“It’s been a real wake-up call!” We sometimes hear this said after a surprising defeat in basketball, after a shocking downturn on Wall Street, or after a respected leader makes some startling disclosure. Wake-up calls tend to catch us off-guard, often shake us up, and always demand our attention.
In
I. Satan Is Our Adversary
While Matthew and Mark also speak of Jesus’ predicting Peter’s denial, Luke alone mentions Satan’s part in it. With compassion and care the night before His crucifixion Jesus told His disciples, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” Jesus is speaking directly to Peter, but the pronoun “you” is plural in the original text which tells us that Jesus is referring to all of His disciples. From those early believers, through the centuries, and to this very day Satan remains our adversary.
Some twenty-five years ago, in the mid-70s, I visited my sister and brother-in-law who were then living in California. At the time my brother-in-law, Glenn, was serving in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in San Bernardino. One night we enjoyed a long conversation, and Glenn talked about how the United States government spends considerable time and money to train its military officers to recognize the tactics of our nation’s enemies. He said that to be successful in warfare you must know your enemy well. You must know his weapons. You must know how, when, and where he uses those weapons. This kind of data provides a critical edge in preparedness and for readiness to do battle.
As Christians, we wage war each day against our spiritual enemy. Although our Lord has defeated this enemy on Calvary’s cross, Satan still wreaks havoc in our lives. He knows that his time is short. He knows that one day, perhaps soon, he will be fully and finally destroyed. He knows that he is a defeated foe. But in these days Satan cunningly executes his evil in order to tempt us and trap us in sin.
He wants us to deny and dishonor the Lord. He is the father of lies. He is the master of deceit, and he will never hold a cease-fire in his mission to destroy us. Today, this adversary has made prisoners-of-war of millions of men and women and young people. There are millions of Americans who are lost, living without hope and dying without the Lord. All the while Satan is trying to deceive, delude, and destroy Christian believers, and derail the work of Christ’s church.
Jesus told His disciples that night in the Upper Room, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” In a kind of spiritual and emotional threshing, the adversary wanted nothing less than to crush, grind, and scatter Jesus’ disciples, and particularly Peter, their leader. Satan came to Jesus, perhaps boasting that Peter wasn’t a rock, but a disciple of straw — all talk, no walk, little more than hot air. Satan likely boasted that he could easily blow Peter away, just like chaff when the wind separates it from the grain at threshing time.
James Montgomery Boice, commenting on this text, imagines Jesus’ response to Satan, saying that there was indeed a great deal of chaff in Peter, but Satan was wrong in thinking that Peter was only chaff. Boice imagines that our Lord may have said, “My grain is in Peter. Consequently, I will let you blow on him, but when you are done all you will have succeeded in doing is blowing away some of the chaff. Peter will be stronger than before” (The Gospel of John, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981, p. 88).
In verse 31 the text may be literally translated, “Satan has begged earnestly to sift you all like wheat.” We know that the adversary and his troops tempt and trap people in sin continually. However, at least occasionally, Satan slithers before the Lord to make his case to tempt, test, and try some of God’s most faithful followers. That is what this ancient enemy did several millennia ago when he sought permission to bring suffering on God’s servant Job (
However, whether the subject of testing is Job, Peter, or any other disciple, it is always the Lord who sets the terms and the boundaries under which such testing takes place. Satan may beg and badger, but God is sovereign and supreme. Satan may whine and wheedle, but God is merciful and mighty. God is immeasurably wiser and infinitely stronger than Satan. God has the final word. Yes, the Lord may allow us to endure various trials and testings which come to us from the adversary. But God has a greater purpose in mind. These tests come so that we will learn to lean on the Lord.
Recently an Ameritech lineman was working high up on the telephone pole in our neighbor’s backyard. Have you ever watched a lineman working high on a pole? In order to climb such a pole, a workman must lean back on the broad safety belt that surrounds him and the pole. He needs to lean back so that his spikes will press into the wood and he’ll not slip. Only then can a lineman climb and perform his job.
It is the same way spiritually speaking. We cannot climb higher in the Christian life if we are not learning to lean on Jesus. If we do not learn to lean, we will falter and fall into the adversary’s traps. If we do not learn to lean, we will slip and get splintered-up. God sometimes lets us endure struggles and adversity. But He does this so that we will learn to lean on His Son and not on ourselves alone. This was the case with Peter and it is the same way with each of us today.
II. Sin Brings Adversity
The first truth we find in
All of us can see the so-called “big” sins around us, but many of us have a harder time seeing the “smaller” sins within us. Why is this the case? Perhaps part of our fallen nature is our tendency to shrug off our personal responsibility. “Denial” isn’t just a river in Egypt! Have we become like the culture around us? Have we become largely immune to accepting blame and feeling shame? Nell Plantinga has said, “We are tempted to see ourselves not as sinners, but as victims; not as fallen, but as frustrated; not as wrong, but as misunderstood. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (Beyond Doubt, Grand Rapids: Bible Way, 1980, p. 53).
Few of us are tempted and trapped by the so-called “big” sins that we see on the evening news. But all of us easily falter and fall to many so-called “small” sins, often over and over and over again. Over-working. Over-worrying. Over-spending. Over-eating. Over-hearing. Over-exaggerating. These and so many other subtle, small sins, unconfessed and unrepented, will leave us feeling overwhelmed! All of us will do well to remember the promise of
Sin brings adversity, and much of the adversity in our lives is directly due to our unconfessed, unrepented sins. The cumulative toll of our so-called “small” sins day after day will detour our faith journeys, derail our service for Christ, and diminish the joy and strength in our lives. Is there any wonder that in our most honest, introspective moments we often ask ourselves, “Why aren’t I growing in my walk with the Lord?”
Even Peter, the acknowledged leader of the Twelve, was struggling with several subtle sins in his life. They were small sins which still brought him a great deal of adversity. As we have noted, it’s easier to see these sins in Peter’s life and harder to admit them in our own. But this element of Peter’s story reminds us that If he can fall, so can we. If bold Peter denied Jesus, then each of us is at risk of doing the same.
What were some of those steps in that downward path? Overconfidence was a major one, which we will say more about in a moment. But there was also a failure to pray. Prayerlessness, of course, leads to carelessness. Perhaps you will recall that Jesus warned His disciples in the Garden, in
While this response speaks volumes about Peter’s professed loyalty and love for the Master, it also shouts the single word “overconfident.” Or, as we sometimes hear a boisterous crowd chant to a highly-ranked, but losing, team at the end of an exciting college basketball game: “Over-rated, over-rated.”
No doubt Simon Peter had overrated his abilities. He was sure that no matter what happened, no matter what anybody else did, he would be true to Jesus. On that night in the Upper Room, just hours before Jesus was arrested, in
Peter believed in himself. But in his overconfidence, he over-rated himself. In very un-rock-like fashion, Peter cowered and crumbled. Big, brave Peter was so frightened that he would not even admit to a young servant girl that he had been with Jesus. Minutes later, Peter denied Jesus a second time. Finally, perhaps an hour later, someone else claimed that Peter was a friend of Jesus, and Peter replied with swearing and curses, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Then came the “cock-a-doodle-doo.” This was Peter’s wake-up call. In
Do you know how Peter felt? Have you ever believed in yourself and promised that you would do the right thing, only to find yourself sad and sorrowful at your failure? Have you ever started out so sure of yourself, but then you mess up, and you mess up again, and then again, perhaps without even realizing what you are doing! You or I would go right on blowing it without knowing it, except by God’s grace, we hear that wake-up call. By God’s grace that harsh, jaw-dropping, eye-opening moment comes as a “‘cock-a-doodle-doo” jars us back to our senses.
Our “cock-a-doodle-doos,” generally speaking, aren’t rooster calls. Instead they may be any number of voices that catch our attention — the voice of a family member or friend, a co-worker or a fellow believer. It may not be a sound at all, just a dawning realization of personal sin — to have denied and dishonored the Lord, to have hurt someone deeply, to have brought harm to a relationship. At such times it is right to feel shame. It is right to accept the blame.
Our “cock-a-doodle-doo” encounters are powerful evidences of God’s mercy because they beckon us back to Himself. They call us to learn and lean once more on His Son. Those are the times in our lives that we can truly sense how Peter must have felt. In those encounters, like Peter, we feel that Jesus is gazing directly at us. Awakening, we may wonder how much He knows. Alarmed, we suddenly realize that He knows everything. Alert, we begin to realize just how far we have fallen. Appalled, we cry out to the Lord, confessing and repenting of our sin, seeking His forgiveness.
III. Christ Is Our Advocate
At such times when I’ve realized that I’ve failed the Lord, when I’ve been jarred awake and come to my senses, I find myself repentant and sorry for my sin. At such times it is right to weep as Peter did. How is it with you? If you sense Jesus looking at you and it breaks your heart that you failed Him, you need to know something else. Jesus is praying for you. This is the third truth in our text: Christ is our Advocate.
Remember, Jesus did not Just warn Peter of the adversary. He did not simply predict the adversity Peter would endure. Our Lord did, and He does, far, far more. He prayed on Peter’s behalf, and He prays on our behalf as well. We read in
That is the beginning point of the Christian life. If you are someone who has yet to begin that journey, I encourage you to do so this morning. In fact, if you are sensing a wake-up call from God as we study the Word, you can pray in your heart and mind a prayer like this: “Dear God, I know that I have sinned. I can relate to Peter. I, too, can be bole and bull-headed. I confess my pride and those “small” sins. Forgive me. I truly want Your Son, Jesus, in my life. Right now, as best I know how, I ask Him to be my Savior. I ask You, Lord Jesus, to change me from the inside out. I yield to You my whole being — mind, heart, body; my family, work, studies — everything I give to You. I want You to be Lord of my life. I want to trust and follow You here and now. Amen.”
A sinner’s prayer is important. But when we have accepted Christ, we need to know about the Saviors’ prayer on our behalf. All of us, I’m sure, pray many prayers. These prayers are vital so that God may work in and through us, to bring about His will. Our prayers matter to God and make a difference in the world. But greater still are Christ’s prayers on our behalf. Jesus, in effect, says to each of us, as He did to Peter and the other disciples, “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.” Jesus prayed for Peter, and that prayer made all the difference in Peter’s life.
We know that we have an evil adversary. We know that we face adversity from our sin. But we have the Son of God, the Savior of the world praying for us! Jesus is our Advocate before our Heavenly Father. Therefore, no matter what Satan does, no matter how far we might fall, our faith will not fail completely and God will again make us useful for His purposes.
When we are committed to Christ, when we learn and lean upon Him, He will be faithful to us, though we are so often disloyal to Him, Peter discovered that firsthand.
He fell into Satan’s trap and was unfaithful to Jesus. Even so, Jesus was faithful to Peter, and Peter went on to be a great leader in the early church. It took place just as Jesus said it would, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” Our adversary wants us to crumble under adversity. But he cannot have us, and we will not crumble, as long as Jesus, our Advocate, is praying for us and we are learning to lean on Him.
IV. Serving Others Offers a New Adventure
This truth directs us to a fourth and final point in our text. While Satan is our adversary, sin brings adversity, and Jesus is our Advocate, we discover that serving others offers a new adventure. In verse 32 after Jesus told Peter, “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail,” He continued, “and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Because of Peter’s denials, Jesus could have dismissed Peter from the circle of His closest disciples. He could have judged Peter unfit to serve. But our human way of thinking is not Christ’s way. Sometime after the drama of that dark Friday afternoon and the incredible resurrection reports of a brilliant Easter dawn, the risen Lord came to Peter and recommissioned him for a new, Spirit-filled, and adventure-filled ministry.
We read of this re-commissioning in
What a gracious God and loving Lord we have been invited to serve! As with Peter, Jesus comes to us again and again, a fifth time, a tenth time, a hundredth and thousandth time, if necessary, that we might learn from Him and lean on Him anew. We don’t deserve God’s mercy that comes in those “cock-a-doodle-doo” encounters. We do not deserve another chance, much less new adventures in serving the Lord. But God’s grace says otherwise.
As Charles Swindoll puts it, “The files of heaven are filled with stories of redeemed, refitted renegades and rebels…. When God forgives, He forgets. He is not only willing but pleased to use any vessel — just as long as it is clean today. It may be cracked or chipped. It may be worn, or it may have never been used before. You can count on this — the past ended one second ago. From this point onward, you can be clean, filled with His Spirit, and used in many different ways for His honor” {Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, Portland: Multnomah, 1983, p. 253).
Thanks be to God for this Good News! New adventures and new opportunities to serve Christ await us this week. So marvel at His mercy. Tell of His faithfulness. Share your own story. Strengthen your brothers and sisters. You might begin by saying, “It’s been a real wake-up call.” Awake and alert, what are we waiting for?
