Boastful Peter Part 1 - People Jesus Met Part 40

You know, we're in a series entitled, People Jesus Met, and today we come to one of the most famous conversations that Jesus ever had in the Bible with anybody.

Here it is, Matthew chapter 26, verse 31, Then Jesus told his disciples, This night all of you will fall away from me, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Then Peter said, Lord, even if every other disciple falls away on account of you, I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, I tell you the truth Peter, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. But Peter declared, Even if I have to die with you, Lord, I will never deny you.

Here we have one of the most boastful declarations ever made by any man. And as we all know, it ended with a catastrophic personal failure in Peter's life, a failure that shook Peter to the core and almost caused his faith to collapse. You know, it's been my experience in 61 years of living, 40 of them following the Lord Jesus, that sooner or later in life, as followers of Christ, sooner or later, we all encounter problems, troubles, heartaches, situations that challenge us to the core, that threaten to overwhelm our faith. And this is what we're going to talk about today because today, Jesus is going to tell Peter three important facts about his troubles, which will enable him to endure and get through the problem and survive it in a biblical Christ-like way. And so what we want to do is we want to go back now 2,000 years and see what Jesus said to Peter.

And then we want to bring all of that forward and talk about how does that apply to our problems here in the modern world. Our passage is Luke chapter 22. And remember, here in Luke 22, Jesus is eating the Passover meal, the Seder with his disciples the night before he was betrayed. We call this the Last Supper. And in just a few hours from Luke chapter 22, Peter is going to experience the catastrophic failure that we just talked about. In other words, he's going to deny the Lord three times and then in shame, he's going to slink away and quit the ministry and go back to fishing. But prior to all this happening, look what Jesus tells him. We begin in verse 31, Luke 22. Jesus said, Simon, Simon, this is Peter's Jewish name, Simon, Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat. Jesus says, hey Peter, the devil himself has come to me and asked my permission to do something to you.

Now let's think about that for a moment. Nobody asks permission to act from someone who has less authority than they have. I mean, a colonel doesn't ask for permission to act from a private. A parent doesn't ask a child for permission to act. A CEO doesn't ask a shipping clerk for permission to ask. No, we only ask for permission from someone who has more authority, greater authority, and higher authority than we have. So our question is, who in the universe has more authority and higher authority than the very prince of demons himself?

Well, we know the answer is only Almighty God. My point is the fact that the devil had to ask Jesus for permission to act against Peter is just one more proof that Jesus really is Jehovah God in the flesh exactly the way he claimed to be. And what exactly did Satan ask for permission to do to Peter? Well, Jesus said, Satan has asked my permission, Peter, to sift you like wheat. You say, what does that mean? Well, in the ancient world, farmers would take wheat grain, hard grain, and they would put it in a machine called a sifter.

And the sifter would grind and grind and grind on it and would eventually turn it into soft, clean flour. And so what Satan was asking permission to do was to crush Peter, to pulverize Peter, to grind Peter into flour by number one, using Peter's fears to get him to deny the Lord, and number two, by then using the shame and the embarrassment that he would feel because he did this to get him to give up spiritually, quit the ministry, and go back to fishing. Verse 32, Jesus continues, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned back again, when you have recovered from Satan's blow, I want you, Jesus says, to strengthen your Christian brothers and sisters. It's clear from verse 32 that Jesus has granted Satan's request and that Satan is going to come at Peter now with both barrels blazing to try and destroy his faith, to try and remove him from the ministry, and to try and eliminate him permanently as a servant of Christ. But here in verse 32, Jesus says to Peter, he says, hey, he says, Peter, it's going to be rough for a while, but I want you to know, Peter, that your faith is not going to fail, that you are going to recover from Satan's blow, that you're going to return to the ministry, and when you do, you're going to use what you learned through this sifting experience to encourage and strengthen and fortify the people of God.

And friends, isn't this exactly what happened? Yes, Satan got Peter to deny Jesus. And yes, Peter slinked away from Jerusalem, a broken man.

And yes, Peter went back to fishing, but then in John chapter 21, the Lord Jesus came after Peter, and he revitalized his faith, and he removed his guilt, and he restored him to the ministry, and Peter went on to become a mighty servant of God whose New Testament sermons and whose New Testament letters still strengthened the hearts of God's people, even to this very day, exactly the way Jesus said it would happen. Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage, because we're going to stop now, and we're going to ask our most important question. So, we learned last week that taking a deep breath really helps. Here we go, everybody, deep breath. Ready?

One, two, three. Go back. Yeah.

Feels good, doesn't it? Yeah. You say, all right, Lon, so what? Say, you know, I know this story.

I know I've heard, you know, about Peter denying the Lord three times. I got that. But I don't see anything in here, really.

You talk about three facts about my troubles, and I don't see any of that in here. Can you help me with that? Oh, I'd love to. I'd love to.

Let me see if we can do that. I want to start by asking you to complete the following sentence. Here you go. Now, don't say it out loud. You keep it to yourself. But here's the sentence I want you to complete. The biggest problem, the biggest heartache, the biggest trouble in my life right now is... Finish the sentence. Fill in the blank. Okay?

Give you just a second. Fill in the blank. Now, I wonder what you put in the blank. I mean, I think maybe some of us put a romance in the blank that didn't go in so good. Or some of us might have put in the blank a marriage that's gotten a little bumpy. Or maybe it was a health situation or a financial situation or a situation at work that we put in the blank. Maybe if you're a parent, it's some struggle your child is having that you put in the blank. Or maybe the fact that you have a child with disabilities that you put in the blank. Or maybe the fact that you're unable so far to have a child.

If you have an aging parent who has chronic needs, maybe that's what you put in the blank. Look friends, I don't know what you put in the blank, but I can guarantee you every single one of us put something in the blank. And you know why? Because we all got trouble.

That's why. Job said it. Job said it, Job 14 one, he said, Man that is born a woman is a few days and full of, what's the next word?

Trouble. But remember what we said at the beginning of the message. We said that here in Luke 22, Jesus was going to share with us three important facts about our troubles that will help us endure them and make it through them. And survive them in a biblical Christ-like way. And so let me see if I can show you those three facts.

Number one. Number one, fact number one about our troubles is that our troubles are all inspected. Look what Luke 22 verse 31, look what Jesus says to Peter. He says, Peter, Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat. And with these words, Jesus reveals to us a great operating principle of the universe. Namely, that as followers of Jesus Christ, Satan must get permission from Almighty God before he can lay a finger on us as followers of Christ. Now this very same operating principle, this very same truth is taught to us in Job chapter one. You remember Job was a godly man, an upright man, a faithful man. Job chapter one verse six, one day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came with them. Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job?

For there is no one like him on the earth, a man who fears God and turns away from evil. Then Satan said to God, Does Job fear you for no reason? Watch, you have put a hedge around him and everything that he has.

You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But Satan says, stretch out your hand and strike everything he has. Let me inside that hedge, Satan says, to go after everything he owns and he will curse you surely to your face. Then the Lord said to Satan, Behold, everything Job has is in your power, but on the man himself you may not lay a finger.

Would you notice God let Satan inside the hedge, but he put very precise limits on what he could do. So Satan departed from the Lord's presence. And if you read the rest of chapter 1, you know Satan went, wiped out everything Job had, wiped out his house, wiped out his animals, wiped out everything. Job didn't curse the Lord. Chapter 2, Satan's back. Verse 3, Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job?

He still holds fast to his integrity. Satan said, Skin for skin, stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones and he will curse you to your face. Satan says, Let me have more latitude, God. Let me get inside that hedge and give me more access to him.

Let me touch his body now and watch what happens. So the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your power, but you must spare his life. Once again, God put limits on what the enemy could do. Now, please notice that both here in Luke 22 and in Job chapter 1, there are three important truths about God's limiting ministry on our troubles that we need to know. Number one, the Bible tells us that God has set up a hedge of protection around every single follower of Christ, around Job, around Peter and around you and me. You say, Lon, I don't see it.

You don't need to see it. We just need to believe God when he tells us it's there. Number two, we find out that Satan must get God's direct permission in order to go inside of that hedge in any way. He had to get permission to go inside for Peter.

He had to get permission to go inside for Job and he does for you and me. And finally, even when God permits Satan to get inside the hedge around us, God sets precise limits on what Satan is allowed to do and what he is not allowed to do. Folks, the bottom line is that nothing enters your life as a follower of Christ and nothing enters my life as a follower of Christ unless it has first been inspected and limited by Almighty God. And because this is true, it allows God to make us a staggering promise. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, For God is faithful.

He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. This is why in Luke 22, Jesus said to Peter, And when you turn back. He didn't say Peter if you turn back. He said when you turn back because Jesus knew that Peter could turn back.

He knew that Peter would turn back because Jesus had already inspected what Satan wanted to do to him and had already made sure that it fell inside the limits of what he knew Peter could bear. You know, a few years ago I went to a place called the Garden of the Gods out near Colorado Springs. It's a beautiful, I don't know if it's a national park or whatever it is.

It has these enormously gorgeous cliffs and rocks that are colored. And there's this little tiny road that runs through the Garden of the Gods. And I was driving this little road with my car. And as I was driving the road, what happened was the road goes around this curve and actually disappears right into like this rock. I mean, I stopped the car and I sat there and I looked at this little tiny crack where the road went. And I remember saying to myself, you know, a motorcycle I don't think could even get through that little crack in the rock. There's no way I'm driving through there in this big old car. And as I was sitting there stopped and thinking that, I noticed that somebody had put up a little sign right there where I was sitting on the side of the road.

It had four words on it and it said, oh yes you can. Folks, when it comes to our troubles and our trials and our problems in life, God says to us, oh yes you can. You can endure it, you can get through it, you can survive it because I have already inspected it and I have already made sure of it before I ever allowed it to come into your life. Fact number one, our troubles are all inspected. Fact number two is that our troubles all have a divine purpose.

They are not accidental, they are not coincidental and they are not random. Luke 22 verse 32, Jesus said, Peter, when you have turned back again, when you've made it through this trial and come back into the ministry, I want you to strengthen your Christian brothers and sisters. Jesus says, Peter, as you go through this sifting experience, you're going to learn. I'm going to teach you some things and when you come out of this experience, I want you to use the things you learn in the trial to encourage and strengthen and fortify your brothers and sisters when you come out.

And friends, Peter did exactly this. The whole letter we know as 1 Peter in the Bible today is all about suffering and it's all about pain and it's all about heartache and how we can trust God's faithfulness through it. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 10 says, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace will himself restore you. Just like he did to me, Peter said in John chapter 21, and he will make you strong and make you firm and make you steadfast. Friends, where did Peter learn this lesson so that he could declare it with this kind of passion and with this kind of certainty? Look here, he did not learn this lesson from his successes in the book of Acts.

He learned this lesson from his failure that night in Jerusalem when he denied the Lord. Sorry, Lon. So what you're saying is that every problem that comes into my life, there's a purpose to it, right?

Yes. Okay, Lon, then tell me, so why did I lose my job? Well, I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you that God has a purpose for it in your life. You say, and why did my parents treat me the way they did growing up?

And why do I have the health issues that I do? And why did that person I love so much die? Friends, I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you, God has a divine purpose for it in your life. You say, yeah, and why am I having car problems? And why did my washing machine break?

And how come I got such a lousy boss? I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you God has a divine purpose for it. You say, and yeah, and why did my boyfriend break up with me?

Well, because he's a jerk, that's why. But even in his being a jerk, God has a purpose for allowing this into your life. And of course, we have to learn to look at every single trouble, every single heartache that comes into our life, and to say to that heartache, to that trouble, you are my friend in disguise, because God is going to use you to teach me some important lessons I can't learn any other way, lessons that are not only going to be a blessing for me in the future, but are going to be a blessing for my friends, my family, and everybody I meet in the future. Number three, and finally, not only are all of our troubles inspected, and not only do they all have a divine purpose, but number three and finally, our troubles are all overridden.

You say, what do you mean by that? Well, in Romans chapter 8 verse 28, the Bible says, We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. Here in Romans 8 28, God promises us that He will take every trouble, every heartache, every problem we will ever face, and He will overrule them, He will override them, He will flip-flop them and turn them to a blessing instead. And isn't this exactly what He told Peter here in Luke 22? He said, Peter, you are going to have a catastrophic failure, but I'm going to override that failure, Peter, and I'm going to overrule that failure, Peter, and in spite of that failure, I'm going to turn you into a mighty servant of God.

And that happened in Galatians chapter 2 verse 7. The apostle Paul tells us that Peter was entrusted by God with preaching the gospel to the Jews. What an amazing commission the Lord Jesus gave to this man, Peter.

In fact, in the book of Acts, Peter is the central figure in carrying the gospel to the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, so much so that the apostle Paul in Galatians 2, 9 calls Peter a pillar of the church. My point is that even before Peter failed that night in Jerusalem, God had already overridden Peter's failure. He already had it worked in to a perfect plan to redeem that failure and make it something of a blessing in Peter's life. You know, God did the very same thing for Joseph. Long before Joseph's brothers ever sold him into slavery, God had already overridden that and worked it out for him to become the prime minister of Egypt. Hey, God did the same thing for young Esther.

Long before her parents died and uncle Mordecai got her, he had already, God had, worked this out and overruled it and turned this into her becoming the queen of Persia and saving her people. Hey, before the Israelites ever got trapped with their back to the Red Sea, God had already overridden Yul Brynner. Yeah, praise the Lord. And had already worked it out for the Red Sea to open and them to walk through. And friend, look here as a follower of Jesus Christ today before any trouble, any problem, any crisis ever strikes your life, you can be sure God has already overridden it in his perfect plan for your life and it's already designed for a blessing.

It's done already. I got to tell you, every time somebody volunteers in Access Ministry here at McLean Bible Church, our ministry with children with disabilities, and every time somebody serves in Soaring Over Seven summer camp here at McLean Bible Church, our camp for children with disabilities, and every time people drive into our Tysons campus and they see Jill's house coming out of the ground, they see the overriding ministry of God in living color. Anytime people see any of this, they see Romans 8.28 coming true in living color. My daughter Jill, with all of her severe disabilities, was the most devastating heartache I have ever suffered in my life. It was like a heartache on steroids. But let me tell you what I've learned in 18 years. I've learned that before God sent it into my life, it had been inspected and God already knew that I would be able by his grace to make it through. And number two, before God sent it into my life, God had designed it for a divine purpose. And I stand here today and I tell you unapologetically that because God sent Jill into my life, I am a better husband, I am a better father, I am a better pastor, I am a better leader, and I am a better man because of it. And finally, what I've seen over these last 18 years is before God ever sent Jill into my life, he had already overridden all of that pain and all of that heartache and had already designed it to turn into Access Ministry, to turn into Soaring Over Seven, to turn into Jill's house, and to turn into hundreds of other ministries we do for the people of Washington. That we would never have done otherwise because I would never have understood what real pain was all about. Romans 8 28 came true for me. And let me tell you something, Romans 8 28 not only came true for me, it came true for Joseph, it came true for Moses, it came true for Esther, it came true for Peter, and it will come true for you in any struggle, any problem, any trouble in your life.

Because God says it will. You say, all right Lon, but you know what? I got to tell you, that thing I filled in the blank, you remember earlier? I can't see one possible way under the sun that that situation could ever turn out for good or for a blessing. Well, that's all right. You don't need to. You're not God. You're not running the world here. And I'm grateful that you're not God. Thank God you're not God.

Thank God I'm not God. You don't need to see how it's all going to turn out, my friend. You don't need to understand it.

I certainly didn't understand it 18 years ago when we first got Jill. It doesn't matter what you understand. It matters what God has promised you. And if God says He's already got it worked out, folks, you can take that to the bank.

Don't try to figure it out. Just trust what God tells you. He didn't lie to Moses. He didn't lie to Esther. He didn't lie to Peter. He didn't lie to me.

And He's not going to lie to you. So, let's conclude. Every one of us today had something we filled in the blank. Some of us had some really tough things we filled in that blank. And we're sitting here today, many of us, and asking, why is God doing this to me? Well, I can't answer that question specifically for you.

Shoot, friends, I can't even answer that question specifically for myself. But I can tell you three things about your troubles and three things about my troubles that will give us the strength we need to make it through. Number one, I can tell you, biblically, that your troubles have all been inspected and they've all been limited by God.

And oh, yes, you can. I can tell you, number two, that your troubles and my troubles have a divine purpose. They are not random. They are not coincidental. They are not accidental.

They are our friends in disguise. And I can tell you, number three, that our troubles have already been overridden by a sovereign, omnipotent God in His perfect plan for our life. That I can tell you.

And you know what? These three facts have been what I have clung to for the 40 years that I've been a follower of Christ. These three facts are what have gotten me through every trouble that the Lord has allowed Satan to bring into my life for the last four decades.

I have them written down. And every time trouble comes into my life, I just look up at my little list and I say, Now, Lord, I just need to remind myself of something. This thing has been inspected. This thing is for a purpose. And this thing has already been overridden.

Lord, I can walk by faith through this knowing that. Folks, I suggest strongly to you, you write these three things down. You put them on your refrigerator. You put them on your dashboard. You put them on your mirror. You put them on your desk at work. You put them on your school notebook. You put them in your Bible.

You put them everywhere. And when trouble strikes, you pull that little list out and say, Now, Lord, tell me again what you told me. Tell me again what I should know. Tell me again what I need to get through this, Lord.

I promise you. You believe that the things striking your life are inspected. And you believe that they have a purpose. And you believe God has already overridden them. And, friends, there is nothing that the Lord allows Satan to bring into your life that you can't not just survive, but that you can't walk through gloriously by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm not saying it won't be hard, but I'm saying it can be done. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we are reminded today of what Job said, that life is short and it's full of trouble. And so, Lord Jesus, I am so grateful that you've given us information today to help us make it through our troubles.

Biblical information, godly information, spiritual information that we need to know. Father, may we take this little list that our troubles are inspected and that they have a purpose and that they've been overridden. And may we use these three simple but powerful truths as the foundation to go through anything you allow Satan to bring into our life. And, Lord Jesus, as we walk by faith, strengthen us and help us, even in the problems today that we filled in the blank.

Let's take this list and apply it to them. Father, change our lives because we were here today. Change the way we react to trouble because we were here today. And we sat under the teaching of the eternal Word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen. What did you say? Amen.