Our study this morning is from Luke chapter 22. In your scriptures, Luke chapter 22. I don't have a handout for you today, just the Bible. And if you don't have yours with you, there's a black book in front of you. If you need one, you can even take that home with you, page 882. Good to see many of our college students back with us. Very, very glad that you're here. Do give you a warm welcome. This is exciting time for you. Pastor Mike was here. He would say, don't forget soul focus. Monday evenings at seven o'clock, right? That's a special time. And it's gonna be here tomorrow night, seven o'clock. So college student, young professional, you're invited tomorrow. Luke 22, and you can see the context in verses 21 is the first Lord's table. Verse 19, do this in remembrance of me. And then they took the cup. And then our Lord makes this statement in verse 21 that although he poured out the new covenant of his blood, He says, but behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he's betrayed. And then the disciples began to question one another, which of them, who it was going to be that was going to do this. So here our Lord gives this sobering announcement of his betrayal. We know it's Judas, of course. And then right after that, announcing his death, his betrayal, observing the Lord's table, the disciples began to argue. They began to argue who was going to be the greatest. How inappropriate. How foolish. I was trying to think of something similar. Maybe if dad and mom came down and sat with the kids and And dad said, you know, we needed to tell you that your mother has stage four cancer, not long to live, and then the kids are arguing over something stupid, if the toilet lid should be up or down. You're thinking, what? What are you doing? Verse 24, let's read down to verse 34, our study today. A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And so our Lord said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you, rather, Let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves. For who is greater, the one who reclines at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. You are those who have stayed with me in my trials. And I signed to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And our primary text verses 31 and 32. 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. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, The rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. Wow, what a powerful passage of scripture, isn't it not? I think it's really a gift of the Lord that we can pray for one another. You can pray for me. I can pray for you. We can bring each other's struggles and needs and wants before the throne of God's grace. That's called intercession, you know, intercession, intercessory prayer. I love what Charles Spurgeon said about this. No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me. No man can do a truer kindness to me than to pray for me interceding. First Timothy 2 says First of all then I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people. This is a. opportunity and a privilege as a kingdom of priests to pray for one another. What a selfless serving thing that we can do. You can do for me, I can do for you. We need to be praying for one another. But this morning, we're gonna consider a truth that is much greater encouragement than even to know that you can pray for me and I can pray for you. It's the biblical truth that ultimately explains how God's people are able to follow him and serve him in spite of weaknesses and struggles and conflicts and battles and afflictions. When our feet are slipping, when we're weighted down, when we are sinking down and we think we cannot continue, We have a promise given by our great high priest. And our title is this, Jesus prays for his people. Jesus prays for his people. Now, why do we need Jesus to pray for us? Why do we have such a great need for our Lord to continue this ministry as our intercessor? Well, we see even here in our passage that there are many hostile things that face us. We're in enemy territory. There are real spiritually dangerous things that we face. Right here in our passage, we see verse 24. our dullness, our ignorance, our stupidity. Here we have this ever-present danger of our own fallen hearts leading us astray. Leading us astray from what? From the purpose that God has for us to honor Him, to glorify Him, to live for Him. Instead, we are so prone for self, self, self, for our glory, for our desires, for our wants. Look at this in verse 24, the disciples falling prey to their pride and their selfishness. Who is the greatest? Who's to be regarded as the greatest? Can you imagine this? In the presence of the Lord of glory, the creator of the universe. The one who humbled himself and came to die for them, to serve them, and they're discussing which of them should be regarded as the greatest? How blind we can be. How blind to bicker over this. We also see our tendency in the life of Peter, we can relate to his Self-confidence, his ignorant self-confidence, verse 33. Look what Peter says, Lord, I'm ready. Oh, I'm ready. I'll go wherever you want me to go, Lord. Oh, you want me to go to prison for you? No problem. Oh, to death, I am ready, Lord. And of course, Jesus says, Peter, this is, This overconfidence, this self-confidence, this smugness. I'm warning you, you're actually gonna deny me three times that you even knew me. Well, these are some of the dangers we have, and I'm glad the Lord is praying for us. And I'm glad the Lord is continuing to work on us. He's dealing with the constant danger of our fallen hearts. He's dealing with things like selfishness, and our demands of God, subtle demands, and our pride, and our self-righteousness, and our self-dependence, and our self-sinnerness, and our self-rule, and yes, even our desire to boss God around and to tell Him the way it should be. Now we may be surprised at some of the ways the Lord chips away our selfish stubbornness. We may be surprised the means that our Lord uses to deal with these unsightly rough spots in our lives. And this really brings us to the second enemy that we have not just our fallen flesh but we see in our text that we have the danger of a constant spiritual foe. He's introduced in verse 31 as Satan, as Satan. Always seeking to isolate us from Christ. Always seeking to get us to ignore the strengthening promises of his word. Heartfelt prayer, Simon, Simon. Our Lord says, Satan has demanded to have you. Our Lord repeats this word, Simon, his name two times to really get his attention. Pay attention, Simon. Listen to what I'm saying. This is extremely important. What I'm saying to you, you need to watch. You need to hear. Stop everything you're thinking about. You're not the greatest. Listen to what I'm saying. Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you. Now these words reveal a little bit about how awful Satan is and how he desires our spiritual ruin and our destruction. You know what 1 Peter 5 says. This is true. Be sober minded. Be watchful, be alert, don't fall asleep because your adversary, that's the word for Satan, your adversary, the devil, he is prowling around like a roaring what? Lion seeking someone to what? Devour, those are strong words. Now we are given comfort here. Satan's going to Jesus. Satan, Satan says to Jesus, I demand this. Other translations say he's asked permission. That's the sense here. It reminds us in verse 31 that Satan can do nothing without God's permission. As one person said, however great his desire to do mischief, he works in chains. But notice particularly, what was Satan's request? What was his demand? He wanted to sift Peter like wheat. Now that gives us an indication about the goals of our adversary. He wanted to spiritually shake him. It's the idea here, the idea of the word. To sift is the idea of shake, or toss, or irritate. It's translated harass sometimes. Just as wheat is shaken from the kernel, and that's what separates it from its chaff, Satan seeks to use trials and temptations to blow our confidence in Jesus and his promises right away. Don't take notice of Jesus. says. And if we look at the data of scripture we have to say that Satan is presented as both a real enemy and a terrible enemy. Jesus never considered Satan some imaginary figure, but a real person. The word Satan means adversary. The word devil means slanderer. Our Lord calls him the prince of this world. He calls him a murderer, a liar. John says that he is the accuser of the brethren. He upsets churches. He does so through gossip, through bad attitudes, through catching away good seeds from the hearts of the hearers, by sowing tares or false believers in the wheat, by stirring up persecutions of the church, by suggesting false doctrines, by encouraging divisions. Really, we could say there's no enemy that's so dangerous and so experienced as Satan. I mean, he has studied the heart of people since the beginning of time. He comes disguised as an angel of what? Light. He's a counterfeiter. So we stay alert and we pray and we put on the full armor of God. And it's a true promise, as the scripture says. that if we resist him in Christ, he will flee from us. Now turn over to 2 Corinthians 12, because the mystery here in Luke is this. Why in the world is God apparently granting Satan permission to do this to Peter? Well, you have a little commentary in 2 Corinthians 12, seven, and this brings up a great truth for us that wherever attack may arise from, whether it's Satan or heart, something else, God is so great and powerful and sovereign. that although whatever's out there may use it for evil, God can turn it around for our ultimate benefit. He did it at the cross, of course, and He can do it in the experience of all of God's people. Look at 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 7. Paul says, so to keep me from becoming conceited or arrogant or self-sufficient or proud because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, I mean, after all, Paul, Paul met with Christ. He either bodily went to heaven or had a vision at least of going to heaven. He wrote a good portion of the New Testament. He revealed church truth. He opened the door to the Gentiles in the gospel. And so there's a little possibility of Paul possibly getting arrogant about that. I mean, would you like to have a Bible study discussion with Paul? I mean, really? I mean, there's a little conflict. And then Paul speaks up and say, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait. Have you guys gone to heaven? I've been to heaven. Have you guys written 10 books of the Bible? I have, let me just, you know, we might struggle with arrogance a little bit here. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, notice this, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of what? Satan to harass me. Does that sound familiar? To keep me again, Paul understood there was good coming out of this. To keep me from becoming conceited. Now he did what any of us would do. Three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. Isn't that what we pray a lot of times? We're in trials or being harassed. Lord, take it away. No, really take it away. We wake up at three o'clock. Lord, please, please take it away. The Lord said no. Yeah, but when the Lord prays for us, he prays for the best. Our prayers subpar half the time. Because he's doing so much more for his glory and our good. Verse nine, he said to me, wait, wait, wait, Paul, my grace is enough for you. It's sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. And you need to learn about my power. You need to learn about my grace. You're too sold on yourself, Paul. So Paul makes some good conclusions. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ then. And this is his conclusion about this. I am content with weaknesses and insults. and hardships and persecutions and calamities. For I know that God uses these things for when I am weak, then I am really strong. And in a similar way, this is what Jesus is allowing in Peter's life. And this is often what the Lord allows in your life and my life to be humbled. But we know in these times of attack, these times of humblings, these times of putting us in our place, Jesus never leaves us alone. Let's go back to Luke 22 now. And we've seen, do we have such a great need for Jesus to pray for us? Well, I think we know the answer to that question. So let's consider now really what our great need is when we're facing opposition and conflict. Our great need is to look to our savior. He's our mighty high priest. He's our great high priest. He's our eternal high priest. And we look to him and we look to him and his inner session for us. Again, in Luke, 22 and verse 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan is demanded to have you that he might harass you, that he might sift you like wheat. Verse 32, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Now, I want us to think about this for a few minutes, to consider this truth, that Jesus himself prays for the faith of his people to be sustained by his almighty grace. Now, I think that's a great truth. What do you think? I think that's really wonderful, but let's milk it for all it's worth. I have prayed for you. Here's an occasion, as far as I can tell, when the divine curtain is opened up and we're shown here a specific example of how our Lord accomplishes His role as our High Priest for His people. What He did for Peter. By the way, when Peter knew nothing of his danger, This is what our Lord is doing daily and hourly for all who believe on His name. And what exactly was Christ's prayer for Peter? Now, was Christ's prayer that he would not have trials? Or that he would not be attacked? Or that he would not be stretched in his faith? I mean, is that what Jesus is praying about? I mean, I would wanna know if Jesus is praying for us, what is he praying for? That would encourage me. Was Jesus' prayer that he might bind Satan right now? No, I mean, it seems to me that God's got Satan on a leash and God's using Satan for his own purposes, to humble him, to humble us. Was his prayer that we always be healthy and have oodles of money in the bank? No, I don't see that. His prayer was what? That your faith may not fail. That was his prayer. This idea of fail is from the Greek root from which we get our English word eclipse. That helps us a little bit. The request of our savior's prayer is that our faith in him not be covered, not be destroyed, not die altogether, although for a time it may be very weak. And so we learn from this that our faith, that our trust, that our confidence, not in ourselves and our feelings, but in Christ and the word of his truth, it's at the heart of the Christian life. It's at the heart of our health that we trust in him. We look away from ourselves and our own righteousness and we look to Jesus. This then, is the part which Satan is gonna particularly work to overthrow. He wants us to look away from who? From Christ and to look away from his promises and to look where? Largely at ourselves and the hostility. Satan's goal is to discourage us from seeking Jesus and hearing the word of his what? Grace. Now I have a little secret. I'm gonna tell the young people, because young people like secrets. So once we get big, we don't care about secrets anymore, right? Okay. Young person, Satan is never gonna make it easy for you to read the Bible. You know that? He's never gonna make it easy to read about the promises of Jesus. And here's the secret for dad and mom too, since we're talking about secrets. Satan's never gonna make it easy for you to open the Bible and teach your family either. You know that? And I can go on and on and on and on. He'll use every trick in the book to discourage your faith in Jesus from being built. Yet I love this passage, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail because in spite of everything Satan throws at us, our faith does not fail because he continues to pray for us to be divinely strengthened by his word and his grace in our faith. Now, we have a lot of enemies. Our enemies are stronger than us. Our strength is teeny tiny. The world is full of dangers. Our hearts are very weak. How in the world can we make it safely through this life home to Christ? And here it is. We have a mighty friend at the right hand of God. who always lives to pray for us. We have an advocate. He pleads for us. He sees our needs. He obtains daily supplies of mercy and grace for our soul. Now this is a danger I fell into before and I'm trying to change my thinking. Jesus is not just someone whose work was that he died for us. That's a great truth because of the atonement. But let's never forget that he's alive forever. He's risen, he's at the right hand of God. He's making intercession for us and we can rest our entire person on him, his power, his grace, his righteousness this morning. My friend, you may be here this morning and you're looking to yourself to be your own Savior in some regard. And it's crushing you. Turn away from that self-righteous, smug spirit and look to Jesus alone. He's the Savior. He's the Redeemer. There's no one else but Jesus. He alone is our help and our true friend. He is the one that's praying for us. Now, before I conclude this morning, I do wanna look at the last part of verse 32, because this is important. He says, but I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. But then he goes on and he has a little more message for Peter, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Hmm, isn't that interesting? When you have turned again, this is, The idea of being recovered from a fall, it's sometimes translated converted, to turn back from something. So here we have self-confident Peter would certainly fall into Satan's trap. Our Lord says that in verse 34, you see, the next verse or so. but because Jesus was praying for him, his fall would not be without recovery when you have turned again or turned back again. So God is saying it's gonna be used, it's gonna humble you, it's gonna humble your self-confidence, it's gonna teach you to glory and your redeemer that life is all about the glory of God and not about Peter, not about you. And what was Peter to do when he came to himself, when he would recover himself spiritually? Isn't this beautiful? Strengthen your brothers. The Lord is working on so many different levels at the same time. We can't keep up with him. We trust in him. Look at his master plan. He's benefiting us. He's causing these trials to be a blessing to the whole body of Christ. Grace working in our hearts, responding in repentance to our failure, responding in faith and repentance. Now this person turns to help other people. And it's almost a hint here that this kind of forgiving love has a natural obligation. When we receive special mercy from Jesus Christ, we can't help but say, how can I be a blessing to someone else? How can I help someone else? How can I sacrifice for them? How can I love them in the gospel? Isn't this neat? Jesus uses and causes our weaknesses to benefit the entire body of Christ. Wow. So having understood now to a greater degree our fallen hearts, we can help other people with real honest and humble sympathy. I think verse 32 at the end teaches us about discipleship. It teaches us to be involved in the lives of others. Not when we have everything together, but as God humbles us and breaks us and uses these times of weakness in our lives and recovery to turn around and help other people. To help other people with the right frame of mind. Not that I'm better than you, but let me come alongside of you. This tells me about parenting. have to be a perfect person to be a good parent. Be honest. Come alongside and say, hey, this is what the Lord is teaching me. And we ask ourselves, has anybody here ever fallen and been restored by God's mercy? Guess what? Jesus says you're just the one. You're just the person that can deal gently and effectively with others. We should tell them of our experience, how bitter sin is. We should caution them against pride. We should tell them not to trust in our self-righteousness, but to trust in Christ alone and how easy it is to get off track and to focus and live for ourselves instead of the glory of Christ and how joyful it is to have the pressure off seeking my own glory, but point people to the cross. We can tell them of the danger of neglecting prayer, not to be careless to meet with God's people, for that's a great gift of encouragement. We can tell them of Christ's grace and compassion if they've fallen and tell them about repentance and deal with them humbly and gently, remembering what we ourselves have gone through. Peter, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Could you imagine how healthy a church would be if everyone obeyed this command in a practical way in their homes, in their relationships, as they see people? Too many people go to church and they don't stop and think, how can I help someone else today? I've even had people tell me, oh, I didn't go to church that day because I was doing okay. You told that to a pastor? You better get ready for some fun now. No, you're not doing okay. I'm not doing okay. We need, we need the body of Christ. We need the body of Christ. If you think you're okay, you're not okay. But if you are pretty okay, then come and help us who aren't okay. Okay? Okay. Now, I think we see from our passage that we need to make a lot of the continuing work of Jesus Christ and not forget it. And what is this work? Let me summarize. We have a great high priest. He's always interceding for us before his father's throne. Now I know somebody may object and say, you know, that's Peter. You know, he's even called the Pope today in the Catholic church. I'm a nobody. Well, does the scripture say specifically he's doing that for me? Yes. In closing, John 17, please. Let's go to John 17. While you're turning to John 17, let me quote Hebrews 7.25. He is able to save those to the uttermost who draw near to God through him since he's always living to make intercession for them. Scripture says it very plain. This is his constant office and work. But I want to look specifically at what he's praying about. And this encouraged me. that I do have grace and strength from Him to fight the good fight. John 17 and verse 9, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but I'm praying for those, he's talking to the Father, whom you have given me. For they are yours, all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. So certainly he's praying that we be kept, that we glorify him. Verse 11, I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, notice this, he's praying this. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one, a sense of unity. Verse 12, while I was with them, I kept them in your name. which you have given me and I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scriptures might be fulfilled but now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves he's praying for that I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one they are not of the world just as I am not of the world look at verse 17 he's praying for us to grow in holiness sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. He's praying for us to grow. He's praying for us to be set apart from our self-centered sinfulness unto him. He's praying that the word would live in our hearts. Verse 18, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. He's praying for that. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. And in case you think that he's just talking about those original 12 disciples, look at verse 20. I do not ask for these only, the 12 disciples, but also for those, future tense, who will believe in me through their words. That's the church of Christ, that's us. Isn't that neat? That is what Jesus is praying for us. So let's not say I can't deal with that temptation. Christ is praying for us that our faith would not fail. When we look rightly to Jesus, we look daily in faith to his constant perfect work of intercession in heaven. This is our provision. This is our provision as we minister. This is what helps us in the battle with sin and unbelief. And so this is why we live in faith. We trust in Him. We trust in our almighty Savior. I know that every morning you wake up, so much to be done, especially on Monday, so much to be faced, overwhelmed. Our hearts are so weak. There's so many temptations and discouragements. Sometimes we're tempted to go back to Egypt. There's stresses, there's anxieties, there's pressures in life. They can drink up our thoughts. They can fill us with anxiety. Our sense of guilt sometimes and sinfulness, our lack of worthiness for forgiveness is there. What are we to do? Where are we to look? I believe the great scriptural remedy for all who see their helplessness and weakness and lack of righteousness is to look upward by faith alone to Jesus Christ and to keep before our eyes that He is praying for us at the right hand of God. We look upward, away from our weakness, away from our lack of righteousness, away from our selfishness. We look upward to Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus not only died for us and rose again for our justification, but that He always lives as our defender. and our advocate with the Father. One said it this way, while we're fighting Amalek in the valley below, one greater than Moses is holding up his hands for us in heaven and through his intercession we shall prevail. This is like a goldmine of comfort for us. We have an advocate with the Father who never sleeps, whose eye is always on us, who is continually pleading our cause and obtaining fresh supplies of grace for us. He watches over us in every place. He never forgets us. What a savior. We get to live to the praise of his glory. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, this wonderful truth of your ongoing high priestly work in the midst of conflict and battles and struggles and weaknesses. Lord, help us to walk this week by faith alone in you to keep our eyes off of ourselves and be content with these problems we face so that we'll be strong in you. Lord, I pray for us that we would look away from our own desires, our own demands this morning and joyfully submit to the fruit that you're bearing in us through your spirit. Lord, as we enjoy the shepherd groups this weekend, may we have freedom in our hearts to share what you're doing in our lives. And may we always give you glory, knowing that all the good we have is due to your ongoing work of grace on the right hand of your father. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.