He Who Is the Servant Is the Greatest

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I'm Stu Epperson. So glad you're with us on our journey through the Word, the last segment of Experience Truth. We go through the Word of God, and we're in Luke 22, 24-34. I'm going to read the whole passage. This week we're wrapping up this passage, and we're going to hone in on verses 31-34, Christ's encounter with Peter in the upper room.

Some powerful stuff. Let's read the whole thing, though, so you'll get the context. Luke 22, 24-34. Now there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table?

Yet I am among you as the one who serves. Verse 28, But you are those who have continued with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Then he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me, and this is the word of our God. So Jesus is encouraging his disciples here, not rebuking them.

They're fighting and jockeying at the most sacred meal of all times. He's come to this point in his ministry. He's been talking about this, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinners and tried and killed and murdered, but on the third day he'll raise again.

But these guys know this is coming, yet they don't get it. And in his final momentous Last Supper, the great celebration that we celebrate, we call it the Lord's Supper. We celebrate it to this day because he told us to. The beautiful ordinance celebrating his amazing death on our behalf, his blood shed for us, his body broken for us. And at this amazing climactic moment, his disciples are fighting.

They're jockeying. Who's going to be the greatest? I want to run things. I want to be in charge.

Put me up there. Christ gently rebukes them by saying, let me tell you who's going to be the greatest. He who is the least. This is always the way of the kingdom. The blessed ones are the poor in spirit. The blessed ones are those who mourn. The blessed ones are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The blessed ones are the meek. They're the ones that inherit the earth.

That's where greatness comes from serving. And the greatest come from the younger and the children. He said, he said, harken the little children to come unto me for such is the kingdom of God. Beautiful picture that Christ gives us there. So here toward the end of this conversation, he blesses them and says, I bestow upon you a kingdom. The disciples are going to have a special place. The 12 different gates of the kingdom in Revelation will be judged by the 12 tribes of Israel, will be judged by these disciples.

We see that in verse 30. But Jesus turns his attention to Simon. Simon, Simon. Indeed, Satan has asked for you.

What about this? He calls him by his earlier name. By the way, the name Simon means shaky. The name Peter means rock. So Christ calls him.

He's renamed him, but he calls him by the first name because there's a shakiness. There's an unsteadiness to Simon that's come upon him. And Christ tells us what that is. Satan wants to sift you as wheat. Only Luke's gospel makes this reference to Satan. Very similar to the attack on Job, this idea of sifting indicates this intense trial is going to come.

And there's a pressure to corrupt him and to take out the good by pushing him with evil. But what God does is he takes that test to purify him. And what does Jesus say? Look at this statement here. I absolutely love the statement. He says, but I have prayed for you.

Wow. Hebrews 7 15 says, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. He is our high priest. He prayed for Peter. When Jesus Christ says, I have prayed for you, that's pretty strong. What if I told you Christ was praying for you right now? What if I told you that you had an advocate with a father? You had a mediator. One mediator between God and man.

1 Timothy 2 15. What if I told you that he was up fighting for you as your advocate at the right hand of the throne of God? Well, guess what?

It's not a what if. It is happening. And he says, I will pray for you. When I say, hey, I'm going to pray for you. Hey, listen.

Hey, oh, thanks for telling me about that horrible thing that happened. Oh, I'll be sure to pray for you. How often do we follow up with praying for someone? I love texting people saying, hey, I prayed for you this morning. I love getting those texts. Believe me. A lot of times I'll get that text where someone says, I prayed for you yesterday. And I'll know that was real.

And I'll know that, goodness gracious, that I could see that work. Thank God for prayer. But we're human, right? So we'll forget. We'll see that person next time.

It's like, oh, doggone it. I never prayed for him like I said I would. Well, when Jesus says he'll pray for you, who prayed for you, prayed for Peter.

What a great message and lesson to us to follow through on our prayers, right? I like to pray with people right there. I'm right there with you.

I do this a lot of time with our team, Robbie, Christian Karga, others. I'm with him. He shares a burden. I say, let's pray right now.

What? I got to go to a meeting. We're going to pray right now. A, because I'm going to forget. And B, we're thinking about it. So let's just do it. And let's go before God, right?

The best form of communication is not email, but ne-mail. So Christ's prayer is perfect. His prayer is powerful. And his prayer is very specific in two areas. First, he says, I'm praying for you that your faith should not fail. Why does he pray that? Because he prays for his faith to be strong. 1 John 5, 4, whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. I learned that verse as a rising senior in high school at a Christian camp, and it stuck with me for 30 plus years. The faith.

Why? Because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Our faith is the reason that faith is so important, because Christ is so important. And faith puts our trust, our dependence, our reliance on him. So Christ first prays that his faith won't fail. It's a very strong prayer, because Christ doesn't fail.

Secondly, that when you return to me, strengthen your brethren. So he presumes that his failure is going to happen. He knows he's going to deny him three times, and he prophesies that, right?

But check this out. He says, when you return, he knows he's going to come back. And that's the, by the way, a wise man, Proverbs says, fails, falls seven times, but gets back up.

He knows that. We fall, we stumble, but the sign you're truly in him is when you're chastened, Hebrews chapter 12, you will get back up. Hebrews 12, 5-8 says, whom the Lord loves he chastens. Chasing is good because it purifies in it, and it's God, the gentle shepherd, leading us back into the flock. In John 10, the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes gets the one.

That one so often has been me. Amen? Thank God he's come after you.

And then you'll strengthen your brethren. How did God use Peter's failures? This same guy who failed, by the way, who's boasting that I'm going to stand with you, and Lord, I'm going to stick with you, and I'll fall you to death. The same guy that denied Christ three times. The same guy that failed that had the open mouth insert syndrome. This same Peter, let me tell you about him.

Guess what? He stood up on Pentecost, full of the Holy Spirit, and preached powerfully. Thousands were saved. He stood up as a leader in the early church. He was beaten, striped, put in jail, had miraculous things happening. People wanted to get in your shadow in Acts chapter 5 because of the power that came from him. God used him in a mighty way.

God restored him to strengthen his brethren. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Three times, John 21, three different Greek words for love, but what do you say at the very end when Peter said, yes, yes, yes, each time? Peter denied Christ three times. Christ reaffirmed him, restored him three times in John 21, and guess what Jesus says?

Feed my sheep. See, these failures, God uses your failure, think about this, to bring other people to him. That's why you failed. That's why you have a checkered past, and you struggle to think about things.

You get beat up, right? Because you, those things happen for God to use to bring others to him. You've gone through the mess you've gone through, the mess you've gone through. I've interviewed so many ladies who have had abortions.

On my radio show, I've interviewed them on my show to tell about their story, and they have blessed so many other ladies and led so many other ladies to keep their baby and led so many other ladies through the guilt and the shame of that process to Jesus, who gives you, who gives beauty to your ashes. And this is how God used the fall of Peter, and this is how Jesus specifically was praying for him. Verse 33, even before Peter says this boast, Christ says, I'm praying for you because I know you're going to fail, but verse 33, he said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and death. Christ says, the rooster's going to crow three times. You'll deny me three times before the rooster crows.

I mean, this is all going to happen, and it's going to happen quick. And here you are at the Last Supper, sacred ground, Luke 22, 24-34. Christ exposes his enemy who would betray him, and you know what?

He also exposes a friend who would deny him. But Jesus is not just the star of the Last Supper. He's also our advocate, our intercessor, our mediator before God.

What comfort, how inspiring, right? And he takes your failures, he takes your mess, and he creates an amazing message to shine his light to others. And he's praying for us just like he prayed for Peter. So the bottom line is, how am I strengthening my brothers through the trials and attacks that besiege me, that I've messed up in? How am I trusting Jesus as my high priest and my intercessor?

What a question. He is there. Are you calling upon the name of the Lord every day?

Are you walking with him? Are you sharing the good news of Christ? You know, I share the gospel with people. You know what I've done in my more recent Christian life?

I've shared my sin. You're looking at a guy who's messed up royally, but look what Jesus Christ has done. And I go right to him, bring up Jesus Christ early and often in every conversation, and watch him work. And watch how God took and restored Peter. We're here today because faithful men like Peter trusted Jesus, and the Holy Spirit used him as such a leader in that early church. And the Holy Spirit's going to use you wherever you are today. That's why you're listening. If you don't know Christ, trust him as your Savior. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. If you do, take that message and share the good news with your friends.

They're waiting to hear about why you're different in what he's done in your life. We've got to go. This is Experience Truth. I'm Stu Epperson. Thanks so much to all our awesome radio affiliates all over the country and the world for carrying this. Follow me on Twitter and Stu Graham and all over the place. Just pecking my name, Stu Epperson.

And you can hear me. I lead this Bible study called Wednesday in the Word at a local restaurant in North Carolina. It's a men's group, and we take a bunch of guys, a bunch of messed up guys, to me going through the Word of God. It's awesome, and love to have you attend that. But learn more about that at my Facebook page, and you can actually watch some of the videos of these teaching there as well. God bless you. This is the Truth Network.