Jesus said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. Amen, let's pray together. Our God and Father in heaven, we ask now that as we have opened your word, that you would attune our minds and our hearts to hear your voice speaking to us by your Spirit, through the word that he wrote and recorded for us. And Father, many of us come today discouraged, wounded, weighed down by the burden of sin and guilt and I pray that you would direct our eyes up to the cross to look upon Jesus in his face and lift our burdens by the power of the gospel we pray in Jesus name amen. As we finally return to our study of Luke's gospel after a long time away We come to this passage recorded only by Luke, which I find to be one of the most treasured words given to us by God because it serves as unshakable comfort to us, to our souls through every season of life in Christ. Even the seasons or days or hours where we feel that we have lost our way or that our faith has waned from our own discouragement, especially in our struggle with sin. Because here the Holy Spirit, our great comforter and our counselor, has written for us in his word against the backdrop of the impending catastrophic failure of Jesus' disciples, so that we might understand something very important, which is that our devotion to Christ, even with the utmost sincerity and desire, is still too feeble to keep us holding on to Him until the end. That's the plain truth. That we can make all kinds of promises to God and issue renewed commitment to Him, commitment after commitment, out of a real desire to honor Him for all of our days. But in the end, we are powerless. to actually follow through. It's not by the power of our will and our effort that enables us to honor Him for a lifetime. But here what we see is that we are taught to rest in the gospel of Christ and His word of promise to us. That is the only thing able to keep us. It is Christ and His unchanging commitment to us that gives us any hope, that gives us perfect hope of finishing the race. Because look, if our faith was ultimately dependent on us to keep it and safeguard it until the end, none of us would make it. Not a single one of us. But Jesus is the one who keeps our faith through the deepest valleys and our darkest hours. And so it's not our faith that keeps us walking with Christ, but it is Christ who keeps our faith even when we are prone to walking away from him. This is the power of the gospel, you see. And again, what better place in Scripture to see this proven to be true than here as Jesus gives a word of comfort to Peter who is about to fall into the greatest and most regrettable sin that he would ever commit in his entire life against the Savior whom he loved. And again, if Peter's faith were contingent on how faithful he could remain without shaking, then there really would be no Peter for us to hear about in Scripture. But this is a lesson that he and the rest of the disciples had to learn this unforgettable realization of how weak and brittle their faith really was. And it was a very humbling realization because all their years of following Jesus they were quite certain that they were quote-unquote as we like to say strong believers. Now remember the context of when and where Jesus spoke these words to Simon Peter. We're still in the upper room after Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. And after giving the bread and the cup, Jesus shockingly revealed in verse 21, Behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. Meaning that one of you, one of the 12, namely Judas Iscariot, would betray me. One of the 12 special closest disciples of Jesus. Now remember that Jesus had many disciples, not just 12. Jesus had hundreds of disciples who followed Him. But He chose 12 to be those who received the greatest privilege of being closest to Jesus, to be His travel companions, as it were, to be in the front rows with Him in ministry, to minister with Him. And one could say, at least from the public vantage point, the optics of it all, that they were, these 12, they were the most devoted to Jesus. because they were with him, they followed him wherever he went. So they even received special authority from Jesus. You remember back in chapter nine with delegated power to preach the gospel in his name, the power to cast out demons and heal sicknesses through every town and village. But now here was Jesus saying that one of you 12 is going to be the one who betrays me and delivers me over to suffering and death. And what did that do? Immediately, that triggered the defense mechanism in each of the disciples such that they went around the table saying, well, I would never do that. And instead, verse 23, they began to question one another which of them it could be who was going to do this. So everyone went around the table saying, I would never, but he could and he would. And here's why. And of course, as we saw the last time that we were in Luke, which was quite a long time ago, Whole interrogation then immediately sparked a spiritual competition between all of the disciples, verse 24, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. Now mind you again, the context. They were arguing not about who was the greatest fisherman between them all. Who was the greatest accountant? Who was the greatest at pickleball? They were arguing about who was the greatest disciple, who was the most spiritual and devout, most committed to Jesus. Because again, they were convinced that they could never do such a horrible thing as betraying Jesus. So let's identify among us, I'm the greatest, let's try to figure out who is the worst, who is the least, and then maybe we'll get some kind of an idea where we could start pointing fingers. And that's how they ended up bickering. And without a doubt, the loudest of the bunch and the most outspoken and heated among them was none other than Simon Peter, because that's what he always was. If you read through the Gospels, you'll get a pretty good idea of his personality. He was very hot-headed. He was always speaking out of turn and very impulsive. He was hasty. He was impassioned, which is why we see of all the disciples, who was the one that when Jesus was walking on water who said Jesus tell me if it's you tell me to come to the water and Peter went and really great until he started sinking because his faith wavered hasty always biting off more than he could chew he was the one at the transfiguration when he saw the glorious Moses and Elijah, in their glory, appearing with Jesus in His glory. Because Peter didn't know what to say, he decided to say, hey Jesus, do you want me to set up three tents for all of you and provide some nice accommodations? As if Moses and Elijah would say, well that's really nice, I'll stay here. See, Peter was always talking out of turn, putting his foot in his mouth, because the kind of guy he was, was he was either all in, or all out. He was extreme about everything. And therefore, Peter had a habit of making the biggest promises to God. Just as we see here in verse 33, probably the worst promise that he ever made, not because it was a bad promise made, but it was a promise unable to be kept. As he said to Jesus, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. He had a tendency to just always jump off the diving board headlong. It always turned out to be a belly flop. But as much as we might laugh at all of Peter's embarrassing moments and all of his blunders, you know, Jesus knew this about Peter, that Peter was sincerely all in. Not just about anything, but especially all in for Jesus. And Jesus loved this about Peter. Jesus had a very special love, despite all of Peter's hastiness and impetuousness, because Peter sincerely willed, with all of his might, with all of his desire, to love and honor Christ. He may have been an impassioned man, but he was truly a man with genuine passion for Jesus. But that passion could quickly turn into pride, where Peter believed himself to be the most passionate and most devoted disciple. See, we need to be wary of this in our own hearts. Some of us have such a deep love for the Lord, our hearts are devoted to Him. But the danger is when our devotedness, our piety becomes the focus instead of the person to whom we have devoted our hearts. And that's what Peter was prone to do. Hence, when you look in Matthew 26, later when Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, just before His arrest, He reminds them again that, that you're all going to desert Me. You will all fall away. And Peter famously said that even though they will fall away, I will never. Because I am so devoted to you, Jesus. I am so committed to you. Peter obviously turned out to be wrong, made himself out to be a fool. But again, those words did come out of a sincere heart of saying, give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus. I will never leave you nor forsake you, Jesus. He meant it. He was sincere. It was genuine passion. But the problem was, was that he was far more passionate than he was able to follow through on his passions. In short, despite the best of his intentions, Peter was not as spiritually strong as he thought he was. None of the disciples were. None of us are. And Jesus knows us all fully well. And so he tells Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you. Now if you look at the footnote, you'll see a footnote in your Bibles, at least I do in my ESV, you'll notice that when Jesus says to have you, Satan demanded to have you, this is a plural you. Jesus is talking about all the disciples, not just Peter. Satan demanded to have all of you, that he might sift you like wheat. Now this gives us a window into the spiritual realm as the curtains are pulled back and we find out that the devil had been demanding God the opportunity to sift them all, which is a picture of putting, let's say, a handful of dirt or sand in a strainer or something like a colander as you use in your kitchen and shaking it so that what would remain would be only the substantial hard materials. In other words, the devil asked to shake up the disciples violently so that what was really of substance, which would be shown, Now, why would the devil demand this opportunity? Because even the devil knew how shaky their faith was, how brittle it was, that with a little bit of shaking, it would shatter. You know, Satan didn't care much about this man, Simon Peter, and the rest of them until they were called by Jesus to follow him. And from that point on, he kept a very, very close eye on each of them. And he could see, you know, this Peter, he seems to be very excitable and devoted to Jesus, very passionate. But I also see how easily he gets scared and shaken up. You know, even that time when he walked on water, I mean, props to him, that was impressive. But look at how, with just a little nudge, to take his eyes off of Jesus' face and look at his own feet. Look at how quickly that faith shattered and he sank. Oh, look at the brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee. Yes, part of the inner circle, loved by Jesus and with Him up there on the Mount of Transfiguration. But just give them a little temptation, a little whisper in their ear to jeopardize their ego and look how quickly they turn. to running off to their mom to ask Jesus to reserve for them the seats of honor so that they might preserve the greatness of their own name despite having witnessed the glory of Jesus. It sure looks like there's a lot more self-preservation in them than even they realize. Interesting, I'll take a note of that. And so the devil would study each of them down the list, all the way down to Judas Iscariot, whom he knew he had him by the neck. I mean, the guy just loves money so much. All he needed was 30 pieces and boom, he got Judas hook, line, and sinker. And for the rest of the 11, all it took was the same night that Judas would betray Jesus for their own lives to be threatened and they would fall away from Jesus. And so gathering all of this evidence in his briefcase, the devil then entered into the heavenly court, probably on multiple occasions, probably incessantly, day and night, and came before God and said, Your Majesty, I've been busy going to and fro the earth, from walking up and down on it. And I noticed the 12 disciples whom he chose. One of them I got in the bag, because I mean, he's the son of destruction. But give me an opportunity to shake up the other 11. And I will show you what is underneath all the layers of dust, what is really inside those men of dust. After all, do they fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around them that while your son is with them, alive and well and still generally popular with the crowd and still reaping the benefits of that? Well, that's the only reason that I still follow him. but strike the shepherd and they will scatter and desert him forever. Does this language sound familiar? This is how Satan talked about Job. It was in this manner that Satan also demanded to have Job to sift him like wheat. Now, for the disciples of Jesus, if we're really honest, The devil has quite a good case, doesn't he? If for no other reason than we see plainly in hindsight that they all did fall away. And so underneath all the skin, underneath all of the outward actions and words of commitment, in the secrecy of their own hearts was a faith so weak that it would take only a moment of them slipping into darkness and sin for that little ember to be swallowed up by darkness forever and be extinguished. That was the devil's argument. And he's got a point, doesn't he? Look at the 11 in the upper room, and they seem like perfectly good Christians. Well, kind of, except the whole bickering. But in less than 12 hours, they look like complete apostates. Even as Peter said, Lord, I am ready. I mean, the greatest worship to come out of Peter's lips. Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. I will die for you, Jesus. But Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. Why does Jesus bring up the rooster crowing? It's because he's emphasizing that in just a few short hours from now, from when you said those words at the crack of dawn, you will abandon me over to death. Just a matter of hours. and you will deny that you know me at all. You yourself, those very same lips that declared, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death, in just a matter of few hours, those same lips will renounce faith in me. Peter, you will end up saying, depart from me Jesus, I never knew you. Brothers and sisters, how many times have we done that in our lives? where we sincerely desire to honor Christ and live to please Him and to pursue Him. And we proclaim, we know, and we really believe that Jesus is better than all that this world can offer. And yet, we find ourselves falling into worldly lusts, the desires of the flesh. We know and we believe with a true and living faith that there is nothing more beautiful than the glory of Christ. But then we falter and we fall into many moments of seeking our own glory, elevating our own comfort, our own will above God's fighting against his will. And if anyone else saw us in those dark moments of spiritual lapses, in the hours of our great failures and the secrecy of our inner hearts, many would have reason to wonder if we were Christian at all. That's the devil's case that he brings to court. That's what he is always at work to do, day and night, to accuse you and me. Listen, the devil does not attack where he does not think he can win. He is evil, but he is not stupid. He is craftier than any beast of the field. That's why He prowls around like a roaring lion, doing everything in His power to shipwreck the faith of believers and to condemn them. And we are perfectly capable and inclined to shipwreck our faith, and we give plenty of material for that, don't we? Because we are far too weakened by our own sin. The Spirit may be willing, but the flesh is extremely weak. But church, that's the point. The fall of Peter and the rest is recorded for us so that we would know that even with the best of our intentions, we do not have the ability and the spiritual strength within ourselves to carry them out. And if we have constructed in our minds or been taught a paradigm of Christian living whereby the Christian life is grounded in our efforts of all of our spiritual discipline or of how pious we can be, then it will only lead us every single time to our great disappointment and a great discouragement. I've seen many people who eventually walk away from the church because they say, I can't do this anymore. And if only someone could tell them, of course you can't. Have you forgotten the gospel? Has the gospel been withheld from you this whole time? Having been saved and born again, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Does that make any sense? You see, the truth is, this is how weak we really are. That in a matter of hours, we all have the potential to go from making the most wonderful expressions of worship to God, to then doing the very thing that dishonors Him and brings reproach upon His name. The point is that there is no intrinsically strong believer amongst any of us apart from trusting in the strength and power of Christ. A true spiritual strength is found in the grace of Jesus Christ that lifts us up and keeps us held together even when we are prone to falling apart. And this is what Jesus was pressing into Peter's heart, that Satan demanded to have you and to sift you like weed, but verse 32, but I, But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Earlier in verse 31, Jesus says that Satan demanded to have you. Again, it was plural, all of you. But here in verse 32, Jesus specifically turns to Peter and says, I have prayed for you, singular Peter, that your faith may not fail. Now, why does Jesus single out Peter? Because Peter made the greatest possible promise to Jesus, separating himself from the rest of the disciples. Peter exalted himself to the highest of heights. And so when Peter fell, he would fall the hardest. And it's important to notice that Peter and the disciples, they really did fall. In other words, it's not that Jesus said that Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I declined his request to shake you up. Jesus wasn't saying you will never be shaken up. No, they were all badly shaken up. Self-inflicted, but under the lure and temptation of the devil. And they fell hard. But Jesus's promise was that though the devil may do everything in his power to extinguish your faith, my power is greater. I will make sure that your faith will not fail. It will not give out because a bruised reed I will not break. and a smoldering wick, I will not quench. Because I have prayed for you. I am your advocate. I am your defense and your shield in the courtroom against the one who accuses you day and night, Revelation 12 10. You see, this is the showdown between the accuser and the intercessor. Our great high priest who intercedes for us day and night. You know, we tend to focus a lot on where Jesus is right now, after being risen and ascended on high, that is at the Father's right hand. But the real question is, why is Jesus there? What is He doing there? That He is at the Father's right hand, ascended on high, so that He might ever live to make intercession for us, to plead our case, to cover our sins. 1 John 2.1, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Christian, do you realize that no matter how much you pray or don't pray, you will never outpray the one who prays for you day and night? And what does he pray as he prays for you? What is the content of His prayers that is so powerful that it overcomes every power of hell? Romans 8 tells us, as Paul writes, beginning in verse 33, Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, interceding for us. You see, the devil's greatest power is to condemn us with hard evidence as he records our darkest moments and our greatest failures. But as Paul says, who can condemn us? Christ is the one who already died. Christ is the one who was already condemned. And so there is nothing that the devil can accuse us of anymore. He is totally disarmed by the gospel. This is what Jesus intercedes for us with. The substance of his intercession, the content of his prayers, is the gospel. Father, I have died already. Father, I have suffered already. I have been stricken already for him, for her, for his sin there that you saw, for her sin there that you saw. Their faith rests not in themselves. but in Me and what I have already done and accomplished for them. And so though they may fall, they are still Yours. And they have every right to turn again and to be restored by grace and return to You. And so, Father, restore them by Your Spirit. Comfort them. Wipe their tears, even the tears that are caused by their own sin and grief. You see, what Jesus is doing now in heaven is that he intercedes for us with the gospel over and over again, which tells us that we need the gospel over and over again. We must preach to ourselves the gospel because Jesus prays for us with the gospel to remind us that our faith rests on Christ and Christ alone. His blood and His death is what gives us any right to be called God's children forever. And this is the assurance that Jesus was giving to Peter to strengthen him for when he would eventually fall. And this tells us what? That the assurance of salvation is the very power of God, His arm able to lift us back up when we are crushed by the weight of sin and guilt. The assurance of salvation is the power of God to guard our faith to defend us and to restore us when we fall. Hence, we see that this is the very ministry and work of the Holy Spirit in us. Romans 8.26, He intercedes for us. He prays for us and with us, in us, with groanings to deeper words. When we don't know what to pray, when we are sinking in despair and guilt so that we don't even think to pray, It is the Spirit of Christ who helps us in our weaknesses. And He helps us by reassuring our union with Christ. Romans 8.15, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed, in fact, still forever, yes, the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. That never changes because we are sealed by the gospel. not by our own efforts. It is therefore by the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit that we can have confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. You see, God has given us His Spirit to dwell in us, not for just arbitrary reasons, but for the purpose of confirming the assurance of our salvation, no matter what is going on in our lives, no matter how much we feel like we're falling apart. Because that is the truth and power of the gospel, that God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, Titus 3. Based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who took the place of sinners to be condemned for them and give to them His spotless righteousness to be received by faith. And it is this assurance and reassurance after reassurance that the Holy Spirit works in us to minister to us and to empower us with. And if you look closely, that's exactly what Jesus was giving to Peter, the assurance of his salvation. Because he said, Peter, you will fall in just a few hours and it will shake you up, but I have prayed for you. And not if you turn again, but when you have turned again, go and strengthen your brothers. Here is the power of the gospel because it disarms the devil's schemes to pry us away from Christ in our darkest hours by trying to convince us that we do not deserve to return to him after what we have done. But here is Christ himself telling and reassuring Peter, you will fall and you will fall badly and you will return to me and I will receive you. And I will use you to strengthen your brothers by the power of the gospel that will strengthen you and lift you back up. You see all that Jesus was showing Peter. Simon, Simon. He doesn't call him Peter, the rock. You're not really a rock, Peter. You're just Simon. You're just a man. Your faith is weak, weakened by your flesh, Simon. But right now, Simon, you're intent on showing how strong you are, how faithful you will remain to me by the power of your flesh in the name of Simon. And you're gonna fall flat on your face. But after you have fallen, I will restore you by my grace. And then you will be able to minister in the greatness of my name and the greatness of my grace to others. You will be able to proclaim not the faith of Peter, but the faithfulness of God, not the godliness of Simon, but the grace of Jesus Christ, apart from which you are nothing. And then I think we can see how much Peter grew in the grace and knowledge of Christ. If you go to his first letter, look at how he begins. Seems like a different man. Verse 3 of chapter 1, 1 Peter, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, you who, what, by God's power are being guarded through faith. Peter was saying these things from experience, and he was giving to his brothers and sisters the most heartfelt encouragement, you are being kept. by God's power. Believe me, I know it. I've lived it, and I'm still living it. You know, isn't it interesting what Peter learned? He insisted to Jesus, even if they all fall away, I will never deny you, Jesus. But he learned the true gospel, the reality, that it's Jesus saying to us, even if you fall away, I will never deny you. I will restore you and I will call you back to myself. I will pursue you and you will return to me. Even if you fail to pray, I am praying for you day and night. This is our only hope, church. Our hope is in our savior who saves us and keeps us. And if he doesn't, none of us would be anywhere. Now as I think about this passage, I can't help but wonder if there are some of us here who are like Peter, in that you have such a genuine love for Christ, and you really sincerely desire to honor Him with your life. You've been born again by the Spirit of God, and you've just had some wonderful days as a Christian, passionate for Christ. But perhaps you fell into something in your past, some great sin that you fell into, some shameful memory of falling down hard, And you wish with all your heart that if you can't erase the thing from happening, that at least you could say that it was in your distant past before you became a Christian. It was before Christ that I did this. Then you could chalk it up to ignorance and just spiritual blindness. But the thing that pains your heart the most and haunts you to this day is that the moment of serious fall or many moments was while you were still a very much devoted disciple of Jesus and maybe to this day this is what's shaking you up and the devil is very much capitalizing on it to plague you with guilt and shame as you wonder to yourself, how could I do such a thing as a believer? It's because your faith is weak and it will always be weak in and of yourself. You don't have the strength within yourself to stay faithful. Look, the Christian life is not a race to find out how godly you are independent of the daily mercy of God that is poured out to you through Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a race of faith, a spiritual fight to trust in the promises of God, to entrust yourself into the grace of Jesus Christ who is able and willing to forgive you and restore you no matter how hard you have fallen. Because He has removed your transgressions as far as east is from the west. And because of what He has done, He remembers your sins no more. The fight of faith is a fight to trust that and to grow in greater trust of that. And that is where power comes from, to walk in holiness. So look, if any of you are suffering from a guilty conscience, don't be afraid. Christ has prayed for you. He is still praying for you that your faith may not fail. When Satan tempts you to despair and tells you, just sears it into your heart of the guilt within. Look upward, not inward, look upward and see Him there who made an end to all of your sin. Christ is up there praying for you, that your faith may not fail. And clearly it hasn't, because you're still here seeking Him, still pursuing Him, by the power of His Spirit at work in you. And His Spirit has recorded these words for your comfort, having written down even the horrific sins of Simon Peter and company, mind you, while they were still very much passionate followers of Jesus. But He has recorded this for you to reassure you of the greatness of the love of Christ that abounds, that is greater than the depths of your sin. And though Satan still demands to have you and to sift you like weed and tear you apart, your Savior promises to never give you up. This is what empowers faith and holiness. Our only strength is trusting in the grace and promise of God. His grace draws us near to Him, and His grace is what keeps us near to Him. And so Christian, let the gospel heal you of a guilty conscience. Let His mercy restore you and renew you for another day. And empower you to serve Him and His people with full enthusiasm and with a clear conscience washed clean by His blood just as Simon Peter received. You know, a broken-hearted Christian makes the best of ministers and servants. Because they will serve God humbly, serve his people humbly. They will be tender-hearted toward others and so accurately convey the spirit and heart of Christ and the gospel. If you're hearing you're not a Christian, this is salvation in Jesus. Forgiveness of sins. The removal of all of your transgressions as far as east is from the west. This is not some man-made commitment that you are to make and then to figure out how you're going to live this upright moral life. But it is repentance and faith in Jesus, entrusting your entire self, your present, your past, your future, and your eternity into His hands. But look here how trustworthy are His hands. The full forgiveness of sins found only in Him. And so come to Him and be cleansed by Him. And church, let this remind us that our only power in life and death is receiving by faith the power of Christ and His unfailing grip on us. He will always be the faithful one. And even if we are faithless, He is faithful. And there's a very good reason why we sing great is thy faithfulness, not great is my faithfulness. And so may this essential gospel truth guide us and order our lives toward truly Christ-centered living. And so keep us humble and thankful for the mighty Savior we have in Jesus. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and Father, thank you so much for the gospel. Thank you for Jesus Christ, your Son. Thank you that you see and you know our frame, that we are dust. You see all of our weaknesses, but you do not despise us for them. But you have sent us a savior to not only call us to himself, but to walk with us, to be in us by his spirit. Oh Lord, We confess that we believe the gospel, but we still need your help daily by your spirit to help our unbelief. But as we now prepare to take the Lord's Supper, would you remind us by the bread and the cup and reaffirm into our hearts as we receive them by faith. that Christ continues to feed us daily, that He continues by His power and by His will and promise to renew His covenant love to us. O Lord, help us to teach us to receive and to receive it all from you, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.