The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Getting Up After You Have Fallen Down!

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

Whether within our family, social, or professional lives, we all have made mistakes and failed the Lord. What should you do when you fall and become discouraged or disappointed? How do you get back up to where you were before? Today Jeff tells the story of Peter, who—after denying Jesus three times—fell into sadness and despair. In one of the most tender moments in the Bible though, Jesus lifts Peter up in kindness and mercy. Learn how our God is the God of second chances and how we too can be lifted back up. Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Use the comment box below, or email Jeff at [e-mail]. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

You're listening to The Jeff Kavins Show, Episode 64, Getting Up After You Have Fallen Down. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, welcome to the show. Very special show today as I'm coming to you from,

Literally the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, coming to you right next to Copernum, the headquarters of Jesus, and I am on a pilgrimage right now with Father Mike Schmitz, and our canter is the wonderful singer, Ali Ali Aaliyah. And we have about 100 young adults with us, and it is an incredible crew. Really, really a powerful pilgrimage. And later today, we're going to be getting into the bus. We're going to go to Mount Tabor. We're going to have a wonderful swim today at Sokney, a wonderful natural spring.

And then we're going to head south right along the Jordan River, and we're going to make our way up to Jerusalem today. And that's where we're going to be staying tonight. And we have had an outstanding pilgrimage. I'm telling you, if you ever get a chance to come over here with me, it's a game changer. It really is. I don't say that lightly. It really is a game changer. I'm going to talk to you today about getting up after you have fallen down, which we all have,

and the source of this talk is the life of St. Peter, the very first pope. And as you know, as the first pope, he did have some rough times, and he denied the Lord three times. But we're going to see what the Lord's response to the first pope was. We're going to see what the response to Peter was when Peter fell down. and kind of gave up, actually. You know, he kind of gave up, and he wanted to go back to his old job, but Jesus had something else in mind. All this way from Israel still, thank you so much for supporting the show,

and thank you for going to iTunes and ranking the show and leaving comments. That's very, very helpful at Google Play as well. And what happens there, to be honest with you, is that if you participate with me in the show, assuming you like the show, If you don't, just don't do anything, I guess. But if you like it, go ahead and rank it.

And that has a way of influencing the algorithms, I guess. And more people that are looking for these types of topics will find the show quicker. And that's an important thing. So you and I can work together in doing that. My email, by the way, is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. I can't do it this week, but we're going to be announced. very shortly a new study. It's going to be fantastic. You're going to love it. I can't wait to talk about this when we finally announce a new study coming up shortly that I have put together

and a book that I've been working on. Really, really excited. But today I want to talk to you about this issue of getting up after you have fallen down. And I'm going to use the life of Peter. And I'll tell you, this is something that hit me really squarely between the eyes yesterday. I was with my group here in Galilee, and we were at a place called the Primacy of Peter. It's a small part of the northern shore, and there is a little chapel there, and Pope Paul the 6th was there, John Paul II, and several popes have been there, and it is the place that we find in John Chapter 21. It's the place where Peter is back together. with Jesus after the death and burial and resurrection. And they're going to have a talk.

They're going to have a talk. So I want to jump right into it. Before I get into John 21, I want to give you just a little bit of the background of Peter. We have been focusing on discipleship on this trip. And it's a moment of change in your life. That's what all the young people, a lot of focus missionaries, by the way. And we've been talking about decisions in our life. and in discipleship there is a there is a distinctive beginning of your walk with Christ and the way that you became a disciple and we talked about this at copernum the day before yesterday we were in the ancient synagogue believe it or not and and the way that you became a disciple of a great rabbi is that you had to be chosen you didn't just walk around saying well I'm the

I'm a disciple of the great rabbi Hillel or Shemai or Gaml or whoever. You didn't choose the rabbi. The rabbi chose you, and that's what we hear in the gospel, where Jesus actually says, you didn't choose me. I chose you. And he has chosen you as well, and he's chosen me to be his disciple. And that means that we are going to follow him day in and day out, and that we are going to become like him.

We're going to imitate him. in the way he teaches. We're going to imitate him in the way he forgives. We're going to imitate him in the way he treats people, his attitude, all of that. Very, very important. And so early on in the gospel, we see that Jesus chooses the 12. Like, for example, in Mark chapter 1, right there in the area of Copernum, he chooses his disciples, and Peter is one of them. But Peter is not just one of the disciples. Peter has a particular role that is really special. And that that is that he is going to become the prime minister. He's going to become the first pope. He's going to become the one who is leader among the 12. He's going to be a leader among the 12. And so he has a

special role. And that special role is really brought out in Matthew chapter 16. Yesterday, we went all the way up to Cesarea, Philippi, up on the Lebanese Syrian border. And we went up to up to Cessori of Philippi, where Matthew chapter 16 takes place where Jesus gives the keys to Peter. And we had about an hour teaching up there. And it was there that Jesus asked the question. He said, who do men say that the son of man is? And they guessed John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the other prophets. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And they're all wrong guesses. And then he said, well, who do you say that I am? And Peter, comes to the front and says, you are Christ, the son of the living God. And at that point, it's almost

like Jesus gives the timeout signal. You know, it says, guys, hold it, hold it, hold it. Wait, wait, wait. You realize what just happened there? What Peter just got a hold of there, he did not get himself. My father revealed it to him. And then he singles out Peter, and he says, Peter, he said, blessed are you Simon Barjona for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven and I say to you you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and then he says and I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom he also says what you bind on earth is bound in heaven what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven and I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom now what are the keys mean well you can read in the old testament that

the king in the kingdom of Israel had in the kingdom of Judah had a special position called the Al-Habayit. In Hebrew, that means the one that's over the household. It's a position. It's like secretary of the interior. It's like foreign minister of, you know, whatever. It's literally a title, the al-habayet, the one who's over the household. It's a prime minister kind of position that that literally runs the kingdom. If the king is sick or the king is away, the prime minister has the keys to the kingdom. This isn't rocket science. This is simply the way it is in the kingdom of David in the Old Testament. The Catholic Church didn't make this up. I didn't make this up. This is simply it. You can read about it in Isaiah 22. And by the way, we'll put that in the show notes.

Isaiah 22 gives a description of the prime minister as someone who has a robe, someone with all authority. What he opens, no one will shut. What he shuts, no one will open. He's driven in a sure place like a peg in a tent. And he will be, he'll be called Papa, he'll be called Father, and he will be given keys to the kingdom. That is powerful. So we have this position in the Old Testament that is given the keys to the kingdom, all right? And I'm not going to stay on that a lot right now. Maybe we'll do a whole another show. Well, we did do a show in the past, I guess, on that, on the papacy in itself. So you can go back and you can look at the past shows of the Jeff Gaven show, and you'll find that. All right. So here's Peter. He gets the keys. He is the first leader. And the very first thing

Jesus says after he gives the keys to Peter in Matthew 16, as a master builder, and he's giving authority to his church. And Peter has a certain primacy among the 12, he says, I'm going to go to Jerusalem now, and they're going to kill me. And Peter says, no way. Mm-mm. No, that's not going to happen. And Jesus looks over at him and says, get behind me Satan. Kind of an odd thing to say the very first day that you're the Pope. Get behind me Satan. You don't have God's intentions in mind, but, you know, some other intentions. So what is he saying there? He's saying that, you know, Peter feeling like he's the prime minister with the keys, Jesus said they're going to kill me. he's in charge, Peter, you know, really of these 12, and he's saying, uh-uh, not on my watch,

that isn't going to happen. And Jesus said, no, no, you don't understand. I'm going to die because I have been appointed to die for the sins of the world. So, so right there, we have, we have some difficulty with Peter, you know, understanding exactly what he's supposed to be doing there. And Jesus is pointing out that there's a deeper plan here for him, all right? Now, we also come to the death and the crucifixion, the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus. And before Jesus was arrested and before he was crucified, he said to Peter, you're going to deny me three times, you know, you're going to deny me in the future. And Peter's like, no way, uh-uh, not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

I'd die for you. Well, we know what happened after Jesus was arrested. Peter went to Caiaphas's house, and he was warming himself by a fire. Key point right there, warming himself by a fire. And it was there outside of Caiaphas, the high priest's house, that people confronted him and asked if he had been part of this band that traveled with Jesus, one of the Talme deem, one of the disciples, and Peter denied it. He said, I don't know the man.

He said, I tell you, I don't know the man. and there he fulfilled what Jesus said. He denied the Lord three times. Kind of a bummer, you know. He gave up everything to follow Jesus. And any Talmud, any student, any disciple, if they were going to follow a rabbi after they were chosen, after the rabbi said to them, Lech Acharai, come follow me, they left everything. They left their job. And what was Peter before he was a disciple? He was a fisherman. in fact a number of the disciples were fishermen that's what they were trained to do by their father they didn't follow a great rabbi they weren't chosen by a great rabbi jesus chose the unchosen to change the world and and here's peter he gave up everything to follow jesus and he is disappointed in himself and he has denied the lord three times and now we're going to jump to john 21 and we're going to see him

at the end of the gospel, and how discouraged this guy really is. I know there's times where you've been discouraged. I know there's times where you feel like you have failed, where you have really let down the Lord or let someone down, you know, in your job, your marriage, whatever it might be, a school. And you just feel awful. You just feel like crud, don't you? Yeah, I've been there myself.

And Peter, no doubt, felt like that. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to revisit this, John 21, and we're going to see how Jesus brings Peter back into his role as a leader. And this is one of the tenderest moments in the gospel. I read this yesterday morning right there where it took place on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee. I got to tell you, oh man, it got me because I was aware of my own failings. We'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own.

In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study, visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free Ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ. Welcome back to the Jeff K. even show. We're talking about getting up after you have been knocked down, after you've fallen. And haven't we all been there? Whether it was back in school or in your marriage or work or with a friend, you just felt like a failure and you thought, man, I'm never going to get back to where I was.

And I wish that wouldn't have happened. I wish that thing I did, that thing I said, that my response to somebody, like, man, I wish it didn't happen. But you know what? It did. And the beautiful thing is, is that God is the God of second chances. He's the God of second chances. I'm here in Galilee, in Israel, right now in the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, voice a little horse. It's early in the morning looking at them, looking at the sea right now. But yesterday, we were out on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and I taught for an hour, and I got a little enthusiastic, I think. And I tell you, it was so good. We have focused missionaries with us. We have young adults like you would not believe. And we were praising God on the boat in the

middle of the Sea of Galilee. And these young people literally dancing on the boat and praising God. It was amazing. And Ali Ali Alia was singing the hit song Oceans on the very boat that Hill song used to videotape that song. It was crazy. And really a powerful, powerful moment. Father Mike Schmitz is doing a great job right now on this pilgrimage. He's celebrating Mass. He's encouraging the people. We work together as a great team. Really love the guy. Fellow Minnesotan, having a good time. We're looking at John Chapter 21 now, and it says this. This is after Peter has really kind of blown it. You know, he denied the Lord three times. And he has gone back up to Galilee, and here's where we pick up them. John 21. After this, Jesus revealed himself

again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his sons were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. And they said, we'll go with you. Now, what does that mean right there? You know, I'm going fishing. Well, you've got to remember that Peter was a fisherman. But when he was chosen by Jesus to become a disciple, and Jesus said, Lech Achari, come follow me. He left everything, and the thing that he was trained at by his father, and he became a disciple of Jesus. And so this could very well point to, Peter is going back to what he did before he was a disciple. This didn't work. He failed. He wasn't good enough. He's

bummed. And he says, I'm going to go fishing. And they said, well, we're going to go to. And they went out and they got into the boat, but that night, they caught nada. Nothing. They didn't catch anything that night. And just as day was breaking, guess what? Jesus stood on the beach. That's right where we were standing. He stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Kind of an Emmaus Road experience there, you know, where Jesus is with him, but they can't, they don't recognize him. So verse five, Jesus said to them, children, have you any fish? And they answer him, no. No, we don't. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. So they cast it.

And now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, said to Peter, it is the Lord. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards off. Now, when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish. Now get this. 153 of them. Sorry, I think it's funny, actually, that of, you know, the gospel say that

if everything that Jesus taught was put into books, the world would not be able to contain the books. And yet, you know, he only wrote so much, but one of them is how many fish Peter hauled ashore? 153. I mean, it's kind of funny. I mean, who's the one that said, count them? You know, or I'll count them. 151, 152, 153. Okay, we got 153 fish here, which is a lot of fish. And there were so many, yet the net wasn't torn. Now, that number, 153, actually means something. It means something.

When you study Judaism, when you study with the Jewish people, particularly back in Jesus' day, they did not have numbers per se, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. They used the alphabet for their numbering system. and every letter of the alphabet had a numeric value. So, for example, if my name Jeff, let's say J had a numeric value of 8, E had a numeric value of 4, and F had a numerical value of 4, so that would be 8 and 4, 4, and 4, and if you just add it up, then you come up with 20. So my name would be the numerical value of 20. Now, that isn't the case with their alphabet in terms of my name. I'm just using that as an example. But what's interesting

here is that I think Jesus is communicating something to Peter and the Apostles with the number 153. because the number 153 is significant because that is the numerical value of two words together. And those words are, Ani, three letters, Ani, which means in Hebrew, me, I, I, a knee. If I'm going to go somewhere, Ani, I start with Ani, I. and the second is is Elohim Elohim Elohim is the is the word for God for God and so Ani Elohim adds up to 153 and Ani Elohim means I am God I am God isn't that amazing and so Simon Peter went aboard hauled the net full of fish A board, and there's 153. I think Jesus is looking right at these guys and saying, hey, guys, I'm God. Because they didn't know who he was. I'm God. 153. Isn't that amazing? I just think that is really cool. I love that.

And Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. Peter is the, then, now we go move on to verse 15, where Peter is given a command. When they had finished breakfast, this is the tender moment to me. This is Peter, who is dejected, rejected the Lord three times. This is a guy who's down and out. This is a guy who kind of gave up being a disciple and the dream of being a disciple and is returning to fishing.

verse 15 when they had finished breakfast jesus said to simon peter beloved and can't you just imagine uh jesus coming over to peter and kind of putting his his arm around his shoulder and kind of guiding him back down to the water like hey guy i want to talk to you i want to talk to you and peter's probably feeling embarrassed you know and yeah what you want to talk to me about said i want to talk to you come with me. Peter, Simon's son of John, do you love me more than these? Do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs, which is what Peter was called to do from the beginning was to feed God's sheep. He's the pope. He's the one who has authority. What he binds is bound. What he loses his loosed. A second time he said to him, Simon, son of

of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend my sheep. And this is the one that really, really just hit me yesterday. He said to him the third time, Simon's son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And listen to what Peter says. He said to him, Lord, you know, You know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said, feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will fasten your belt for you and bring you where you do not wish to go. And this he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after

this, he said to him, I love it. He says, follow me. His relationship with Jesus started with follow me. He was given the responsibility to become the leader among leaders, the al-habait, the first prime minister, the first pope. He denied the Lord three times. He was devastated over it. He wanted to cash it in. He wanted to give it up. He wanted to go back to fishing, and what does Jesus do? Jesus tracks him down in Galilee and says, do you love me? And three times, remember, he denied the Lord three times, and now three times, he's saying, do you love me, do you love me, do you love me? And Peter says, yes, I do, yes, I do, yes, I do, yes, I do, you know. And Jesus says, well, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. But on that third time, it's like, it's like Peter cries out

where Jesus looks at him and says, Peter, do you love me? After all of this, after following him, after being made the first pope up in Cessaria, Philippi, after denying the Lord and knowing his own shame, he says to the Lord, can you imagine him looking into the eyes of Jesus and saying, Lord, you know everything. You know everything about me.

You know what I've done. You know my heart. You know everything. You know that down. side, I love you. Man, I failed. And Jesus doesn't say, yes, you're on probation for two years. What does he say? Feed my sheep, Peter. Yes, you blew it. Yes, you did. But feed my sheep. Continue on as my disciple. And he ends that discourse with, follow me. Lech Achari. Oh, man, I love that. And you know why I love that so much? Because I see myself in Peter. I see

see myself so often as that one who denied the Lord or failed the Lord or failed one of my friends or family in some way. And I feel terrible. And I feel like it's over. And I think, man, why would anybody want to work with me again? I really blew it there. But Jesus is the one who says, follow me, even after that. But Lord, you know me. Lord, you know everything about my heart. and he says follow me still i want to encourage you today i think this is providential but i'm sitting here on the northern shores of the sea of galilee right now right next to where this happened in john 21 and maybe you have failed the lord maybe you have failed your your spouse maybe you have failed your family or your boss at work whatever it might be i want you to know your

serving a God who is a God of second chances. And God is one who is not going to drill you with this the rest of your life. Do not define yourself by your failures, but define yourself by the loving relationship you have as a son or daughter of God. You're serving a father, not a master in the sense of a master judge. You're serving a merciful father, a kind and loving father, who has called you to become like him and when you blow it and you will you have an opportunity to go to confession you have an opportunity to go into a confession and say you know to hear the words from the lord hey and still with you the lord you know everything about my heart you know what i've done you've known everything and he says continue to follow me continue to follow me stay the

course with your vocation. Peter, you're the Pope. You may be a father. You may be a mother. Stay the course. Pick yourself up after you've fallen down. That's a word from God for you today from the Sea of Galilee. And I want to pray for you as I conclude this. I think this is a powerful word. And I know standing there on the shore with all these young missionaries, focused missionaries and young adults from colleges around the country and others, man, it was powerful to hear that from God standing right there. And I'm just delivering you a message from here, from Galilee, that God loves you. And even though you've fallen, he still believes that you can become like him. He wants you to get up off your feet. And he wants you to follow him. Okay?

If you have any comments about the show, write me at The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's my email, The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And if you got ideas for a show, let me know. Let me know. And once again, go to iTunes and give me some feedback. I'd love just to hear from you. It's good being with you again, and especially today, because I'm at the Sea of Galilee. We take off and go to Jerusalem today, so pray for us. and now I'd like to pray for you.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, I thank you for my friends who are listening right now to the show. I thank you for those who have fallen, those who have made big mistakes. I thank you that you are a God who gives us a second chance. And I pray, Lord, that you pick them up right now. And that they would hear the words deep in their heart. I love you. continue to follow me.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a great week.