Luke 22:31-34 - Homiletics

The special word to Simon.

Its solemnity is indicated by the twice- repeated "Simon." Observe, when the warning is given, this is the name used; afterwards ( Luke 22:34 ), in reply to the disciple's protestation, "I am ready to go both to prison and to death," the name is changed, "I tell thee, Peter. " How gentle, how pathetic, the irony! Of the Peter, the rock, it is to be said, "The cock shall not crow until thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me." Note three points in the word of Christ.

I. THE TEMPTATION . To him the personality of the tempter is always real. Real, in respect of his own temptations: "Get thee hence, Satan;" "The prince of this world cometh." Now we are reminded that it is real in respect of the temptations of men. Beware of foolish speaking and jesting in connection with the actual existence of the Satan. "Behold!" says Jesus All is vividly present to him; he would have the agency of the adversary vividly present to his follower. The expression employed is very striking (see the Revised Version, "Satan asked to have you"). The phrase recalls the scene in Job 2:1-13 . But this is memorable—the tempter recognizes the proprietary of the Lord. Of Judas it is said, "Satan entered into him." Of Simon it is said, "He asked to have you." This is one over whom he has no right. He belongs to the Son of God—a man given him by the Father. And he makes request that the disciple be sifted. In the margin of the Revised Version it is put as an alternative reading: "He obtained you by asking." All is so suggestive. The Christian Father speaks of the Christian ' s fasting-days. Such days are often part of the experience of God's people. The sieve, as if with God's permission, is applied. The tempter obtained the Lord himself by asking, and the sieve was applied to him. It was similarly applied to his apostle; it is similarly applied, in one form or another, to those who are his. God will have his wheat winnowed. Remember, there is the sieve: "Watch and pray."

II. THE INTERCESSION . It is spoken of (verse 32) as past, and as a transaction accomplished in the invisible world. And who knows what transactions are there realized? How blessed is the assurance that

"Where high the heavenly temple stands.

The house of God, not made with hands,

A great High Priest our nature wears,

The Guardian of mankind appears"!

" I made intercession for thee." Ah! in the day when all secrets are declared, with what marvellous light will this word be illumined! Ye Simons of all ages, thyself, O my soul, what a reflection it is that between the one tempted and the outer darkness there is the intercession of the ever-living and ever-mighty One, who is able to "save to the uttermost"! What is the intercession? Not that the sieve be withdrawn, that the sifting fail? It is needful. Simon would not have been the Peter he became without the sieve and without the discipline. The tempter and the trial are used as discipline. He who world not pray that his own be taken out of the world, will not pray that the Satan-request be refused. No; but he intercedes that the "faith fail not" (verse 32). The great feature of Simon was his confidence in Christ. Why should he have been selected as the Rock-man, who was so often rash, and who so weakly denied his Master? Through all there was still the faith. He had quicker insight into the secrets of his Master's power and presence than any of his fellows; he had a higher and fuller perception of and trust in him. Were this to fail, all would fail. And the fruit of the intercession was evidenced in the springing back of his faith—nay, in its rising to a still higher measure of knowledge on the ruins of the old self-confidence; there was created the new heart that by-and-by was ready to go to prison and death.

III. THE EXHORTATION . Simon will turn again. When the Lord turns, in the day of the trial, and looks on the apostate disciple, there is born a godly sorrow which works repentance not to be repented of. Out of this repentance there comes the earnest, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." And the charge is, "Do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren" (verse 32, Revised Version). The most helpful man is he who has himself been tempted, who has passed, not without scars, through the fight of faith. It is the sympathy of the soul that has come through great tribulation that has the delicate touch, the magnetic force, the faculty of establishing the brethren. All discovery of the Lord is to be utilized in the way of strengthening, cheering, building up human souls in the kingdom of God. What we receive we hold in trust for others, and, in giving as we receive, what we have gained becomes doubly ours.

"Heaven does with us as we with torches do.

Not light them for themselves."

Experience of God and his love is the best teacher. What we learn, even through falls and failures, turns most to the profit of poor human nature. Simon, after the sifting, through the turning again, was the confirmer of the brethren.