[0:09]Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 22. As human beings, we always think of brokenness as a negative experience. We don't want to be broken. We don't want to be known as a failure, and we strive for perfection. And the idea of failure is perceived as weakness in humans. However, in the eyes of God, brokenness is a tool that God uses for usefulness. When we are broken, we are not broken as an accident by God. God allows us to go through certain brokenness in our life, wherein He will bring greater usefulness in our lives. Well, in my own life, I have had people speak over to me that you are a failure. Nothing good can come out of your life. What are you good at? Friends, family, others have spoken negative into my life, and many times I felt that I'm a failure. I'm broken. And I thought that nothing good can come out of my life. And then my own failures, I had to deal with. But today, I can look back and tell you in my experiences of life, that God has used every pieces of brokenness to build His purpose in and through my life. Amen. Well, I've titled today's message as brokenness, a pathway to growth. We're going to look at the life of Peter, just in a glance and basically focus on him denying the Lord Jesus Christ three times. And in the process, we are going to look at the audacity of Peter and the disloyalty of Peter and the recovery of Peter. So first of all, let's get into the audacity of Peter. The word audacity means the willingness to take risks, and when you take that risk, it may also come at a cost of root behavior or disrespectful behavior. So you're willing to take risk for what you feel is the will of God, and for that risk, you are also willing to be rude if needed, right? And I wanted to see the life of Peter, is a traveling companion of Jesus. Jesus called him and selected him to be one of his closest disciples, one among the closer circles of Jesus, one among the three. And his great declaration at Caesarea Philippi, where God the Father revealed to Peter that you are Messiah regarding Christ, the son of the living God. It's a, it's a revelation by God the Father directly to Peter. Can you imagine, and such a wonderful man of God, and the privilege that Peter enjoyed in the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus went to that Mount, when Jesus was transfigured, and the privilege that he enjoyed in the presence of God. These are all the our highlights of Peter's life. And then we can find after the ascension of Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, it was Peter who had the boldness to stand up and preach regarding Jesus as their Messiah, and 3,000 people were added to the Church that day. And later, Peter was very instrumental in giving us the gospels. He was the one who spoke the gospel, instrumental in telling Mark regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, and then Peter's two epistles stand out as an amazing contribution of Peter to the New Testament Church. So all, until now, all that we heard about Peter is a perfect resume, perfect biodata. Anybody would enroll him, any ministry team would want to have Peter in their pastoral team, is an amazing man of God. And by the way, when we write our resumes, we write the best part of our life, isn't it? Nobody writes our weaknesses, we write all the best part of our lives, the big picture of ourselves. And even the things that we have done badly, we portray it in our resume, that we have done them wonderfully badly. That's how the world is.
[4:26]And we are living in a self-obsessed generation, and Wall Street columnist, Peggy Noonan, she wrote it in 2009 regarding the self-esteem movement of the then American people. And she said, for 30 years, the self-esteem movement told the young that they are perfect in every way. And our young people are like that, isn't it? When they put the selfies and when they chat on Instagram and WhatsApp, they just edit their photos and they want the world to see the very best of them. And that's the world that we are living in. And that was the life of Peter. Everybody showed the best of Peter, his faith, his boldness to walk on water. But when he went through the trying times, we find this great Peter falling like a house of cards, just collapsing from all his high grounds that he had gained. So, look at the time before the arrest of Jesus in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus told his disciples that the son of man must be arrested and died and he will be rising again on the third day. Verse 22, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" In other words, look at his audacity, look at his boldness to talk to Jesus like that. And then in Matthew chapter 26, when Jesus spoke about Peter that this very night you will all fall away in verse 31, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and on the night of Jesus's arrest, he was warning his disciples. It was Peter in verse 33, Peter replied, even if all fall away on account of you, I will never fall away. And in verse 35, Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.
[6:26]We know the story, on the night of the Passover, he finished, Jesus finished his Passover meal with his disciples. And he comes to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he knows that his arrest is imminent because Judas has walked out to betray the savior, and here comes the high priest police to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And we just went through those passages in the previous weeks, and and as Jesus is voluntarily giving himself to be arrested, on the night before his crucifixion, the disciples are probably sleeping. And Peter, maybe probably awakened from a tired, long day, and he draws his word and cuts off the high priest servants right here. Look at, look at his act. He's so audacious, he's willing to be so bold so that the Son of Man need not be arrested. And Jesus goes and heals that ear, and he goes into the courtyard of the high priest for the trial. In Luke chapter 22 verse 54 onwards, then seizing him, Jesus, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. Now, before we talk about the failure of Peter, we should also talk about the courage of Peter. Yes, Peter collapsed, but Peter also was a man of courage. One out of the 12 had already left the group, Judas. And the 10, when Jesus was arrested, went into hiding, but Peter was courageous to follow Jesus being arrested at a distance, and he followed Jesus all the way into the city, into the house of the high priest. And apparently, they did not go inside for a trial. It was almost midnight, and the night was getting cooler. So there were all meeting in the courtyard outside of the house, and some people gathered some fire sticks and put fire so that they can have the warmth in the middle of a cool night. And as Jesus is standing just next to the fireplace and the high priest are all seated over there, and they're trying Jesus in the middle of the night, Peter comes and disguises himself. As one among those people, and he sits there by the fireside, just a very close to the Lord Jesus Christ. Courageous man, right? The audacity of Peter we find in this passage. There was a significant composer, who once was sitting and listening to a young lady sing with an amazing voice. His friend had called this composer to come and listen to this girl, who is able to sing the song this composer had composed in a beautiful way, much better than the composer singing and much better than the then top singers singing. Finally, the composer decided that okay, I let me go and listen to this girl if my friend is recommending, that may be an amazing talent. So he sat and went through that audition when this girl was singing with wonderful pitch, beautiful voice and faultless technique. The friend turned to the composer and asked, how is her singing? And what is your assessment regarding her singing? The composer responded, she will be great when something happens to break her heart. She will be a great singer when something happens to break her heart. And he went on to say, her faultless technique, her wonderful pitch and her beautiful skill and the sweet voice will still need another element, an element of failure or brokenness to make it excel. Until now, Peter felt that he was an excellent guy, and he's willing to die with Jesus Christ. But only when the tire hit the road, when the rubber hit the road, he understood that it was not easy following Jesus Christ. He's going to collapse, and he's going to face some brokenness and some failures in his life. And somebody said, the best of men are men at best. What does that mean? The best people are still human beings and therefore have shortcomings.
[11:12]So from the audacity, let us look at the disloyalty of Peter, where he's going to face brokenness because he's betraying Jesus Christ. Come to Luke chapter 22 verse 56 onwards. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." Now, look at this very carefully, there's a servant girl, and servant girls are not respected in Jesus's time. And when this lady, who is low according to their status then, looking at Peter and recognizing Peter that this man was with Jesus Christ, Peter, look at his response verse 57, but he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said. In other words, Peter is telling that he's stooping so low in front of a slave girl to just deny the Lord Jesus Christ. What a low level he has come. He doesn't even have the courage. In front of a slave girl to confess that I was with Jesus. But by the way, what is the question this woman asked? This servant girl asked, "This man was with him." In Mark chapter 3 verse 14, the purpose of Jesus calling his disciples is to be with him, to walk with him, and to go out and spread the good news about him. That's the purpose for which he called the disciples. When he called the disciples, he said, you are supposed to be with me. And when the servant girl recognized that this guy was with Jesus, he denied the very call that Jesus had given him. Jesus told him, you have to be with me. And this girl said, you are with Jesus. He said, no, I was not with him. He denied that he was with Jesus Christ. And this denial is a one-on-one denial. Nobody else. You were with Jesus. Jesus and you, your intimacy with Jesus, your fellowship with Jesus. No, I'm not intimate with Jesus. I don't know Jesus, and it is whether you are a disciple of Jesus, one with Jesus Christ. Look at the progression of his denial. Secondly, it says, verse 58, a little later, the trial is going on and Peter is still sitting there. A little later, someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." "Man, I am not!" Peter replied. So who is the second person? First was a slave girl, second is a man, because of Peter's reply. And if the slave girl recognized that Peter was one-on-one with Jesus, this man recognized that Peter was one among the 12 of Jesus Christ. That you belong to that group, you belong to this church. You belong to the group of people who shout Hallelujah and praise the Lord and cry out to the Lord. And Peter said, no, I don't belong to that church. I don't belong to any church. I'm just an individual. I'm just here for witnessing. And many times our denial is like that. When we come to church, when we are one among Jesus' disciples, we sing out loud to the Lord, but when we go to the marketplace and when we go to our workplaces, we don't want to be identified as a disciple of Jesus, and we don't want to be identified as a member of some church where Jesus' disciples meet. And that's the level of betrayal and denial that Peter is doing over here, right? First said, you and Jesus. No, I was not with Jesus. Secondly, you belong to the group of Jesus. No, I don't even belong to the group of Jesus. I don't even go to that place where these people meet for prayer and teaching of the word of God. And look at the third denial. Verse 59, about an hour later, another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
[15:15]So now what is the third betrayal? Now, there was a group of people who came all the way with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. You understand that, Luke says that they entered Jerusalem, and the group of people are increasing because he rose up Lazarus from the grave. On the way to Jericho, we find that the tax collectors, Zachias was saved, and a lot of people are just enjoying, blind Bartimeus is healed. All just before the Passover day. And we can find that the group of Galileans and other people who have gathered around Jesus are a huge group. And on that Passion Monday morning, they entered Jerusalem, on that cold, Jesus enters, and everybody is praising Jesus as the Messiah. And he goes to the temple, overthrows the money changers, stands in the temple, and he preaches and he teaches the word of God to the temple authorities. And then he goes and curses the fig tree, and the fig tree is withered. Jesus is making noise in Jerusalem. And everybody is talking about Jesus that these group of people who have come from Galilee, they are changing everything. There is a lot of revolution that is happening in the temple. Everybody knows about this group who has come. He cannot disown that I don't belong to the group, because Peter had traveled with them and come. And by the way, if you go to MG Road or if you go to the commercial street or any commercial area of our Bangalore City. And you find a group of people from either north or northeast or down south coming together and walking together. You and I will be able to identify looking at their accent or looking at their dressing or looking at their how they look that, okay, these people are visitors here and they've come from a different region. And Peter could not hide that. His very clothes and his very accent and his very appearance look like a Galilean. And this man said, Peter, you belong to that group, the way you look, you look like a Galilean. And he's saying, I don't even belong to that place. And he disowned totally to be with Jesus Christ. Not one-on-one, not one among the 12, and not even one in that region, he's saying that I don't have anything to do with Jesus Christ. Peter's disloyalty towards Jesus. Dear friend, look at the life that Peter brought in until now. Great faith, walking on water, great, going to church, ministry, great ministry, two by two, they went out and cast out demons, and in the name of Jesus Christ, he has done exploits. It took time. It took effort to build his character. It took time and it took effort to horn up his spiritual gifts that God has given to him. But it just took seconds, it just took hours to bring down everything that he has worked hard for and what God called him for. Just a few seconds of moral failure, just a few seconds of deviation and looking away from God can bring down everything that we have done in our life to build character and spiritual gifts that God has given to us. How true is it, isn't it?
[18:43]On August 23, 2011, there was a 5.8 scale earthquake in Washington D.C. It destroyed the National Capital and the National Cathedral in D.C. The National Cathedral put out a public notice seeking for funds to refurbish the National Cathedral. And the tagline is quite interesting, and this was the tagline they used. See the lifelong impact of a few seconds can make. See the lifelong impact of a few seconds can make. Young people, married people, professionals, let me tell you, when we go outside the world, the enemy is waiting like a roaring lion to make us into a failure, to devour us, and we need to be on our guard. So that we don't look away from Jesus, but we always are looking at Jesus and identifying ourselves as one among the disciples of Jesus. Otherwise, the enemy is waiting for our failure. We know the earthquake that happened in Turkey and Syria. 7.8 Richter scale, 50 to 60,000 people died in a matter of days. And 104 billion dollars of loss in property and assets, which was built by people over centuries, was lost just because a few seconds of earth shaking in earthquake. This is sometimes our life. God has given us good background, good teaching of the word of God. He has given us salvation. But, dear friends, we need to be on our guard, because it's just take a couple of seconds to lose everything that God has given to us. See the lifelong impact that moments of weakness can make in our lives. And that's exactly what happened to Peter. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, Paul says, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! This message is for me and to every one of us, every minister of the Lord. If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. Moving forward to the coming back of Peter. Now, when Peter denied Jesus, come to Luke chapter 22 verse 61 onwards. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." All this while, the Lord was looking at the high priest, but he was aware of Peter, Jesus. But the moment he denied Jesus three times and the rooster crowed according to Jesus's prophecy, he turned. The Lord turned and looked straight into the eyes of Peter, and then Peter remembered. He remembered every word that Jesus had spoken to him, before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times. And something happened in that look. Jesus didn't talk a word. Just that look, something changed in his life. He could not stand there. He went out and he wept bitterly.
[22:26]What did Peter see in the eyes of Jesus so that he would weep bitterly? Condemnation? No, compassion. When we are at our lowest, when we break it all and our hopes are dashed. When we think that nothing good can come of our lives. Because sometimes we have messed it all up. The Lord is not condemning us. The Lord is looking at us with compassion. Because he knows that every brokenness fits into God's plan for greater usefulness in life. Can you lift your hands and shout an Amen.
[23:35]Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. In John chapter 13, Jesus says that I love my disciples. Even to the very end, Jesus said, I will love you. Just because of Peter's failure, does not mean that God hates us, God hates Peter. He loves them unconditionally, and our God's love towards us is not based on our usefulness, it's not based on our effectiveness, it's not based on our success quotient. Our God loves us even when we are rock bottom, he loves us, not like the love of the world. That's the speciality of the love of Jesus. He knows Peter, he knows me, he knows you, and he knows what is happening in our life. Now, look at the scene in the courtyard. Jesus is standing somewhere away from the fire, and then there is fire, and Peter is over there. And then around the fire on the other side are the chief priest and the Sanhedrin questioning Jesus at the night by the side of the fire. And Peter has denied Jesus three times. The whole people over there and the Sanhedrin have denied Jesus. Peter says, I don't love Jesus. I'm denying Jesus now because I don't want to lose my life. But the turn around of everything will happen based on Jesus' response. Peter's forgiveness will happen because of Jesus' response. The forgiveness for the high priest and the Sanhedrin will happen and for the people will happen based on Jesus' response. Look at the drama that is played out over there between Jesus, the high priest and Peter. Jesus is being tried by the high priest, and Jesus is being betrayed parallelly by Peter. The outcome of what will happen to the betrayal of Peter is based on the success of Jesus before the high priest and others. Jesus loves his own, and he dies in their place, but Peter loves himself and he betrays Jesus. And just because Jesus loves others more than his own security and safety, he voluntarily gives himself to be crucified. And that will reinstate Peter in the days to come. Jesus did not condemn Peter. Dear friends, our generation is unwilling to embrace brokenness. I'm standing over here, I can boldly tell you that all my dreams have not fulfilled. There are many, many dreams in my life, which is broken. Many times I felt like a failure as a pastor. I felt that I should quit. But I thank God for those moments, when I felt that I cannot handle life anymore, there is no way ahead for me. God has taken care of that brokenness and made something useful because in those broken moments, God will humble us, and he will take over our life completely if you give him that control. Amen. Today God is asking, in that brokenness, will you allow him to take control over your life? Look at the resurrection day in Mark chapter 16 and his verse 7. Jesus was resurrected, and look at the message, But go, and tell his disciples, the angels are telling this message. Tell his disciples and Peter, a special mention for Peter, why? Because Peter has denied Jesus, Jesus has not rejected Peter. Amen. The story of Peter does not end with the denial, but Peter rejected Jesus, went back to fishing in Galilee, and the resurrected Jesus went after Peter. Today, let me tell you, you may be running away from people, you may be running away from others because of your brokenness. Maybe you are angry with God because of certain things that has happened in your life, but my Jesus specializes in coming to where you are and ministering to you. Hallelujah. The resurrected Jesus goes to Galilee, and he finds Peter and his friends fishing. The whole night they are fishing. And Jesus asked them, they don't realize this is Jesus. Man, did you catch anything? And this guys are saying, no, we didn't catch anything. Whole night, we didn't catch anything. Why don't you cast the net on the other side? They didn't realize who is talking to them, and they cast, okay, anyhow, we didn't catch, let's try once again. And the net was full of a catch. And as they were taking this prize into their boat, they realized the one who is on the shore is Jesus, and Peter runs to Jesus. And where is Jesus? Another drama is breaking out over there. If Peter denied Jesus in front of a firelight, Jesus is right over there in front of another firelight in the dawn of that morning, and he's going to reinstate Peter back. Look at the scene, look at how God deals. In the same circumstances, in the same place, not in the same location, but in the same scenario, Jesus talks to Peter and said, Peter, do you love me? Question number one, yes, Lord, I love you. Question number two, I have to ask you one more question, yes, Lord, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Peter did not understand why is Jesus asking this. Question number three, do you love me? Yes, Lord, I love you, three times. And he said, if you love me, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And we know the rest is history. When his savior, when his master died on the cross, scholars say, historians say, Peter chose to die head down to be crucified for the master. I'm not worthy, even when I die, I want to kiss my master's feet. Maybe that's what he thought. Look at the transformation in the life of Peter that time, when he messed it all up, he knew his father, his God is restoring him. His life is not over in a failure, but God used him as a successful disciple, apostle in the New Testament Church. Amen. You know that when the gospels, one of the Gospels that was written first was the Gospel of Mark. Okay. And when Mark writes his gospel, do you know who gave the maximum input to Mark to write his gospel? It was Peter. Scholars say that it was Peter, who, who was instrumental in telling Mark about the ministry and the life of Jesus. And we can find that the other gospel writers like John and Matthew and Luke have taken the work of Mark, and they brought in their understanding into their gospel, but the reference is the Gospel of Mark. That's the first gospel written. And in all the four Gospels, we have the account of Peter's denial, Peter's failure. Guess who told that? Guess who told that? I can imagine Peter sitting with Mark, and Mark is inquiring with Peter, tell me about your ministry with Jesus. Peter talks about all the high point. At one time, Peter pauses, what happened Peter? I'm just thinking how I fail my God. Do we really have to write Mark is asking Peter, because you are a tall figure in the New Testament Church. Peter says, no, write about my failure. The church needs to know. Who will write about their failure? Nobody wants to write about the failure on Instagram story, but not Peter. Tell, I failed. I don't have any shame to tell that I denied Jesus three times. It came from Peter's own mouth that I failed my master, but my master has been so wonderful. He loved me even when I betrayed him. And he's still using me. And if he can use me, he can use everybody who reads my epistles. Hallelujah. Dear friend, when the world says when you are failed, get out. I don't want you. You didn't meet my expectation. But God says, when you are a failure, come, I will embrace you. I specialize in using broken vessels, and I can make something beautiful out of everybody's brokenness. I heard the story of a young boy who used to collect glass pieces from the roadside. His hobby was that he would collect glass pieces from the roadside. When others collected cards and bottle caps and stamps and coins, this guy would collect glass pieces. And he would clean it and he would do a sand paper work on it and keep it. And when the friends come and collect and show their hobbies, everybody would mock at him. What is man? All broken pieces of glass. You are like a garbage collector. But one day, he started arranging all those broken pieces of glass in various colors, whatever he got, and he would make it into a beautiful piece of art. And he brought it into a frame, put it in his living room. Next time, his friends came and he saw that, what is this, man? We have never seen this in your house. Remember those broken pieces of glass? I knew what I was doing with that. I have taken what is a waste for people, but I have created a beautiful artwork, and that is that. This is what God does in our lives. He takes all those brokenness, those failed dreams. Maybe your educational dreams have failed. Maybe your friends have failed you. Your parents would have spoken something against you and said, you're good for nothing. Nothing good can come out of you. Maybe that relationship that you thought that will work out, and they walked out of your life. God says, come to me with all those brokenness. If you allow me to mold you, I am making something beautiful out of that brokenness in Peter's life, in my life, in every one of our life. Can you lift your hands and shout an Amen?
