Triumph Through Failures

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Why is parenting so hard? Because we fail in so many ways! But why do we fail? Because, until heaven, we are all imperfect. So as we look at one of the hardest jobs on earth—raising children—here is my perspective that keeps me going through the hard times and the easy times.

I am an imperfect husband. I married an imperfect wife. We have an imperfect marriage that has produced imperfect children — which we have raised imperfectly. However, we have a Perfect Father in heaven, who has given His flawless Word as a guide to light the pathway for us to follow His plan. That plan is to have a Word-filled way of life. And that is what we have found in God’s Word: Our God is the God of New Beginnings!

He shows us every way He can that He wants us to know we can start over again with Him. Every day starts new and fresh with a new river of time flowing by at 60 minutes per hour. On Sunday every week we get to start over with a new day that starts a new week. Every month we get to start over with a brand new first day of the month. Every 3 months a new season begins with freshness and variety and newness.

Winter melts into spring; spring blossoms into summer; summer sails into fall; and fall fades into winter, and over we go into a new year. So when we fail, we need to repent and start over again. To help us remember, God’s Word records countless failures that the Lord graciously uses. One of my favorites is Peter. I hope this reminder of the new beginning of a Word-filled life stirs your heart as it has mine.

Peter will always be an example in the Bible of one who loved Jesus deeply—but struggled with submitting to His plan. He is a trophy of grace. The Gospel by Mark is the premier Book in God’s Word about hope: hope for a new start, hope for complete forgiveness, and hope in the God of the Second Chance. Next to Christ, no one in the New Testament is mentioned by name more than Peter. Peter could never get enough time in Christ’s presence because he longed to walk with Jesus. He wanted the Lord with every ounce of his being!

The way the story of Peter’s darkest hour is written and cast in the Holy Scriptures has the emphasis completely on the forgiving love of Jesus for His failing disciple. God did not want Peter’s failure emphasized—He wanted His forgiveness to shine like a ray of light in utter darkness. That is the lesson of Gallicantu, the place where the rooster crowed twice after Peter had denied Christ thrice! Let us now examine the details of Peter’s downfall and later triumph.

Jesus and His disciples left the Upper Room, and there they traveled all the way around the wall of Jerusalem to a little garden perched on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, the great High Priest, the One who stands before the throne for us—the Jesus who knew what was going to happen in Peter’s future—warned Peter that a spiritual battle was coming his way. Sadly, His warnings went unheeded. But in that garden, Jesus prayed, and prayed, and prayed. Just before Judas arrived with a great multitude armed with swords and clubs, Jesus once more encouraged His disciples to "rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation" (Luke 22:46).

After Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, and they laid hands on Him to take Him away, Peter impetuously drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.a Jesus had already warned Peter just prior to this that there was a great spiritual conflict coming up. But he armed himself for physical conflict, and totally neglected the real battle. The Lord was not asking for armed guards; He could have called upon six legions of angels to defend Him. Jesus needed Peter and the other disciples to get ready spiritually, but they still had failed to understand the gravity of the situation.

The disciples at this point all forsook Jesus and fled. Because John Mark was always hanging around, some believe that the Mark 14:51- 52 reference to a certain young man following Jesus, wrapped only with a linen cloth around his naked body, was Mark. However, when they grabbed him, he left the cloth and fled away as well. The mob traveled from Gethsemane across the Kidron Valley and cut through the courtyard of the Temple. The brook in the valley was probably running dark red with the blood of 250,000 sheep that had been slain at the Passover. The blood poured out of the Temple area in special drains to the Brook Kidron all the way to the Dead Sea. What an amazing time of the year it was! It was over that stream running red with the blood of all those sheep, that Jesus crossed and went up to the home of Caiaphas "who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people" (John 18:12-14). This was necessary to fulfill prophecy.

"And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and [so did] another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought Peter in" (John 18:15-16).

Peter’s Steps to Defeat

Peter and John were not supposed to follow Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. Peter fell because he was so presumptuous— he had bragged, and flashed his sword, and tried to take on the whole world in his own strength. He was following Jesus because he wanted to present himself as the one who stayed. Thus, he was disobeying the Lord from the start. The Lord had warned that they would enter into temptation, but Peter self-reliantly followed Christ right into the "lion’s den." You may say that it was noble for Peter to do that because he loved Jesus so much, but His sheep often do foolish things. So the Lord says to all of us, "Don’t put Me to the test like that!"

Peter, by going into that courtyard, was now walking with people who were enemies of the Lord. Immediately my mind goes to Psalm 1. You will see a downward progression in the life of Peter in this horrible time of his life: "Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, [Peter was fraternizing with the ungodly in that courtyard to see what would happen to Jesus] Nor stands in the path of sinners, [Peter stood with them] Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; [Peter sat down by the fire, was tempted, and failed] But his delight is in the law of the lord, and in His law he meditates day and night [this pattern of delight characterizes the Word-filled man or woman]."

When they led Jesus away to the high priest, where all the chief priests, elders, and scribes had gathered together, Peter followed at a distance. Old preachers have a lot to say about Peter following at a distance. The danger signs are like the trail of a tornado the day after—the debris could be seen everywhere as he looked back. The Scriptures record five areas that were danger signs: "Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: "I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Even if all are made to stumble, yet I [will] not [be].’ Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times’ " (Mark 14:27-30).

1.

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Peter boasted too loudly—a sign of giving in to pride.

Peter boasted: " ‘If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And they all said likewise" (Mark 14:31). Peter had disobeyed the Lord when He said, "Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation."a Instead, he went to sleep. Jesus woke him up, and asked him to watch and pray again, but Peter went back to sleep once more. When he woke up and saw the crowd, he remembered all of his bragging, so he pulled his sword out and attacked. He missed the servant’s head, but cut off his ear.

Probably one of the most touching miracles in the New Testament is Jesus tenderly and completely healing that ear. That was such a statement to Peter: "This is spiritual, not physical. Put away your sword." But Peter had not yet faced his self-absorption, and self-will. He stalked after the crowd which took Christ, planning to prove that he had not failed. This reminds me of Paul’s caution: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

2. Peter prayed too sparingly—a sign of giving in to the flesh.

I always see this in believers’ lives who think they have their "act together" spiritually, so they easily lapse into prayerlessness. It is presumptuous to be self-sufficient by attempting to go through a day, an hour, or even a moment without a conscious dependence upon the Lord. When Peter neglected Christ’s clear request to watch and pray, he threw away the key that would have enabled him to truly triumph in his darkest hour.

3. Peter slept too soundly— a sign of presumption.

On that night of nights—the very night Jesus warned Peter about repeatedly—he ignored Christ’s admonition to watch and pray, and fell asleep. He was unaware that he was so full of himself. What a sad testimony of being out of step with the Savior, out of touch with what He was doing!

4. Peter acted too hastily— a sign of giving in to the world.

Peter looked merely at the circumstances in the Garden, and reacted according to his own prideful self-determination by choosing to strike the servant with a sword. He had lost touch with God’s purpose, and was not humblingc himself before the Lord.

5. Peter followed too distantly— a sign of self-sufficiency.

The mark of someone who has allowed the sin of self-sufficiency into their lives is that they start following the Lord at a distance. They go to church, but they are distant from the Lord. They pray and serve, but from a distance. They read their Bible, but feel far away. They always say, "I never get anything out of the Bible." The reason is that they are following too distantly. Then they start getting pressured by people around them, as Peter did in Mark 14:66-71.

He was twice pressured by one of the servant girls. He was pressured by those who stood around him, and reacted by cursing and swearing: "I do not know this Man of whom you speak!" In Matthew 26:71-74, he went out to the gateway, and was spotted by another girl. But this time he denied Christ with an oath: "I do not know the Man!" (That oath meant calling on the name of God to strike him if he was not telling the truth!) A little later, he was again confronted by those who stood by him. Once more, he cursed and swore, saying, "I do not know the Man!" And immediately a rooster crowed.

The timing of that rooster’s crow is a miracle. One of God’s creatures was waiting for a divine signal to sound the sound that would pierce the heart of one of God’s greatest servants. All Peter had to do is hear that sound, and he remembered the words of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.a Peter was at the Lord’s Supper before all of this happened. He was so confident; he was on top of the world; and he was the closest disciple to Jesus. He was sure that he was going to be either on the right or left hand of Jesus in the kingdom. Peter was characterized by self-determination and self-sufficiency. He was a willful man. (In fact—the only thing he didn’t take first place in was the race to the tomb—John beat him there.) Jesus, for that reason, let Satan sift Peter until he realized that he was so full of himself: boasting too loudly, praying too sparingly, sleeping too soundly, acting too hastily, and following too distantly. His life up to this point was a testimony to the truth of Proverbs 16:18: "Pride [goes] before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." But our great God of the Second Chance had a wonderful plan; He was not through with Peter!

God Wants to Lift Us Up From Failure

Jesus’ plan worked—after Peter was sifted and tried, he painfully came to a humbling end of himself. Listen to the now-aged Peter’s testimony as he exhorted a group going through similar suffering: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be [if the Lord knows you need it], you have been grieved by various trials [shakings]" (1 Peter 1:6).

Peter was thinking of his own sifting; he had been shaken until He did not have anywhere to go but down on his face. He then went on to share, "You have been grieved by various trials [just like I was], that the genuineness of your faith, [being] much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ …" (1 Peter 1:6b-7). After Peter was purified through the fire, look at all that God did in his life! God never emphasizes failures; He emphasizes His forgiveness so that He gets the praise, honor, and glory! Any child of God can come back to Him at any moment from any sin and any failure. Anyone born of the Lord Jesus Christ can receive forgiveness: "If we [constantly, continually] confess our sins, He is faithful and just to [already have forgiven] us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). There are in that verse, two completely different tenses of the verb. One is "an ongoing present" and the other is "a point of action in the past." Peter confessed his sins, and wept bitterly; he had a contrite heart. He knew he had disobeyed, and he sorrowed unto repentance.a There was therefore no condemnation,b or separation from the love of God.c With true repentance, God promises to forget our sins, and remember them no more: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). Hallelujah!

And what was the result of all this refining? Perhaps the greatest life ever lived for the glory of God. Peter stands tallest among all who ever walked this planet.

• Peter, the man Jesus chose, the man Jesus trained, the man Jesus saved from death—

• Became Peter, the man Jesus warned, the man Jesus watched deny Him, the man Jesus protected from the devil—

• Became Peter, the man Jesus restored, the man Jesus used, and the martyr who hung humbly upside down on a cross because he was unworthy to die as Jesus died.

If there is ever a person who shows the love of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus, the patience of Jesus, the forgiveness of Jesus, the restoring power of Jesus, and the empowerment for ministry that Jesus can give—it is Peter! It was in Peter’s darkest hour, when he was at his lowest ebb, when he was most overwhelmed with his utter failure in the presence of Christ that Jesus dealt so tenderly with Peter. What I see from Peter’s life is that if Jesus ministered to him in that way, and at that time, then Jesus will minister to us when we likewise are at our darkest hour. And at that time, we, too, can remember God’s Word—and, like Peter, have hope!

Jesus—in the midst of the darkness that threatened to overwhelm Peter—shed five glorious rays of light upon him. Here are those rays of light to encourage us as well:

Hope for Those Who Have Failed

1. Jesus offers us complete forgiveness and no condemnation.

Each one of us will at some time fail the Lord, and then hear (in one way or another) "the crowing of the cock." Satan will try to discourage us by whispering something like: Now you’ve done it! You are finished! Your future ministry has been destroyed because God can no longer use you—a failure! But that is not God’s message to us. It was certainly not the end for Peter, was it? His restoration was so complete that he was able to later say to the Jews, "But you denied the Holy One and the Just" (Acts 3:14). Although Peter did not have 1 John to read, he experienced the sweetness of 1 John 1:9 in his own heart.

2. Jesus promises us a life of new beginnings.

The miracle of the cock crowing told Peter that a new day was dawning. After all, that is actually what a rooster’s call means each day. It was not a new day for Judas or for the enemies of the Lord, but it was a new day for Peter as he repented and wept bitterly. He experienced: "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17, kjv). On resurrection morning, the angel sent a special message to encourage Peter.a Then the Lord Himself appeared to Peter that very day to restore him to fellowship,b and to offer him a life of new beginnings. What compassion!

3. Jesus wants us to remember His Word in our darkest hours to give us hope.

The crowing of the cock assured Peter that he could be forgiven. Peter had not been paying close attention to the Word of God. He had argued with it, disobeyed it, and even run ahead of it; but now he "remembered the word of the Lord" (Luke 22:61), which brought him hope. Why? Because with the word of warning was also a promise of restoration! Peter was to be converted, and then strengthen his brethren.

Like Peter, we need to remember God’s Word at the very moment of our need. Romans 15:4 says, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." The whole purpose for God giving us His Word is not to have the best edition, the best cover, the best footnotes, or even the best markings, but to have Word-filled lives. Then, when we are in our darkest hour, and have failed the Lord, in that moment, we are able to remember His precious promises, and thereby obtain hope for that situation.

4. Jesus is in control of all the events surrounding our lives.

For one cock to crow at the right time, while the other birds in the city remained silent, was certainly a miracle. But the crowing of the cock was much more than a miracle that fulfilled our Lord’s words; it was also a special message to Peter—a message that helped to restore him to fellowship again. It was an assurance to him that Jesus Christ was still in control of things even though He was a prisoner, bound, and seemingly helpless before His captors. Peter could recall witnessing his Lord’s authority over the fish, the winds, the waves, and even over disease and death. No matter how dark the hour was for Peter, Jesus was still in control.

Most of us tend to regard circumstances and happenings as mere coincidences, accidents, or disappointments. However, the Lord wants us to realize that there are no such things—only the appointments of God, which He works for the good of those who love Him.

5. Jesus wants us to know that He is watching over us in our darkest hours.

Note who was watching whom. Jesus knew exactly where Peter was, both spiritually and physically—as demonstrated in Luke 22:61: "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.’ " He is in touch with our lives as well. No matter what you and I do, no matter where we are, Jesus has His eyes on us. When the disciples were sinking in the boat during the storm, and Jesus was miles away on top of a lonely mountain, He was watching, and came to them at exactly the right moment. He is always there; He is always watching; He is always rescuing—just when we need Him. God is never too late!

Every time we open to the Gospel by Mark, we should remember that in one way or another, all of us, too, have stumbled. And for each of us, Peter’s triumph by God’s grace should be an incredible source of encouragement! ~

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By John Barnett
John Barnett has been teaching the Word of God for 31 years and is currently the Senior Pastor at Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo. Email John: jb@dtbm.org

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