“Your failure need not be final because Jesus is risen” by Sinclair Ferguson

“At this point, it has been less than forty-eight hours since Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus, and he also realized that Jesus had seen and heard him do so.

And I sometimes wonder, “Did anyone apart from Jesus know that Peter had denied Him?” If not, then these words (Mark 16:5-7) take on a special significance, don’t they?

No mention of the details of Peter’s failure, just: “Tell Peter I’m risen. Make sure Peter knows. Make sure he knows that there is still hope for him.”

Simon Peter was given a special role in the disciple band.

He was the first to open the doors of the kingdom to those who believed on the day of Pentecost.

He was the first Apostle to preach the gospel to gentiles in the house of Cornelius.

But on that Sunday, all this lay in an unknown and– he must have felt, at least– hopeless future.

Peter must have been a broken man at this point. So sure of himself, yet so disastrously wrong about himself.

Surely he could still feel the rush of shame that came over him when he realized that Jesus had been watching him across the courtyard and heard him denying that he knew Him.

It’s hardly surprising that Peter fled from the high priest’s courtyard into the darkness of the Jerusalem night to weep his heart out.

Was he another Judas?

That is why the angel’s words must have meant a great deal to him.

Not only was Jesus alive, but He had a special message for him:

“Peter, the Lord you denied is not dead. He has been raised from the dead and will meet His band of disciples again. And He wants you, you in particular, Peter, to know it. Your denying Him may have added to His sorrows, but it has not destroyed His love for you.”

I think I was twenty-three years old and just a very young minister when my senior minister preached a sermon on the book of Jonah.

The title he gave it has lodged itself permanently in my memory banks: “Failure Need Not Be Final.”

That was the message for Peter. Peter’s failure need not be final– nor yours either.

That is the good news that comes to you today from the risen Savior.

So whatever your failure has been, come and tell Him all about it.

Your failure need not be final because Jesus is risen.”

–Sinclair B. Ferguson, Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2024), 146-147.