Sermon Tone Analysis

October 31, 1517 is a very important day in Protestant history.

This is the day that Martian Luther nailed the 95 Thesis on the church door in Witenburg, Germany.

All Luther wanted to do was reform the Catholic Church but the Church leaders found his message on Salvation through, Faith alone in Christ alone through the Authority of the Scripture alone to be offensive.

So they asked him in essence to deny his faith or be labeled a heretic.

This must have been a very discouraging trial but Luther fought hard and opened the door to others being strengthened by his resolve.

Luther had a hard fight ahead of him and I am sure there where many times he became discouraged and wondered is this worth the fight.

Many times we face difficult struggles in our lives and become very discouraged, even at times we even fail in our walk with the Lord.

So how do we get through our day to day with so much coming at us that can cause us to walk away from our faith?

What do we do when we fail?

We are going to look at this this morning in our text in Luke.

Have you ever been discouraged in your life or been in a situation where it feels as though your faith is being tested and maybe you have failed the test?

It is very easy in this world to become discouraged.

Even as a Christian it is easy for our faith to be shaken.

So when our faith is shaken why is it shaken, how do we walk through it and more importantly where is Jesus in all of this?

We will look at these questions this morning as we look at The Perseverance of the Faithful.

The Perseverance of the Faithful.

We will see this in Luke 22:31-34, Luke 22:31-34.

As we turn to Luke 22:31-34 we are in the middle of Luke's account of the upper room discourse.

The apostles have just celebrated the passover with Jesus and they have heard Jesus predict that He will soon be betrayed and two weeks ago we saw how the apostles became very proud and began arguing with one another in reference to which one of them was the greatest.

Jesus taught them a very important lesson on their privilege is not in what they know or how great they think they are but it is actually in their service to Jesus and the Father.

Faithful service to Jesus will lead to honor and reward in the life to come.

This morning Jesus provides a strong warning to one of His closest apostles, Peter.

This is the prediction of Peter's denial of Jesus and this event is very specific to Peter but oh how we can put ourselves in this poor mans shoes or sandals.

Jesus is teaching Peter and we can even learn a valuable lesson here on perseverance.

Let's go ahead and look at Luke 22:31-34

As we first look at verse 34 we see Jesus calling out, "Simon, Simon."

This should be very striking to anyone of us here.

Especially if you have paid close attention to my intro about this account being specific to Peter.

Who is this Simon and why is Jesus calling attention to him.

Simon and Peter are the same person.

Simon is his given name by his parents on the day he was circumcised.

Peter is the name Jesus gave Simon when Simon confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Names should have meaning and Peter in the original Greek means rock.

Peter is a man with very strong character and that is why he is given this name by Jesus.

So why does Jesus now revert back to Peter's given name.

Simple, it is a sign of the seriousness of what Jesus is about to tell Simon, or Peter.

It is the equivalent of when you are having a serious discussing with your children or wife or close friends you call them by the full given name.

That is what Jesus is doing here.

So Jesus calls for Simon's attention and then He tells Simon, "behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;" Satan once again is highlighted by Luke.

We saw Satan's activity earlier in this chapter in verse 3,

Satan was active in using Judas in Betraying Jesus and now we see Satan once again and this time Satan has sought out permission to sift the apostles.

There is a powerful statement here in this verse it is very reminiscent of the book of Job.

Let me explain something about Satan.

He has limited control of the events that happen in anyone's life.

Yes, he is called the prince of the power of the air but his control of this world is limited.

He can not act in anyone's life without first receiving permission from God to do so.

Just like in Job we find this,

So as we see Satan was seeking people to go after and he could do nothing without God giving him permission and even here we see God limits Satan's activity in the life of Job.

The reason Satan went after Job was to test Job's faith and to turn Job away from God. Satan understood God blessed Job and Satan needed God's permission to take everything away from Job so Job's faith would be shaken and by shaking Job's faith Satan believed Job would turn on God.

Satan has power over the earth but it is limited and as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8

This is exactly what he does this is what Satan did to Job and this is what Satan does to the apostles and this is what Satan does to believers today.

He is seeking out those who have been called by God to walk after him to shake their faith.

Satan is allowed by God as a means of Filtration.

Does Satan have ultimate power in the lives of people?

What is the function of Satan working in the lives of believers?

Filtration

I want us to look at this, "sift you like wheat."

The "you" here is plural.

Satan did not just ask to sift Simon, he asked to sift them all.

The idea here of sifting wheat is to filter the wheat, sifting is a way of getting the wheat out of the husk.

George Washington one day while serving as president of the United States sat thinking about the best way to remove the wheat from the husk of the wheat he grew on his plantation.

See George Washington for those of you who don't know was an avid farmer and truly enjoyed farming.

Wheat was one of his crops and he not only wanted a faster way to harvest it he also wanted a safer way to harvest it so that it was not out in the elements.

So he came up with the sixteen sided barn.

Basically it is a round barn.

He would have the wheat placed on these slats here and bring horses up get them to trot on the wheat for about 45 and when the 45 minutes were up the bottom part of the barn would be filled with the heavy grain that was suitable for us.

The barn was used as a filtration system for the wheat and the horses were utilized to very forcibly remove the wheat from the husk.

That is what Satan has asked to do with the apostles.

He wants to forcibly shake them till they fall apart.

This is a very vivid picture of what Satan asked for permission to do.

It is a way of filtering the apostles.

What is interesting about this is the fact that he needs permission to shake the faith of the believer, he needs permission to try to cause the believer to fall.

That is exactly what he is doing and he can't just do it on his own and he wants to do this to all the apostles because he wants them to be discouraged in their service of the Lord.

Satan has already tried to tempt Jesus so now Satan is going to go after Jesus' closest followers and he is going to do this to deter them from following to break their spirit.

Notice though who does Jesus direct this statement to.

It is directed at Simon, and now He uses the plural you why does He do this?

Why didn't He address all the apostles if Satan has asked permission to sift all the apostles like wheat?

Because Simon is the spokesman for the group.

Of all the apostles Simon is the one who has been outspoken and has taken the lead in many areas.

Even though Satan wants permission to take out all the apostles as we are going to see very soon Satan is more concerned with dealing with Simon personally than with the other apostles because Simon is the leader.

In a few hours all of the apostles will deny Jesus but Peter's denial will hit him a little harder.

Satan is doing this on purpose because he is working to filter the apostles, he is giving them a beating so to speak.

Now this isn't to say what doesn't kill us makes us stronger that isn't it at all.

Satan is allowed to tear down the apostles for God's sake because, just like Job was strengthened through what Satan did to him so will Peter and the apostles be strengthened.

They will learn what failure looks like in their own lives from this filtering and they will see the forgiveness of the Lord in this filtering as well.

Do you ever see bad situations in your life as a means of being filtered?

Why or why not?

Can seeing bad situations as filtration help you through it?

We will first look at the forgiveness of the Lord.

Forgiveness

Look with me at verse 32 Jesus continues, "but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

Jesus comes right out and tells Simon, Satan has asked permission to shake your faith but I have prayed for you, and this 'you' here is singular this is specific for Simon because Simon is the rock and the leader of the group if he is shaken and falls they all are shaken and fall.

So Jesus is interceding for Simon specifically here because they denial Simon demonstrates in just a few hours cuts him much deeper than the others.

Jesus doesn't pray that Satan will leave Simon alone.

Simon needs to go through this shaking and it has to be a violent shaking.

What Jesus does pray for is "that his faith may not fail."

When Satan or one of his minions are attacking when it feels like all hope is lost it can be devastating, it can shake you to the core.

One example for believers can be when you are with someone and the opportunity avails itself to share the gospel and instead you come up with excuses not to.

Then afterward what do you do, "Oh man I can't believe I did that, God opened a door and I just ran away.

Stupid, stupid, stupid."