Ready

This past weekend, Jonathan talked about failure by looking at the life of a famous Jesus follower ... Peter. This week, we are going to walk through five scenes in Peter’s life that surround Jesus’ arrest, death and resurrection. They will reveal an experience that is common to all of us (failure) along with hope for something extraordinary (reconciliation).


This first scene takes place the night Jesus is arrested while He is having dinner with His disciples. Jesus has just predicted that Judas, one of His disciples, would betray Him.


John 13
31 As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.
32 And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will soon give glory to the Son.
33 Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going.
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
36 Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?” And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”
37 “But why can’t I come now, Lord?” he asked. “I’m ready to die for you.”
38 Jesus answered, “Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter - before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.


Ready. I believe the statement Peter makes is where Jesus wants us to arrive in our journey of faith ... “I’m ready to die for you”. In other words, I am ready to sacrifice everything for you ... I am ready to surrender everything to you. The problem for Peter, and us, is that it takes a long time to arrive at that place in our journey. There are storms we have to weather and challenges we have to overcome with and decisions we have to wrestle with in our journey that prepare us for that place. Peter thought he was ready; but there was at least one more lesson he had to learn ... humility. He still needed to surrender his pride before he could arrive at the “I’m ready to die for you” stage in his journey. The beautiful irony is that Jesus was preparing to offer the ultimate example in humility and surrender by dying for Peter. If you are journeying toward that place of being ready, pray and ask God to reveal what might be keeping you from being ready and then ask Him to help you surrender it.