was Jesus. Look at me. He couldn't wait for the boat to get to shore. He wanted to get to Jesus so badly that he grabbed his coat, put it on, and he literally jumps in the water to swim and get to Jesus as quick as possible. Don't you tell me he wasn't given mercy.
Don't you tell me he wasn't given grace. But what Peter wasn't sure of, he saw the miracle. It means God's not done, and God did the same miracle again, even after I've blown it. But what he didn't know is: do I still have a purpose in his kingdom? Zena, I want you to see the renewal of his mission as we close.
Verse 17. Jesus gets on shore and he tells them, Hey, bring the fish that you caught. And they bring the fish, and Jesus begins to cook the fish. They all come sit around him. They're sitting there eating with Jesus, and I'm sure it brought back obviously all the times they did that.
And now he's been crucified, now he's risen.
Now they know for sure beyond the Vidao, this is the Messiah.
Now they're sitting there around a fire. Notice in verse 17, finally he gets around and he speaks to Peter. The first time he comes to Peter, he says, Peter, lovest thou me? Peter says, of course, Jesus, I love you. Then at that fire, Jesus a second time says, Peter, lovest thou me?
And it's almost like Peter's getting frustrated. He says, Jesus, you know I love you. Then in verse 17 where we pick it up. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, Son of Jonas, lovest. Thou me.
Now I've shared this and we all know The third time Jesus asked him, obviously reminded Peter of the three times. that he had denied him. Jesus was giving him the opportunity because you've denied me three times. Will you verify that you love me? Three times.
Peter breaks. Look what he says. And he saith unto him, Lord, Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina.
You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192. or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today.
God bless you.
