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[611.46 --> 615.80] character and beloved of God if we're willing to put ourselves in his shoes for a moment. |
[616.56 --> 622.18] We might be lucky enough in the providence of God to lose a few more of ours as well. |
[622.18 --> 629.20] Having situated himself by the fire in order to remain inconspicuous, unseen, and unnoticed, |
[629.26 --> 634.80] it turns out that Peter has seated himself a little too close to the flames. Enough light from |
[634.80 --> 640.80] the fire is thrown onto his face so that a servant girl sees perhaps the familiar shape of his jaw, |
[640.96 --> 647.30] the color of his hair, the color of his eyes. Quite convinced, she points at Peter and says to the |
[647.30 --> 654.82] other seated around the fire, this fellow was with him. We can imagine Peter's heart beginning to race, |
[654.92 --> 660.02] his ears getting hot, his knees trembling and twitching, and the first denying words bursting |
[660.02 --> 667.62] up through his throat and out of his mouth like a great big unswallowable hiccup. Woman, I don't know him. |
[667.62 --> 674.18] But this one denial won't do. Suspicions are aroused and others begin frisking Peter with |
[674.18 --> 682.06] inspector's eyes. And after a while of awkwardness and perhaps silent condemnation, Peter is faced with |
[682.06 --> 688.00] the second challenge. Yes, yes, you also are one of them. Peter hiccups again with a little more force |
[688.00 --> 696.98] and a lot more exasperation to make his words believable. Man, I am not. The text tells us |
[696.98 --> 706.26] that Peter sits there for a whole hour before he is faced with his third challenge. And I don't know |
[706.26 --> 711.78] about you, but I really wonder what Peter thought next as he sat there. Don't you think? It must have |
[711.78 --> 718.40] been excruciating for him to sit there, knowing that he's betrayed his Lord two times, knowing the |
[718.40 --> 725.00] prediction of his Lord that he's going to do it a third time, and wanting to back off, to go away, |
[725.00 --> 732.46] so as to not deny the Lord that third time. But then on the other hand, wanting to live into his |
[732.46 --> 737.78] name, to be that rock, to be resolutely dedicated to his Lord, to confess his relationship to Jesus. |
[737.90 --> 744.22] Yeah, you're right. I know him. I was with him. And then face whatever it came, whether it meant to |
[744.22 --> 750.64] rest, degradation, or death. But when the third challenge does come, with heightened conviction |
[750.64 --> 757.88] and proof on the part of those looking at Peter, Peter comes to the lowest of low points in his life. |
[758.54 --> 763.86] He buckles and breaks. He bends like a toothpick between a farmer's frustrated teeth. His best |
[763.86 --> 769.10] efforts aren't good enough, and he denies knowing the one who knows him better than he knows himself, |
[769.10 --> 775.14] and has loved him with a love that he could never have imagined before. The words must have occurred to |
[775.14 --> 782.34] Peter like vomit in his own mouth, but he cannot stop himself. Man, I don't know him. |
[784.42 --> 787.18] And this is where the text gets piercing. We read these words. |
[788.14 --> 799.34] Just then, the rooster crowed. Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. Peter went outside and wept bitterly. |
[799.34 --> 807.10] Lyndon Baines Johnson, former president of the United States of America, is said by his biographer, |
[807.10 --> 813.32] Robert Caro, to have been a consummate reader of people. He would read people so as to figure out |
[813.32 --> 818.56] what motivated them, figure out what made them tick, so that he could manipulate them and foist himself |
[818.56 --> 824.76] up the political ladder, which he did with incredible skill all the way into the presidency |
[824.76 --> 829.72] of the United States. When he would teach his underlings or staffers how to read people, |
[829.72 --> 832.92] he would say something like this. He'd say, don't pay attention to their family history, |
[832.92 --> 836.40] don't get into their genealogy, don't try to read their psychology, |
[836.40 --> 841.08] don't read their body language, definitely, definitely, don't listen to what they say, |
[841.14 --> 851.68] but do this one thing. Look into their eyes. Read their eyes. For the eyes are the pathway to the soul. |
[851.68 --> 864.88] I wonder, what if Lyndon Baines Johnson were there the day when Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter? |
[866.32 --> 873.62] What would Johnson have seen in Jesus' eyes? What would he have read? What did Peter see? |
[876.24 --> 881.34] Well, people of God, what if Peter didn't see what he and all of us sitting here would have expected him |
[881.34 --> 892.62] to see? What if he didn't get the look? What if he didn't see anger or malice or self-pity and grief |
[892.62 --> 900.28] or the astonishment that a friend could do such a thing? But what if he saw love? Yes, what if he saw |
[900.28 --> 907.98] love in Jesus' eyes? Love as steady as mountain and sturdy as rock? What if the only hint of grief that |
[907.98 --> 914.78] Peter could detect in Jesus' eyes was a perfect sorrow? Not a sorrow that Jesus had for himself, |
[915.60 --> 921.30] but that he had for Peter? He who so desperately wanted to be faithful, so desperately wanted to |
[921.30 --> 925.40] be strong, so desperately didn't want to fall down in his face again and again and again, |
[926.30 --> 933.48] but whom, despite himself, did exactly that which he didn't want to do? What if he saw love in Jesus' |
[933.48 --> 943.74] eyes? What would that do to a guy? How would that feel? Well, I believe that might just cut a betrayer's |
[943.74 --> 950.60] heart in two. That might just be the greatest and the most painful look you could ever receive, |
[951.00 --> 959.54] a fatal blow and a bright new birth. Jesus' enormous generosity, exposing your own immense poverty, |
[959.54 --> 966.14] his strength to love and your cowardice, his light and no more doubt about your own darkness. |
[967.20 --> 975.12] The unlovable swept up in perfection's love. That might just be, a look like that might just cause |
[975.12 --> 982.06] a brokenness that renews. Instigate repentance tears that heal. |
[982.06 --> 989.82] It might just be a moment where Good Friday and Easter happen in a single sudden glance. |
[991.50 --> 995.02] I ask you, what would a look like that do to you? |
[997.18 --> 1002.72] Dear friends, don't you think it's possible, an altogether characteristic of our Lord, |
[1002.72 --> 1010.82] that what caught Peter's heart in half, what made Peter's heart weep with a repentance more sour |
[1010.82 --> 1017.40] than an ocean of spoiled wine and is meant to do the same thing to ours? Is that the God, |
[1018.44 --> 1025.02] the creator whom we have withheld from our lips no less than three times, even though we owe our |
[1025.02 --> 1032.62] lives to this man, he does not look at us with eyes torn wide open by surprise, nor with the glazed |
[1032.62 --> 1036.68] and benumbed look of a friend who lets you know that you've just snapped the last straw, nor with the |
[1036.68 --> 1041.30] red fireballs of a jilted lover who wants to scream, I told you so, I knew you'd do this. |
[1042.58 --> 1051.24] But whom instead looks at us with the soft and sanguine half-moon eyes of one whose greatest |
[1051.24 --> 1057.66] concern at the moment they are betrayed is to let the betrayer know that they are still loved as fiercely |
[1057.66 --> 1068.10] as ever. Whoa. One whose greatest concern at the moment that they are betrayed is to let the betrayer |
[1068.10 --> 1078.48] know that they are still loved as fiercely as ever. People of God, I bring the word to you this morning. |
[1078.48 --> 1083.50] I bring the simple gospel message, the message of good news. |
[1085.66 --> 1092.76] It is a good note to end a year and it is a good note to start a year. It can utterly and completely |
[1092.76 --> 1100.88] transform the motivational substructure of the heart, why we do what we do. Consider it. The good news is |
[1100.88 --> 1107.70] that God in the wideness of his mercy has chosen to look upon us in love. Even though the rooster crows for |
[1107.70 --> 1114.60] us all, none withstanding, the good news is that the God of this universe is not like the gods of the |
[1114.60 --> 1120.80] Greek pantheon who look upon people like us, who trip over our own feet, who fail ourselves, who fail |
[1120.80 --> 1127.82] each other, who fail him, and zap us with lightning bolts to satisfy their own disdain and self-pity. |
[1128.94 --> 1135.06] No, the good news, the greatest news is that God looks down at us from the cross that we put him on, |
[1135.06 --> 1141.96] but that he made a throne just like he looked at Peter and he says those impossible words that change |
[1141.96 --> 1150.14] everything, that in fact usher in a new creation for us according to scripture. Resurrection now, |
[1150.94 --> 1158.88] the words, you remember them, Father forgive them. They know not what they do. Father forgive. |
[1158.88 --> 1165.98] They know not what they do. This changes everything. Do you believe that it changes everything? |
[1166.88 --> 1171.68] Well, rest assured that it does. Yes, forgiveness changes everything because the old sages were right. |
[1172.28 --> 1176.58] The best way to defeat an enemy is not to fight them and kill them, but to forgive them |
[1176.58 --> 1183.38] and make them your friend. Forgiveness changes everything because the ancient proverb is right. |
[1183.38 --> 1191.26] the noblest vengeance is to forgive. Forgiveness changes everything because Mark Twain was right. |
[1192.26 --> 1198.54] Forgiveness is the fragrance, the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. |
[1200.44 --> 1208.06] I want to say that one again. Forgiveness is the fragrance, the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. |
[1208.06 --> 1214.94] And then forgiveness changes everything because lastly Martin Luther King Jr. was dead right. |
[1215.94 --> 1222.24] Returning hate for hate multiplies hate. Adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. |
[1223.22 --> 1230.74] Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. |
[1230.74 --> 1241.30] Hate multiplies hate. Violence multiplies violence. And toughness multiplies toughness in the descending spiral of destruction. |
[1242.12 --> 1248.94] It is only the second chances that forgiveness offers that will change this world and bring peace that will last. |
[1248.94 --> 1259.82] On a New Year's Day in 1929 the University of California played Georgia Tech in the most important football game of the year, the Orange Bowl. |
[1260.62 --> 1267.54] During the first half, the University of California, one of the players for the University of California named Roy Reggles recovered a fumble. |
[1268.54 --> 1276.36] And much like I would do, became confused about direction and started running toward the opposing end zone. |
[1276.36 --> 1281.84] He was tackled by one of his own players just yards before scoring for the opposing team. |
[1283.62 --> 1291.12] The University of California tried to punt the ball but Georgia Tech blocked it and then they scored a safety which became a winning margin in this game. |
[1291.90 --> 1296.68] During halftime all of the players, University of California, filed into the room. |
[1296.80 --> 1300.76] They sat down and were extremely quiet. The air was sucked right out of them. |
[1300.76 --> 1306.42] Roy Reggles for himself was feeling pretty sorry for himself, like a complete flop and failure that he was. |
[1306.48 --> 1313.28] And he goes and sits in the corner and throws a towel over his head, crumples into a little ball and starts whimpering and blubbering. |
[1314.36 --> 1318.78] Three minutes before playing time, Coach Price, the coach of the team, stands up and he says, |
[1319.16 --> 1322.64] Men, the same line that started the first half starts the second. |
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