John chapter 17 is the passage
that I'm going to read. My verse comes from somewhere
else, but you'll get there in a moment or two. John chapter
17, and we're going to read from verse 1. These words speak Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me. And they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from thee. And they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be ones as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on
me through their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me. In the glory which
thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even
as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. and these
have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Amen. May God be pleased to bless to
us this public reading of his word. Now keep your finger in
John chapter 17 if you will and turn with me also to Luke chapter
22. Luke chapter 22 and verse 32
because that is where I am going to take my verse from this evening. Luke chapter 22 and verse 32. Now I cannot tell you absolutely
that John chapter 17 is exactly the prayer that is referred to
in Luke chapter 22 and verse 32, but I believe it is. These
words that Jesus prayed were uttered at the same time as it
appears from a comparison of the Gospel chapters, the Gospel
accounts that the Lord spoke these words to Peter. Here is what the Lord says to
Peter in Luke chapter 22 and verse 32. I have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. For I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. The Word of God teaches us many
things about the Lord Jesus Christ. and it beholds us to be a people
who has ears to hear, to listen to the word of God, to be serious
about our approach to it. And I want to take this verse
in Luke chapter 22 and verse 32 and for a little while this
evening just very simply break it up and think about what the
Lord is telling us in this verse. It is a verse that has to do
with an experience that happened to Peter. Peter was one of the
Lord's disciples. He was a bold man. He was a rather impetuous man. He seemed very often to speak
before thinking. He sometimes was carried away
with his own enthusiasm. He sometimes It seemed to be
so dominant amongst the group that the Lord had to put him
in his place. The Lord had to rebuke him and
the Lord had to speak seriously to him. Peter also tells us some
wonderful things in his life about the way in which the Lord
Jesus cares for his people, those who are his friends. And here
is one of the aspects of how the Lord prayed for this man,
Peter. He says to Peter, I have prayed
for thee. The first point I want us to
notice this evening is simply this, that the Lord has a people
for whom he prays. The Lord Jesus Christ has a people
for whom he prays. Now, actually, that ought to
amaze us. because we are talking here about
the God-Man. We are talking here about the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We pray to Him, but He prays
for us. We recognize Him as the Eternal
God. We see Him as the Lord of Glory,
but that Lord of Glory in His divinity and in his humanity,
in the role of the God-man, in the mediatorial role that he
fulfilled within the covenant of grace for his people, interceded
on our behalf with his Father for our good. He prayed for Peter. The Lord has a people for whom
he prays Here we see in Luke chapter 22 and verse 32, he says
to Peter specifically, I have prayed for you. I have prayed
for thee, Peter. I have prayed for you. And I
have prayed that thy faith fail not. We read in John chapter
17, and I gather these accounts together because I think this
is probably the reference that the Lord is making when he says
to Peter, I've prayed for you. This is the prayer that he prayed.
And here, if we cannot exactly say that, then I am sure that
this was nevertheless the content of the prayer if it was made
separately and on a different occasion. And we can see from
the verse 9 in John chapter 17 that the Lord as well as praying
for Peter, he says in verse 9, I pray for them. He is praying
for his apostles. So the Lord Jesus not only prays
for Peter, He prays for the other disciples. He prays for his apostles. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. Now look at verse 20. He says also here, regarding
those apostles for whom he has just expressed the fact that
he is praying on their behalf, neither pray I for these alone. but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word." Now what's that telling us? He prays for Peter, he prays
for all the apostles, and he prays for those who are yet to
believe through the ministry of the apostles. The Lord Jesus
Christ prays for us. We who believe on Him. We who have received the Gospel,
we who have come under the sound of the Word of God through the
ministry of the Apostles and their successors. Have you ever
heard the phrase the Apostolic Succession? That's what the Roman
Catholic Church like to talk about. They say they have an
Apostolic Succession that gives them an authority in this world in the Pope of Rome. No, no,
not at all. The apostolic succession is vested
in those who preach the apostolic gospel, those who stand upon
the apostolic foundation, those who receive the word of God that
the apostles preached and which was handed on to faithful men
down through successive generations as the gospel has gone to the
uttermost parts of the earth. That's where the authority of
the church is vested. That's where our power lies,
in the gospel. Nor is some throne in Rome, nor
is some individual who is lauded and applauded but in the preaching
of the gospel, the church of Jesus Christ finds its authority. This is they of whom the Lord
spoke and of whom the Lord, or for whom the Lord prayed. Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word, through their preaching, through the
gospel that they declare. And so here we have established,
now trust, we see this, Clearly, that the Lord has a people for
whom he prays, whether that's Peter individually, whether it's
the apostles, or whether it's all those who believe through
the ministry of the apostles. The intercessory work of the
Lord Jesus Christ is here demonstrated. He intercedes with his Father
on our behalf. He prays to God the Father for
us. Let me tell you, always heard and are always granted. Indeed the Lord says that we
are to pray to the Father in His name and whatsoever we ask,
He will that the Father be glorified give to us. Now if the Lord's
name has such access Surely the Lord Himself has such access
with the Father. Everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed for was granted to Him by His Father. And here we see that intercessory
prayer being given. John chapter 17 is known as Christ's
prayer to His Father for His apostles and all believers. We can see that there is something
else in this chapter which is important in the context of the
Lord's prayers. Look at verse 9 with me again.
He says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world. Isn't that interesting? The Lord
Jesus Christ prays for those whom the Father has given him. This is His covenant responsibilities. Look at verse 2 of chapter 17.
As thou hast given Him, that is Christ, power over all flesh,
that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
Him. That's the covenant of grace.
That is the covenantal responsibilities that the Lord Jesus Christ has
to give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And so
he is praying for them, those that have been committed into
his hands, those that have been given to him out of the population
of this world from the beginning of time to the end of time. There
is a people that have been committed into the hand of Christ and Christ
prays for them. He says, I'm not praying for
the whole world. We sometimes pray for the whole
world. We should be careful about what we pray for. We should pray
for what the Lord prays for. We shouldn't pray that the whole
world will be converted. For the Lord says that the whole
world will not be converted. The Lord says that he doesn't
pray for the whole world. He prays for his people. This
is a particular people. This is a distinctive, particular,
limited, group that He is praying for. And as He prays for these,
the prayers that He prays are received by the Father and are
granted to Him. He prays for them and the prayers
are granted and given. So the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I'm not praying for the whole world. Remember when the Lord
was there at the tomb of Lazarus, and he said the door was to be
opened, the tomb was to be opened, and he declared, Lazarus, come
forth. I don't know how many people
were in that grave, maybe many, but there was only to be one
came forth that day, so the Lord named him. It was to be distinctively
Lazarus that came forth. Just remember, this is the Lord
of Life. He commands death to let go the bonds that hold. Then death must recede in the
presence of the living one, the one who is the life. And yet
it was Lazarus that was to come forth. It was those for whom
the Lord prayed that were granted the benefits and the blessings
of that prayer. What was the prayer that the
Lord Jesus Christ made on Peter's behalf? Well, again, we can go
back to Luke chapter 22. You don't need to turn there
at the moment. Let me just repeat it to you again. Verse 32 of
that chapter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. That was the prayer that the
Lord Jesus Christ made. Okay? He made it for Peter. He
made it for all the apostles. He made it for all those that
would believe as a result of the ministry of the apostles,
that is, gospel preaching. So all those who come under the
gospel and believe it, that prayer is for them. What is the prayer? That thy faith fail not. That's what the Lord prays. And
that's what He interceded with His Father concerning. So we see from this the necessity
of faith. We see, as the Apostle tells
us in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6, without faith it is
impossible to please God. Faith is essential. Faith is
necessary. We come and we come to faith
through the preaching of the Gospel. We come into that relationship
with God through the preaching of the Gospel. as faith is dispensed,
as faith is granted as the gift of God. And we see that the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke of the necessity of faith in order to please God. It is impossible to please God
without faith. It's interesting to see that
this is the prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ makes. He didn't
pray for Peter's health. He didn't pray for Peter's well-being. He didn't pray that Peter would
be comforted for the loss that he and the other apostles were
about to experience when the Lord Jesus Christ was taken to
the cross and there crucified. He didn't pray that they would
be given peace in the midst of their troubles. There were lots
of things that the Lord Jesus Christ could have prayed for.
prayed that their faith fail not because that was important. That was the priority, that their
faith failed not. And he prayed to his father that
their faith fail not. He lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee. This prayer was sent to the Father. In the Lord Jesus Christ's covenant
role and that responsibility that he had as the intercessor
for his people, the Lord Jesus Christ to his father. He knew the source of the power
that would maintain their faith. He knew where that faith came
from. He knew where its sustaining,
maintaining power was to be discovered. In Ephesians chapter 2 we read,
By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Faith is God's gift. Therefore,
the Lord prayed to His Father that the faith of Peter would
not fail. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
to His Father that the faith of the Apostles would be upheld
and maintained. That gift which had been given
to them by God, authored by God, would be continued. And He prays for all believers
that their faith will be maintain that it fail not. The Lord Jesus
Christ, we are told in Hebrews chapter 12, is the author and finisher of our faith, the
purpose of faith. is eternal life with Christ. That's the end to which our faith
is leading us. Verse 2 in John chapter 17 says,
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Let me
tell you, there are lots of people who say that they have faith.
I don't know that I've ever seen so many churches as I've seen
since I've come to Kingsport. In one place, I have never seen
so many churches. And you know what? Most of them
are a lot bigger than this one. Some of them are like palaces. We don't have buildings like
that where I come from. You have churches that are bigger
than the mansions that our nobility used to live in. There must be
thousands and thousands and thousands of people here in this city who
claim to have faith. Am I wrong? Faith that fails is no good. It's no good. You don't want
faith that fails. You need faith that faileth not. You need to have faith that comes
from God. You need to have faith that is
God's gift to His people. And that faith must be God-authored,
it must be God-given, it must be God-sustained, and it must
be finished by Him. It must be faith that comes from
Christ. It's the only faith worth getting. There are lots of people who
claim to believe I don't know what they believe in, but I'll
tell you this, that if this is not the faith in the Gospel,
the faith in Christ, the faith from God, that is given as His
gift, it is not worth having, for it will fail. It must fail,
because the Lord Jesus Christ would not have prayed that this
faith faileth not, It wasn't a prayer that was required. And because he prayed that prayer,
it tells us that the faith of man that is not Christ-inspired
and God-given will ultimately fail. What was the prayer that
the Lord Jesus Christ made to the pharaoh? Look with me again
at John chapter 17. Here are five things that comprised the faith that
the Lord Jesus Christ was praying for. The upholding, the maintaining
of faith. Look at verse 11. The Lord Jesus
Christ prayed that the faith of Peter would not fail, that
the faith of the apostles would not fail, that the faith of all
those who believe would not fail. What was he asking for? He says
that these for whom he prays would be One. That they may be
one. What is he asking his father
for? He is asking his father to keep that people united under
God's protection. That they may be one. That means
that we are not lost. That means that we don't fragment. That means that the gospel binds
us together. That means that when I come,
1,000, 2,000 miles over here to see you. We are united in
the faith. We are brothers and sisters in
the Lord because the Lord Jesus Christ prayed that their faith
fail not. He prayed to His Father that
they may be one. United in Him under the protection
of His Father. Secondly, verse 15. What else
did the Lord pray for? He says, I pray not that thou
should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them
from the evil. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
prayed for. He prayed that our faith fail not. He prayed that
we might be kept safe from the evil. He doesn't say evil. If he said evil, then what one
of us could possibly say that we did not succumb to evil. Which one of us could possibly
say that we do not know sin in our lives. That would have been
a failure. That would have gone against
the power of God and the request and intercession of the Lord
Jesus Christ for we are all sinners. We are all evil in our hearts. We've all tasted the bitterness
of sin. But he says the evil. He's talking
there about Satan. He is talking there about Satan's
control. He is saying to his father, keep
them from Satan's Domination. Keep them from Satan's control. Look at verse 17. Here is the
third thing that the Lord Jesus Christ asks for. He says, sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. This is the request of the Father
on behalf of His people This is the request of the Lord Jesus
Christ to the Father on behalf of his people. Sanctify them
through thy truth, that we should be sanctified. What does that
mean? Well, some people will tell us
that it means that we should be holy. There is a sense in
which sanctification has to do with holiness. But it has to
do principally with being set apart, dedicated to the glory
of God, dedicated to His service. You are not holy, and I am not
holy, except in as far as we possess the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our lives are always going to
be a struggle. They are always going to be a
fight. till the day of our death. The
old man and the new man will continue to struggle. We will
always be under that duress as Satan seeks to do his damage. But here's what the Lord says,
sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. What does
that mean? It means we get our strength
for that fight from the gospel. from hearing the preaching of
the Word of God, from looking to the strength that comes from
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are encouraged to be
in that place where the Word of God is preached. We are encouraged
to be regularly attending that place where the Lord Jesus Christ
is lifted up in the ministry of the Word. Because that is
what sets us apart. That is what protects us in this
life. That is where we get our help.
The Lord Jesus Christ, as he has preached to the hearts of
his people, will day by day give them the strength. Every morning,
his blessings are new and fresh. And as we hear the gospel preached,
so we are upheld by the grace of God. Fourthly, the Lord Jesus
Christ asks, in verse 24, that they may be with me where I am. The Lord Jesus Christ asks that
His people may be with Him where He is. Where is the Lord Jesus
Christ? He is in Heaven, there with His Father, still interceding
for His people, asking this very thing every day, every moment,
that work of the Lord Jesus Christ goes on. Why? Because we are
prone to sin. We are prone to fall. But here
is the confidence of the Lord's people. We will be with Him. For He has asked His Father that
we should be. He has done all that is required.
He has paid the price. He has hung upon the cross. He
has shed His blood. He has cleansed us from our sin. The price has been paid. And He now intercedes for his
people, saying, having paid the price, these people are my prize,
this is my bridegroom, this is what I labored for, these people
shall be with me where I am. And that's the promise that we
have, that's the confidence that we have, that the Lord Jesus
Christ prays to his Father on our behalf. Again in verse 24,
the fifth point, that they may behold my glory. What does that mean? It means
that we might see all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done. That
we might understand all that he has accomplished for his people. That the praise of our Savior
might be redound for all eternity. For he has accomplished that
for unto he was sent. He has secured the deliverance
of His people. He has done everything required
of Him in the covenant responsibilities that fell to Him as the God-Man
and His Christ shall see it and honour Him and praise Him for
all eternity. He asked His Father for that.
He said, these are the people and I ask you that they may behold
My glory. Who is going to take us away
from that position? If Jesus Christ has asked His
Father, intercedes for us, prays the prayer that their faith fail
not, for a privilege to be numbered amongst that people. In the verse that we read in
Luke 22, the Lord says to Peter, I have prayed for thee. What
did he pray? That thy faith fail not. Then what does he go on to say?
When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. This was a statement
that was made to Peter. Conversion is not something that
we do for ourselves. The Lord says, when you are converted,
Okay, now that's pretty clear, isn't it? Otherwise, he would
have said, when you convert, or when you convert yourself.
That's not what he said. He said, when you are converted,
it was something that was going to be done to him. Conversion
is not something which emanates inside us. It's something that
is done to us. It's a change that is effected
upon us. It's an alteration that is made.
Now it's a radical alteration. It's a big change. Indeed, the
Word of God speaks about light and darkness. It speaks about
life and death. This is a conversion that makes
a change. But there is also a sense in
which there is a continuing conversion, that it goes on. We know that
our salvation Which in this sense is just another word for the
same thing. Our salvation is an ongoing thing. We are saved
every day. And we are converted every day. Because that conversion is an
ongoing thing in the experience of the Lord's people. And so
the Lord says to Peter here, when you are converted. Peter
was already a converted man. He was already a man who knew
the Lord Jesus Christ's true identity. We were thinking about
this last night. Peter had been able to say, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now no man is able
to say that except that is revealed to him from above. That is a
spiritual insight. That is a spiritual understanding
which has been initiated by the Holy Ghost. He was a converted
man. But the Lord says to him, when
you're converted, what is he meaning? I'll tell you what I
think. I think that here, the Lord Jesus
Christ was preparing his friend and his dearly beloved disciples
for their coming trials. He said to them, Satan hath desired
to have you. Satan hath desired to have you. Now think about this for a moment
with me because I think there's such pathos in this, such sympathy,
such empathy with his people that we will do this passage
an injustice if we fail to see this. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
this prayer, John 17, hours, hours before he was arrested
and taken to the cross. He knew what was about to happen.
He left this prayer off, and he went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
And here in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was arrested. They punched
him in the face. They took a fistful of his beard
and his hair, and they rinsed him out. They slapped him. They
spat on him. And that was them just getting
warmed up. Then they scourged him. and they pierced him, and they
put him on a cross, and that was just what was happening physically. The Lord's soul was bared to
the anger of God. All the wrath of God that was
for the sins of his people was there poured out into his soul. All of this, and we could spend
much time dwelling upon the sufferings of our Saviour. All I want to
say at this juncture is this. All of this was about to happen
and the Lord Jesus Christ knew full well it was about to happen.
Do you know what he did? He prayed for his people. He prayed for his people. He
was going into the Garden of Gethsemane and he was going to
pray to such an extent that great drops of blood, sweat like drops
of blood was going to emanate from his own forehead. But before
that, He prayed for his people and he prayed that their faith
would not fail because he knew Satan was after them. He knew
that the devil wanted them. He knew that in the midst of
his own trials he needed to remember his people, both Peter and his
apostles and all those who believed. Satan wants to wreck the faith
and the life of God's chosen ones. He wants to be about that
business. He wants to sift them. Satan
hath desired to have you, to sift you as wheat is sifted. Now that is probably something
that we don't do too much nowadays or we don't see it this afternoon.
I was visiting out of town slightly and we went to a place where
there were old pieces of farm equipment sitting outside a shop
and one of those was something with little paddles on it. And
you turned, the girls were doing it, you turned the handle, you
put the grain in the top and it flayed, it separated the chaat
from the wheat, it beat it up. It hammered it, it crushed it,
it banged it about in order that the good brain should be separated
from the child. That's what Satan wanted to do.
He wants to sift, he wants to beat, he wants to play, he wants
to toss about the Lord's people. He wants to beef and to batter
body and soul. He wants to do as much damage
as he can to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the
Lord prays for us. Satan cannot destroy the elect. but he can hinder and harass. This Peter was a man who was
about to enter into a real trial. I don't want to take the time
to read all of the account in Mark, but I want to read you
just a couple of verses. Please be patient with me and
hear these words. As Peter was beneath in the palace,
there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. This was
just a few hours after the Lord had prayed this prayer on Peter's
behalf. And when she saw Peter warming
himself, she looked upon him and said, and thou also was with
Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying, I know
not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out
into the porch. the cock crew. And a maid saw
him again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one
of them. And he denied it again. And a little later, they that
stood by said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them,
for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeeth thereto.
But he began to curse and to swear saying, I know not this man of
whom you speak. This was Peter that just a few
minutes earlier had drawn a sword. He could stand in front of a
group of armed soldiers and say, I am going to die here tonight
for the sake of my Lord. And within minutes, he's cursing
and he's swearing and he's denying that he knows this Jesus. And the second time, the cock
crew. Peter called to mind the word
that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt
deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon,
he wept. You see, Satan sought to have
Peter. And the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for Peter that his faith fail not. Peter had to be converted. This was his conversion. It was
his humbling. It was the breaking up of his
own confidence. It was that this man, Peter,
had to go through these trials, bitter as they were, in order
that he might be brought to tears, in order that he might be brought
low. It had to be enough to make him
a broken and a spent individual. That was his experience. But the Lord would not leave
him thus. Peter had work to do. Peter was
a man who was going to be given great responsibility in the church
of Jesus Christ, in the body of Christ, when they were converted. Strengthen thy brethren. You see, Peter's denial of the
Lord Jesus Christ might have been enough to sink a man, might
have been enough to bring him into such self-recrimination
that he would never be able to show his face again amongst the
disciples. Never be able, because of self-doubt,
because of the questionable conduct because of the character that
he was, a man who could stand in front of a little girl and
swear and curse that he never knew this Jesus who had done
so much for him and had proved himself to be so faithful, had
loved him with such a love, had revealed himself to him as the
very Lord of Glory and he had said, I don't know him. and he
cursed to prove it. There is a way back for the greatest
sinner. There is a way back to the Lord
for all those who let him down. Because there is a praying saviour
to open that way back to him. Even our return to Christ as beaten up, so broken down, so
flayed by Satan in this life is at Christ's behest. He himself opens that way of
return and he will welcome us back to himself. Peter's conversion
was his rededication to the Lord's service was his reinstatement
as a leader amongst the apostles. He was told before the event,
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. The Lord has made
his people a family. The Lord God is our father. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
elder brother. We are the children of God as
we have faith in Him. And we have brothers and sisters
in the Lord. When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. Strengthen the brothers and sisters
in Christ. A family is for mutual support. It's for encouragement. It's
for help in the hard and difficult times. Yet we act so intolerantly
sometimes. We are so ready to snipe at one
another. You know that word? Sniper. He's the one that sits up on
the hill, out of sight, long way away, and takes shots at
you when you can't see him. We're so ready to snipe. We're
so ready to criticise others. We're so quick to take offence. A brother is taken in sin. Oh, how serious a sin is it?
Well, you know, I don't need to enumerate. Is it as serious
as denying that you know the Lord Jesus Christ with oaths
and curses? Is that perhaps not the epitome? Is that perhaps not the most
diabolical sin that a believer could ever commit? Here is Peter. Are we going to
trust him? Will he get another opportunity? Has he burned his bridges? When thou art converted, strengthen
my brethren. This man, when he is converted,
strengthens his brethren. This man who has tasted bitter
experiences of life is able to help his brethren. He is able
to sympathise, he is able to comfort and indeed it may well
be that for this very cause the Lord Jesus Christ takes us through
these hard experiences of life. Why is it that we still stumble
and fall? Why is it that we still sin?
Why is it that the Lord takes us through these hard experiences,
gets us to feel the sinfulness of our own character, the weight
of our own flesh, the trouble of the lusts that continue in
the depths of our desires? Why is it that the Lord continues
to cause us to fight and to struggle? Bold Peter promised to defend
his Lord, he promised that he would die with his friend, but
Christ knew the weakness that he had. In time, Peter would
strengthen his brethren. In the day of Pentecost, he stood
and he preached the Lord Jesus Christ, he preached the crucified
Messiah. Upwards of 2,000 people, 3,000 people were converted on
that day. They were brought into our knowledge
of Christ as a result of the ministry of the man who just
a few days before had denied that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ.
He left two wonderful epistles which speak to us of the establishment
of the saints in the faith that speak to us of the holiness of
the Lord Jesus Christ and that which he bestows upon us. us
that we should not be drawn aside into the wiles of the devil or
the attractions of this world. He teaches us that we are to
stand firm in the steadfastness of our faith. He teaches us that
we are to deny the lusts of the flesh or that we are to stand
against the persecutions of men and the error of the wicked.
He teaches us these things because He's already been there. He's
walked this path before us and He can, by His own experience,
direct us. How gracious the Lord Jesus Christ
is. How loving that He should protect
and preserve His people. How good, how comforting to know
that in times of trouble, He is praying for us. How wonderful
that He should ask His Father that their faith fail not and
that He should ensure that we will enter into that eternal
place with Him, that we shall behold His glory, that we shall
see all that He has done for us. And how good that He should
provide for the greater good of this church here upon this
earth in the midst of our deepest trials, because he prayed that
our faith fail not, and when we are converted, when we experience
those hardships in life, when we are brought through the dark
valleys and the deep vales, that we too might find a usefulness
in the body of Christ, and that we might strengthen our brethren
in turn. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us.