The Successful Failure Series

Apollo 13 was one of the biggest flops in the history of our space

program, and yet it was also one of the most celebrated. Can a

catastrophic failure also be a colossal success? Just ask the three

astronauts of that ill fated flight. It was 1970, and they were on their

way to the moon when an explosion changed their plans radically. For

the next 6 days it took all the ingenuity of these three men, and a vast

ground crew, just to keep them alive. Everything went wrong, and

they could have died a number of different ways. They could have

frozen to death, but they learned that in zero gravity air does not

move, and so if they stayed very still their body would heat up the air

around them, and form a sort of cocoon of warm air.

Had they panicked and moved about they would have frozen.

They could have died of poisoning, or been lost in space, or blown

up. It took 24 hours a day of thinking and improvising just to stay

alive. All over the world people were praying, and they were able to

get back to earth in the lunar module, which was never even designed

for anything but taking them down to the surface of the moon. It was

like crossing the ocean on the Queen Mary, and half way over

deciding to make the rest of the journey in a canoe. They did not get

to the moon, nor did they do any of things they were suppose to do.

None of the goals were achieved. All they did was to get through

dozens of hopeless situations, and survive to tell about it.

Commander James A. Lovell said of this amazing flop of a flight,

"We could've been assured a catastrophe. But the dedication and

knowledge of the ground and the flight crew were such that we were

able to make it a successful failure." President Nixon awarded them

the Medal of Freedom for their successful failure. Peter is the great

example in the New Testament of successful failure. He made the

most blunders of anyone, and yet he survived, and like a cat tossed in

the air, he landed on his feet, and became a loved hero.

In our text we see the flight plan of Peter blow up in his face. He

thinks he is in control of the situation, and has such a grasp of the way

life should go that he has the audacity to take Jesus aside to set Him

straight. Talk about aggressive leadership. Here is a disciple telling

the Master the score. Peter has put his foot in his mouth before, but

never up to the knee. He has become a megalomaniac, that is one who

has grandiose delusions. He has just confessed that Jesus is the Son of

the living God, and that he is the Messiah, yet he begins to rebuke the

Messiah because he does not like what he is saying. Jesus is telling it

like it is, and the truth is not pleasant. He will suffer, be rejected, and

killed. That is not an acceptable program to Peter, and so he takes

Jesus aside to reprogram the plan of God.

There is only one other person in history who had that kind of

pride, and that was Lucifer. No wonder Jesus said to Peter, "Out of

my sight, Satan!" Peter had become a tool of the devil in trying to

reprogram the plan of God. Can a Christian fall so low they can

become an agent of Satan? Yes they can, and it is not just by falling

low, but also, as we see here, by rising too high. Peter was exalted, not

just to the moon, but to the very gates of heaven. Jesus gave him the

keys of the kingdom of heaven, and He had the power to bind or loose

on earth, and that would lead to binding or loosing in heaven. Peter's

promotion went to his head, and he began to think that he now had the

authority to even alter the course of the Messiah, and set policy on the

plan of salvation.

Peter was a mere fisherman, but Jesus chose him to be a spiritual

astronaut, and he sent him soaring to the heights of leadership and

power in the kingdom of God. And what does he do? He blows the

mission to pieces by abuse of power. How many other leaders do you

know who were called Satan by the Lord? There were no others.

Peter was the greatest failure in his abusive power. And yet we see

that he not only survives, but he does so quite successfully. He is able

to stay on top as the leader of the 12. He does everything wrong, and