Learning to Pray
Pt.7 Peter’s Failure
Intro:
How many of you were the crammers in school? Wait to the last minute to study for a test? You were the one with your notes out furiously trying to cram any and all information into your head, hoping it will stick for the next hour or so while you take the test…
This past week some schools were giving out their final exams, and I got to proctor one of these exams… you had the kids that were relaxed, because they knew this stuff, you had the kids who were relaxed because they didn't know this stuff and didn't care, and then you had the kids who were pouring over their notes trying to stuff as much info as possible into their heads!
You know there are some things in life that it is okay to be unprepared for, like being surprised by family; meeting a new friend; being given a gift; winning the door prize or being the first caller; or hearing the words I’m pregnant! Often times we are unready for such things, but that what makes them so good, we didn't expect it.
However most often, it pays to be ready, to be prepared. We can’t always wing it and hope things turn out, sometimes we have to be prepared, we have to be ready to face the things that are coming!
I think that it is interesting that is exactly what Jesus had been doing for his disciples, preparing them for his death, preparing them for their future, preparing them to be the leaders of a movement that would eventually sweep across the world, and change everything.
And in Matthew 26, we see how Jesus wants them to prepare, if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 26:36:
36Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." 37And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." 39And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." 40And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Whether you are at school, at camp, at church, or at home, if you work with children, you can sometimes become so frustrated that you make broad sweeping claims! “If you kids do this again, you will never ever get to play with anything ever again!!” “I have had enough, you are never ever going outside again, you will sit on your bed for the rest of your life!!” “If you do not settle down I will pack you up in a box and ship you to Abu Dhabi!” Of course we make these big claims, but we never ever back them up…
It is funny, just moments before this Peter makes a bold claim that he would die alongside Jesus, however right now, he can’t even stay awake for his friend. It is easy to make bold claims, to say I will do this for you Jesus, I will do that for you! I am going to witness to every person I come across, I am going to be there for you all the way! I am your man (or woman, if you are one)! But when it came right down to it, we don’t always follow through. Our spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
42Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."43And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.45Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."
Again Peter fails, he fails to watch, and he fails to pray. Jesus asked him to watch, then he warned him to pray, but Peter fails to do any of this, instead he sleeps. His big claims, his passionate statements forgotten in the fog of sleep. At the time, Jesus was trying to prepare Peter and the others for what is coming, but now, now it’s too late.
47While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man; seize him." 49And he came up to Jesus at once and said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" And he kissed him. 50Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you came to do." Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Of all the accounts of this night, only John names names. It wasn’t just one of them, it was Peter, their leader! When the heat is on, Peter acts! He was going to do what he swore he would do, and that is die with Jesus, so he comes out swinging! And just so it is clear, he isn’t aiming for the guys ear, Peter just isn’t a swordsmen! He is trying to kill this guy! Peter acted.
52Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.53Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
When the going got tough, Peter got going. He jumped into the fray and started to swing! He acted without hesitation, and tried to stop the will of God; he thought he was doing what was right, he thought he was doing good, but in the end, he frustrated the purposes of God.
We have been talking about prayer for several weeks. And my question to you is, are you praying? This is an important question, because it is through prayer that we can be shaped and prepared for what is coming. When we pray, we begin to understand what God is doing, and we can join him, but when we don’t, we just act, start doing things willy nilly and do everything to frustrate what God is doing!
Jesus told Peter to pray, Peter slept. Jesus didn’t want Peter to act, but when the opportunity presented itself, he acted. Peter failed to pray. And because of that he got in the way of what God was doing.
There are 3 things we can learn from Peter when we fail to pray:
1. We lose our dependency on God.
How many lost power this past week? We have become dependent on electricity, so when it is off, we notice it, and we don’t like it! However, when it comes to God’s power, we will most often try to do things on our own, before we turn to God. The only time we turn to God is when people are sick, we are in so much trouble we don’t know where to turn, or when we are so lost we are ready to be lead. Peter had the opportunity to rely on God, to pray and prepare himself, but instead he went to sleep. So when the time came, all he had was his own power to rely on.
How often do we fail to pray? How often do we fail to pray along the way for the little things of life, we fail to prepare ourselves, so when the big things come, we don’t know what to do but act, and start swinging away in our own power, because that is all we have! We act as if we are living in the dark, meanwhile the switch is right there. When we pray, we are reaching for that source of power, we are reaching for the only one who can help, we are leaning and relying on God to take care of us.
2. We lose faith in God’s power.
Peter was no longer dependent upon God, instead he thought that God needed him, so he pulled his sword and strikes out. I like what Jesus said to him in vs. 53:
“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Do you know how many angels that is? You are looking at around 74,000 angels, some even think the number could be around 96,000! That is a lot of angels, and a lot of power, considering that one angel in the Old Testament killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian army all by his self.
Peter was under the mistaken impression that Jesus need him, and the truth was far from it, Jesus didn’t need Peter at all, in fact, this was all a part of his plan to save humanity, it was Peter that needed him. But that is us right, we think that God needs us, he needs our service, he needs us coming to church, he needs our money, he needs us for everything—all of which is not true. God doesn’t need anything from us, he owns everything already, if he is hungry he isn’t going to tell us, if he needs help he won’t call, he is the Lord he is the provider and giver. He is the one who brings us aid, he is not dependent upon us, we are dependent upon him. However, when we fail to pray, we fail to rely on God’s power. The greatest measure of your spiritual life isn’t how much you give, how often you read the bible, or how often you are at church, it is in your life of prayer, because when you are praying, you are relying on God and believing that he alone has the power to save.
3. We end up opposing God.
Whenever I did something my grandfather deemed stupid, he would say, “buy you books and send you to school, but you still don’t learn!” or my personal favorite, “where is the sense that God gave you boy?”
Basically he was trying to tell me to use my head, common sense. And in life there are some things that should just make sense: if you hit your thumb with a hammer it is going to hurt. If you antagonize a mule, you’re going to get kicked. If you say to your wife, “listen here woman!” you are stupid, and most likely a dead man… there are just some things that make sense.
Like when the 12 spies went into the promised land, 10 of the used common sense: we are small, they are big, we will be squished like bugs! It is common sense, I mean use you the sense that God gave you boy! However, two of them didn’t use common sense, they heard from God. And of course the story goes that common sense won that day.
Earlier in Matthew, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, and Peter said you are the Christ, the son of God.
Jesus then tells them that he must go to Jerusalem and be handed over to evil men and be crucified, but Peter said what kind of talk is that? We are not going to let that happen! It is just common sense to stay away from that place. And Jesus looked Peter square in the eye and said, “Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." Basically, Peter was using common sense, and not listening to God.
In vs. 54 Jesus says: “But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
Jesus tells Peter to put away his sword, this is all part of God’s plan. If you stop this, then you are going against the will of God. You see Peter has his mind on human things, not the things of God, he is just using common sense.
We do this all the time. When we see someone going through a hard time, what do we do? We pray that their suffering stops. When we experience hard times, trials, and difficulties we pray for them to go away, so that we will have sunshine and pie in the sky by and by. Paul said he prayed three times for this thorn to be removed, but God said to him, my grace is sufficient for you, basically what Paul was going through, God wanted him to go through it. Peter didn’t want Jesus to go through anything bad, he wanted to save his friend, it was common sense, and in common sense, we pray all the time for deliverance from the things that God is doing in our own lives, we fail to see what he is doing, and when we do that we are opposing God’s will. When we use common sense instead of listening to God, we can find ourselves in opposition to God and his plans.
When we fail to pray, we tend to do things wrong. We stop relying on God, and start relying on our own power. And when we do that we begin opposing God’s will.
I know we can get anxious about things, where we are headed, what are we going to do, will the church be around? And the temptation is to just start doing something, then we start swing our sword around and we end up making a mess because we don’t know what to do, we need to put the sword away and pray. We need to, as a church, to begin crying out for the power of God to fill us, to lead us, and to show us what he is doing, so we can join him.
