Have you ever said or even promised that you’d never do something, and then ended up doing exactly that? You’re not alone, because that’s what we see Peter did in our next look into his life, which we started looking at last week.
Check out Mark 14:27-31. We see Peter as the bold one again, speaking up when others don’t. It is clear from this passage that Peter has now started to really learn the lessons of discipleship and is becoming more truly dedicated to following Jesus – or else he spoke before he really thought about what he was saying! Peter assures Jesus that even if everyone else falls away from Him, he surely won’t! Jesus calls him out on this and not only tells him that he will disown Him, but exactly when and how many times! If I were Peter I’d be thinking I need to remember not to do that! Peter claims that even to the death, he will not deny Jesus.
What happens next? Peter denies Jesus 3 times, just as Jesus said he would. Read verses 66-72. In spite of Peter’s bold confidence just a little while earlier, his fear got the best of him. He wasn’t being asked about Jesus by people who had authority to actually persecute him for being associated with Jesus; but instead, he was challenged primarily by a simple servant girl. In spite of having followed Jesus for 3 years, Peter had a moment of human weakness and let his fears get the best of him.
Being humans, all of us will stumble and fall like Peter did. Even when we promise to keep following Jesus in every aspect of life, we will have moments where our human fears get the best of us and we, too, will deny the one whom we claim to follow. It is in times like these that we are especially thankful for God’s grace – that He loves us, forgives us, and still encourages us to keep following Him.
After Peter denied Jesus, I can only imagine the emotions he felt. He denied the person he loved and followed for 3 years, right before Jesus’ death! But, our God is always the God of second chances – or as many chances as we need. Read John 21:15-19 to see how Peter was empowered to keep following Jesus as a disciple.
Peter denied Jesus 3 times. Here, Peter has the opportunity to directly refute that and to tell Jesus he loves Him 3 times. It is significant that it’s 3 times; in that culture, if someone said something or asked you something 3 times it meant that they really and truly meant it. Again at the end of this passage, Jesus calls Peter to follow Him, echoing the words that started Peter on this crazy journey of being Jesus’ disciple.
As a disciple of Jesus, we always get another chance after we mess up. Like Peter, we need to be constantly reminded that we are Jesus’ disciples. We need to remember who our true teacher is and what it is we are called to do. Just because we mess up, even if it feels like a huge mess up, we are still called to follow Jesus.
What did Peter do next? He went on to receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and preach to multitudes of people (read about this in Acts 2). He did truly become one of the founding members of the early church, as Jesus said he would. It was Peter’s mission throughout the book of Acts to take the gospel to the Jews. But in Acts 10, he had a realization that changed the face of the church forever.
We meet a man named Cornelius in this passage. He is a Gentile and not a Jew, but yet we see that he fears God and prays regularly. One day, Cornelius has a vision of God, telling him to send for Peter. The next day, Peter is praying on a rooftop and he, too, has a vision. He sees a sheet coming down from heaven with all sorts of animals on it – animals that were considered unclean, or not to be eaten, by Jews. The voice of God tells him to go ahead and eat these animals. Peter says he can’t do that; this happens 3 times. Right after that, the people arrive who were sent by Cornelius to get Peter. The Spirit tells Peter it’s ok to go with them, so he does. The concern here was that it was against Jewish law to go visit at the house of a Gentile.
Cornelius shares his vision with Peter, and Peter shares the message of the gospel with Cornelius and everyone in the house – a house full of Gentiles. Up to this point, the gospel had been still primarily for the religious Jews, but not any more! Read Acts 10:44-48.
Everyone is realizing that the message of Jesus Christ and receiving of the Holy Spirit are truly for everyone – not just the Jews anymore. This was a huge eye-opening moment for Peter, and it changed the way he did ministry. Peter still leaned toward ministering to Jews, while Paul worked with the Gentiles, but it was a definite change for the early church as a whole. After this incident, Peter goes back to the believers in Judea and has to explain what happened to them, and he was able to open their eyes too.
So what does this tell us about being disciples? Well, it’s not just for “us” – those people who look like us, act like us, grew up like us, etc. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is truly for everybody! It is not our place to judge them; if they want to be a disciple, we need to encourage them in that walk.
Have you done things that you’ve regretted, like Peter’s denial of Jesus? Have you repented and accepted the true forgiveness that Jesus offers? We’re never too lost to receive another chance when we truly repent. Jesus is always there, waiting for you to be ready to come back to Him. We need to remember that all people are made in God’s image and have the opportunity to be Jesus’ disciples, no matter what walk of life they’re from. I hope learning more about Peter’s life has encouraged you to apply these principles to your life as you live out being Jesus’ disciple.
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