Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why We Are Tested | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 22.31-34

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

How sinful are we? If we think about it and really answer the question honestly, it's extremely humbling. That's part of why we're tested. See how Peter was tested in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+22.31-34&version=NIV (Luke 22.31-34) as https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) continues our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/how-to-follow-jesus/ (Learning to Follow Jesus). Interested in more content like this? Check out https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/why-god-chooses-the-humble-learning-to-follow-jesus-luke-146-55/ (Why God Chooses the Humble) and https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/what-repentance-really-is-and-isnt-learning-to-follow-jesus-luke-3-1-14/ (What Repentance Really Is). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. I read about a pastor who was sobered by all the stories he'd encountered of other pastors who developed a sexually immoral relationship. Pastors that had disqualified themselves from ministry, pastors that had hindered their relationship with God, pastors who had destroyed their families. Now, this pastor, he had never done anything like this before, but he was insightful enough to know that no sin was beyond him. If others had fallen into this sin,

well, he could too. And so he developed kind of a strategy to try his best to warn himself of the consequences of sin. So he got pictures of other pastors who had failed. in this area. He got pictures of business leaders and others who had developed these sinful, adulterous relationships. He got pictures of their statements, pictures of their families, and he just put them around his office. And it was a way of reminding him that sin is costly. But what I am really amazed by is that this pastor was humble enough to know that he was vulnerable to all the same sins that everyone else was, and to take steps to try to warn himself away from the dangers of sin. So contrast that humility with the pride of the Apostle Peter. We're in Luke chapter 22. They've just

finished the Last Supper. There's been this argument that's broken out among the disciples about their personal greatness. Jesus then turns and says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. So Jesus turns to Simon Peter and says, look, Satan has asked to sift all of you, in other words, all the disciples, but I've prayed for you. And Peter's reply is one of pride and self-confidence. He says, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. Lord, this isn't going to happen to me. Lord, there's no way my faith is going to fail.

And you can hear that proverb in the back of your head, the one that says pride goes before a fall. Jesus looks at Simon Peter and says, Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. So here is Peter all confident that he would never deny Jesus, that he'd go to prison and death for him. Jesus, you can count on me. And yet we know that soon Peter denies Jesus. There's so much here.

Let's just try to dive in and get all we can out of it in a few minutes we have. First, Jesus is talking about all the disciples. Yes, he's addressing Simon Peter, but it's clear that he's saying that all the disciples will undergo this kind of testing. Second, notice that Satan has to ask Jesus's permission. It reminds us of the book of Job, where Satan has to ask God's permission in order to test and tempt Job. Now, that should give us confidence. Yes, Satan has a lot of power in this world, but all of his power is subject to Jesus. Jesus has ultimate authority over Satan.

Satan can't do anything without God's permission. mission. And what Satan asks is to sift them as wheat. Now, each of the disciples experienced different kinds of testings and challenges, but we know that what all their sifting had in common was that it was an attack on their faith. And one way to know that is just to see what Jesus prayed for them. He prayed that their faith would not fail. So all the testing, all the temptations in our life are trying to destroy our faith in Christ. Now, one thing I think is really sobering is that Peter and the disciples, those who are closest to Jesus, those who are really important in the launching of the church, none of

them were spared from this testing. And if they weren't spared from this testing, then I don't think you and I are going to be spared from it either, right? All of us should assume that our faith is constantly, being tested, that we are being tempted in ways that are subtle and not so subtle. Clearly, Peter thought his temptations were going to come in a particular area, and that's why he said, I'm ready to go with you to prison and even to death. And yet, the temptations that came to Peter were not what he expected.

They were much more subtle. Perhaps if someone threatened us with imprisonment or death, if we continue to follow, Jesus, perhaps we'd be ready for that kind of temptation, but what about the subtle temptation to greed or lust or anger or gossip or jealousy or bitterness? Those temptations sometimes are more powerful because we're not expecting them. We don't see them. They're not so obvious. And yet they undermine our faith in Christ. So there is a warning here, a warning that all of our faith is going to be tested by Satan. But there's also an encouragement, and that is that Jesus is praying for us, and he's praying that our faith would not fail. And then even beyond that,

what he says is that when we return, because he knows that we will, because all of Jesus's prayers are answered by his father. Well, he says, when you return, strengthen your brothers. Now, that's encouraging because what it tells us is that God does not use the perfect. God does not use the strong. God uses the weak. God doesn't use the sinless. He uses those who know the depth of their own sin, who have turned back in repentance to Jesus. He uses those who are dependent upon him. He doesn't use the proud who say, I will never sin. He uses the broken and the weak who say, I know my own vulnerability. I know the grace of Jesus. I know that I need to cling to him. I know that I am vulnerable to any and every sin and my hope and my faith and my dependence is only in Jesus. I don't have self-confidence.

I've got God confidence. We know that Peter denies Jesus. But then what happens next? See, we're all in this situation where we see our sin, but then what do we do? do with it. Peter broke down in tears when he realized that he had denied Jesus. So there's a sense in which he is emotionally affected by his own sin. He sees what he's done and he is deeply grieved by it. But that in itself is not enough. Think about Judas, who also committed a great sin at the end of Jesus' life. He denied Jesus by betraying him. Judas felt bad about his sin. You might remember he returned the 30 pieces of silver back into the temple. But that's where his story departs from Peter. Because Judas allowed his sin to drive him further and further away from Jesus. And Peter ran back to

Jesus. When we see our sin, we want to be like Peter, not Judas. We want to run back to Jesus, knowing that he is a forgiving God, that he loves us, that in his death, there is hope and forgiveness and life and transformation. But it all kind of starts with admitting our sin, seeing it, confessing it, being willing to run back to Jesus and take our sin to the cross. I heard a story about a guy who'd been shopping and returned out to the parking lot to see his car dented and a note under the windshield. He picked up the note and it read as follows. It said, I just smashed into your car. The people who witnessed the collision are watching me. They probably think I'm writing down my name, address, and phone number, but I'm not. They're wrong. Have a great day. That was it.

That's all the note said. So here's a person who ran into someone else's car and instead of admitting it and dealing with it and making restitution for it, they devised a plan to get themselves out of trouble. Every person struggles with sin. You do, I do, we all do. The question is, will we admit that? We'll be open and honest and take that to Jesus. Or will we hide and protect ourselves? Will we devise our own plan to somehow keep us from dealing with the consequences of sin? Jesus calls us to humbly admit our sin, run back to him, and then he will use us in our brokenness to minister to others. Jesus uses the broken, not the strong, the humble, not the proud.

Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.