Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Satan desires failure… (v.31)

…and failure will come.

(v.32)

But Jesus knows (v.32)

and Jesus prays (v.32)

…so be restored and carry on.

(v.32 & Jn.

21:15-18)

Alright, so tonight we are sort of in one passage, and sorta not.

I’ll show you what I mean, go ahead and open your bible to Luke 22.

As you’re turning there, let me recap for you what I said about our time in Luke last Thursday.

If you’ll remember, I told you that we are entering the final chapters…and by extension…the final days of Christ’s life.

And this chapter, puts us at the beginning of the end.

Right away, we see the plot to kill Jesus take shape…we see in verse 3 that Satan is having his way with Judas (don’t worry, we’ll get more on Satan in just a minute)..but anyways…we see the plot to kill Jesus.

And then we see Jesus’ last meal…specifically the passover meal.

In this, he has a lot to say to his disciples and some final things to implement…like communion.

And one of the things that he says at this time…relates to Peter..and by extension, us.

And that’s what we are focusing on tonight really…is the apostle Peter…and what happens to him the night of Jesus’ arrest…and after the resurrection.

Tonight we are looking at Peter because Jesus’ interaction not only teaches us a lot about Jesus (which was the whole goal of this series if you remember) but it also teaches us about what happens…and what is going on…when we fail.

Meaning…when we fail Christ.

When we don’t live up to what we should do.

When we sin…

And in fact…what we see tonight…is that for those of us who fail Christ (and we all do at times)…there is hope.

And that’s the title of tonight’s message...

Title Slide: Hope for the failure

Meaning…there is hope to be found for us in our failures and sins against Christ.

And like I said…that hope if very evident in the story of Peter on the night of Jesus’ arrest.

So let’s look at it together.

So Jesus is at the Last supper…and Jesus at some point turns to Peter (also called Simon) and says this.

So let me give you the first point tonight and then tell you why it applies to you and not just Peter.

The first point is..

Satan desires failure… (v.31)

And when I say that he desires failure…I mean that he desires our failure as disciples.

He wants to see all those that follow Christ fail in doing so…therefore meddling in our lives, creating hopelessness, sin, and lack of faith.

And it would be easy to argue against me reading this passage and say “Cody, how do we know that this is not just towards Peter…like…this sounds like a specific instance.”

And to that I say Yes....and No. Let me show you…if you have the ESV translation you’re going to notice a little number next to the word “you” in verse 31.

That number is referencing one of the footnotes down below, and if you look at that footnote below, you’re going to notice that it says something.

It says… “the Greek word for you, is plural”.

The best way to think about it…is the text doesn’t mean you…it’s means ya’ll.

So the text actually reads like this...

“Simon, simon, behold Satan demanded to have all of you, that he might sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for YOU.”

So what this teaches us…is that Satan is demanding…to God…that disciples of Christ be handed over to him…so that he can sift them like wheat.

And what does sifting like wheat mean??

It means that Satan wants to sift them…filter them…to show that they are like chaff…that is the useless part of the wheat, the not edible part…rather than the healthy part of wheat.

By extension…we know that this is what Satan does…to many followers of God.

In fact, this is just like when Satan comes to God in the first chapter of Job and desires to tempt Job to reveal that he doesn’t actually love God…he just loves being blessed by God.

So…yes…this is revealing that Satan desires failure for the followers of God.

And your application point to this is to acknowledge that this is very real in our lives.

That we are at war.

That Satan wants to sift people to reveal their unbelief and their true intentions and thoughts of God.

He would love for us to fail…and by failure we mean sin.

He would love for us to be sifted to show a lack of faith rather than the presence of faith...

And what we need to acknowledge is that sometimes...

…and failure will come.

(v.32)

Satan desires failure…and sometimes failure will come.

Or at least momentary failure will come…look at what Jesus says to Peter at the end of verse 32.

He says “when you have turned again”…what is this saying?

It’s saying…that Jesus is telling Peter that he’s going to fail…but he’s going to be restored.

We’ll get to that second part in a few minutes…but focus on the first part.

Jesus acknowledges that Peter will fail (at least temporarily)…Jesus acknowledges that Peter is going to come up short.

So we to…must we acknowledge that we fail…and that failure will come.

Now…that doesn’t justify it…that doesn’t allow you to say “that’s just who I am, man”…I’m gonna fail and that’s okay…by no means…because sin is sin.

However, it does mean that failure is a part of the Christian walk.

That when it happens…it’s expected but not desired.

When it happens, it’s not surprising but it should still be convicting.

So so far…we are feeling not so great right.

In this text…you’ve been set up for battle and failure.

You’ve been told…that Satan desires failure…and in some ways he’s going to get it out of you.

BUT…if you’ll remember last week…there was this amazing moment in the text where we talked about the amazing strength that Christ provides…and we see the same thing here…and here’s where the amazing part comes…it comes in two part.

The first one is...

But Jesus knows (v.32)

Look back at verse 31 and 32 and pick out the things that Jesus is saying he knows.

Jesus says he knows that Satan had demanded to have the disciples...

Jesus says that he knows Peter will fail because he states that he knows that Peter will turn back again.

So our point of encouragement from this is not only should you know that failure is going to come…that you should not be surprised by it…but also that Jesus knows that it’s going to come.

When you fail him…when you give into sin…when you look at what you shouldn’t, say what you shouldn’t, do what you shouldn’t…when you straight up become a failure in your walk with Christ...

He knows.

And it’s not that it’s this “he knows when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” thing…it’s that he knows…as in he’s not surprised.

He’s not caught off guard.

In fact…he knew before you did.

And not only does he know that you’re going to fail…and when you’re going to fail…he knows what is going to happen afterwards…he knows how the story ends....he knows those who are going to persevere and those who won’t.

Loved ones…there is no shame found in Christ because he knows all of the things you have to be ashamed of.

How many of you have been over to my house?

How many of you know my dog Doxie?

So…when we’ve been gone and we come home…and Doxie does something wrong..what does she do?

She sorta cowers…and hides…and keeps her face down…why?

Because she’s ashamed, afraid, and she doesn’t want me to know exactly what she did and interact with her based on that...

And when I come home…and she’s done something wrong…sometimes I am surprised…and I get angry or upset, and I express that to her.

But what if…what if…before I ever bought her in 2020…before we went to the farm to pick her up…I had a list of everything that she had done and will do wrong…I had a list that had the exact sin, time, and place of every single one in her life...

I was fully aware of them, knew all of them and the depth of their extent…and chose to buy her anyways, despite knowing all those things.

How much would that change how I approach her…and how much would the way I approach her in her failures change how she approaches me when she does fail??

Guys…Christ already knows your sins…past and present.

Christ already knows how you’re going to fail him...And he bought you anyways.

So be encouraged.

Satan seeks for you to fail, and failure will come…but thank God that Jesus already knows…and

and Jesus prays (v.32)

So last week we talked about the beauty of being able to pray to Jesus for strength and that he will provide this strength.

But this week…we turn it around…and we understand that not only does Jesus know every failure we are to make…but he actively prays for his disciples that they should be strengthened.

You can see it right there in verse 32.