Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat.The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have all of you, that he might sift you as wheat,And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
10 sermons cite this verse
… 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. Peter hears this, and Peter says to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. I'm in it with you. Wherever you go, I'm going. If you batted, that's what I'm on. If you knocking, I am indeed bucking. That was a test to see how saved y'all was. some of y'all. Uh-huh. Then Jesus says to him, who you think you are, you're not really who you think you are like that. He said, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny me three times. You're going to deny three times that you know me. Spirit of the living God, please breathe through this word make your presence tangible give me language give me wisdom God and I ask that as I pour that you would feel and God I thank you that you would remove any barriers any distractions any excuses that would keep someone from receiving this word whether they're in this room or watching online God I pray that this would be an intimate encounter with you, that you would whisper in their ear things only you and them know about. And I thank you, God, for the privilege of holding this word. Unworthy as I am, you are trusting me with this moment. And so I ask that you would decrease me and increase you, your spirit, your presence, …
… God. And the Lord said to Peter, you know, Simon Peter, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Jesus said to Peter, but I've prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. That's always a freaky verse to me. Hey, Peter, guess what? Last night, Satan came and talked to me. And Peter, can you imagine poor Peter? What? Jesus says to him, yeah, Satan was talking to me last night. Satan asked for you by name. Can I have Peter? Let's make a deal. and in my mind Peter just goes wow I mean that's heavy I'm so glad you told him no Jesus didn't say no Jesus says yeah he wants to sift you as wheat and when you recover when you come back when you return strengthen your brethren tell them how you made through the battle. You're going to be a great minister of the gospel, Peter. Here's the deal. …
… opportunity to boast of his faith. And then he tells the others that even though others might betray Jesus, he won't. So Jesus drops this bombshell on Peter in Luke 22 verse 31. Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you. That could be better translated. Satan has been excessively asking for you by name, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your face should not fail. And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brothers. Peter says, Lord, I'm ready to go to prison with you, even to die with you. Jesus said, Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me. Wow. Roosters are interesting birds, aren't they? They have an internal clock that you can mark time by. On Maui, when we go over there and visit, and by the way, our church is facing a big storm right now. They shut all the power down on the entire island of Maui, but they went and met for church anyway, without power. They have the power of the Holy Spirit, of course, but they're worshiping. But when I go over there, I get up early for coffee because I'm in California time. So, you know, it's seven o'clock to me. It's later. So, or earlier rather. No, it's earlier over there. Right. And so I'm up at the crack of dawn, four o'clock, maybe three o'clock sometimes. And there's one coffee place that opens at five. I go there to get my coffee in the morning. …
… so you can follow along with us. But 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. Simon, Simon, I prayed for you. But I want you to know, Simon, Satan asked a question about all of y'all. He asked if he could sift all of you like wheat. And if I'm Simon, I'd be like, okay, Lord, did you tell him no? Can you go ahead and just have him sift somebody else like wheat because I'm just trying to follow you, do the best I can. But Jesus doesn't say I told him no. Jesus prays for something very in particular. Jesus prays for his faith. Fascinating. Fascinating. This tells me that your faith is a gift because this is you leaning into your relationship with God and keeping your weight on him in his character, in his goodness, in his faithfulness. And what the enemy is trying to do to me and to you is for you and I to shift our weight from God to self. …
… Jesus said Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat squish you squish you through this so that you come out here and faith stays up here that's what we're going to do tonight going to squish you through the sieve. Satan has demanded to have you. They may sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. And he's still praying for us. When you turn, not if you turn, strengthen your brothers. Every day we fight. we must quench the fiery darts of the devil every day when Paul came to the end of his life and said I have fought the good fight he didn't mean it ended when I was 60 I don't know how old he was when he died I'm 80 it doesn't end when you're 70 or 75 if you're going to make it and you are going to make it you will use the means he has appointed to make it put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil so that's the devil what about sin oh my goodness this is bleak Our people do not have a horrible enough grasp of what sin is, so help them in this. …
… And it says, 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. Amen. I want to talk to you, if I could give a tag to this message, I want to call it the Sifted But Secure Saints. Look at your neighbor say, Sifted But Secure. Tell the person on the other side, this time tell them for real, have an attitude about it. Sifted but secured. This is, in fact, an interesting passage to me. It is something I preach for on many occasions, and God told me to talk to you about this again today. Jesus is talking to the disciples. They are bickering among themselves about who's the greatest. It's really who's going to take over the ministry after Jesus. has left. They said, who's the greatest among them? And Jesus said, let me tell y'all something. Stop bickering among yourselves about who the greatest because everybody has their own assignment. …
… This is where he talks to him about what's coming. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. So Jesus goes right there to Peter's issue, to Peter's pattern. Simon, son of John, have you been humbled? Are you still the greatest in your own mind? Do you still surpass the others in your love and your loyalty toward me? And if you're like Peter, we all are in some sense. We all have pride. We're all like Peter in some sense. There are some of us way more like Peter than others. Grant that. If you're at all like Peter, be encouraged that Jesus doesn't give up on this guy. This guy's arguing to be the greatest. And Jesus doesn't abandon him. He doesn't cast him away. He's like, he sees something to work with. I'm going to humble him, but I'm going to make a Pentecost preacher out of this man. …
… dumb things at the wrong time. That's just call me Peter. That's, that's me. But if we rewind just a couple months, in fact, 53 days, just flip over a couple chapters in Luke 22 verses 31 to 34, it says, Simon, Simon, this is the moment at the last supper that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before he goes to do what he was created to do. And he's got this moment with Peter. Pastor Stephen actually preached on this a couple of weeks ago in a sermon called The Prayer That Repairs. Go back and watch that. That is so good. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you turn back, strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. Peter's loud. He's like, I'll take a stand for you. I will take a stand in front of everybody. …
Jacob, Jacob. Today, we find ourselves in a pivotal moment for Jesus, in a pivotal moment for an apostle named Simon Peter. Don't you wonder why in Luke chapter 22, verse 31, and I'm almost there, Holly. Holly, Holly. I'm almost to the part that inspired me to get up and preach this text. Because as Jesus is speaking to all of the disciples, telling them, I must suffer, while he is telling them, you are going to rule one day, while he is preparing them for what the cross and the kingdom will be, he pivots his attention from the entire table, the 12, to one man. When he calls his name, he says, verse 31, Luke chapter 22, right back where we started, Simon, Simon. Question. Does Simon have another name? What's Simon's other name? Peter. Talk to me out loud. Shout it like you're mad at him. Why Simon, Simon? Why not Peter, Peter? In this moment of pivotal and necessary instruction for the disciples, and specifically Peter, Jesus does something very interesting. To really tease out of the text the truth that is lying just under the surface. Go back to Luke chapter 6. In Luke chapter 6, verses 12 through 16, the author Luke, with meticulous detail, tells us that one of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray. What did he go to do? To pray. This is at the very beginning of his public ministry. And he goes to pray, and he spent the night praying to God. When morning came, …
That's what He said about Job. Remember, Jesus said to Peter, Satan desires to have you that he may sift you like wheat. But He said, I'm not going to fail you. So you don't want to be thinking you have some kind of sovereign knowledge of the kingdom of darkness and foolishly running around thinking you can express the same kind of power that Christ had over demons or the apostles had. There were some people in the book of Acts who tried that. They were called the sons of Sceva. And they were trying to cast out demons from some individual. And the demons shouted back and said, Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you guys You want to understand, and it's a marvelous reality to understand, you have overcome the evil one. He can't touch you. He functions outside. And you have also overcome the world in a final and full sense. Sin doesn't have dominion over you. Satan doesn't have dominion over you. …