Finding Grace: Embracing Our Past Through Christ

We all have those embarrassing moments in the past that were so embarrassing in the moment that we were embarrassed. And then a month later, six months later, years later, we can tell those stories in public and laugh about it. For example, when I proposed to Sandra, actually she's still laughing about this, and I'm still getting over it. When I proposed to Sandra, she said I was white as a sheet, and I was so nervous that, when I asked her to marry me, she said, and I quote, "You know, you don't have to do this." And I was mortified in the moment. But of course, we can laugh about it now. [00:04:30]

There are things in our past that are so humiliating and so shameful that not only do we not laugh about it, we never speak of it, and we don't even like to think about it, moments in our past that we would all like to go back and unlive or redo. And the interesting thing about where we're going today is that Simon Peter had one of these. And the reason we know Simon Peter had one of these is because he told us about it. [00:42:11]

He wants us to know that our past may always remind us, but our past does not have to define us. So here's the good news. If you're carrying around some shameful and some painful stuff, I cannot tell you how glad I am that you've joined us today. We're actually in part seven of our series, You're Not Far. It's a story that should have died in Nero's Rome, but it didn't, it actually survived. It's the story of Jesus of Nazareth as told by Simon Peter, as dictated to and edited by John Mark. [00:89:98]

The time has come that something new has come to planet earth, that the kingdom of God has come near, which means you are never far. And the appropriate response is to repent and to believe this good news. And the good news, and this is so important for where we're going today, the good news that Jesus preached over and over and over, and the reason Peter was convinced it was good news, the good news was not that I've come to die for your sins so you can go to Heaven someday. [00:166:39]

I have come to earth so that you could know what God is like. I have come to earth to reinterpret for you what your heavenly father is like. It was one thing to believe that Jesus came from God, but the most difficult thing for Peter to believe, the most difficult thing for first-century Judeans to believe, perhaps the most difficult thing for you to believe, is that God, the father, is like Jesus. Jesus said it this way. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. [00:194:96]

And Peter tells us through Mark that, when Jesus began to preach and teach, he had a single theme that he went back to over and over and over and over. And the single theme was simply this. The time has come that something new has come to planet earth, that the kingdom of God has come near, which means you are never far. And the appropriate response is to repent and to believe this good news. [00:157:89]

And Peter tells us that, when Jesus was arrested, that everybody including Peter deserted him and fled. And this was understandable because it was over. He was clearly no king. There would be no kingdom. It was obvious in that moment that, in spite of what Jesus had taught, the kingdom of God wasn't near, and God certainly wasn't near. Now, what happens next is fascinating. And Peter gives us all kinds of detail about Jesus's trials. [06:365]

And Peter said, in that moment, I began to call down curses. And I swore to them that I did not know this man. "I do not know this man you're talking about." And in that moment, a rooster crowed. And in that moment I remembered that Jesus had predicted I would do this very thing. And then, Mark writes these words, because this is what Peter said happened. And Peter, Peter the rough-and-tough fisherman, broke down and he wept. [12:777]

In that moment, when God was most glorified, we would have been most horrified. In that moment, when God was doing for you and doing for me the unthinkable, the unimaginable, we would have turned our faces, and we would have looked away. But not the crowd. The crowd wasn't finished. The story continues. "So," they said, as they watched Jesus hanging from the cross, "You who were going to destroy the temple and then build it back in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself." [17:1040]

Jesus's desire to save others was precisely why he didn't save himself. Or to say it this way, if he had saved himself, he would have been unable to save others. If he had saved himself that day, he would have been unable to save me. If he had saved himself that day, he would have been unable to save you. But they weren't finished. Let this Messiah, this false Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and that we may believe. [18:1106]

The father withdrew from the son so that the father could draw near to us. The father withdrew from the son so that the father could draw near to you, so that you would never be far. But in the moment when this took place, nobody understood that. Jesus died alone. And then, Peter says, "I'll never forget." With a loud cry, Jesus, my Rabbi, my friend, breathed his last. And then Peter smiles, and he looks at Mark. [20:1236]

There would be no more separation between God and man. In that moment, the covenant that Jesus talked about at Passover, the covenant between God and the human race had been officially ratified. And everyone was invited to participate in it. And Peter would smile and say, "Even me. Even me who had been so disloyal to my king, even me who did not even deserve to be a part of the kingdom." And then Peter would look at Mark. [22:1327]