A Failing Faith?

Luke chapter 22, verse 31. This may be a passage

Luke 22:31

that you have read before, or maybe you haven't

read it before. I would encourage you to go and

read the verses before it if you haven't ever

read it, or maybe you hadn't read it in a while.

But Jesus had spent a lot of time with his apostles,

about three years. and he was soon going to be

crucified, and before he was crucified, he was

going to be arrested and beaten and mocked, and

before all this took place, he had this last

meal with his apostles, the Lord's Supper, the

first Lord's Supper. They gathered together,

and he said, look, I'm about to give my life

for you guys, this meal that we celebrate, this

time of Passover. It's about to have a whole

new meaning. There's about to be a whole new

lamb that's going to be sacrificed for you. So

from this moment forward, once I'm crucified

and resurrected, when you have this time of remembrance,

you remember my body that was given for you and

my blood that was shed for you. And that occurred

just a few verses before. And, well, then the

apostles begin to argue amongst themselves about

who's going to be first in the kingdom of heaven,

which one is the most important of the followers

of Jesus. And Jesus kind of tries to settle them

down and says, look, you've got to understand

what your role is as my follower. Jesus said,

look, all of the kings and the other leaders

of the world, they want to dominate those people

that are under them. But Jesus says what you

have to remember is that you are not called to

lord your authority over people, but you are

called to use your authority to serve people.

And so he says you don't need to worry about

who's first. You need to worry about becoming

a servant of all. And that's exactly what Jesus

had done. And that is good instruction for us

because our world will tell us that we need to

strive to be first. that we need to strive to

be best, and if you're not first, you're last.

And Jesus would say, you need to be last. Jesus

would say, if you're not last, you cannot be

first. And so Jesus gives this good instruction.

I mean, just that in and of itself is enough

for us to ponder just those scriptures. But we're

going to look at these next couple, so let's

pray, and then we'll get started. God, we thank

you for your good word. I pray that you would

help us to... Be ready for a new year, dear Lord,

as we just really are ever thinking about the

things we do and choices we make and things we

shouldn't do and things we want to do and all

these things. A lot of these are fresh on our

mind at the start of a new year. And so I pray,

God, that you would help us to be ready to stand

for you and to seek you and to live for you in

this coming year. And I pray that you just bless

these next couple of minutes and these words

that we're going to read. In Jesus' name, I pray

it. Amen. So after Jesus says those things that

I just kind of summed up for us, then he gives

some instruction to Peter. And listen to what

he says in Luke 22, verse 31. He says, Simon,

Luke 22:31

Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you

like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your

faith may not fail. And when you have turned

back, strengthen. Your brothers. Lord, he told

him, I'm ready to go with you both to prison

and to death. Now, we see lots of times Peter

mentioned in Scripture. He was one of those key

guys. They all weren't important, but Peter,

you know, he was kind of right there. He's mentioned

a lot with Jesus, and he was going to play a

crucial role in starting the church after Jesus

Christ was crucified and resurrected. And Peter,

he was bold. He said, Jesus, I am your right

-hand man. I am here with you. And what is he

says? I'm ready to go with you both to prison

and to death. Whatever you're talking about here,

about whatever Satan wants to do to me, Peter

says, look, I am ready, Jesus. I am ready. I

am yours and I'm ready to live for you. I'm ready

to die for you. I'm ready to suffer in prison

for you. And so he had a certain boldness there.

A certain trust in Jesus. He was ready to do

anything for Jesus. That is until it came time

to do something for Jesus. And maybe this is

a good story for us to reflect on. Because maybe

we're strong in our faith. Maybe we trust in

the Lord. Maybe we believe his word. Maybe we

don't have any doubts about who Jesus is and

we are his follower. But maybe this story is

a reminder to us as we start a new year that

we need to check ourselves. Maybe we're not on

as sure footing as we thought we were. Not that

we doubt Jesus. Not that we question Jesus. Peter

certainly did not doubt who Jesus was. But he

thought he was really ready to stand for Jesus.

He thought he was really on fire for Jesus. Only

to find out that... maybe his faith wasn't as

strong as it needed to be. Maybe he wasn't really

where he needed to be in his walk with Jesus

Christ. And what about you and I? Are we so bold

today to make such a claim? Are we so bold today

to say, I would die for Jesus, and maybe we would.

But the reality is that our faith is often tested,

and it has to be. That's the only way our faith

can be proven. You can say something all day,

every day, but there has to be some test to see

if you really do trust in, believe, know what

you're talking about. Now, you can sit in school

all day under your favorite teacher, professor,

whoever, and at the end of the semester, you

can say, all right, professor, I know everything

that you have told me. I understand every bit

of it. And the professor will say, okay, well

then you get an A, go home. No, that's not what

he does, right? At the end of the semester, he's

going to give you an exam. He's going to give

you a test. And why? Because that's the only

way you can be proven that you do know what he's

talking about. Now, maybe you do. Maybe you ace

that test. But maybe you take that test and you

say, I don't know the answer to that. I don't

remember that. And maybe... In taking the test,

you realize you're not where you need to be.

You didn't know as much as you thought. You weren't

as strong as you thought. And I think God allows

us to go through things sometimes in our life

for that reason. Not that we doubt him or not

that we don't believe that he's powerful or not

that we don't trust him. But God knows our weaknesses.

And what God wants is he wants to make us stronger.

He sees where we're weak in this area and where

we're weak in that area. And sometimes he allows

us to go through some really tough things in

our life. And some of you went through some really

tough things last year. Some of you may go through

some really tough things this year. But we have

to be those who are strong in our faith. And

maybe today we speak as boldly as Peter. But

maybe our day of being sifted is coming. Jesus

says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you

like wheat. What does that mean? It means Satan

wants to put an obstacle in your way. He wants

to try to shake you. He wants to try to make

you doubt me. He wants to try to make you give

up on me. You are about to be sifted. This is

not going to be a desirable process. This may

not be something that you like. And you're going

to fail. That's what Jesus tells him. He says,

look, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat,

but I have prayed for you so that your faith

may not fail, and you, when you turn back, strengthen

your brothers. When you turn back. Why would

Jesus say that? Because he knew he was going

to turn away. Now, here's something beautiful

in this passage. Okay, first we see a reality,

and that is that there are going to be things

thrown at us in life. That the enemy wants to

make us stumble, wants to make us fall, wants

to make us doubt, wants to make us turn from

the Lord. Just life in itself, not that everything

bad that happens to us is the devil. We don't

need to see the devil behind every corner necessarily.

Life in itself is just hard sometimes. And so

we are sifted. We are grated like a cheese grater.

I mean, man, it's just a painful thing sometimes.

And Jesus says to Peter, he says, look, the devil

wants to sift you like wheat. That is, things

are going to be tough for you. But listen to

the reassurance Jesus gives him here in verse

32. But I have prayed for you. Isn't that a beautiful

thing? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says to

Peter, but I've prayed for you. The devil wants

to have his way with you, but I have prayed for

you. And what was the prayer? The prayer is that

your faith may not fail. Now, I'm going to tell

you, spoiler alert in the story, Jesus says exactly

what Peter's going to do. He says, you're going

to deny me three times. And guess what Peter

does? He does exactly what Jesus says. Now, did

his faith fail? Well, he had a momentary lapse

in his faith. He had a moment where he could

have stood up and he failed in that area. But

just because he failed in one area, just because

he was disobedient in that area, that didn't

change the fact that he trusted Jesus. That didn't

change the fact that he believed that Jesus was

who he said he was. And his faith did not fail.

Yeah, he sinned. He didn't do right. He didn't

stand up for Jesus in the way that he thought.

But that test that he failed taught him something

he needed to know. It taught him to draw that

much closer to Jesus. And as a result of that,

we see Peter denying Jesus here at the end of

Jesus' life. Then when we flip over into the

book of Acts, we see Peter at the forefront of

starting the new church. He's no longer denying

Jesus, he's proclaiming Jesus. And he could have

never gotten there had he not gone through that

test. So Jesus says, look, what's before you

is difficult, but I have prayed for you, so hang

in there. Now this is a beautiful thing. And

it's even more beautiful, I think, when we flip

over to John 17. You can read that this week

for your homework. When you flip over to John

17, what you're going to find is that Jesus is

going to be praying. He's going to be praying

for his apostles. He's going to pray that the

Lord will watch over them and take care of them

and protect them, not take them out of the world.

He says, look, I know the world is a bad place.

I know it's difficult. But he says, God, don't

take them out of the world, but protect them,

watch over them, use them while they're in this

world. And he says this beautiful prayer for

his apostles. And then right after he finishes

that, he says, and I pray not only for them,

but I pray also for those who come to know me

through them. Well, that's good news. That's

you and me. Jesus prayed for Peter. And guess

what? In John 17, Jesus prays for us. Because

he knew what his followers would have to go through.

He knew how difficult life would be. So maybe

for some of us, this passage needs to be something

to get our attention and say, okay, it's a new

year. We don't know what the new year holds.

There's things that occurred in your life this

year that you would have never dreamed last January

the 1st. And there's probably going to be things.

That happened in your life in 2026. We can't

see them coming. We don't know what they are.

But there's going to be some hard things in our

life. Some really hard things for some of us.

Some things that are not so hard for others.

But there are going to be difficult times in

our life. And we have to be ready for those times.

Maybe for some of us. That sifting like wheat

was 2025. Maybe that time has come and. And maybe

it's our time to turn back. He tells Peter, he

says, look, I've prayed for you so that when

you turn back, you can strengthen your brothers.

Maybe this verse is a call for some of us to

turn back. Maybe in our sifting over the last

year of our life, being sifted, maybe some of

us have denied the Lord in some way, denied to

follow him in some way. That doesn't mean that

we didn't believe in him. No more than it meant

that Peter didn't believe in him. Yeah, Peter

believed in Jesus. He trusted in Jesus. He believed

who he said he was. But he failed in that moment.

And maybe there's been a moment in our 2025.

And maybe today is our call to turn back. And

what does Jesus say? And when you've turned back,

when you've seen the work that I've done in your

life, go and strengthen your brothers. So let

us be prepared for whatever may come our way

in the year that's before us. Let us return to

the Lord and seek him even more, perhaps for

our failures in the year that is behind us. Let

us grow in him and let us be able to strengthen

others in the year to come. Let's pray. God,

we come to you. We thank you for your good word.

And I pray, God, that you would just help us

to be ready for whatever may come. Maybe we...

We think we have a strong faith tonight, and

maybe our faith is pretty strong, but maybe it's

not as strong as we think in the same way that

Peter. He thought he was ready, but you helped

him to see areas where he needed to grow. And

so, dear Lord, I pray that you would help us

to see those areas in our life and to grow in

those areas. Maybe we're coming out of one of

those areas. Maybe we've gone through it in the

last year. God, I pray that we would turn back

to you if we haven't already. that we would turn

back to you, that we would know that you love

us, that we would seek you and ask you to forgive

us, that we would repent, that you'd work in

our life, dear Lord. I pray that you would just

help us to be able to strengthen others that

we encounter, God. I pray that you'd protect

us in the year to come. I pray that you'd protect

this church and all these folks, dear Lord. And

I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.