The Failure, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. My friend, if the gospel has one agenda in your life, it is to convince you that your performance is not the basis of your acceptance before God. And so God allows you to fail, and he will sometimes remind you of your failures so that you can see that it is his grace, not your righteousness, that is the basis of your acceptance. Welcome to a new week of teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, doesn't life sometimes feel like an Olympic event with a panel of judges sitting around and scoring us on everything we do? We constantly feel the need to be better. In fact, that's how a lot of people imagine God, like a judge who's constantly evaluating and is consistently disappointed in us. But today, Pastor J.D. reveals that God actually uses our failures to make us more dependent on him. It's the conclusion of our series called Can't Believe.

And if you missed any part of this study, you can catch up online at jdgreer.com. But for now, let's jump into John chapter 21. Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius, and he revealed himself in this way. Verse two, Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples were together. By the way, how would you have liked to have been those two other disciples right there?

This is your one chance to get your name in the Bible, right? Verse three, Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. Now fishing, you know, was what Peter did before Jesus called him. So Peter, now depressed over his failure, watch this, is going back to his pre-Jesus life. Has that ever happened to you?

They, they, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, and two other guys, they said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. See, he went back to his old life, but it wasn't the same anymore. He fished all night, and he caught nothing.

How about that? Has that ever happened to you? You're discouraged spiritually, and you go back to your old life, but you just can't find the same enjoyment in it any longer. Verse four, just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Verse five, Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?

They answered him, no. Verse six, he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. Verse seven, that disciple whom Jesus loved says to Peter, it's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and he threw himself into the sea. Verse eight, the other disciples came in the boat. By the way, I don't know anybody that can outswim a boat. I mean, you know, Peter's in the water, he's just trucking, he's just freestyling, he's fighting against the waves, and you just see these other guys like, you know, kind of rolling alongside him. Like, Peter, you know, man, you could just ride.

Seriously, we got room, we're all going the same direction. They were not far from the land, they were about 100 yards away. Verse nine, when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. Verse 11, so Simon Peter went aboard, right, just swam in, he went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. Peter's gotten out of the water from his swim.

Did you see that? Now he's hauling the net full of fish, 153 big ones back up from the shore. Question, stop. What characterizes Peter in these verses? Strenuous effort, right? He's swimming, he's not riding, he's swimming, he's hauling the net in by himself. I got it, Jesus, I got, look at me, look at me, I'm swimming. Meanwhile, Jesus is standing there beside a breakfast that he's already prepared for Peter. Did he need Peter's fish? The fish that Peter caught, didn't he need them?

No. Did you notice the detail in verse nine that Jesus already had fish on the fire? Did you see that?

John made sure he included that detail in there. So Jesus gives Peter another gospel invitation in verse 12. That's how you got to read verse 12 is you got to read it as a gospel invitation.

Probably the most unusual one you've ever heard. Come and have breakfast. Why don't you come eat a breakfast that I've prepared for you. Verse 15, when they finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, watch this, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? You love me more than these people? Peter kind of, you know, looks down, he's like, oh Jesus, yeah, sure, you know, I love you. Jesus looks at Peter and says, okay, then feed my sheep. Never breaks his gaze, keeps looking Peter eyes. And he says the second time, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, I just told you that I love you.

Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? John says that when Jesus asked him this a third time, he was grieved. Why was he grieved? Why was Peter grieved? Because he recognized that Jesus was asking him three times if he loved him because he had denied him three times. In fact, if you learn to read this the right way, you can see that Jesus set up this whole scenario to remind Peter of his failure.

He asked him around the fire. Peter had denied Jesus around the fire. He said, Peter, do you love me more than these? These other disciples love me. Remember what Peter's boast had been? Even if all these fools, all these losers forsake you, I never will.

And Jesus is like, really Peter? You love me more than these? Because what does the record show, Peter?

Record doesn't look that good on your behalf. You boasted you love me more than these, but they forsook me. You forsook me and denied me. How'd you do, Peter? He asked him three times, why is Jesus doing this? Why is Jesus doing it this way? Is he trying to embarrass Peter?

Is that what he's trying to do? Is this cruel? Is this cruel? No, it's not cruel.

It's actually tenderness. Jesus is trying to show a guy who has always based his worth, a guy who has always based Jesus's acceptance of him on his performance. He's trying to show him that his love and acceptance are not given according to merit.

They are given as a gift based on his own finished work. My friend, if the gospel has one agenda in your life, one, it is to convince you that your performance is not the basis of your acceptance before God. And so God allows you to fail.

And he will sometimes remind you of your failures so that you can see that it is his grace, not your righteousness that is the basis of your acceptance. You see, the biggest enemy to the gospel in your lives is self-sufficiency. And some of you that listen to me every week are eaten up with self-sufficiency because, honestly, you're pretty good people. When it comes to morality and the triangle, you're in the upper 20 percent. You're capable. You've got jobs. You're responsible.

You are pretty good people. And if you don't understand that that puts you in a place where self-sufficiency begins to dominate you, then you are spiritually blind and you are in a dangerous place. David Nasser last week said it this way. He told the story of how God brought him to Christ out of unrighteousness. He said, God had to bring my wife to Christ out of church righteousness. He said, and her trek was harder than my trek because it is easier to be delivered from unrighteousness than it is from church righteousness and self-righteousness because self-righteousness is so deceptive.

Self-righteousness keeps you from seeing how much you actually need God. Jesus said it this way. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into heaven. That means rich, by the way, in money. It means rich in talent. It means rich in good works. It means rich in morality or righteousness. Whatever you want to put in the blank of rich there, if you are rich in any of those things, that is the place that it is hard for you to experience the righteousness and the provision of Christ. It is not your sin that will keep you from Jesus.

It is your self-sufficiency. It is your giftings that will keep you from realizing how much you depend on God. A pastor mentor, a friend of mine said, he said, somebody scares me about you, JD.

Please interpret what he said in the right way. He said because when you stand up to preach, he said you don't need the Holy Spirit a lot of times. When you are rich in your righteousness, when you are a good person, when you are a moral person, a lot of times what happens is that keeps you from sensing how deeply you are in actual need of forgiveness. The Gentiles did not come to Jesus because of unrighteousness. The Jews did not come to Jesus because of self-righteousness.

By the way, guess who ended up better? The church was made out of Gentiles. The Jews never got it because it is almost impossible to be delivered out of self-righteousness. And Jesus has an agenda and it is to beat out of Peter and his followers. It is to beat out of them their sense of righteousness. And he allows something like this, failure, fear to wake you up because they are invitations for you to learn about Jesus, maybe for the first time. My friends, do you realize how acute, how powerful this is of a temptation for you?

Let me just think of it this way. Imagine you got a kid who grows up in a sheltered house. His parents are real guarded. They won't let him look at the internet because they don't want him to be aware of pornography. He's never heard of pornography.

Right? He's always been in a controlled environment. He's never really been about temptation. He's never been in a controlled environment. He's never been in a controlled environment.

He's never really been about temptation. He has lived the ultimate sheltered life and then he gets accepted at UNC Chapel Hill. And he leaves home and he moves on campus at UNC Chapel Hill with no knowledge at all of what is about to be in his face. Sexual temptations and temptations like he didn't even know existed. You would say that young man is a fool going in if he has no knowledge of it.

You at least got to know that it's there so you can know how to avoid it. You understand that you, you having grown up in a church environment, if you are not equally as aware and equally as terrified of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and how naturally it just pervades the air that you breathe and dominates you, then you are every bit the fool that that young man would be. It's something you ought to think about every single day. How is self-sufficiency, how is self-righteousness remove my understanding of my need for grace and power and the intimacy of Jesus? Self-righteousness and self-sufficiency are the most damning sins in the New Testament. And those sins affect people who are in this room, not the people who are out visiting prostitutes this weekend. Jesus needs Peter to learn that.

So Jesus forces Peter to embrace his failures so he can tap into Jesus' love. Let's keep going. You've got to finish this. Verse 18, Truly, truly, I say to you, watch this.

This is so good. When you were young, Peter, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show Peter by what kind of death he was to glorify God. What's he referring to there? He said, Peter, when you stretch out your hands one day, right, you're going to be crucified. You're going to die for me. And then he said this to Peter, follow me.

Alright, question, trick question. Is this good news or bad news for Peter? You think bad news, right? I mean, Jesus tells you, hey, you're going to end your life by being crucified. That's bad news. But it's really good news for Peter.

Because you know what Jesus is telling Peter? Remember that boast that you made about not denying me even in the face of death? One day you're going to make good on it.

One day they're going to stretch out your hands in the most painful of positions. You're actually going to be crucified for me. And in that moment, you're not going to deny me.

You're going to make good on that boast. You're going to show that I am worth more to you than life. But notice, watch this, that in this metaphor for dying on a cross, Jesus mixes in a rather odd image. He compares stretching out your hands, dying on a cross. He compares that to being a little child who stretches out his hands to his parents. When you die on a cross, Peter, that's what you're going to do. You're going to stretch out your hands toward me.

A picture of childlike dependency and intimacy and trust. Listen, and that childlike posture toward me is what's going to give you the strength to die like that. You see, Peter had always thought that his strength came from being a man who proved himself, that he was better than others. That's why in every possible way he's flexing his spiritual muscles. He stretches out his hands and says, I'm stronger than these guys. I can swim.

I'm hauling fish ashore. Jesus told him his strength would come not from stretching out his hands in might, but from relating to him the way a child relates to a loving parent. Do not miss this.

Do not miss this. How did Jesus turn Peter, a guy who was so shaky that he would deny him three times in one evening? How did he turn him? How did he transform him into being someone who would endure even crucifixion joyfully?

How'd he do it? Going through seminary? Taking him to like a marine level kind of boot camp?

Learning a bunch of doctrines? Is that what he did? Those things are all good, but you know what he did? He gave him a deep and profound experience of grace. Because that experience of grace would give Peter greater strength than anything else in his life ever could. When Peter stretched out his hands in his own strength, he denied Christ. When he stretched out his hands in childlike dependent intimacy to Jesus, like a child stretches out toward his parents, he would have the strength to endure even crucifixion. The most powerful force in a Christian's life is his experience of grace. Period. Period. Peter's pride and confidence in his abilities would keep him in four spiritually deadly conditions.

Here's number one. It would make him unsure of his relationship to God. He would always be wondering, have I done enough?

Have I done enough? Am I good enough for Jesus? Number two, that would leave him spiritually weak because he would never be in touch with God's strength. He would only have his own. Number three, that would keep Peter self-focused, right? Because when you're so worried about how you are doing, where you stand, when you're so worried about how much you've earned before God, you don't have the bandwidth to be able to pay attention to other people's needs. And number four, that would make Peter unable to help other people in their weaknesses.

Because you can't help others if you're consumed with your own strength. You see, what I realized, listen to this, people's greatest need is not a teacher. Their greatest need is not a role model. My kid's greatest need is not a perfect earthly father. They need a savior. And the story of how God showed no grace can help them because it shows them where they can find that fountain of grace in their time of weakness. It is a deep experience with God's grace that would reverse all four of those things. It would take Peter from being someone who was unsure and give him an assurance with God, which would make him feel safe. That would give him intimacy with Jesus. Because when he knew that Jesus, how Jesus felt about him, he would draw close to Jesus, right?

I mean, you understand that. I compare it with you the way I am with my kids. When my kids know how affectionate I am toward them, they want to be close to me. So when I'm on the phone with them telling them how much I miss them when I'm on a trip, when I pull in my car after that business trip is over and that garage door goes up and I'm pulling my car in, I see that little front garage door open up and I see four little heads running down the stairs and I'm having to try to not run over them as I pull my car in because they're, I pull my door open, they're hopping in, they're kissing me and they're saying, Dad, what'd you buy?

It's on the trip, right? And I know that some of you parents with teenagers are like, well, you know, when they're teenagers, they're gonna quit doing that. You know what? They're not teenagers yet. So just let me have this, okay?

Let me have this for a few more years. But see, they know how I feel about them and so they want to be close. When my kids think I'm mad at them, they stay away. When you have a sense of Jesus' intimacy, it makes you draw close because you know, you know there's nothing there but acceptance and fatherly love that just spills out. That gives you strength. A strength that stretches out toward Jesus. A strength that, like Peter, you look up toward Jesus and you say, Jesus, you can take all that I have because Jesus, you are all that I need.

You can take everything I have because you're all that I need so I open my hands up and even if they nail it to a cross, it's okay because my hands are filled with you and you're my father and I'll go with you anywhere. It would take Peter's self-centeredness and make him others centered. It would help take Peter's eyes off of himself, right? When he's not always trying to prove himself, he can be aware of other people's needs and that would, number four, take somebody who was unable to help to being someone who was full of grace, which would give him an ability to help others because he could show them how to access the same grace that he had accessed.

Listen to this. Jesus chose Peter to lead his church not despite his failures. He chose him to lead his church because of his failures because his failures would put him in touch with God's grace and God's grace is where a leader's real strength comes from. It is a church leader's most valuable resource to be able to help others in a time of need.

I can only pour God's grace into somebody else when I am filled with it myself. Mark this. Mark this.

Listen. It was not Peter's successes that made him a great leader. It was his failures.

His failures were his gateway to his need for grace and his need for grace was his gateway to Jesus and Jesus was a gateway to everything else. You ready to land this plane? Are you ready? Here we go. Just when you thought the story was finally over and Peter could not possibly say anything dumber. Verse 20, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

He said to Jesus, what about this man? Now Jesus has just told Peter, Peter, you're going to love me. You're going to leave for me. Peter, one day you're going to stretch out your hands and you're going to die for me and you're not going to deny me. You're going to deny me. You're going to be my champion. Peter turns around and sees John.

He's like, what about that guy? Can't you just see Jesus rolling his eyes one last time and being like, Peter, for the last time would you stop comparing yourself to everybody else? If I want him to stay alive until I come, what's that to you? You follow me. You love me. You delight in me. You rejoice not that the demons are subject to you, not that I'm making you leader of my church, not that you're going to write a couple books in the Bible, not that you're going to die courageously. You rejoice that your name's written down in the Lamb's book of life because that's enough.

That's it. That's all and you stretch out your hands toward me and you quit comparing yourself to everybody else and you learn that I am enough for you because I'm telling you, listen, take it from a guy who struggles with this every day of his life. Comparing yourself to other people, that performance mentality, that is a chronic problem and it is one that Jesus will spend the rest of your life beating out of you because it keeps you from knowing the love and the power of Jesus. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. I've spent all my life and so have you trying to become anything but poor in spirit. If you are poor in spirit, that's not a good thing to put on your resume. You want to put all the ways that you are rich in spirit on your resume. I'm extremely intelligent. I'm a good person with people.

I've been successful at everything that I've touched. I'm rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich and that's great for a resume but it will destroy you spiritually because until you understand how much God's grace is absolutely necessary in your life, you were riches in spirit. Let me say this for Americans, the fact that you are middle class in spirit, the fact that you are middle class in spirit will keep you from ever laying hold of the righteousness and the goodness and the power and the gracefulness of Jesus Christ. The enemy's schemes to keep us from this kind of relationship with Jesus, to keep us from being intimate with Jesus, go back to two things. Listen, number one, he takes you back to your old life. Some of you were there, you're fishing all night, you're not catching anything, you know it's not working, don't you?

You know it's not working. So when that doesn't work, he goes to strategy number two which is the more effective strategy and that is he tries to get you to prove yourself to Jesus, tries to get you to earn it. That's not what Jesus wants either. The gospel invitation is to rest in Jesus, to put faith in the gospel, to rest in his love. The invitation is to eat breakfast on the beach with Jesus, to just love him and walk with him and serve him from a heart of love. For many of you, your spiritual life has always been about performance.

I'm gonna quit pornography, I'm gonna quit doing drugs, I'm gonna quit cheating on my wife, I'm gonna clean up my act, I'm gonna stop doing drugs, whatever. You think then he'll accept me. That's not how it works. Salvation is a gift that is given to you and your response is complete and total surrender.

It's free but it costs you everything. I love how Jared Wilson says it, listen to this, the only deal with Jesus he's willing to make is his righteousness for your guilt and absolute surrender. Some of you trying to negotiate with God, aren't you? God, how good do I gotta be to get back in your good graces?

How good do I gotta be to start being blessed again? God doesn't negotiate like that. The gospel is his righteousness for your guilt and your absolute surrender. Have you ever repented and believed that? Have you ever really received the gospel? Have you ever turned over 100 percent of your life to him in total surrender? And have you received his free gift of righteousness, his gift righteousness, grace? Have you ever received that as your own? You can receive the gospel, you can receive this invitation, the breakfast on the beach with Jesus for eternity, because he paid it all.

He paid it all. Receive it and then follow me. Follow me, Jesus says. All of these online resources are available without cost getting in the way, because people like you have donated to support this ministry. When you give to Summit Life, you're giving to people across the country and even around the world.

People like Stephanie, who wrote to us recently, she said, I can't tell you how many times we've been struggling with something that was so painful we thought we didn't want to live anymore. And Pastor JD preached exactly what we needed to hear. Thank you for being obedient to the Lord and for pouring yourself into this ministry.

Jesus has seen us through it all. Help us continue reaching people like Stephanie by joining the team of gospel partners who make this ministry possible. A gospel partner commits to regular monthly giving because they believe in this ministry, and their ongoing gifts help us produce and distribute these gospel-centered messages. As a token of our thanks for your generosity, we'll send you monthly resources, including the current resource, which is a 20-day devotional titled What is the Gospel? Ask for our latest book when you become a gospel partner today or when you make a generous one-time donation. The number to call is 866-335-5220 or go to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Bidevich inviting you to join us next time when we're starting a new series called Come Back to Me.

We're talking about a part of the Bible that most of us probably aren't super familiar with, but as we're going to see, there's a lot to learn from the Old Testament Minor Prophets. We'll see you Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.