1 John 2: 1-2; Luke 22: 31-34
I desire to say a word as to the service that the Lord Jesus carries on as our Patron (or “Advocate”, as often quoted from the Authorised Version). It is a service of His that perhaps we do not speak of much, and yet it is a most important one because it bears very directly upon our personal relationship with God. The Lord’s service as our Patron is very closely related to His service as our great High Priest, but can be distinguished from it. As our High Priest He has to do with our approach to God, whereas as our Patron He is has to do with our communion with the Father. As our High Priest He is sympathetic with our infirmities, while as our Patron He is concerned with our sins.
In order to understand what is in mind we might consider what takes place when a believer, a true child of God, sins. We should understand, firstly, that certain things do not happen. If a person is sheltering under the precious blood of Jesus his eternal security is assured. Nothing can subsequently overturn that because it depends entirely upon the Lord Jesus, and upon His mighty work, and upon His present place at the right hand of God. Furthermore, as a true child of God, he will never lose his relationship with God, whatever may come in subsequently.
What then does take place? It is important to understand what takes place. We have said that a true child of God will never lose his relationship with God, but what he will lose is the enjoyment of it. We must recognise that. Sin destroys communion. When we sin the very first thing to go is the enjoyment of our relationship with God. Distance comes in between us and God. Moreover, when we sin we become guilty in the sight of God; not guilty in the sense that we should come under His judgment, for the judgment was borne by Jesus. God cannot judge twice, for it would be unrighteous of Him to do so. But we become guilty in the sense that there is something outstanding between us and God, something which we can be held to account for, and something which needs to be settled. I will give you a simple example of this if we turn to Mark 11: 25-26. The Lord in speaking says: “And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have anything against any one, that your Father also who is in the heavens may forgive you your offences. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in the heavens forgive your offences.” Now it is quite clear that in this verse the Lord Jesus is addressing those who are in a known relationship with God, because he speaks of “your Father”. Yet He describes a situation where our offences will not be forgiven. Again, we need to make it clear that this does not touch eternal questions at all. It has to do with our present relationship with the Father here in the world. The Lord describes a particular situation in which the Father would not forgive one of his children. He may in some way make His displeasure felt. It may be that that person would come under His governmental dealings. What you can see from the Lord’s words is that things come into our lives which need to be settled between us and God. Someone may say, ‘But I thought that all my sins were covered by Jesus on the cross’. So they are, but that is a matter of God’s rights. Though our sins have been atoned for, if we would come into the enjoyment of the forgiveness of our sins we must have matters settled with God. 1 John 1: 9 shows us that there is only one way for them to be settled, and that is through the confession of them. John writes, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Only confessed sins are forgiven sins. It does not matter if a sin was committed yesterday, or last year, or twenty years ago, the passing of time can never blot it out. There is only one way in which that matter can be settled between us and God and that is through the confession of it to Him and to those against whom we have sinned.
Now we know that, naturally, the last thing that one is prepared to do is to confess one’s sins. I am sure we have proved that in our own experience. And that is where the patron service of our Lord Jesus is called into operation. He serves us in order to bring us to self-judgment, and full and frank repentance, in order that we may be restored to the enjoyment of communion with the Father.
In the first place the Lord Jesus is thinking for the Father, because the Father feels more keenly than we ever could the things that come in between Him and His children. The Lord Jesus, in acting in grace towards us, is thinking for His Father. He is thinking of our blessing too. He desires that we might be brought into communion once again with His Father, but He has the Father primarily in mind. He is “with the Father”. No doubt one aspect of His patron service involves communications with the Father. It is not that He has to persuade the Father to do something which otherwise He would not be minded to do. It is not that He has to persuade the Father to be favourable towards us. But the Father, as we know from John’s gospel, has committed certain matters into the hands of the Son. Judgment is one of those matters, John 5: 22, 27. That does not mean that, as having committed those matters into the hands of the Son, the Father is no longer interested in or concerned with them, but it means He has entrusted the Son with the detailed working out of those matters. And so here is one of them. The Lord Jesus has a detailed knowledge of the needs of our souls. In fact, He knows what we need better than we know it ourselves. What the Father receives is Christ’s assessment of the needs of our souls, and He is pleased to grant us forgiveness for Christ’s sake. How wonderful that is! John says that later on in the chapter, “Your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake”, v 12. The Father recognises the efficacy of Christ’s work and service, and He is ready to restore us to communion with Himself, for by doing so He shows the honour He has placed upon Christ.
I am so thankful that I have “a patron with the Father”, and that my Patron is none less than “Jesus Christ the righteous”. I say this soberly, but I wonder where I would have been today if it had not been for the activities of one blessed Man on high, unceasingly, on my behalf. To think that as we sit here there is a living Man with the Father, and He is thinking of me! I am in his heart, my soul is precious to Him, He is set for the blessing of my soul, and He speaks to the Father about me! I trust that we may use this occasion to draw attention to Him and to His faithful service, in order that our hearts may be drawn out to Him once more.
It says He is “Jesus Christ the righteous”. In that expression we get some sense of the perfect acceptability of one blessed Man to God. You see, Jesus has never needed anyone to represent Him to God. He could say, “I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8: 29), and, “I knew that thou always hearest me”, John 11: 42. We might then ask the question: ’How is it that one Man can have such influence with God? How is it that He has such ready access to God’s ear?’. In 1 John 2: 2 we get His qualification to be our Patron. It says, “He is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”. How great He is! Propitiation is that aspect of the work of Christ that is for God. Substitution - Christ taking our place - is for the one who has caused the offence. It is for the offender, that is, the sinner. Propitiation is for the one that has been offended, that is God. Jesus has done all that was necessary to take away from before God the offence that our sins have caused Him. And it says that not only is He the propitiation for our sins, “but also for the whole world”. That of course does not mean that the whole world will be saved, but that God is free, blessedly free, to come out in mercy towards all. Dear brethren, can we get some impression into our souls of the glory of one blessed Man, who is great enough not only to be the propitiation for our sins but also for the whole world? I cannot take that in! The greatness of it! You will notice that this verse does not refer directly to His work, although of course everything is based on that, but it says He is it! “He is the propitiation for our sins.” Think of the pleasure of God resting upon Him. Surely, if He is great enough for that, He is great enough to take charge of my affairs. If He is great enough for that, He is great enough to watch over my soul. He is great enough, I say, to take charge of everything that concerns my welfare and my blessing.
I turn to the verses in Luke 22 which have often been used to illustrate how the Lord’s service as our Patron works in practice. You will notice in verse 31 that the first thing the Lord Jesus does is to make a disclosure to these disciples, and to Simon in particular. He says, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, to sift you as wheat”. Now this is something that the disciples would have been entirely unaware of had the Lord not revealed it to them. The scripture speaks of “spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies” (Eph 6: 12), the unseen evil spiritual influences that are abroad. And here you get the impression that just for a moment the Lord draws back the veil to show them what was really happening. Satan had “demanded” to have these men. What a word that is! Satan had made his bid for these men, on the one hand. On the other, the Lord Jesus had been praying for them. This is something that these disciples would have been oblivious of had the Lord not disclosed it to them. And I believe we need to be more aware of this. Sometimes we persuade ourselves that we are free to come and go and do as we like. But I think we need to be more aware that Satan, in his activities towards us, seeks to exert an influence upon us, in order to spoil our relationship with God. In the first place all his forces, all his efforts, are marshalled towards preventing a soul from being saved. Thank God he has often failed. We can look round this room and we can say, ’Thank God, he has been defeated’. Does that mean he accepts defeat? Does that mean that he gives up? Alas not! If he cannot prevent a soul being saved his next thrust, the next focus of his efforts, is directed towards ensuring that that soul never enjoys his relationship with God. “Satan has demanded to have you.” We need to be more aware of this great antagonist, the great enemy of our souls.
On the other hand the Lord says, “but I have besought for thee”. How precious that is. Peter had not yet committed the great sin that he was about to; but already the service of our Lord Jesus in intercession had been called into operation. Already the Lord Jesus had been active in grace on his behalf.
The Lord says, “Satan has demanded to have you, to sift you as wheat”. I believe the analogy here is to the practice in the ancient world of sifting wheat by placing it in a sieve and shaking it backwards and forwards so that all the soil and other impurities might fall away. It seems that what was in Satan’s mind was that he was going to shake these disciples, and he was going to shake them and shake them, until nothing was left. What a triumph for Satan if he could show to God that, having shaken these men, there was nothing left. Trials occur in our lives, such as sickness or bereavement; problems arise in our circumstances - in Peter’s case it was the threat of persecution - and, I say this feelingly, but they shake us. There is no question about that. These things shake us to the very core. Satan draws near in our weakness to put dark thoughts into our minds, and we find doubts and fears arising in our hearts that we never knew were there. The comfort is that Jesus could say, “I have besought for thee.”
We might ask: ’Why was it that, instead of praying for Peter, Jesus did not stop Satan?’. I believe it was because these disciples, and Peter in particular, needed to be sifted. And, I tremble to say it dear brethren, but we need to be sifted. Peter was marked by self-confidence. There was no question that he loved the Lord, and there was no question that when he said that he was ready to die for the Lord he was perfectly sincere. But how hard it is for us to overcome the workings of secret pride and self-confidence, and how easily the flesh gets mixed up even in our best desires to love and to serve and to follow Christ. These men needed it. And, painful though it is, we need it too. The Lord, in His ways of infinite wisdom, allowed Peter to pass a way that was bitter to his soul. Peter found himself in a position that he was not equal to, where he committed a crime that he never dreamt he was capable of.
Now the comfort is that the Lord Jesus could say, “I have besought for thee that thy faith fail not”. That prayer was answered because, although Peter’s courage failed, his faith never did. And so the Lord is able to say, “and thou, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”. How lovely that is! You see, the ultimate issue was never in doubt. It was going to be a bitter and painful exercise, but the Lord does not say, ‘if thou art restored’, but “when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren.” What a mighty Defender Peter had, what a mighty Champion of his cause! There was no question that Peter would, in the end, be brought through to that point where not only would he be restored personally, but he would also be able to confirm his brethren.
Let us follow the Lord’s ways with him. Let us turn to the paragraph beginning at Luke 22: 54. I should say that we have always to remember when looking at scriptures like this that the disciples were much greater men than we are. If we take up their failures, if we seek to learn from them, we must remember that. We approach them humbly, and we approach them in the knowledge that the flesh in us is no different. You think of what a thing it would be, dear brother or sister, if your failures were recorded like this, if they were written down for everyone else to read of. It is a testimony to the greatness of these men, and what the Lord secured in them, that their failures are recorded for all to see and to learn from.
So in verse 54 we see that Peter had followed the Lord afar off. And it says, “And they having lit a fire in the midst of the court and sat down together, Peter sat among them”. You notice that: Peter sat among them. Could I make an affectionate appeal to the dear younger brethren? Here was Peter warming himself by the world’s fire. You say, ‘It was a cold night and he only wanted to be warm, what was the harm in that?’. But he found himself in the wrong company, and in that company he was led to act and to speak as if he never knew the Lord Jesus! How sad, how humbling it is, when Christians act in such a way that they make themselves indistinguishable from those who have rejected Christ. Peter found himself in the wrong company and he was very quickly overcome. He who was to be the first among the apostles was thrown into confusion by a servant girl. It says, “And a certain maid, having seen him sitting by the light, and having fixed her eyes upon him, said, And this man was with him. But he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him”. And so he goes on, and he goes on, and he goes on. And who knows where he would have ended but that it says, “And the Lord, turning round, looked at Peter”. I draw attention to this as a further example of His service as our Patron. It does not say that Peter looked at the Lord, but that the Lord looked at Peter. The cock had been crowing. We gather from the other accounts that the first time he denied Him the cock crowed, and when Peter denied Him again the cock crowed again. We might have said, ’Peter, do you not hear that sound in the distance? Oh Peter, why will you not stop?’. It speaks of the warnings which come into our lives that are often ignored. It shows the hardening effect of sin upon us. But what was it that stopped him in his course and brought him to his senses? It was a look from the Lord Himself. How blessed that is! You say, ’Can you hear that cock crowing, Peter? Does it not remind you of something?’. No, it did not. But it was when the Lord looked at him, that then it says, “Peter remembered the word of the Lord”. It illustrates how the Lord works in order that the Holy Scriptures, often overlooked by us, are brought to bear in upon the conscience. He serves to recall us to “the word of the Lord”. Then it was that Peter saw himself. Then it was that he realised what he had done. It says, “And Peter, going forth without, wept bitterly”. How thankful we are that he did. That was the beginning with him of deep, heartfelt repentance. It is a solemn thing when one sins with a high hand. Such persons do not, for the moment, get the gain of the Lord’s Patron service. But here was a man who was broken by what he had done to the Lord. These bitter tears were the evidence that the Lord’s Patron service had been effective.
In Luke 24 we have the account of the two one the way to Emmaüs, “And rising up the same hour, they returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together, saying, The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon”, v 33. To whom? To Simon! What, the Simon who denied the Lord with oaths and curses? The Simon who denied Him, not once or twice, but three times? Is that the Simon? Oh the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Of all the people in Jerusalem who could have had an appearing from the Lord, He appeared to Simon. Simon was among the least deserving of a personal manifestation of the Lord Jesus in resurrection. What perfect grace! What a loving heart He has! How He watches over our souls. What tender care He expends upon us. The remarkable thing about this particular meeting is that, though it is referred to more than once in the Scriptures, nothing is told us of what passed between them. Nothing is recorded of what the Lord said to Peter, nor of what Peter said to the Lord. It is not our business. But we do need to know that that meeting took place, because I think it was there that Peter was restored in his conscience. I am sure that he would have confessed all to the Lord, and he would have found that the Lord restored him in his conscience.
I turn to John 21. We see that the Lord has not finished with him yet. Peter is not fully restored yet, and so the Patron service of our Lord Jesus Christ goes on. We know the story of how Peter led a group of disciples away fishing. That was not what the Lord had in mind when He desired that he should confirm the brethren. We shall not confirm the brethren if we take them fishing, or anywhere else like that. The Lord had something far greater in mind for this beloved servant. In this chapter we see how the Lord works in recovery to bring him back to His thoughts about him. You will notice that the first thing that the Lord Jesus does is to have a fire of coals ready for them and fish cooking. It is a lovely example for us of the Lord’s activities in recovery: before He begins His probing of Peter, before He speaks to the disciples, He would have them warmed and fed. Thus it says in verse 15, “When therefore they had dined”. It needs spiritual energy in order to judge ourselves, and the Lord Jesus would have these men comfortable before He begins the probing of their hearts. It has been noted how, just as Peter denied the Lord three times, so the Lord Jesus raises this question with him three times. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” And it comes to the point after the final question that Peter says, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I am attached to thee”. Peter came to see that there was no need for him to boast of his love for the Lord, because the Lord knew just how much he loved Him. There was no question at all that Peter loved Him dearly.
How do we know that Peter was now fully restored? In Luke 24 he was restored in his conscience, but in John 21 he was to be restored in his heart. The evidence that that had taken place is in the Lord’s word to him, “Feed my sheep”. The Lord Jesus was about to depart, He was about to go back to the Father. To whom would He entrust the care of his precious sheep? No one had watched over them as well as He had. There is no Shepherd like the Lord Jesus. He would not entrust them to just anyone. But here He was leaving the world, and to whom could he entrust His precious sheep, the care of their souls? Whom could He rely on to watch over them in a way that would satisfy Him? Peter was the one. He says to Peter, “Feed my sheep”. The Lord thus expressed His confidence in Peter. He says, in effect, to Peter, ‘I want you to look after my sheep’. We are speaking of His service towards us as our Patron. This is an example of what He can do. He can take a man like Peter, who had fallen so low as to deny his beloved Lord, and bring him to that point where He has such confidence in him that He is able to entrust him with the care of His precious sheep.
How great the Lord Jesus is! How privileged we are to have such a Patron, such a mighty Deliverer, such a wise and skilful Defender, as He is. In His gracious ways with us, which are often painful to us, never let us lose sight of the tender love and care that He lavishes upon us. He never wearies of watching over our souls. He never tires of representing us to the Father. He will never relinquish this precious service towards us until that moment when we are finally with Him. I say again, how privileged we are to have such a Patron as Jesus Christ the righteous, serving on our behalf in order that we might be brought into free and happy relations with the Father Himself. I bring these matters before you so that our hearts may be drawn out to Him once more, and that we may be more aware of, and more thankful for, that service which He carries on hour by hour, day by day, unceasingly, untiringly, on our behalf. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous, our beloved Patron. I commend Him to you, in His precious Name.
Grangemouth
22nd May 2010