From Warning To Wonderful

We all have had warnings given to us. Some were meant to help us as “Look out for that car!” “Don't touch that! It's hot!” They had implied promises because that car will hurt you will get burned. Other warnings were threats with negative promises. “Don't make me pull this car over!” The implied promise was that something very negative would happen to you and often you knew what unless your parents liked to change things up so you might get a surprise.

I once asked my son if he wanted me to blister him. He said no quite emphatically! I asked if he knew what that meant and he said no just as emphatically. He had no clue, but it did not bode well or sound good and he wanted no part of it. Sometimes we do not know the promise, but the tone in which it is given is enough to change our course of action or attitude.

Most did come out with the promise being very clear. “If you do not quit crying I will give you something to cry about.” “Don't make me say it again or you're grounded.” “That phone pings one more time during supper and I am taking it away for a month!' A co-worker and I once threatened to break a co-worker's phone if it pinged one more time with an annoying sound.

Jesus gave a stern warning to Peter at the Last Supper. Fortunately, there wee actually two positive promises along with the warning.

Luke 22:

31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Early in my Christian walk, I aspired to be like Peter and Paul. The problem was I was only looking at their good days and not their bad days as well. I do seem to have many of their weaknesses, but I was hoping for their strengths. After Jesus, I want to meet my soul brother, Peter, and then Paul, my mentor.

This is a serious warning Peter is being given, but I imagine Jesus giving it in a very loving tone. When someone said your name twice in that day it was almost like when your parents called you a couple of times and you did not respond. That is when they broke out all three names. Repeating Simon twice was to make sure he was listening.

To tell him that Satan desired to have him would make you think Peter was really going to pay attention. The desire was in the intensity of a demand! Satan was saying something like, “Let me have him! I'll show you what your lead man is like!” It wasn't a small request. Satan wanted to have at him much like he wanted God to remove the hedge from around Job. Picture the meanest junkyard dog snarling and straining at his chain to come for you and you may have a nearly accurate picture of satan desiring Peter.

Sift like wheat is not a small thing. Many of us remember Mom or MeMaw making homemade pie crusts or dumplings. She would roll out her dough after having placed the flour in a sifter to get out the clumps. The sifting satan wanted to do was more like threshing wheat where you thrashed and thrashed it to separate the chaff from the wheat. He had a real beating in mind for Peter, not just a soft sifting like Mom's flour. It was a knock down drag out desire. He had that desire, but as we shall see, I think Jesus put limits on satan just like God did for Job, but the sifting was still painful.

The wonderful promise with this warning is that Jesus said that He had prayed for Peter. That mitigated some of the devil's plans right there because Jesus has never had a prayer denied. He had not left Peter alone at the mercy of the devil. He had covered Peter with a bulletproof vest with that prayer.

I think it is really important to see what that prayer was for Peter. It was that his faith failed not. It was not that Peter's works would fail not because his works were going to fail. His works were going to crash and burn. Jesus prayed for faith to remain in the sifting and after the failure of his works. It is all about faith as it has been from the Garden.

Pete needed to be converted, not in the salvation sense, but from trusting in himself. When he was changed from self-dependence tChrist-dependent, he was to strengthen the brethren. Not only does this mean strengthen their faith, but also to turn them in the right direction and confirm them. Peter was a leader, but to properly lead his brethren and strengthen them he needed to be submitted to Christ and dependent on Him so Peter could lead his brethren to do the same and confirm or strengthen them in their faith and walk.