“A Theology of Failure”
John 13:18-38, 18:1-27
Sermon Series: “Getting Acquainted With Jesus”
Introduction: I think we have a tendency to not talk about failure a whole lot in church. We tend to want to be positive and focus on hope. Of course, we should focus on hope because the death and resurrection of Jesus gives us hope. However, the reality of the matter is that we experience a lot of failure and the frustrations and difficulties that come along with it in our lives. We may not like it, but that is the reality, and we better learn how to deal with it in a healthy way. We need to remember that failure is an event instead of a person.
By failure, I am talking about our sins, mistakes, disobedience, and even denial of Christ. We are going to look at possibly the two greatest failures recorded in the Bible during the message this weekend. Those two failures are the betrayal of Christ by Judas and the denial of Christ by Peter. There is a lot of biblical and historical background behind these passages of Scripture, and there are also a lot of difficult questions that are raised by these passages. I am going to touch on the background and the questions, but I feel like the Lord wants me to focus on the practical application of principles about failure that can be gleaned from the object lesson of the lives of these two men. So, let’s look at some practical lessons that form a theology of failure that will help us to deal with and overcome failure in our lives.
Lesson #1: The only way to ultimately, completely, and eternally fail is to reject Jesus Christ.
-Exposure to Jesus by itself does not bring salvation (Matthew 7:21-23).
-We can fool other people into thinking we are right with God while God knows we are really rejecting Him. Judas is not a picture of someone losing his salvation, but he is a picture of false Christian who was never saved in the first place.
-Only true repentance leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:8-11).
Lesson #2: God always keeps His own children and graciously continues to work out His plan for our lives, despite our failures (John 1:40-42, Luke 22:31-32, John 21, Acts 2).
Lesson #3: Failure is only fatal if we fail to repent, learn, and grow. There were two primary differences between Judas and Peter. The first was the fact that Peter was genuinely saved while Judas was not. The second is that Peter genuinely repented and grew from his failure while Judas did not.
Lesson #4: A failure that leaves us humble is ultimately better for us than a victory that leaves us proud. It was overconfidence that led to Peter’s failure, but it is fascinating to note in his epistles how much he focused on humility.
Lesson #5: The greatest lesson we can learn from failure is to be totally dependent upon Jesus Christ. Ultimately, God wants each of us to see that we have failed Him. In fact, we cannot please Him. We need Jesus. That is the greatest lesson we can ever learn. However, we have to humble ourselves in order to meet Jesus (Matthew 5:3, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3:1-11).
Lesson #6: God’s grace is our greatest need because it is greater than our greatest failure. That is the story of Peter’s life. It is the story of my life. Is it your story? Each of us has failed. We don’t have to be a failure though because of God’s grace. We can be forgiven and transformed through the grace of God.
