THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

54PeterThe second of the two was a man called Peter, the best known of Jesus' disciples. He served as akind of unofficial spokesman for the group. Although Peter was brash and outspoken, he was intenselyloyal to Jesus. Yet, Peter also became a tragic moral failure.This happened when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. Peter lingered outside the courthousewarming himself by a fire. As he stood there trying not to be noticed, a young woman spotted him andaccused him of being a follower of Jesus. Peter was probably frightened by the accusation so he denied it.But the young woman wouldn't back off. She accused Peter a second time. Again Peter denied anyassociation with Jesus. Then as he made his loud denial the crowd picked up on his accent. The accentwas a dead giveaway. Peter wasn't from their part of the country. He was from up north. So the crowdjoined the young woman in accusing Peter of being a disciple of Jesus. Then Peter cursed and swore anddenied that he even knew Jesus. In that hour of crisis, Peter betrayed his good friend.If you had been there and heard Peter utter a stream of profanity to deny Jesus, would you havewritten him off? If you were Jesus would you have given up on Peter? If a friend did that to you, wouldyou forgive her?That was a grim episode in Peter's life. And later, when he realized what he had done, he weptbitterly. Peter must have wondered if there was any hope for him. After all, in a way, he was no betterthan Judas who had betrayed Jesus. Peter had betrayed a friend, someone he had once sworn to protect.Yet, after his resurrection, Jesus went looking for Peter. Jesus had died for Peter, just as He haddied for everyone else. He died so that Peter's sins could be forgiven and so that our sin could be forgiven.That is why Jesus forgave this man who had vehemently denied Him. Not only that, but Jesus restoredPeter and set him free. In a matter of a few weeks Peter preached the first Christian sermon—a sermonabout the forgiveness of sin. Out of his defeat, Peter learned something. He learned that God is the God ofa second chance.GOD’S PATIENCE EVENTUALLY RUNS OUTEven God’s patience eventually runs out:“For three years” was a period of ample opportunity for this tree to produce fruit."'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it andfertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down'" (13:8-9).Instead of assuming that suffering indicates sinfulness, as we all know, it is often the greatestsaints who have to suffer most.In this passage we see that Jesus called religious people away from judging other people andwarned the self-righteous to repent before they faced even worse tragedy at the final judgment.