#180  Lu. 22:31-34  SIMON PETER TO DENY JESUS

Introduction:
	
    In our text today Jesus gives the Apostle Peter some shocking
news.  Jesus told Peter that before the night was over he would
deny that he was ever acquainted with Jesus.  He will say, in
effect, "I never met the man.  I don't know Him from Adam." Can
you imagine the shock that this was to the Apostle Peter?

I.  Filling in the gaps

	Luke does not give us the full story.  Let us back up a
little bit and get some more information.  I will not take the
time to get all of the details, but let us at least fill in a few
of the blanks.
	While Jesus and His disciples were eating the Passover
Supper, Jesus had announced that one of the twelve apostles would
betray Him.  One of His own apostles would lead the chief priests
and elders to a place where they could arrest Jesus away from the
great crowds of people.  The Jews were afraid to touch Him as
long as the multitudes were nearby.  Jesus was still popular with
the great crowds of common people.
    This was like a bombshell.  It had disturbed the disciples no
end.  Then while they were still eating the Passover Supper Jesus
had identified Judas Iscariot as the one who would betray Him.
Not all of the apostles caught that bit of information, but those
seated close to Jesus did.  Judas did and he left the supper
table to go on his mission of betrayal.
	After the Passover Supper Jesus instituted a new religious
supper.  He instituted the Lord's Supper.  Then they all sang a
hymn and left to go to the Mt. of Olives.  At some point of time
Jesus forewarned the Apostle Peter that he would forsake Him
saying, "You will even deny that you ever knew me."
	However, the Apostle Peter was not the only one whom Jesus
said would forsake Him that night.  Jesus told them that they
would all forsake Him that very night.  Judging from the other
gospel writers, the reason that Luke focuses his attention
exclusively on the Apostle Peter is that it was Peter who spoke
up and said that he would never forsake Jesus.  Can you feature
that?  Jesus had hardly gotten it out of His mouth saying that
they would all forsake Him that night when the Apostle Peter
says, "Now Lord, that's not so.  I will never forsake you.  All
these other fellows may forsake you, but I never will."
	So Luke just ignored the other fellows focused his attention
entirely on the Apostle Peter.  Even our Lord focused His
attention chiefly on the Apostle Peter.

II.  The Lord's focus on Simon Peter

    V. 31, "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon..."  Perhaps you are
aware that Simon is his real name.  Jesus had given him the name
"Peter," but Simon is his real name.
	But note that Jesus did not merely address him by his real
name, but He repeated that name.  He said, "Simon, Simon..." You
can almost sense the deep sympathy which Jesus had for this man.
Peter simply did not know what great pressures he would face
before that night was over.  Jesus knew and Jesus felt sorry for
him.  He felt deeply for him.
	Now get this.  There was Jesus headed for the cross where He
would be crucified.  He would suffer untold agony, and yet at
this point Jesus He seems to be more concerned about the
suffering which the Apostle Peter would go through than that
which He would suffer.
    Jesus felt for Simon Peter, but never-the-less, He corrected
him.  (V. 31), "...  behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat."  You are aware that in order to sift
the kernel of wheat from the husk, the grain is first crushed.
The crushing of the grain would break the husk loose from the
kernel.  Then the wheat would be sifted so as to separate the
husk from the kernel.  The sifting would usually be done by
crushing the grain so as to break the husk loose from the kernel.
Then it would be poured out in a breeze.  If a breeze was not
blowing, a servant would fan and make a breeze.  The kernels
would fall into a container and the husk would blow away in the
breeze.  If only a small amount of grain was to be sifted, the
crushed grain would be placed in a sieve and shook.  The kernels
would fall through the sieve and the husk would be left.
	Jesus said to Peter, "This is what Satan wants to do to you.
Satan wants to sift you as wheat.  He wants to crush you to
pieces.  He wants to shake you up.  He wants to blow you away.
He wants to do you in.  He wants to wipe you out.  He want finish
you off."  That is what Satan wanted to do to the Apostle Peter.
That is what Satan wanted to do --- not only to the apostle
Peter, but to all of the Apostles.  That is what Satan wants to
do to all Christians.

III.  The Lord's help for Simon Peter

	Jesus knew the kind of devastating blow that Satan would deal
to Simon Peter and to all of His disciples before His trial and
crucifixion was over.  He knew that God the Father would allow
Satan to strike them with this devastating blow.  He knew that
God would not shield them from it.  But Jesus did reassure them
that God would not desert them.  The disciples would forsake
Jesus, but Jesus would never forsake them.  V.  32, "But I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not..." Jesus was saying to
him, "Satan is, indeed, going to crush you.  He is going to shake
you up.  But He is not going destroy you.  He is not going to
defeat you.  I won't allow it.  I won't stand for it.  I have
already prayed for you.  God is going to see you through."

IV.  The challenge for Peter to help other Christian brethren

    (V. 32), "...and when thou art converted..." During the trial
Simon Peter would, indeed, desert the Lord.  He would, indeed,
deny that he knows the Lord.  But after the crucifixion is over
and after the women would bring the news that Jesus is risen from
the grave, the Apostle Peter would be the first to the grave
side.  From that time forward Peter would indeed be a stalwart
soldier for the Lord.  The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had
prayed for him and God the Heavenly Father would answer that
prayer.  The Apostle Peter would be victorious in his trials.  He
would have the strength from the Lord to be faithful to the Lord.
The name "Peter" which the Lord, Himself, had given him means
"rock" and Simon Peter would be as strong as a rock for the Lord.
He would be strong because the Lord had prayed for him.
	Listen!  We have prayer requests in our services here at
Pleasant Hill.  We pray for one another.  We pray for everybody
whose name is presented to us and that is good.  It is good for
us to pray for one another and for other people.  I like to know
that people are praying for me.  But there is nobody in the world
I would rather have praying for me than the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we are going to be able to remain faithful to the Lord even
unto our death we must have to have strength that is greater than
our own.  We must strength from God above.
	(V. 32), "...strengthen thy brethren."  Once Peter was
strengthened and became faithful again to the Lord, the Lord then
wanted the Apostle Peter to strengthen the brethren.  The other
brethren were also weak.  They, too, needed help and
encouragement in serving the Lord.  The Lord could use Simon
Peter to strengthen the brethren.  Peter would be able to say to
them, "Listen, I know how you feel.  I have been there.  But the
Lord can help you.  He helped me and He will help you.  The Lord
would have you to re-dedicate yourself to Him.  I did and He
welcomed me.  He will welcome you, too."

V.  Peter's insistence that he would never forsake the Lord

    V. 33, "And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with
thee, both into prison, and to death."  Even after the Lord told
Peter that he would deny Him, Peter insisted that he would never
forsake the Lord.  He declared that he was ready to suffer with
the Lord.  He would go to prison before he would forsake the
Lord.  He would go to his death before he would forsake the Lord.
At least that is what he said, and that is what he meant.  At
least he meant it at that time.  Peter really did not know what
he was talking about.  He just did not know what he would do
under certain circumstances.  But he did know that he meant what
he said at the time he said it.  At that time he was fully
confident that he would never forsake the Lord.
	We ought to be able to understand.  Listen, we say that we
will never forsake the Lord, and we mean it.  We see others stop
going church, stop reading their Bibles, stop giving to the
church, stop witnessing to the lost and we say, "I'll never do
that.  I'll never forsake the Lord."  We just don't know.  It is
good that we can say that we will never forsake Him and mean it.
It is good that at this time we fully intend to be loyal to the
Lord to our death.  But if we depend on our own strength, as it
appears that is what the Apostle Peter was doing at that time, we
will fail.  We will fail just like he did.  We can be faithful to
death only if we depend on the strength of God.  I'll tell you it
is good to have others praying for you and it would be even
better to have the Lord Jesus Christ Himself praying for you.
	But notice what the Lord said to Peter.  V. 34, "And he said,
I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that
thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."  Jesus said that
Peter's denial would come before the cock would crow.  That is,
Peter would deny Jesus three times before the break of day.

VI.  Some things I would point out to you

	There are some things I would like to point out to you right
here.  First of all I want to point out the unworthiness of the
best of Christians.  I think that we would not want to classify
ourselves as being better Christians that the eleven apostles.
We would not say that we are better than Peter and Andrew, James
and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, James the
Son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus or Lebbeus and Simon the Caananite.
Yet all eleven of these men were weak in the flesh.  They all
forsook the Lord in the night when He needed them the most.  They
all proved to be unworthy.  These were the very best of
Christians and yet they were unworthy in the flesh.  We, too, are
most certainly unworthy.  We are unworthy of the Lord's love, but
He loves us anyway.
	Yet let me point out to you the worthiness of the gospel
message in spite of the unworthiness of the men who would preach
it.  God had made the plan before the foundation of the world
that His Son, Jesus Christ, would be born in human flesh, and
that He would go to the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of men.
Down through the years God had made the promise that the Christ
would come and provide redemption for sinful men.  Through the
prophets of old, God had repeated that promise down through the
years.  God was faithful to keep His promise.  The gospel message
which we unworthy Christians preach to the world is worthy of
being heard and worthy of being believed.  The Apostle Paul said,
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus is come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief."
	Let me also point out to you the faithfulness of the Lord.
He is faithful to save the lost who call on Him.  He is faithful
to strengthen the Christian who is weak.  He is faithful to
receive the Christian who turns back to Him.

Conclusion:

	Let me ask you this question:  Are you saved or unsaved?  If
you are not saved, then I want to invite you to call upon Jesus
Christ right now and get saved.  It is dangerous to just keep on
going down the road toward hell.  The only wise thing to do is to
get saved today while you know there is still time.
	If you are saved, I want to call upon you to give yourself in
faithful service to the Lord.  I know that you cannot do it in
your own strength, but you can do it by the strength from the
Lord.
	If you are saved and you wish to unite with this church then
we invite you to come and present yourself for membership.