S1 E34: Failure is Not Final

Well, what a joy to sing with you this morning.

It's one of my favorite things when we just kind of back all the instruments down and just hear our voices uniting together in worship.

And so thank you for singing together and worshiping together.

What a joy.

Would you join me in your copy of God's Word this morning in Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 14?

Mark 14 · chapter mention

We are coming to the conclusion of our two-year journey through this gospel.

We have about six messages left.

We are in the final week of Jesus' life.

Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

We're going to pick up in verse 27 this morning.

If you don't have a Bible with you, if you don't own a Bible, there are some there in the Pew back.

Use that one today.

And if you don't own one, please take that one.

That is our gift to you.

We would love for you to have a copy of God's Word.

And if you're using that Pew Bible, we're going to be on page 913 this morning.

913, Mark chapter 14, beginning in verse 27 today.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

Have you ever failed Jesus?

I ask that somewhat rhetorically because I know the answer.

We all have.

Maybe we've denied him with our words, or maybe not with our words, but we've denied him with our actions.

Maybe we have a lingering sin that we just can't seem to overcome, and it just keeps having victory in our lives, and we struggle with this sin.

Or perhaps you've really done something that you know has just failed your Savior.

I know I have.

It happens to me far too often, quite honestly.

And the feeling that I get when I let Jesus down is not a fun feeling.

Guilt can be overwhelming, and shame can overshadow everything.

And yet, if you're in Christ, here's what I want you to hear today.

Failure is not final.

Our God is so gracious, our Savior is so good that even when we fail him, he is faithful.

Even when we let him down, he does not abandon us.

He does not leave us.

He does not forsake us.

If we will allow him in our times of guilt and our times of shame and our times of failure, he will expose to us that which needs to change.

He will restore and redeem our lives, and he will take even our failures and he will use them to mold us into his image for his glory and for his kingdom.

One of my favorite people in the New Testament is Simon Peter.

Simon Peter was a fisherman by trade.

He and his brother Andrew had a fishing business.

They were in partnership with two other brothers, James and John, on the Sea of Galilee, on the western shore of the sea, in a little town called Capernaum.

And when Jesus first met this man, Simon Peter, he walked up to him and he said, You are Simon, but you will be Peter.

You are Simon, but you will be the rock.

In Luke's account of that encounter, Luke says, Jesus said, You are Simon, and you will also be Peter.

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to this man sometimes as Simon, sometimes as Peter, and sometimes as Simon Peter.

When he refers to him as Simon, it's almost always when Simon is acting in the flesh and doing something he shouldn't be doing, or not responding spiritually, but responding impetuously.

And sometimes Jesus refers to him as Simon.

When he does things well, often Jesus calls him Peter.

You're the rock.

It was a long journey in Peter's life to move from being Simon to being Peter.

A long journey from living in the flesh to living in the spirit.

It did not happen overnight that Jesus said, Hey, you're now Simon, you're going to follow me, you're going to be the rock.

No, there was a journey that took place.

Many celebrations, many victories, but there were also many failures in Peter's life.

He failed Jesus on a regular basis.

We often give Peter a hard time.

We're apt to be critical of Peter because he was so intense.

He was inquisitive.

He was the one that was always asking the questions.

When nobody else would ask Jesus the question, Peter would ask the question.

He was inquisitive.

He was also one who was always taking the initiative.

When others wouldn't step forward, he was the one who would step forward.

In fact, to the point of being impulsive, responding before thinking often.

And we often are critical of Peter, but honestly, we need to see that Peter was a great man of love of Christ and a great man of faith in Christ.

And he often put himself in precarious situations simply because of his faith.

And we can learn a great deal from Simon Peter.

He was an intensely human being.

Man, when he failed, he failed big.

And there are times when I fail, and I fail big.

We can learn a lot from this man.

Because all along this three-year journey that Simon Peter followed Jesus, Jesus was molding and shaping him.

Not a single victory, nor a single failure was lost in the hands of Jesus.

He used all of them, not wasting any of it, in order to shape Peter into the man he needed to be to bring God glory.

Peter would have it this way.

I got it, Jesus.

I've got this one.

I've got it under control, Jesus.

Even if everybody else messes up, you can count on me.

I can do this.

But Peter had to learn pretty quickly that dependence upon himself, dependence on his own will, was a prescription for failure.

He needed to be less confident in himself and more dependent upon Jesus.

The same is true in my life.

There are many times when I tell God, God, I got this.

God, if I need your help, I'll let you know.

Even if everybody else messes up, I'm good.

And I need to learn to have less confidence in myself and more dependence upon Him.

And as I do, God will mold me and shape me.

Because failure for a believer is not final.

As we come to Mark chapter 14, verses 27 through 31, I want us to see three things this morning, just see three three truths from this text.

Mark 14:27–31

The first one is this our spiritual failures are not a surprise to God.

They're foreknown.

God does not watch us mess up and go, oh wow, didn't see that one coming.

Wasn't expecting that one from him today.

God is not surprised by our failures.

Number two, I want us to recognize that even our failures can be redeemed by God for our good and for his glory.

God can redeem our failures.

He does not throw us away.

He uses them for his purposes.

And thirdly, I want us to see this.

Many of our failures can actually be avoided if we'd stop depending on ourselves and depend more on him.

So that's where we're headed in the story.

God's not surprised when you fail.

God does not abandon you when you fail.

And God can help you so you won't fail.

If you're willing and able, will you stand with me as we read from God's Word?

Mark chapter 14, beginning in verse 27 this morning.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away, because it is written, I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

But Peter said to him, Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.

And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny me three times.

But Peter kept saying insistently, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.

And they were all saying the same thing also.

Heavenly Father, bless the reading of your word.

Help us to understand it, but more than understand it, use it to change our lives.

Lord, thank you that you are a faithful God who does not leave us nor forsake us, even when we fail you sometimes miserably.

Lord, help us to turn from that.

Help us to turn from trusting in ourselves to relying upon you.

And Lord, use us, we pray, for your kingdom and for your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You will remember that we are in the middle of Jesus' final week of ministry in Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

This is a transition text from what has gone on before it to what is about to happen after it.

What has gone on before it is Jesus has spent an evening in an upper room with his disciples celebrating the Passover meal, that annual meal that they celebrated for 1,500 years that recognized that God had delivered the nation of Israel out of slavery, that God had provided a way for the death angel to pass over them by the sacrifice of a lamb.

And you'll remember Jesus took that Passover meal and it was his final Passover meal, and he instituted the Lord's Supper, and he said, That Passover lamb pointed to me.

I am the Lamb of God.

This cracker now represents my body.

This juice now represents my blood.

And he's observed the Lord's Supper with his disciples.

He's also told his disciples that one of them would be betraying him.

One of his very own would betray him.

And they all asked, It's not me, is it Jesus?

It's not me, is it Jesus?

And then Judas leaves to go carry out his betrayal.

Following that time, they sang some hymns together.

They were Psalm 113 through Psalm 118 called the Hillel Psalms.

And Mark tells us that they were leaving that place and they were going out towards the Garden of Gethsemane.

There, Jesus is going to pray earnestly over the cup that he is going to drink, the wrath of God that he is going to drink on man's behalf.

He's going to be betrayed by Judas.

He's going to be arrested and carried away.

But before they go there, Mark gives us this little story in the middle of it.

There's a dark cloud hanging over this evening.

Jesus has had this Passover meal with his disciples, but one of his disciples has left to betray him.

The cross is lingering ahead of him, but I want you to notice what Jesus is doing.

He is singing hymns of worship to his heavenly father.

And he is walking headlong towards the will of his father.

He knows exactly where he is heading.

He knows exactly what is about to take place.

But he is faithful to the will of God and he is worshiping as he is going, even as his friends betray him, even as some deny him, even as they all desert him, he is still faithful because he trusts the Father's will.

The contrast that Mark is drawing for us is of Jesus' faithfulness and the fickleness of the disciples.

While Jesus is faithful and worshiping and walking towards God's will, the disciples are about to run as far as they can away from God's will.

And he wants us to see this contrast.

Even while Jesus is walking towards the cross, he knows that his disciples are going to desert him.

He knows one of them is going to deny him, one is going to betray him.

He knows that they are about to be scattered, but even as he knows they're about to be scattered, Jesus is preparing them to be gathered together once again to be used by him.

He's about to give them three predictions.

He's about to tell them three things that they're not prepared to hear.

He tells them, first of all, he says in verse 27, all of you will fall away.

In verse 28, he says, I am going to be killed, and then I'm going to be resurrected.

And in verse 29, or in verse 30, he says, and one of you is going to deny me.

You're not ready to hear this, disciples.

All of you are going to desert me.

One of you is going to deny me.

I'm going to be crucified, but then I'm coming back and I will meet you in Galilee.

Judas is not part of this conversation.

Judas has already left.

He's gone to betray Jesus.

The disciples now know which of the twelve is the betrayer.

They know it's not them.

They've been asking, could it be me?

Now they know it's not me, it's Judas.

There must have been a sense of relief amongst the disciples to go, at least I'm not the one who is betraying Jesus.

But Jesus does not want them to measure their faithfulness against Judas' betrayal.

He wants them to measure their faithfulness against their own fears and their own self-confidence.

He says, here's the deal.

He may have betrayed me for money.

All of you, every last one of you, is going to desert me.

You're going to leave me.

When it gets tough, when it gets hard, when the chips are down, you are going to turn your back and you are going to run.

Their great danger was not in betraying Jesus for money.

Their great danger was in being overconfident in their own ability to remain faithful.

In verse twenty-seven, Jesus tells them that he has the foreknowledge that they're going to fail him.

Jesus knows.

It's not a surprise when feeble, fickle friends turn on him.

He says, You will all deny me.

In my car, on my dashboard, there's this light that comes on occasionally.

It's got the picture of an engine.

And it's really annoying.

And I have to call my friend Alan and I have to say, Alan, that light is on again.

And you know the manufacturer of the car did not put that warning light into the car because they thought maybe something might happen with the car.

You know why a manufacturer puts that warning light in there?

It's because they know the vehicle that they manufactured has weaknesses, and if you don't deal with the issue that's going on, something worse is going to happen.

It's a check engine light.

In much the same way, sometimes Jesus tells us, you need to check the engine.

There's a warning here going on because I don't want this to come into something that is going to be worse later on.

And disciples, while you may be celebrating that you're not Judas, I need to warn you that you're putting too much faith in yourselves.

He says it this way: you all, not some of you, not a handful of you, not a couple of you slackers, all of you are going to fall away.

The word fall away there is the word we get our English words scandal or scandalous from.

It means to scandalize.

In the original language, it was a picture of setting a trap.

Like a hunter who would set a trap and then wait, trying to trip up or snare an animal, trying to trick someone.

And the enemy was setting a trap.

Trying to snare the disciples with their own fear and with their own self-confidence.

And Jesus says, I want you to know all of you.

In fact, he says the word all three times.

He says that in verse 27, you will all fall away.

Verse 29, Peter says, even if they all fall away, I will not.

And then in verse 31, they were all saying the same thing.

He uses the word all here so that we understand that none of the disciples were excused from this issue.

And by the way, neither are we.

We have to recognize that while we may not betray our Heavenly Father, we may not betray Jesus for money, we will often deny him.

And sometimes desert him.

We may not intend to.

We may not want to.

In fact, I would imagine all of us would say, I don't want to do that, but we need to recognize we are all fully capable of doing so.

In fact, how many times have you toned down your faith, dialed back the Jesus talk?

Just simply because it was an awkward situation, or because you were afraid of how somebody might respond, or we are are nervous over how somebody might what somebody might think about us.

And so we we we we dial it back a little bit.

Is it any different?

There are some lessons and some cautions that Jesus gives to us here.

He says, You're all going to fail me.

And I'm not surprised by it.

Proverbs 29, verse 25 says, the fear of man is a snare.

Proverbs 29:25

The fear of man is a trap.

The fear of man is something that will scandalize you.

Fear of man doesn't mean I'm afraid somebody's going to harm me.

Fear of man means I'm worried about what other people think about me.

And when I start worrying about what other people think about my faith, I have fallen into a trap.

The question isn't, will I ever in my actions and in my words deny Jesus?

The question is, am I currently doing so?

And am I aware of it?

We're not so different from the disciples.

While they didn't betray Jesus for money when it came right down to it and things got difficult, they were afraid to be associated with Jesus.

They were unwilling to pay the price of bearing his name.

Jesus was not caught off guard by this.

And I want you to know this.

Jesus tells them, you're going to all desert me.

But this does not define who you are in me.

This is not the last chapter of their story.

Jesus does not say, you're all going to desert me and I'm done with you.

I can't believe you did that.

How can you be so weak?

How can you be so feeble?

How can you not have enough faith to trust in me?

He says none of those things.

Jesus quotes Zachariah chapter 13, verse 17.

He says, I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.

Jesus says, I know what's about to happen.

You guys are all going to abandon me.

One of you is going to deny me.

And I know that because Scripture tells me that.

The Bible tells me that this is exactly what is going to happen.

I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.

Jesus reminds us, by the way, I am the good shepherd.

I lay down my life for my sheep.

And the good shepherd was struck down.

In Zechariah verse chapter 13, it says, I will strike down the shepherd.

The question is, who is the one doing the striking?

Who's striking down the shepherd?

Who is hurting the shepherd?

Who is harming the shepherd?

Well, as we continue through Mark's gospel, we're going to find that the Jewish leaders wanted to strike down the shepherd.

The Romans struck down the shepherd.

Judas betrayed the shepherd.

But none of them are the I will strike down the shepherd.

The I who struck down the shepherd, do you know who it is?

God the Father.

God the Father said, I will strike down the shepherd.

I am sending a shepherd, and then I'm going to strike him down.

That seems crazy.

That seems strange.

Why would God the Father strike down the shepherd he sent to shepherd the sheep?

Because Isaiah 53, verse 10 says it pleased the Lord to crush him on our behalf.

Isaiah 53:10

Because Romans chapter 8 says that God condemned our sin through his Son.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Jesus was perfect, he was holy, he was righteous.

He never was sinful.

But the Bible says he became sin so that you and I might become the righteousness of God.

God punished him so that you and I might be made right with God.

You say, why are you telling me all this right now, Pastor?

What does this have to do with this particular text?

Jesus says, you guys are going to be abandoning me because it says I'm going to strike down the shepherd.

God's going to strike me down, and you guys are all going to abandon me, but I'm okay with it because I trust my father's plan.

I trust what my father is doing.

God is not surprised when we don't follow his plans.

Christ did so perfectly.

Did not surprise God.

I'll strike down the shepherd.

What are the sheep going to do?

They're going to rally to his side.

No?

What are they going to do?

They're going to scatter.

God is not surprised when I fail him.

He's not surprised when I make dumb decisions.

He's not surprised when I make conscious decisions that go against him.

He's not surprised when I sin against him.

He's not surprised when I deny him with my actions.

But God's not done with us.

Verse 28 tells us that God will restore us if we'll allow him.

Death was not the end of Jesus, and the desertion and denial of the disciples was not their end either.

It was not their final chapter.

Jesus says in verse 28, After I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

After I have been raised, I'm going to die.

They're going to crucify.

He's told them multiple times this is what's going to happen.

But after I'm raised, I will go to Galilee, and there I will meet you.

I want you to notice after I have been raised is in passive voice.

Passive voice means somebody else is doing the action, acting upon you.

Doesn't say Jesus raised himself up.

He says, the one who struck me down, what will the one who struck me down do?

He will raise me back up.

Here's God's plan.

I'm going to lay down my life.

God's going to raise me back up.

And once I'm raised back up, here's where I'm going.

I'm going to Galilee.

And I will meet you there.

That in and of itself had to be encouraging to these men who were just told, hey, tonight, you guys, all of you are going to deny me.

But after I've raised, I'll meet you in Galilee.

In fact, in Luke's gospel, excuse me, in Mark chapter 16, after Jesus has been crucified and buried, the next morning, a group of women, a group of disciples who are women, go to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body more completely, preparing it for burial more completely.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

And when they get there, they don't find his body.

They find the tomb is empty, the stone has been rolled away, and there are some men there, there are some people there, and they say, You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He is not here.

He is raised just as he told you.

Now go and tell the disciples and Peter to meet him in Galilee, just like he told you.

Imagine being Peter.

You've just denied Jesus three times.

You denied knowing you even knew him.

I don't know that guy.

I don't know him.

Never met him before in my life.

After standing in front of Jesus and saying, even if everybody else fails, I'm not letting you down.

Even if I have to die, I will die with you.

Little slave girl.

Aren't you one of his?

Nope, never met him.

Imagine being Simon Peter.

Imagine the crush of guilt, the crush of shame.

The Bible says he went out and wept bitterly.

But Jesus says, hey, go tell Peter.

Tell all the disciples and Peter.

They all deserted me.

He denied me.

Tell him, come to Galilee.

Just like I told you.

A fisherman who uses a net, if that net is torn, that fisherman will not take that net and throw it away.

The fisherman will take his net and he will mend his net.

He will sew together so that there are no longer holes in the net, and then he will throw the net back out into the sea to be useful once again.

Something tore in Peter, something tore in these disciples.

And the great fisherman was not willing to throw the net away.

He mended the net and made it useful and put it back into service.

In Luke's account of this, Jesus told Simon Peter.

Peter says, I'm not going to deny you.

I'm not, even if everybody else falls, here's what Jesus said to him.

Hey, Simon, Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat.

Satan has asked permission to shake you up.

Satan has asked me permission to rock your world and see what falls out.

But then Jesus says this, but I've prayed for you.

And when you return, strengthen your brothers.

He said, Simon, you don't have a clue about what's about to happen.

You don't have an idea about what you're about to go through.

I know you're sincere.

I know you truly believe that you'll be faithful, but Satan is about to rock your world.

And you are going to fail.

In fact, you're going to deny me three times.

But know this I've prayed for you.

You will return.

And when you return, I'm not done with you yet.

Strengthen your brothers.

Strengthen them.

Help them to come along.

Peter's great problem was self-confidence.

I got this, Jesus.

I can handle this, Jesus.

And before Jesus could mold him into being Peter the rock, Jesus had to deal with his self-confidence.

Our failures don't surprise God.

God can redeem our failures and continue to use us for his good, but in order to do that, he has to destroy our pride.

Look at verses 29 through 31 as we conclude this morning.

Notice how Peter responds.

Jesus says, You guys are all going to fail me.

And Peter says, What?

Even if all of them fail you, I'm not.

Hey, Peter, you're going to deny me three times.

Before tomorrow morning, when the rooster crows twice, you're going to deny knowing me three times.

Oh no, Jesus, that won't happen.

Even if I have to die with you, I will die with you.

Peter's response should have been something along these lines.

Oh no, Jesus, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to deny you.

I don't want to abandon you.

I don't want to desert you.

What can I do?

What can you do for me?

How can we avoid the situation where I deny you?

But that's not what he says.

He says, oh no.

Oh no.

I know you can't trust the rest of these guys.

You can trust me.

Three related issues that deal with what Peter was dealing with, which was just overconfidence in his ability.

The first one is this: he overestimated his ability to deal with spiritual matters.

He overestimated his ability.

The second thing is he underestimated his enemy and what he was about to go through.

The third thing is he was unprepared for the storm because he overestimated himself and he underestimated the enemy.

Peter thought, I can just make one promise.

God, I promise, I'm yours, I'll be faithful, and that would be good for a lifetime of faithfulness.

Jesus said, Peter, you've just promised you'll never fail me.

Let me let you in on a little secret.

You don't even know what tonight brings.

You don't know what the enemy has cooked up for you tonight.

In fact, by tomorrow morning when the rooster crows twice, you're gonna deny me not once, you're gonna deny me twice, you're gonna deny me three times.

You'll tell people you don't even know me.

And Peter was putting himself in the most vulnerable position he could have possibly been in.

Standing alone, on his own, apart from his Savior, apart from his brothers, who he had tried to put down in order to elevate himself.

They're gonna fail you, not me.

And when we try to stand on our own, Satan has us right where he wants us.

When we think we can handle the things that are gonna come our way in our own strength and our own will, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure.

Now hear me, I think Peter was sincere.

I don't think there was an insincere bone in this man's body.

I think he truly meant, I don't want to desert you.

I don't want to deny you.

And I think he thought in his own way, I'm not going to.

I think his love and his faith and his sincerity was there.

He was just overestimating his spiritual ability and underestimating the one who would attack him.

Unless we think he's the only one.

Notice what verse 31 says.

And they were all saying the same thing.

Every last one of them said, We're not going to deny you.

That's not going to be us.

We're not going to desert you.

We're not going to do it.

We're going to be faithful.

Even if we have to die, we are going to be with you.

And the all there means we can't exclude any of these disciples from culpability, nor can we excuse ourselves.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls.

Let him who thinks I got this pay attention because you don't got it.

That was my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Proverbs chapter 16, verse 18.

Proverbs 16:18

You probably know this.

You probably don't know the address of it, but you know this one.

Pride goes before the fall.

The New Testament knows him better as John Mark.

He was a protege of the Apostle Peter.

In fact, in Peter's writings, he refers to John Mark as his son in the faith.

Much of what John Mark records is because Peter told him about it.

And John Mark, I think, records this particular passage because he could relate to it.

You see, when he was a young believer, John Mark was invited to go on a missionary journey with a man by the name of Paul and his partner Barnabas.

And they went on a missionary journey together, and at the first part of that journey, John was serving and working well, but somewhere in the middle of that journey, John abandoned the mission.

He went home.

We don't know why.

We don't know if he got afraid.

We don't know if he was scared.

We don't know if he was hurt.

We don't know if he's missed his mama.

We don't know why he left, but he left.

And when Paul and Barnabas were planning their next missionary journey, Barnabas went to Paul and he said, Hey, I want to take John Mark with us.

And Paul said, Absolutely not.

Fool me once, but I'm not taking him.

He abandoned me, he left me, I'm not taking him.

Paul and Barnabas got into such a disagreement that they no longer went on missionary journeys together.

Paul found another partner named Silas and they went on missionary journeys.

Barnabas went on his own missionary journeys.

I bring this up because later, when we read Paul's letter to Timothy, he writes these words to Timothy.

Timothy, I want you to find John Mark and I want you to bring him to me because he is useful to my ministry.

Something happened along the way from John Mark's failure to him being useful in ministry again.

And I think Peter telling this story to John Mark struck a chord with him.

Where he said, you know what?

Man, I failed.

It didn't surprise God that I failed.

In fact, Jesus told me I was gonna fail.

But you know what the thing about Jesus is?

He didn't throw me out when I messed up, when I failed, when I sinned.

He restored me.

He prayed for me.

The Spirit helped me, and the Father held on to me.

He would not let go.

Even when I was unfaithful, he was faithful and he restored me to ministry.

I wonder if that could be our story as well.

Because failure does not have to be your final chapter.

When you fail God, it doesn't surprise him.

And God doesn't throw you aside.

He can still use you.

Our journeys.

There are going to be many victories along the way.

But there'll also be many failures.

Don't let your failure be final.

Because that's not God's intent with it.

He wants to use it.

And he wants to use you.