Failure Is Not Final | Matthew 26:31-75

We live in a world where popular culture, celebrities, and public speakers say that “If you chase your dreams, you will achieve them.” This message of “Chase your dreams and you will 100% get there” is a guarantee that you will be successful at whatever you strive for. What this does not mention is failure. The world culture does not talk about failure and the conditions that can sometimes apply. Growing up, I chased many dreams, but I failed in most of them. I never knew why I was not succeeding because I never knew how I could face failure.

FAILURE IS NOT FINAL

We all experience failures in life. The night that Jesus Christ was arrested, two of his disciples had massive failures. Judas had the failure of betrayal and Peter had the failure of denial. They both denied Christ. Judas rejected the mercy of God and later went on and took his life. Peter accepted the mercy of God and later went out and became the leader of the church.

We are going to look at Peter’s failure and see what causes personal failure in your life.

• We are going to look at what Peter did wrong.
• Then we are going to look at what Peter did right.
• How does Jesus look at our failure?

Three failures of Peter

We are going to see that the three things that Peter did in his life are the three most common causes of failure in our life. This is the biggest cause of any failure.

1. We Overestimate Our Strengths

The story begins in Matthew 26. Now they just had the last supper where Jesus said, “I am going to be arrested and crucified.”

Matthew 26:31-35 ³¹Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:“‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ³²But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” ³³Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” ³⁴“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” ³⁵But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Jesus said, “When they arrest me, you are going to fall away.” They all said, “We will never fall away.”

Notice, three times Peter says, “I will never fall away. I will never disown you. We will never fall away.” This is overestimating our strengths.

Application: A lot of people fail because of overestimating their strengths. Businesses fail, battles are lost, and students fail in college; all because they overestimate their strength.

One of the reasons we have failures in our life is because we think we are stronger than we really are. Don’t be self-confident. None of us is exempt. Given the right situation I am capable of any sin, and so are you.

An unguarded strength is a double weakness. – Oswald Chambers

In the very area, you think, “There is no way I’ll mess up on that,” you are setting yourself up for failure. The very area you may have had a major victory may be exactly where you stumble next.

Illustration: On January 8, 2022; Van Aert, the 27-year-old Belgian professional cyclist, and three-time world champion; took a late lead going into the final straight and pulled away from the chasing pack, only to put his arms in the air in celebration before he had actually crossed the line.

Van Aert immediately realised his blunder as David Gaudu snatched the stage victory, with the commentary team left in disbelief at the naivety of the experienced three-time winner of the Cyclo-cross World Championships. “It was a rookie mistake,” Van Aert told reporters.

We fail when we overestimate our strength. Peter overestimated his strength.

2. We Fear The Disapproval Of Others

Are you a people pleaser? Worrying about other people’s acceptance is a stronghold to overcome. When we make a decision based on what other people would think, we are sowing the seeds for failure in our life. Peter struggled with people pleasing in his life.

Matthew 26:58 But Peter followed him at a distance, (that is a problem there) right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.

Matthew 26:69-70 ⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. ⁷⁰But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Peter has just been 3-1/2 years with Jesus Christ. He has lived with him and the first time the rubber hits the road, he is in a crisis and Peter says, “I don’t even know what you are talking about.” He is more afraid of what other people think than he is about identifying with Christ.

Peter struggled with a people pleaser mindset. One time Paul rebuked him in Acts 11 and said, “Peter you are acting this way with this group of people and you are acting this way with this group of people. You are trying to please everyone, you can’t do that.”

The reason we are worried about the fear of disapproval is that there is always a wound behind that. A hidden wound is always behind the fear of disapproval from other people. Maybe it was a rejection, unmet need, some hurt, trauma, pain or an injury.

Proverbs 29:25  Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

• People pleasing will cost your peace.
• People Pleasing will mask your identity and surrender their destiny.
• People pleasers inevitably please the wrong people.
• We fail when we live to please people.

We are to live for God’s approval. Seek to please God first.

3. Speaking Without Thinking

We speak impulsively, rashly, and in haste, we speak thoughtlessly and don’t pause to gauge the damage of what we are about to say. You just say whatever you feel. That is a mark of immaturity. Children do that, they say whatever they feel. Adults need to learn to have control over their mouths.

• When you feel envy, you speak in envy.
• When you feel jealousy, you speak in jealousy.
• When you feel insecure, you say things that reveal your insecurity.
• When you are frustrated and when you are angry, you say things in anger.
• When you are afraid, you say things in fear not even thinking about the consequences.

One of the reasons we have many failures in our life is that we speak without thinking.

Peter is clearly nervous, he is fearful. Jesus Christ has been arrested. Then all of a sudden a stranger comes up and says “Hey you are with that guy” and he says “No I am not.” He is worried about what other people would think, and now his anger comes out.

Matthew 26:71-74 ⁷¹Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁷²He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” ⁷³After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” ⁷⁴Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.

He is speaking without thinking. The Bible says this causes so many problems in our lives.

We overestimate our strengths, fear the disapproval of others and speak without thinking.

Now that is what Peter did wrong and he failed. Once he failed, he actually did several things right. These are actually some of the steps to recovering from a failure.

Three Things Peter Did Right

1. Grieve in failure

Grief is a good thing. Grief is the way we get through failure and we learn our lessons.

To get past your pain, you got to go through the pain.

Matthew 26:75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

“Wept bitterly” that is grieving.

Now, imagine how disappointed Peter must have felt himself. I was with Jesus, yet, the first time that I am put to test about my commitment, my faithfulness, and my trust in Jesus, I deny him 3 times in a row. He is disappointed. I love the fact that he owns up to his failure. He just goes out and he grieves. He is humbled by this and he is regretful of it.

Grief is a good thing, it is the key to healing.

Grief is the way we get through transitions and losses and failures in life.

You cannot force healing, you cannot rush healing, you cannot will it by sheer willpower; “I am going to be different now,” you cannot do it yourself.

Recovery is an act of God’s mercy. Healing is an act of mercy and it comes slowly with time. Recovery comes in stages. All God wants you to do is just be honest, I blew it, to be humble.

Application: Now the Bible says there, when Peter heard the rooster crow he wept bitterly. You know what, I imagine that every time for the rest of Peter’s life when he heard a Rooster crow, it probably reminded him, “my biggest failure in life.” It was a trigger. By the way, we have triggers in your life. There are certain things when we hear them or smell them or think about them or listen to them or whatever, it triggers the memory of our failures.

Now you cannot stop the triggers, but you can stop what they do to you. Your choice is will I choose to focus on the mistake, the failure, the pain or am I going to choose to focus on God’s forgiveness, God’s mercy and God’s grace. That is a choice, and that is what you can do.

Satan wants you to focus on your pain and manipulate you with all kinds of memory triggers. Every time that trigger brings the thought, that memory, that painful mistake, I am just going to say, “Yes, I was wrong. Thank God for his grace, mercy, love and his forgiveness.”

2. Get Support

How do you get support from other people? See how Peter got support. Where does Peter go instantly after he has had his biggest failure? He was with the other disciples.

This is Easter morning. Mary Magdalene and the other women went and saw the open tomb of Jesus.

Mark 16:10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping.

John 20:19-20 ¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

John 20:26 ²⁶A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

In fact, for the next 50 days after Peter’s big failure and after the cross and the resurrection, they were all together. They pretty much just hung out together, kind of processing what in the world did we just go through, the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus.

The very first thing Jesus did when he started this ministry is he formed a small group and he chose 12 people to be a part of that small group. All Christianity for 300 years was done in small groups.

• When you go through a major failure in your life, you must resist the urge to isolate yourself.
• When you go through a major failure in life you must resist the urge to insulate yourself.

Do you know, when you share a problem in your life, it is cut in half? The burden is cut in half.

When you share joy, it is doubled.

You were never meant to go through life on your own. You are never meant to go through life by yourself. We were better together. We were meant for community.

The best time to build a support network in your life is before the crisis.

You are going to have some challenges in your life. You are going to have some pain in life. We have losses, deaths, and illnesses all in this world. The time to get your social support system, the time to build a small group is now. Not in the crisis, it’s a little late by then.

Peter grieved. Peter went to his support group.

3. Cast Oneself On God’s Mercy

Peter wrote 2 epistles in the Bible. But in 1 Peter he starts the whole book talking about how God has shown him mercy.

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Peter has received mercy. This fills us with a living hope. Now Peter has had a massive failure in his life, but he is not going around in despair. He says, “I am walking around in hope.” In spite of my failure, my life is filled with hope Why? Because of the mercy of God.

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Now, why did Peter tell people to do that, cause that is what he did when he failed. He just cast all his anxiety. Cast means take your anxiety and drop them, you just let it go.

God, I am dropping my fear, my insecurity, my guilt, my shame because you are a loving and merciful God. I am just going to drop it all on you. I am going to cast myself on the mercy of God.

When you cast your care you lose your despair, because then Jesus moves into action.

What Does Jesus Do With Our Failures?

3 Things Jesus Does With Our Failures

1. Jesus Prays For Us

Luke 22:31-32 ³¹“Simon, Simon, (See the tenderness in God’s voice. He is merciful.) Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus told Peter before he had even failed, “Peter this is going to happen, but I have already prayed for you that your faith will not fail.”

Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

The Bible says Jesus is interceding for you. He is praying for you. For your temptations, for the failures you have had and for the ones you are going to have tomorrow and the next day.

Peter, “I have already prayed for you before you even failed. I have prayed that you will make it through this.” That is the mercy of God.

2. Jesus Shows Us Mercy

Jesus does not add to our guilt, when you have failed, God shows mercy.

A couple of weeks after the resurrection:

John 21:1-3 ¹Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: ²Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, (That is a statement of depression) and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Peter says, “I have not recovered from this trauma. It has been only 2 weeks since my biggest failure in life. I am going fishing. Anybody wants to go with me.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Ever felt like that?

This is called failure. These are professional fishermen. If anybody should catch fish, it’s professional fishermen. We fished all night but caught nothing, this is another failure.

John 21:4-6 ⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. ⁵He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. ⁶He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. ”When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

You may have fished all night and caught nothing, but God can do more in 5 minutes in your life than you can do in 20 years of planning.

God can do more in your life in a few seconds if you will just obey him than you can do on your own schemes and plans.

John 21:7 ⁷Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.

John goes, “It’s the Lord” and it says when Peter realized that “he wrapped his outer garment around him and jumped into the water.

John 21:9-10 ⁹When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” (Jesus has got a barbecue going on here at the side of the lake of Galilee. He is cooking fish and bread over charcoal fire.)

 ¹¹So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. (Now that is another miracle because if you know anything about the Bible, you know that they were constantly mending their nets because they were always breaking. In fact, when Jesus met them 3-1/2 years earlier, they were out mending their nets.) ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast. ”None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

Come on we are going to have breakfast Jesus said. “They knew it was the Lord.”

John 21:13-14 ¹³Jesus came, took the bread and gave (served) it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Then “Jesus took the bread and gave it to them.” Jesus is being kind, loving, and merciful and He has cooked them breakfast.

That is a beautiful tender story of the mercy of God. He is showing how much he loves them even after their betrayal and denial. He cooks them breakfast. You would not cook somebody who just betrayed you. God’s mercy toward you is not dependent upon your performance.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ²²Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. ²³They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

In other words, it never stops, it never ends. The steadfast love is unchanging, it is never exhausted. God loves you tirelessly. His mercies never come to an end.

2 Timothy 2:13 …if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

God cannot be unfaithful. Even when you are unfaithful he will be faithful. You may give up on God, he is never going to give up on you. That is the mercy of God.

Recap: When we fail, Jesus prays for us and shows us mercy.

3. Jesus Uses Our Failures To Build His Church

God actually uses our failures to build his church.

Use your failure to strengthen and build up others.

John 21:15-17 ¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” (This is echoing back a statement where at the last supper Peter had said “I love you more than all of these. And I would never ever deny you.”) “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” ¹⁷The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me? ”He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. ”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

The way you show your love for God is by helping other people in the family of God.

Conclusion: Both Judas and Peter: Were the disciples of Jesus. The disciples travelled with Jesus. They ministered with Jesus. They ate the last supper together. Both of them committed the same sin. They both denied Christ at the exact same time, just different experiences. They turned their back on him in his time of need.

Judas became a traitor. Peter became a teacher, feeding my sheep.

Let me end with a couple of questions:

• Are you following Jesus at a distance?
• Do you identify yourself as one among Jesus’ followers?
• Whose opinion matters to you the most?
• What failure have you had that God wants to use to build his Church?

Don’t waste your failures. God wants to take your greatest failure and turn it into your greatest success. God wants to take your greatest hurt and turn it into your greatest ministry.

Illustration: Pr. Renny George went to prison and then founded Bangalore Prison Fellowship, an enormous ministry that helps prisoners all around the world.

Are you going to respond to your failure like Judas or like Peter?

• Judas had a breakdown. Peter had a breakthrough.
• Judas gave up. Peter looked up.
• Judas rejected the mercy of God. Peter accepted the mercy of God.
• Judas lived in condemnation. Peter lived in celebration of the mercy of God.
• Judas ended up taking his life in despair. Peter ended up living his life on purpose.

It’s all your choice. Just 50 days after Peter’s biggest failure, God chose him, to preach on the day of Pentecost on the first day of the Christian church and 3000 people were saved and baptized, that is the mercy of God. It was not like a year after the failure, it’s 50 days after he failed. He is standing in front of everybody preaching on Pentecost at the birth of the Christian Church, that is the mercy of God.

What are you going to become from your failure? It’s your choice. The fact is God is building his church on people who failed. God has only used failed people because there are not any non-failures in life.

Let’s Pray.

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