Take your Bibles with me again and turn to Luke 22.

We've been talking for a couple weeks now about the Last Supper. Two weeks ago, we looked at how Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper and how He replaced the old covenant of Judaism with the new covenant of the blood.

Last week, we talked about how the disciples immediately started arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus put on a servant's outfit and washed their feet to teach them the importance of service and what true greatness looks like.

This week we're going to carry on and look at a conversation that Jesus had with the apostle Peter before He went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Are you in Luke 22? Let's read verses 31-38:

31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
37 For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.
38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
Luke 22:31-38

Simon Peter was the leader of the disciples. About that there can be no doubt.

• It was Simon Peter that declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.
• It was to Simon Peter that Jesus said, on this rock, I will build my church.
• It was Peter and only Peter that got out of the boat and walked on the water to Jesus in the middle of the storm.
• Simon Peter was one of those three that got to see Jesus transfigured on the mount of transfiguration.
• It would be Simon Peter that stood up on the day of Pentecost and preached the gospel to thousands and saw thousands come to Christ.
• It would be Simon Peter that was an early leader of the church in Jerusalem.
• It would be Simon Peter that went to Cornelius' house.
• It was Simon Peter who received the vision that Gentiles were clean.

Simon Peter was a leader, both before Christ's crucifixion and after Christ's crucifixion. So it shouldn't surprise us that Jesus had a special word here during this last Passover meal for Simon Peter.

What does surprise us is what Jesus said.

"Simon, Simon." By saying a name twice like this, Jesus was probably trying to get his attention. This is probably also a mark of affection. Jesus said the same thing to Martha. "Martha, Martha."

But then Jesus said, "Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."

And one thing that we need to understand here is that the word you is plural. He didn't say Satan had desired to have thee, which is singular, but you, which is plural. Satan wants to sift all of us as wheat, all of the disciples of the Lord.

So here is what I think these verses are teaching. I think they're teaching that Satan is real and that Satan wants our faith to fail, but that Jesus limits Satan, He prays for us, and He uses the tests to strengthen us so that we can strengthen others.

I'm going to break that down into three points this morning, and we're going to look at what these verses are teaching us today.

Let's pray, and we'll get into that outline.

The first thing I want to look at this morning is...

1. The reality of Satan's plans for you.

When Jesus said, "Satan has desired to have you," there's a lot going on in that phrase.

First, Jesus acknowledges that Satan is real. There really is a devil. There really are demons. And he really is opposing everything that God is doing in this world and everything that God is doing in our life.

• It was Satan that appeared before God in the book of Job and asked to bring the tests and temptations into Job's life that are the basis of that book.
• It was Satan that appeared to Jesus in Matthew 4, tempting and testing him before his ministry began.

Simon Peter would later write this to us Christians:

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1 Peter 5:8

We have an adversary. He is a devil, and he's trying to devour us. That's some scary stuff.

But you know what is scarier than knowing that there is a devil out there trying to devour us? It's that being true and us not knowing it. It's going through life naively assuming that there is no adversary, that Satan isn't trying to have us, to sift us like wheat.

We are in a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare. We are walking around on the front lines, and if we don't realize that, we are going to become casualties.

A second thing to note in this phrase is that Satan wants to have us. The words to have are probably in italics in your King James Bible. And what that means is those words were inserted to help us understand. What this is saying is Satan wants us. He wants you. He wants you like a trophy on his wall. Like a notch in his belt. He desires it. That phrase could mean he impatiently demands it.

And what does he want to do? He wants to sift us like wheat.

Any of you sift wheat lately? I don't think so. Actually, this morning, I had some Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast, a little treat I allowed myself on the weekends, and I got to the bottom of the bag, and it was filled with those little pieces. Some of you understand what I'm talking about, the shreds that nobody wants in their cereal. And so I went over to the trash can and I sifted my Frosted Mini-Wheats. I shook the bowl so that the little pieces would come out and the big pieces would stay in. That's about as close to sifting wheat as any of us are going to come.

Sifting wheat was a common practice, common thing in the ancient world. And what they would do is they would pour the wheat onto this big flat sieve and they would shake it violently. And all of the dirt and the stuff that was not wheat would fall through, leaving only the wheat on the top.

And that is what Satan wants to do to us. He wants to shake us violently. He wants to attack us so that our faith in God will fail.

Jesus knew that in the coming hours — literally hours — these disciples that had been with him for years were about to experience the biggest test of their life. They were about to see this person they assumed would become the leader of the nation arrested and crucified. They would go from being popular attendants of the most popular man in Israel to being basically criminals, outcasts. Their faith was about to be shaken, and shaken hard.

And they weren't going to pass the test. Jesus knew that. Jesus knew they would scatter and that they wouldn't all strongly stand up for Christ.

Jesus says to Peter here, you're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows. Before the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning, Peter, you are going to deny your relationship with me three separate times. And that happened.

So the first thing we see here is the reality of Satan's plan for us. The second thing I want you to see in this story is...

2. Jesus' intercession for you.

Jesus said in verse 32:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luke 22:32

And again, there's so much for us to get from these verses.

The first thing I want you to know is that Satan can only touch us with Jesus' permission. In verse 31, when it says Satan desired to have you, what we can picture here is Satan literally asking permission to test Peter and the disciples. We see that in the book of Job. Satan comes before God and has to ask permission before he's allowed to touch Job, before he's allowed to do anything to Job and to his family.

Isn't it a wonderful truth that in order for Satan to touch us, in order for Satan to test us, Jesus has to be supervising? Jesus has to give permission.

Church, Satan is an adversary. He is a roaring lion, but he's a lion on a leash, and the Lord is holding that leash.

A second thing we can take from this verse is that Jesus is praying for us. Again, Jesus was praying for Peter personally. And I believe that the Bible teaches that Jesus prays for us personally. He prays for us by name.

Almost every week, some dear friend of mine, either around here or around the country, sends me a text message and says, praying for you today, brother. And I really appreciate that. It does mean a ton to me. But you know what should mean more? Jesus is praying for me. And Jesus is praying for you.

25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25

We have a high priest and intercessor in heaven that's praying for us: Jesus Christ. That's what He's been doing. He has been watching us, praying for us. And what is He praying? The verse tells us, praying that our faith fail not.

The most important thing for us as believers is that our faith doesn't fail. Now Peter's faith would falter, but it didn't fail. He didn't stop believing in Jesus through the trial. He just stopped believing in himself and his ability to follow Jesus.

The most important thing about you as a believer is that you believe. It's that you believe that God is good, that God is watching out for you, that God is in control, and that you trust in the Lord. Jesus is praying that our faith will not fail, and I believe He's praying that our faith would be strengthened.

Do you want to know the thing about Satan's trials? Satan is trying to sift out our faith. But what God does through those trials is He uses them to sift out our doubt. When our life is violently shaken up and disoriented, it is either going to reveal faith or it is going to reveal a lack of faith. And if you are a believer in the Lord, what should happen is your faith should be strengthened.

The third thing I want you to see this morning is...

3. Jesus' plans for you.

Look back at verse 32. Jesus does not just pray that Peter's faith will not fail. He already has a job for Peter on the other side of the failure.

"And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

That word converted here does not mean Peter got saved that night. Peter is already His. It means when you turn back around. When you get back up. When you come back to Me.

And church, the most important word in that sentence might be the smallest one. Jesus did not say if you are converted. He said when.

A. Jesus can see past your fall.

Peter did not think he was going to fall. Verse 33: "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." That is how Peter felt. That is what Peter believed about himself. I will never. I am ready. I am the rock.

Jesus already knew better. We already saw it: before the rooster crows, you are going to deny that you even know Me. Three times. And that is not Jesus being cruel. That is Jesus telling the truth about Peter before Peter can see it.

Here is the hope. Jesus can see the fall, and He can see past it. He is not shocked. He is not done. He has already put a when on the other side of a night Peter has not even lived yet.

Can I say that to you? What you feel to be true about you is not greater than what Jesus knows to be true about you. You may feel like this failure is the end of the story. Jesus is already looking at the turn.

If you have failed Him this week — and some of you have, and I have — He is not sitting in heaven surprised. He saw it. And He already saw you getting back up.

B. Jesus can see into your future.

He does not just see Peter through the fall. He sees what Peter is for. "Strengthen thy brethren."

The test is not only for Peter. The man who gets sifted and turns back is the man Jesus sends to the ones who are still shaking.

You know how that played out. After the resurrection Jesus finds Peter on the beach and He does not give him a lecture. He gives him a job. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. That is Luke 22:32 coming due.

It would be this same Peter who stood up on Pentecost. This same Peter who became a leader in Jerusalem. This same Peter who wrote to Christians about a roaring lion — the man who had been in the lion's mouth, telling the rest of us to stand.

10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
1 Peter 5:10

Do you hear his vocabulary? Strengthen. Stablish. Settle. That is a man who knows what it is to be shaken, and knows that God does not leave you in the sieve.

So if the Lord has brought you through something — a failure, a shaking, a night you did not think you would get through — that was not just for you. Somebody in this room, somebody in your house, somebody at work is going to need the version of you that got back up. Strengthen thy brethren.

Satan wanted Peter's faith in pieces. Jesus had already prayed it through. He had already seen the fall. And He had already assigned him the brothers.

If you have fallen, turn. That is the when. And then go strengthen somebody. Jesus can see past your fall, and He already has a future on the other side of it.

Conclusion

Let me pull this together.

Satan is real. He wants you. He wants to shake your faith until there is nothing left in the sieve. We are not playing games this morning. There is an adversary, and he has a plan for your faith.

But he is on a leash. He cannot touch you unless the Lord allows it. And while he is asking for you, Jesus is already praying for you — by name — that your faith fail not.

And Jesus is not only praying you through the test. He can see past the fall. He already has a when on the other side. He already has brethren for you to strengthen.

So here is what I want you to walk out of here with. Satan is real and wants your faith to fail, but Jesus limits Satan, He prays for you, and He uses the tests to strengthen you so you can strengthen others.

If you are in the sieve this morning — something has shaken you, and you do not know if you are going to make it — Jesus is praying that your faith will not go out. Hold on to Him.

If you have already fallen — you denied Him in some way this week — turn around. He is not shocked, and He is not done.

If He has brought you through, do not waste it. Somebody in this room, somebody in your house, somebody at work needs the version of you that got back up.

And if you have never trusted Christ at all, you do not need a tighter grip on the sieve. You need the Savior. Come to Him. He is the one who prays for His own, and He will have you.