From Failure to Restoration: Peter's Journey with Jesus

1) "In my failure, there was no opportunity like that for Peter. Instead, he witnesses the crucifixion go down, and Jesus, by all accounts, is gone. Where we pick back up with Peter's life tonight, we find that Jesus is back. Even though he had told his disciples time and time again that he was to be crucified and on the third day be raised again, there was always that hint of doubt that they carried with him. And I think it'd be hard pressed for us to blame them in that. I mean, if some guy that had burst onto the scene three years ago in your life had made the claim that he was going to be killed, but then he was going to raise himself back to life, you'd probably find that somewhat absurd as well. And so they always had that hint of doubt. But what we're going to pick back up in the narrative of Peter's life tonight, Jesus promises have been fulfilled. Aren't you thankful that his word is always fulfilled?" [01:19] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Remember, Peter has just experienced a very bad failure. You know what failure will do? Failure will get you in your fields probably quicker than anything. So when we catch up with the disciples, they're sitting by the sea and they're waiting on Jesus because he had previously shown up to them post resurrection and told some of his people, go and tell the disciples to go on to Galilee and I'll meet them there shortly. And so they're waiting for Jesus in Galilee by the same sea that this all began for Peter. Athenae. And the highlight, obviously in the story is on Peter. Now let me reemphasize once again who had not too long ago denied knowing who Jesus was. And so while he's sitting there, that's in the back of Peter's mind the entire time, that hasn't just left him, he hasn't just brushed. Life has not just moved on for Peter, even though Christ has resurrected as he said he would." [06:49] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Let me just give you a quick encouragement. I'm sure Peter would have loved this at the time. Our failure doesn't shape Jesus forgiveness. Thomas situation was no less than Peter's. Peter's was no more than Thomas's. But I think sometimes in our failure we have moments where we consider some to be bigger and some to be smaller. We look at some other people's situation in comparison to our own, and we think that somehow our situation particularly shapes the forgiveness of Christ. But it doesn't. His forgiveness is the same across the board, no matter how big or how small. We might want to consider the failure to be. But once we have a failure, it seems like we by nature want to fixate on that failure." [11:03] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Peter finally gets so worked up in his feelings, he says, I'm going fishing, so let's go back into the text for a second. In verse three, it says, Simon Peter said to them, some of the fellow disciples that were sitting around with him, I'm going fishing. And they said to him, we will go with you. And they went out and got into the boat. But that night they caught nothing. And just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you'll find some. So they cast it. They were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord." [15:33] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "When we get in our feelings, we will get forgetful. We'll forget all about God's faithfulness. We'll forget all about his provision. We'll forget all about his protection. When we get all up in our emotions. But you know what? In the midst of that, we'll forget. We'll forget our calling as well. Get in your feelings, and it will disengage you from your destiny. Each person in here that has been born again into the kingdom of God has been given a job in that. We are to be going and making disciples, testifying of the gospel of our savior, Jesus Christ. Listen, I deal with college students. I deal with young adults all the time. Everybody wants to know the answer to the million dollar question, what am I supposed to do in my life? What does Jesus want me to do in my life? Quite simply, it's this." [19:23] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "You saw the three times where you asked, Peter, do you love me? And so I want to point out some specific things about this restorative process that Christ works even in our lives, in our moments of failure. With Jesus restoration, the first thing that he does is he rescinds the failure. You know what it means to rescind? It's to take back. It's to revoke. And so he pulls Peter off to the side and he asks, Peter, Peter, do you love me? You know what he was doing? He's giving Peter an opportunity to take back the. No. Peter, do you love me? Hey, do you know this man? I don't know him. No, no, no. I think you know him. I'm telling you I don't. Yeah, yeah, you're one of them that was with him. I'm telling you, I don't know who this guy is. Peter, do you love me? He didn't have the opportunity before Christ went to the cross to say, I'm sorry to say I didn't mean that, to take that back, that Jesus, in his restoration, gives Peter the very opportunity to do that thing, to take back something that he so desperately wished he would have had the opportunity to have never spoken." [29:42] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Peter, do you love me? If so, then feed my lambs. In other words, preach the gospel to win souls. Every single one of us, we start out as lambs. When we first come into the fold, we hear the gospel for the first time. We surrender our lives to Jesus. We're new baby infant lambs in the fold. Jesus says, go, peter, and preach the gospel. Win souls, bring in the lambs into the pasture, and then, Peter, Peter, tend my sheep. In other words, Peter, when they get there, the work isn't over. You've got to protect and you've got to care for them. Why? Because they're still young, but they're growing. It's a work in progress. It's something you're going to come to know as sanctification, but you got to protect and you've got to care for them because there's going to be wolves out there that are going to seek to attack my sheep. So once you see the formation of the church taking place, Peter, go and preach the gospel. Go and win souls. And when they come in, you protect them and you care for them. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. Then feed my sheep. In other words, Peter, disciple them, grow them and mature them. They're not going to stay as lambs. They're going to grow into sheep." [31:37] (80 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Peter, it's not about where you said no. It's about where you said yes. Listen, men, women of God, we mess up, don't we, man? We fail so miserably at times. I think of the encouragement from our Lord. Tonight is the reminder that it's not about where you failed. It's about where you began to follow. Failures are going to happen along the way. Fixate on it. Don't let it disengage you from your destiny and your calling. Don't let it cause you to become so obsessed with what everybody else has or doesn't have that you forget to follow." [35:56] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)