Dark Night of the Soul Luke 22:31-34, 54-62 Sermon 09 August 29th, 2010     You have our blessing and permission to leave right now if…you’ve never failed God, if you’ve never blown it spiritually, then this message is not for you…and feel free to leave. But if you’ve ever promised God something, and not done it; if you’ve ever resolved to overcome some besetting sin, only to blow it repeatedly; if you’re plagued with guilt over sins that have defeated you; then, today this message is for you.   I’ve always wondered what it would be like to speak on a subject concerning which my own personal experience has made me an expert. This morning that’s happening because this morning we’re going to be talking about failure. That’s one area that I’m a certified expert in. While failure is not necessarily the most popular subject, it’s one that’s absolutely mandatory for all of us because failure is one of the few things that all of us do frequently and skillfully.   It’s probably always been this way yet I wonder if perhaps the very complexity of American life offers more opportunities to blow it. Many grapple with an overwhelming sense of failure as an aftermath of divorce. Others may sense failure at the loss of a job or on the occasion of being passed over for a raise or promotion. Failure can also be experienced at the heartbreaking disappointment of a wayward child. For the sincere Christian, failure is a certainty when one focuses upon the rigorous requirements of discipleship given in God’s Word. Even for those who may appear to be a success, there’s a haunting fear of failure in the future.   Have you ever thanked God that you weren’t around when the Bible was being written, so that your failures were not recorded for all people of all time to read about? Poor Peter was there and everyone knows about his colossal failure. Like Peter, we all have failed the Lord, even if our failures are not as widely known. When you fail the Lord, whether it’s a colossal fall like Peter’s or even if it’s a lesser failure, you feel guilty, embarrassed, and depressed. If it’s a sizeable fall, you often wonder if God will ever forgive you and use you again in His service.   Thank God that the Bible offers hope for those who have failed God. It doesn’t leave us without a way out. Also, thank God that the Bible paints its heroes warts and all. It doesn’t airbrush their blemishes from the record. It lets us see them as men and women just like us, who struggled against the same weaknesses and temptations, but who recovered from their sins and failures by God’s abundant grace.   I don’t know how to rank failures, but Peter’s has to be one of the worst. To be the leader among the Apostles, to boast that he’d go to prison and death with Christ, and then to deny that he even knew Christ, was not just an average, everyday sort of failure! The fact that the Lord would restore Peter and so powerfully use him on the Day of Pentecost, and thereafter… shows us God’s amazing grace and gives us hope when we also fail. When we fail the Lord, His grace points the way back and gives us hope.   Dark Night of the Soul is the title of a poem written by 16th century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic, Saint John of the Cross. It’s about the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. Many of us have gone through our own Dark Night of the Soul experiences. If anyone in the Bible understood a Dark Night of the Soul, it was Simon Peter. All four of the gospel accounts record this remarkable story. Wherever Peter went in the second half of his life, there were people waiting for him who knew of the terrible failure in his life. Yet, curiously enough, most people don’t think of Peter as a failure. He’s rightly regarded as a remarkable servant of Jesus Christ and one of the key people who began a movement that continues to this day. He became a living illustration of an important principle: Having a major disaster in your life doesn’t make you a failure. That’s determined by what you do after your disaster is over. Peter’s Dark Night of the Soul is a source of hope. Peter’s Dark Night of the Soul Story: The four Gospels are full of Peter and of necessity Jesus addressed him more than any of His other followers. No other disciple was reproved as much or as strongly as Peter was, and he was the only disciple who thought that it was his duty to reprove Jesus. No disciple ever so boldly confessed Jesus and encouraged Christ, and none ever bothered our Lord more than Peter. Someone said, “Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.” Peter was always talking. Often he only opened his mouth to switch feet, at other times his words were immortal. Jesus affirmed Peter more than any other disciple and Jesus verbally took him off at the knees more than any other disciple. All four Gospels testify to Peter’s primacy. In each of the four lists of the Apostles given in the Gospels the order of the names vary but Peter’s is always first and Judas’ is always last. It was Peter who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ. On that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee, it was Peter who bravely walked out of the boat to Jesus, though moments later he doubted and starting sinking. It will always be to his credit that when the other disciples abandoned Jesus, realizing that he was not primarily a Savior of the material world but a spiritual Savior, after Jesus poignantly asked, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” It was Peter who replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68). It was Peter who didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. When I picture Peter, I imagine a big, loud, extroverted, assertive construction worker type. Peter’s sheer humanity makes him everyone’s example. As prominent Presbyterian preacher, Clarence Macartney, so well explained: “His impulsive deeds, his frequent questions, his eager exclamations and confessions, the praise and honor and rebukes that were bestowed upon him, his sometimes manly and sometimes cowardly acts, his oaths, his bitter tears – all this makes Peter the great companion and the great instructor of his fellow men and his fellow Christians.” There are some sounds that we don’t hear very often. One of them is the sound of a rooster crowing. Even in a small town like Burlington, you’d probably have to go out to a farm to hear a rooster crowing. We have all the sounds that go with modern life—cars and buses, trains and trucks, sirens and whistles galore. You can hear kids yelling and music blaring, cash registers ringing and planes roaring overhead, but you’ll hardly ever hear a rooster crowing. You have to go outside of the city to hear that. So if we heard a rooster crowing tomorrow morning at sunrise, we’d hardly know what to do. Roosters don’t belong in the city. Everyone knows that. They belong out in the country where they can crow just before dawn and wake the sleepers with the news that a new day has come. And God made roosters for that reason, to serve as trumpets of the morning. To signal that a new day has come. To rouse the sleepers from their beds. To remind the kids to get up and milk the cows. Unlike us though, Peter knew all about roosters. You couldn’t live in a rural area like Galilee and not get used to the daily singing of the rooster chorus. He’d heard roosters crowing since the day he was born. The sound was as familiar to him as the sound of a radio alarm would be to us today. The rooster’s crow meant, “Wake up! Get up! A new day is beginning!” Over the years he’d heard that sound a thousand times or more. But of all the times and of all the roosters, he only remembered one time and one rooster and one sound. It happened one Friday morning in Jerusalem. The rooster crowed, and Peter never forgot it. As long as he lived, he never forgot it, and he never tired of telling the story. The story was repeated over and over again by the first generation of Christians. They never forgot it and never tired of telling it. It became one of the most familiar and best-loved parts of the gospel story. And for over 2,000 years this story—told and re-told, embellished with vivid detail—has encouraged Christians throughout the globe. Wherever the story of Jesus’ arrest is told, the story of Peter and the rooster is sure to be told as well. We love this story because we understand it and because we can see ourselves in it. Very few Bible stories speak to us as this one does. Famed Bible expositor, Matthew Henry, writing over 300 years ago divided this story into two parts: Part 1—Peter’s Fall and Part II—Peter’s Getting-Up Again…I like that. It’s late on Thursday night in Jerusalem. Jesus has been arrested and taken away to the house of the high priest. Most of the disciples in fear have scattered. When the crowd of soldiers led Jesus away, Peter decided to follow them. He’d promised never to desert Jesus, and he wasn’t going to start now. In the dark and confusion it was easy to tag along behind the crowd. No one seemed to notice him. Certainly no one recognized him as one of Jesus’ top men. So he followed the crowd to the house of the high priest. The house opened onto a courtyard which could only be entered through a gate near the alley. By the time Peter got there, the soldiers had taken Jesus inside to stand before the high priest. The crowd had partly dispersed, as it was late and the major excitement over for the time being. Some had gone home; others were warming themselves by a fire in the courtyard. It was early April and the temperature had dropped into the upper forties. There were maybe fifty people hanging around: soldiers milling about and servant girls running errands, the curious and just those passing by caught up in the excitement that are waiting to see what would happen to this fellow Jesus. To understand what happens next, it helps to remember that it’s now sometime after midnight. In the darkness Peter comes to the gate and waits to be admitted. No one there knows who he is (he thinks), so it should be perfectly safe for him to go in. True, he is now in enemy territory but it’s the middle of the night, and there’s no reason for them to suspect him. Armed with that thought, he brushes past the servant girl on his way to stand by the fire in the courtyard. Just as he was getting to the fire, a servant girl spoke up and said, “You were with that Nazarene, Jesus from Galilee.” The words hit Peter like a wave of cold water. Somehow she recognized him. How did she know him? No one knows. It really didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know his name. What mattered was that somehow she had connected him with Jesus. Peter has to think fast. Instinctively, he muttered out the oldest dodge in the world, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” That’s right. Just play dumb. Act like you don’t know what she’s talking about. It worked. Or, at least Peter thought it worked. But as he stood around the fire talking to the soldiers, he noticed two or three people looking at him closely…a little too closely, too carefully. One or two were nodding in his direction and whispering. Moments passed and Peter turned to walk out of the courtyard. Things were getting a little dicey. As he did, a second servant girl (perhaps a friend of the first), suddenly spoke up: “This fellow is one of them.” Peter tried to act calm but he felt his heart pounding in his chest. Quick now, you’ve got to say something. Think. Think. Think. Don’t just stand there. So he said, “I don’t know the man.” But when he said it, his face was flushed and he could tell the girl didn’t believe him. Peter knows he’s in real trouble. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s in the enemy camp warming himself around the enemy’s fire. If he tried to leave now, it would arouse even more suspicion. But if he stayed, they might find him out. More time passed, with more looks and whispers directed at him. After about an hour, it appeared that Jesus’ interview with the high priest was about over. The guards were going to and from the house, the tempo in the courtyard picked up. Peter breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he’d get out of this after all. And it was just at that moment that a man spoke up from the other side of the fire. He sounded more sure of himself and definitely more hostile than the servant girls. “Didn’t I see you with him in the olive grove?” Peter looked up at him and tried to play dumb. This time it didn’t work. Evidently this fellow had gone with the crowd to arrest Jesus. Worse, he was a relative of Malchus, the man whose ear Peter had impulsively cut off. Peter was trapped and he knew it. This fellow had seen him with Jesus. Plus, he was plenty ticked off at what Peter had done. When a man is backed into a corner, he’ll do almost anything to save himself. In this case, Peter began to curse and swear…perhaps as only a sailor can swear. The words just came tumbling out, old words born of fear and exhaustion. Words Peter hadn’t used since his days as a fisherman. And at that very instant the words flew from his mouth, a rooster began to crow. Just then, Jesus, being led away to the next trial, turned and looked at Peter—and that look from His Lord broke that old fisherman’s heart. Luke 22:61 records, “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.’ And [Peter] went outside and wept bitterly.” So what can we learn from Peter’s fall? Peter’s failure and fall is a tragedy. It was obviously part of God’s Word so that we don’t go and do likewise. Let's wrap up our study by considering truths that we can learn so that we can avoid slipping and denying our Lord.   1. Humility means that I accept another’s evaluation of me as valid. Earlier that evening Jesus had warned Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Do you remember Peter’s response? Peter replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Behind spiritual failure is blindness to our own weakness and to the Lord’s warnings of danger. Peter’s self-confidence is a warning to us that none of us really know our own heart. We rationalize and justify ourselves. We’re pure in our own eyes. That’s why we need God’s Word; that’s why we need godly friends who will speak the truth in love. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.” The first step to a spiritual fall is when you start picking and choosing the Scriptures that tell you about the kind of God you like and ignoring the Scriptures that tell you what God is really like. Too many of us act like God’s Word is like the spread of food at Old Country Buffet and that we can pick the truths that we like, but leave the parts that we don’t. We refuse to measure our life by the mirror of God’s Word. My friend, you cannot go to heaven unless you get a handle on this truth. We like to think that we’re nice, good people. God’s Word says that we are sinners and have no good in us. Please read and apply all of God’s Word, not just the parts that you like. Read it consecutively, don’t skip the hard parts. And submit yourself to the whole thing, not just to the parts you like. You’ll never grow spiritually if you justify yourself in your own eyes.  2. Pride always sets us up for failure. Peter believed in his own commitment more than he believed the word of Jesus. The other gospels reveal that Peter also believed that he was more committed than the other disciples: “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29). Peter was blind to his own pride and self-confidence. As a man was driving down the freeway, his cell phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Highway 635.  Please be careful!" "A car?  It's not just ONE car. It's hundreds of them!" Pride is the most common and troublesome sin that we face. Satan fell when he boasted, “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). He tempted Eve by appealing to her pride, telling her that she could be like God. Ever since then, the human race has been plagued with the sin of thinking too highly of ourselves. It’s being fed to us in our day with the false teaching that we need to build our self-esteem. Scripture no where teaches such a thing. In many places it tells us to clothe ourselves with humility and to regard others as more important than ourselves. One clue that we are blind to our pride is when we hear of someone who has sinned and we think, “I could never do such a thing!” “Even though others fall away, I will not!” 1 Corinthians 10:12 warns us, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Yet, Peter was foolishly confident in his own ability and commitment to the Lord, so much so that he contradicted Jesus’ own words! We often flatter ourselves into thinking, “Others may fall, but I’m strong!” It’s interesting that verse 34 is the only time in the gospels that Jesus calls Peter by this name which He gave him. It means “rock.” The Lord is gently saying, “Peter, you are a rock only when you rely on Me, not on yourself. You think that you’re a rock in yourself, but Peter, you’re about to fall.” 3. Spiritual defection usually begins as a slow leak, not a blow-out. All of us have had the shocking experience of seeing someone we looked up to spiritually fall into a great sin. At first glance, it looks like he was just cruising along at 75 miles per hour when, BAM! he had a blowout. We think, “Wow, that’s scary! I hope it never happens to me.” But the fact is, there is no such thing as a spiritual blowout; there are only slow leaks.  When you examine any spiritual failure, you’ll always discover that there has been a slow spiritual decline. It was probably in secret. They kept up the outer appearances. They continued to look the part of a godly person, but in their heart, sin is not being dealt with. They’re not evaluating themselves in light of Scripture. Slowly the air was leaking out of their spiritual tires, but we didn’t see it until they were flat. No one is walking closely with Jesus on Monday and on Tuesday gets knocked flat spiritually. The precise course of spiritual failure will vary from person to person and from incident to incident, but it begins with small indiscretions, overlooked sins – before there is a big blow-out. 4. Satan often attacks us at the point of our strength, not the point of our weakness. Most of us would agree that Peter was the boldest, bravest disciple. If you’d asked Peter six hours earlier to name his strong points, no doubt he’d have listed boldness and courage right at the top. He’d have said, "Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth, but at least I'm not afraid to speak up. Jesus knows that I'll always be there when He needs me." But when Satan attacked, it came so suddenly, so swiftly, so unexpectedly that the "bold apostle turned to butter." By himself Peter is helpless. In the moment of crisis, Peter fails in the very point where he pledged to be eternally faithful. But should this really surprise us? After all, why would Satan attack only in the point of your self-perceived weakness? If you know you have a weakness, that's the very area you’ll guard most carefully. If you know you have a problem with anger or laziness or lust, aren’t you more on guard in that area so you don’t fall? But that’s not the case with your strengths. You take those areas for granted. You say, "That's not a problem for me. I have other problems, but that area is not really a temptation at all." Watch out! Wave a red flag! There’s danger ahead. When a person takes any area of life for granted, that's the one area Satan is most likely to attack. Why? Because it’s the one area where you aren't watching for his attack. It happened to Peter and it’ll happen to you and me sooner or later.  5. Fear tempts us to lie and deny. Advice columnist, Ann Landers used to receive something like 10,000 letters a month. When asked what seems to be the most common topic, she answered that most people seem to be afraid of something. They’re afraid of losing their health, their job, or their family. They’re afraid of upsetting their neighbor, alienating a friend, or committing a social faux pas. Many are even afraid when there is no reason to be afraid. Ours is a world of fearful people. What was Peter afraid of? We’re not sure. Maybe he was afraid that he’d also be arrested and executed. Maybe it was just fear of being shamed. And look at who he was afraid of? Two of those who questioned him were simple slave girls. Fear keeps us from being effective Christians. Fear makes us miserable. Interestingly, worry and fear often go hand in hand…and they nearly make our lives unbearable. Hetty Green died in 1916. She was dubbed America’s greatest miser. When she died, she left an estate valued at $100 million. But she was so miserly that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of heating the water. When her son had a severe leg injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. She was so worried about losing her wealth that she failed to ever enjoy her life!! We can be so afraid of losing our wealth or job that we never enjoy our life. Have you ever met a “worry wart” who wasn’t miserable and also miserable to be around?   6. If we will repent of our spiritual failures, God will restore us and use us again in His service. Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here. In Peter’s restoration, we see God’s abundant grace. With God failure is never final. The turning point for Peter involved two things: the crowing of the rooster, which reminded him of Jesus’ prediction; and, the Lord’s turning and looking directly at Peter (which only Luke records). And what a look it must have been! I don’t know whether they were moving Jesus from one place to another and He caught Peter’s eye as He was being pushed along; or, whether He was inside, but within visual range. Normally a guilty person won’t look you in the eye. But Jesus turned, which probably caught Peter’s attention. Then He looked at Peter and Peter looked at the Lord. Peter instantly fell apart in repentance and godly sorrow over what he’d done. He went out and wept bitterly. a. The path of restoration requires repentance. Please note that there are several aspects of repentance: There must be remembrance of God’s Word. “Peter remembered the word of the Lord” (v. 61). Repentance begins when we remember the word of the Lord. What does the Lord say about what I have done? That’s the issue. We tend to minimize our sin: “Don’t worry about it! Everyone slips up occasionally. Don’t be too hard on yourself.” But God’s Word is the final authority. It tells me that I have sinned. Conviction of our sin.The Lord’s look penetrated down to Peter’s conscience. Jesus didn’t have to say anything. Peter was deeply convicted in his heart. He didn’t try to paper over it or make excuses or rationalize it away. Conviction acknowledges that God is right and I’m wrong. Godly sorrow over sin. This varies with the seriousness of the sin and the personality of the sinner, but when we realize we’ve sinned against a Savior who loved us enough to die for us, we’ll mourn over our sin. We won’t be flippant or shrug it off. Appropriation of Christ’s sacrifice for our sin. Jesus had already begun to suffer for Peter’s sins as He endured abuse at the hands of sinners. That sacrifice would be completed on the Cross, where Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” We cannot atone for our sins by our sorrow or penance. Christ fully paid the penalty that we owe. We can only appropriate Christ’s sacrifice to cover our sins. Appreciation of God’s abundant grace.Christ’s look not only conveyed the pain He felt at Peter’s failure, it also communicated His great love and grace. Peter remembered the Lord’s words which included the fact that he’d be restored because of Jesus’ prayers for him (22:32). What amazing grace, that Christ chose Peter and us, knowing full well how we’d fail Him! His grace saved us and keeps us unto the day when we shall be with Him forever. If you say, “I’ve sinned too badly; I just can’t accept God’s forgiveness and grace,” you’re not trusting in Him alone. You’re proudly trusting in your own method of atonement. Christians believe in and thank God for His grace as the only basis for forgiveness. If you need to be restored, you must repent of your sin and trust again in God’s grace and mercy. b. The path of restoration results in renewed service. Jesus personally restored Peter and didn’t kick him off the apostolic team. When the Day of Pentecost came, it was Peter who stood in Jerusalem, before some of the same people who’d heard him deny Christ, and boldly proclaimed Him as Savior and Lord, risen from the dead. If Peter had clung to his pride, he’d have said, “I’m never going to show my face in Jerusalem again. Someone else can preach; I’m going back to fishing.” But thankfully, Peter recovered from the fear of what people thought and was restored to care about what pleases Christ. So he preached and God was pleased to save 3,000 souls. Conclusion: My friend, Jesus offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins to you, no matter how badly you’ve failed God. But you must personally receive His offer of love by faith. My favorite college football team is the University of Georgia, “luv dem dawgs.” My second favorite team is Georgia Tech. Let me close with a story from the annals of Georgia Teach Football history. It was New Year’s Day, 1929, Tech played the University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that now infamous game, Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow he became confused and ran 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates ran after him, tackling him just before he scored for Georgia Tech. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory. That strange play came in the first half and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: What will California’s Coach, Coach Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half? The players filed off the field to the locker room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor, but Riegels put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby. Usually a coach has a lot to say to his team during half time. But that day, Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then, the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, “Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second.” Everyone got up and started out, everyone that is, except Roy Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him again. Still he didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Roy Riegels sat and said, “Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second.” Roy Riegels, his face wet with tears, looked up and said, “Coach, I can’t do it to save my life. I’ve ruined you, I’ve ruined the University of California; I’ve ruined myself. I couldn’t face that crowd in the stadium to save my life.” Then, Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Roy Riegels’ shoulder and said to him, “Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over.” And Riegels went back. Georgia Tech players would later say that they’d never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half. We hear a story like that and we think, what a Coach! My friend, when I work through the story of Peter and the scores of failures in Scripture, I have to think – what a God! Perhaps you’ve never failed in as colossal a way as Roy Riegels did. Normally our failures aren’t committed in a stadium before thousands of watching eyes, but each one of us has badly failed God. The Apostle Paul certainly had. He wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim. 1:15). Peter might argue with Paul about who was the biggest sinner, but neither would argue about how wonderful God’s amazing grace is toward all who have failed. The angel’s words after the resurrection, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter,” say to us, “The game is only half over.” The question is, will you accept the risen Savior’s forgiveness and go out and play the second half? Friend, have you failed? Repent, turn to God – and get back in the game!!