Gospel of John - The Sifting

        

The Sifting  

John 18:2-18, 25-27, Lk.22:31-32,34

A line from a master teacher in a motion picture, “Failure the greatest teacher is.” sums up the positive of failing. Peter’s life was to take a major jolt, his hubris would be crushed and his faith sifted and yet it was through these denials of Christ his faith was purified in order for him to truly love, lead and strengthen others. Let’s look at the first portion of the text, “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…I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” (Lk. 22:31-32,34)

Jesus had told Peter he would fail in denial of knowing Jesus three times and that Satan had asked to sift him as wheat, but Jesus had prayed for him that his faith would not fail. Unbeknown to Peter the trial of sifting by Satan would be to purify and sanctify him for the work God has for him to do. Peter later in his first epistle reminded those in his care of the purpose and value of purifying and suffering. “…though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Pet. 1:6-7

Even when Peter was reprimanded for his violent act of vengeance, the severed servant’s ear. It was after this moment Peter and the disciples ran away from the garden and left Jesus bound and in the hands of the temple soldiers. Jesus had told them they would run to their homes. “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” (Jn. 16:32) This is the first part of the sifting, being verbally reproved for his acts and words by the Lord. Peter and another disciple would regroup later at the temple courtyards. 

Application - How difficult it is to be reproved by the Lord because of our actions, words, and prideful egos, and how much more difficult is it when Satan is the instrument God allows to be used for the sifting. The words of the psalmist are tantamount in our understanding and restoration from these sifting, smelting, and purifications of our flesh and sins. (Psalms 51:1-2, 139: 23-24) The word “test me” is the word “try” in Hebrew. “The strength of anyone is best tried in the fires of adversity.” The quality of a person’s heart and character are revealed in the crucible of trials and sufferings. Just as Peter’s failures showed his carnal nature, we also bore that nature, and when we have been sifted and refined, we too will truly be of the greatest use in the Father’s purpose and will for the work he has given for us to do. If we are to truly understand God’s love, we must, like Peter, be tried to our very soul and spirit by the sword of the Spirit, the double-edged Word of God, and let it separate the flesh from the spirit, so that we can love as Jesus does, even in the midst of fiery trials where the mercy and compassion of the Lord’s unfailing love makes us shine, it is for his good purpose, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you… (so) that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (1 Pet. 4:12a, Phil. 2:15-16)

Jesus had foreknew this moment would come, and he didn’t resist the arrest (Isa. 53:7). Let’s look at the next portion of the text, “Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.”

Jesus is now in the hands of the detachment of temple soldiers. He was bound with rope or shackles around his wrist as they led him to the Hall of Hewn Stones in the temple of God. Jesus was led first to Annas, a previous High priest appointed and set up in A.D. 6 by Quirinius, the Roman legate in the newly founded Roman province of Judea, around the twelfth year of Jesus’ age. Annas possibly had heard and seen Jesus as a child around the temple courtyards (Lk. 2:41-52). Annas’ son-in-law, Caiaphas, was the present High Priest. It was not unusual for the high priest to prophecy over their tenor. He had declared in a previous meeting of the Sanhedren,  “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.” (Jn.11:47-52)

Caiaphas, Annas and the rest of the Sanhedren feared the aggressive nature of Roman rule over their country, and they feared Jesus, because he represented the Return of the Davidic kingship and the coming of the Messiah. They had to find a way to kill him, either for blasphemy or the upsurgence of a new kingdom. 

Application - In a depraved and sin-ridden world, we are to be like Jesus, our Lord. We are not to overcome the world by protests, treacherous speech, or to overcome by violence. We are to endure, persevere, and overcome our oppressors with faith, hope, and love. For there are many examples throughout scripture of those who face fiery trials, persecution, and tribulation, even death and they all overcame by the blood of Jesus Christ, and their testimony of love and salvation through him. “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Rev. 12:11)

Jesus was the forerunner for our victory over oppression. He said that we will face adversities, fiery trials, and an accuser and oppressor that hates all that is God’s. But we have our Lord who has gone before us who will not leave us nor forsake us as in times past, “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deut. 31:8) He has shown us the way, and given us the Holy Spirit to speak for us in accordance with God’s will and purpose. “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matt. 10:19-20)

Last, we return to Peter just before the rest of his sifting, let’s look at the final portion of the text. “Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.”

Peter found himself in a quandary, he had fled, the one thing he was adamant he would never do, while the soldiers arrested Jesus. The first part of the sifting had stung his ego but he regrouped with another disciple to follow Jesus from a distance. The other disciple gained entrance into the temple courtyard because of being known by the high priest, Caiaphas, and he secured entrance for Peter to stand among others in the outer courts. It was at the gate to the courtyard that Peter was trying his best to stay incognito, but the servant girl in charge of the door at the gate recognized Peter, probably from his Galilean ascent or apparel. She asked, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” Peter tried to keep his covert status by denying, “I am not.” As Peter stood amongst the servants and officials in the wee hours of the morning, he warmed himself at a communal fire used by those required to be at this meeting before Annas, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedren. They looked at Peter and began to question him on why he was there, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” Peter, trying to keep the status quo, retorted “I am not.” He is beginning to feel the eyes of everyone upon him as he tries to ward off their accusation. Peter, in the midst of the enemy’s camp was now angrily fingered by a relative of the man whose ear Peter severed. Peter wished he could pull himself away, but he stammered as he searched for words to this challenge, “I wasn’t in a garden.” or “I have never seen him before”, but settled for “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Just before the morning sunrise broke through the dreary darkness of the night, a rooster crowed to establish his dominance amongst the others in foraging for his morning meal. Peter’s ears and heart were pierced with the crowing of the cock, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Lk.22:61-62) The sifting had begun.

Application - Somewhere in your walk with Jesus, you may have been caught up with the fiery tongue that gets the whole body in deep trouble. ”The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6) We make promises that we cannot or do not keep. We should let our Lord’s words guide us, “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matt. 5:37)

We will experience siftings, trials, sufferings, and persecutions, but it is how we respond to it that matters. Will we succumb to it or stand in the power of God and let it define and refine who we are in Christ Jesus. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, … because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (2 Tim. 3:12, Rom.5:3-5) 

Or like Peter we try to go undercover in a world whose leader, the ruler and power of the air, is at work. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Eph.2:1-2) We try to mingle with the world, but keep our spiritual identity secret. Then one of the agents for the oppressor spots our new nature, and begins to question who we are. Then others hear and they too want to know if we have been with Jesus. Our reply will determine who we are, are we still dead in our transgressions, or set free by the One who is victorious, who has filled us with the Holy Spirit’s power of boldness. Or will we hear the oppressor crow out to who we really are? It is said, “The Devil will crow out your sins, but Jesus calls you by your new name.” 

We are not to place our light undercover, but to let our light shine with the power of the Holy Spirit, the tongues of fire of God that rests on the heads of all who have been baptized into Jesus.

  We must put to death the flesh, it may take a sifting of our being, a major jolt to our hubris to demolish sin in our lives. Let it be crushed so our faith which of greater worth will be purified in order for us to truly love Jesus and lead and strengthen others. “Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed.” (1 Pet.1:7)

 I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. And he wants to empower you with the Holy Spirit. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

I am developing a new webpage on Spiritual warfare. Please give it a look. I’m adding answers each week to questions that pertain to our time today.  Thank you

http://uss-warfare3.webnode.com