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.33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the **** shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
Why is this passage important? Because it indicates that Peter did all that he was required to do according to the law, Peter KNEW in his head who Jesus was, he had already confessed it, but the Lord indicates that Peter was in danger of being sifted as wheat by Satan. and the Lord said, "WHEN thou art converted......" What did Peter lack? He lacked a heart conversion.......later Christ asked him, "Do you love me more than these?" Peter declared he did......then the Lord told him three times to take care of his sheep and feed his lambs........to understand what Christ was concerned about, you have to look to what happened in the long term.
Peter was very prejudice toward his own and he had nothing to do with gentiles, he considered them beneath him and unclean. This is illustrated in the dream he had three times, three times, just as Jesus had asked him three times if he loved him more than the Jews. Three times Peter had a dream about a sheet being laid out and all manner of unclean animals running about on it and he'd been told three times to go and kill and eat. Each time Peter said he didn't eat unclean animals and never had......and the Lord said not to call unclean what HE had made clean. After this, he was told to go to the house of a gentile and tell him that the Christ had come. Peter did as he was told and when the man heard, he spoke their language, you know this because they knew he was praising God, but it was not HIS language and he did not know their language. When Peter saw that tongues had come upon this man as it had them in the beginning, he understood that this man had received the Holy Spirit just as they had on the day of Pentecost.
Likely the Lord was trying to illustrate to Peter that gentiles could be saved, something Peter previously did not believe to be true. I say this because Paul later said that tongues are a sign to the unbeliever and prophecy is for the believer. Paul had no such prejudice against gentiles since he was a half breed.......later Paul even had to call Peter out because he was ignoring some gentiles and would not eat with them when he was around his Jewish brethren. Surely the Lord excused this behavior in Peter and loved him and rewarded him all the same, but in the end, it was Paul who spread the Gospel far and wide and was given insight into the scripture that Peter was blind to due to his prejudice. When Peter still kept the attitude that he had, despite the Lord showing him extensively what he was supposed to do after having told him before he ascended, then the Lord recruited Paul on the road to Damascus.......a spiritually blind man who was very schooled in the scripture and had a zeal for the law and the prophets, to the extent that he held their coats as they stoned Stephen. Paul stood by and helped to persecute and kill Christians but the Lord saw his heart and that he THOUGHT he was in the right. So God increased his blindness on the road to Damascus to include his physical sight and then when he restored his physical sight, He also gave him spiritual sight to see Christ in the scripture. God provided for himself the right one to carry the Gospel forth to the Gentiles. A man who had Roman citizenship and the right to demand audience with the king........and so what Peter was SUPPOSED to do, Paul DID.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Galatians 2 (Paul withstood Peter because of his behavior toward gentiles)
Acts 10 (The Lord had to use a gentile to show Peter that he should no longer call them an unclean people, the Lord also used a dream sent to Peter to show him the same.)
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