Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words return and love.
Reading
Luke 22:31–34, John 21:15–19—Restored!
Optional Reading
Jer 33:1-11
Keys for kids
- Peter thought he could stand against Satan’s temptations.
- Jesus knew he couldn’t but prayed for Peter’s faith not to fail.
- Jesus restored Peter to service in Jesus’s church.
Questions
- What was Peter confident in?
- What did Jesus do to lessen Peter’s failure?
- What was Peter restored to do?
Notes
(See last page for authors)
Peter was confident in his own abilities to follow Jesus—even, he boasted, unto death. However, Jesus knew, and we now know, that Peter would deny even knowing Jesus before Jesus died on the cross. If anyone needed to be restored, it was Peter. And God is in the business of restoring. Jeremiah knew that. We know that.
A first encouragement of God’s restoring Peter is that his fall was tempered by the work of Jesus. Satan desired to destroy Peter’s faith, but Jesus prays for him (and for us!). As Morris notes, we notice that Satan has no rights here; he may ask, but it is God who is supreme. It follows that the trials and testings that come to God’s people are only those that he allows. The metaphor of sifting like wheat is unparalleled, but it is obvious that it signifies great trials. There was a turbulent future before the little band and specifically before Peter.
Even with this caution by Jesus there is a hope of restoration. When—not if—you return, strengthen your brothers. Then John communicates Jesus’s restoration of Peter. Three times he asks Peter if he loves him, three times he gives Peter a shepherding task. He is restored, not just barely, but as the early leader of the early church. God is in the business of restoring his people.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 80, 85a
Prayer
- Ask Jesus to pray for you to be kept from Satan’s temptations.
- Pray for change in you from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.