Today…Bob Rule and Jane Beckett are getting married. Both had long, faithful marriages to their former spouse. Both suffered the death of their spouse. Neither was looking for the other when…whammo… they were falling in love.

They asked me to stress, in the ceremony, that they feel like God has given them, both, new beginnings and through their experiences is promising new beginnings, in one form or other, to all the rest of us.

That got me thinking… We have an example, in the New Testament, of the king of all new beginnings… God specially spells out this guy's experiences… just so we can all take encouragement from his failures… and his new beginnings.

Let's see if we can figure this out:

1) Next to Jesus Christ…This man is mentioned more times, by name, in the New Testament… than any other person…

The answer to all these questions is Peter!

Years later, when Peter was seasoned by his failures and repentings…. He would write what is now called 1 and 2 Peter, in your Bible:

1 Peter 5:5-11 …. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

But when Jesus chose him…and during the three years he was a disciple of Jesus, he was not clothed in humility... he was arrogant… he had a big mouth…he could not seem to bring himself under God's mighty hand…he didn't need God to lift him up…he was too busy lifting himself up!

My point is: Jesus not only chose him as a disciple…but seemed intent on spelling out, for all of us who would follow, all the "wise-guy" things that Peter said…all the arrogant responses… all the falling-on-his-face failures…

I've already told you that there is more said about him…and more of his direct words recorded…than any other disciple. Why would God do that? I'm sure there were other disciples who were…more mature…much less arrogant. Doesn't it seem like God would want to give us more wise words from somebody who didn't always have at least one foot jammed in his mouth… How can we even understand someone who is always talking through his toes.

Because…that's who the greatest number of us can relate to!

Most of us tend to be arrogant…to one degree or another… Many of us have big un-controllable mouths… Many of us fail God…and those around, us way too often.

So God uses an in-your-face, big mouthed screw-up who eventually became the most powerful, righteous voice of the early church… to show us just how far he can, and will, bring each of us if we are willing. From a man who denied he even knew Jesus, at the crucifixion…to a man who was, eventually, also crucified, like Jesus, but ask to be crucified upside down…because he didn't deserve to be killed just like his Lord.

There's several things I want to show you over the next couple of weeks… but let me, first, take you right to the end of Jesus life…that is still fresh on our minds after last week.

Let's join Jesus and Peter at the Last Supper… Jesus washes the disciple feet…starting around the U-shaped table and will finish with Peter who was sitting directly across from him. What comes out of Peter's mouth is "classic Peter":

 John 13:6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” 8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.” 9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” (NLT)

1) Your not going to give me this servant stuff too… are you? …. I'm Peter!

2) Don't understand… Jesus who do you think your talking to here,?

2) You will never ever wash my feet!

3) Well then…. dump the whole bowl over me! (LORD!)

Peter gets to take part in whole Last Supper and hear Jesus explain his coming death and how the elements of the meal were reminders of his broken body and spilled blood…

Next thing you know…In the quiet solemn atmosphere of the Last Supper there are again raised voices…. I'm sure all the other disciples were used to it by then…but guess who was at the center of the next outburst?

 John 13:33"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come….36 Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." 37 Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."  38 Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! (NIV)

It was a blessed evening…. After the meal, the Bible says they moseyed out toward the Mount of Olives. Mark 14 says they sang hymns… Jesus taught them they amazing stuff we find in John 14-17…

…but can't you just hear Peter, throughout the evening, leaning over to one disciple after another saying…. You hear what he said to me back there… I think he's right most of the time… but he sure got that one mixed up. Maybe if he had been talking about one of the rest of you, it would have been more believable… but….. I'm Peter!!

Finally they arrive at the Garden of Gethsemane… Jesus chooses…of all people…Peter to "watch with him"…as he prays before his crucifixion….but Peter full of food and self assurance… sleeps like a baby as Jesus great spiritual battle wages.

…. And then, of course comes Peter's famous denial… of Jesus at the crucifixion…

If Peter had listened closely to what Jesus had told him…and believed that Jesus really knew exactly what was going to be happening to him…he would not have arrogantly walked the road to denying his Lord…

Look at Luke's account of that last exchange at the last supper…

Luke 22:31-34 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." 33 But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." 34 Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me." (NIV)

If Peter had "really believed" that Jesus had complete knowledge of every moment of every one of his days and was moving ahead of him to clear the path….Peter would not have spent so much time fighting God's plan for his life!

Notice Jesus words to Peter in Gethsemane… Jesus wasn't asking Peter to stay awake to give him moral support… Jesus was trying to teach Peter a life principle!

Luke 22:40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed… 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (NIV)

Jesus didn't take them into the garden to pray for him and what he was getting ready to endure. He took them into the garden to learn to resist satan's attacks in their own lives. Their lack of attentiveness was not going to make one drop of difference in what was going to happen to Jesus in the next three days but it would play heavily on Peter's failures.

Peter was full of ear-chopping adrenalin when the soldiers came into the garden but then it seemed like all his-git-up-and-go…. Got-up-and-went…

What kind of confusion must have been going on inside Peter's head? Where's the brash arrogance now?? Where's the self assurance? He didn't even stay up with the crowd of crucifiers… and a servant girl's question has him running like a rabbit

I want you to carefully notice the next words because they tell us so much about Jesus…

Jesus, with all the chaos and trauma going on in his life… knew exactly where Peter was in that courtyard… Peter had not resisted temptation… Jesus, well out of earshot, heard everyone of Peter's denials… He felt everyone of Peter's fears… His love for Peter was overwhelming and his only goal for wayward Peter, was forgiveness, restoration, and turning him into a burning firestorm.

You can count on the fact that Jesus look was not one of condemnation…even assurance

That rooster crowing at that time of the night was no freak accident. Why just one? Why at night? Because Jesus pointed at the rooster and said crow…rooster..crow!

It was a personal message from Jesus to Peter… There was nothing in the crow that said…I hate you… you filthy deny-er scum. What was in that single crow was Jesus reminder, from the evening before that he would forgive and completely restore Peter.

Peter remembered…

Conclusion: This is not a postscript… this is important!

There is no question that Peter's life turned radically around that day….

What is the historical role of a rooster? It heralds the coming of a new day.

Peter may have been swamped by shame and conviction…but he got the message of new beginnings. This rooster may have beat the sun by few hours but the message came through load and clear.

Three days later Peter's rushing to an empty tomb… he gets a personal message delivered through the women…right from the angel:

Mark 16:7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' " (NIV)

He spends 40 days, directly, in the presence of the living Christ. He is the first in the early Church to preach… and thousands come to believe in Christ.