The Gospel of John reveals some of Peter’s greatest missteps and moments of weakness, from a failed water-walking attempt to cutting off a man\u2019s ear. His darkest moment came when he denied being Jesus\u2019s disciple. But for all of his fumbles and failures, Jesus never rejected Peter, even after Peter\u2019s vehement rebuttal. It\u2019s clear in John 21 that the relationship between Master and disciple was restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an early morning of breakfast and conversation, seaside. Three times Jesus questioned Peter\u2019s love for Him, echoing Peter\u2019s trilogy of denials in the previous chapter. Jesus\u2019s responses involved calling Peter to care for His sheep, for His Church. It\u2019s a redemptive example for us, as we see that Peter had been forgiven and included in Jesus\u2019s plans for His kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus also revealed a hard truth: Peter\u2019s future martyrdom. We shouldn\u2019t see this as a punishment for earlier mistakes, since Jesus didn\u2019t give any indication of this. Neither did He elaborate on the details or even the time frame regarding the end of Peter\u2019s life. Instead, He issued both an invitation and a command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFollow me.\u201d Jesus places how Peter will die in the context of how he should live. \u201cFollow me.\u201d This two-word sentence is the driving theme of Jesus\u2019s directives to Peter. When we reflect on the conversation in whole, we are reminded of what it means to say yes to Him. The call to follow Jesus is a commitment to discipleship, a commitment to live out the gospel in a world that is opposed to the message of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFollow me.\u201d Jesus\u2019s instruction to Peter isn\u2019t just a one-time action. In the original Greek reading, the phrase carries the meaning of repeated action. Each day that we live is an opportunity to embrace the invitation to follow Jesus, to love Him deeply, and to serve Him wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps when reading John 21, the revelation of Peter\u2019s death alarms us, maybe even disturbs us. Jesus refuses to shield us from the truth. As His disciples, we will encounter hard seasons and challenging times, and often. But whatever interval of life we go through, we submit to His will. Jesus knows from experience what opposition, pain, and grief feels like. And \u201cas our merciful and faithful high priest\u201d (Hebrews 2:17), He is with us, infusing us with the strength to endure all that we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other scriptures, including Peter\u2019s writings, reveal to us that Peter remained faithful to Jesus’s call to \u201cshepherd [His] sheep\u201d (John 21:16). Echoing Jesus\u2019s words, Peter encouraged other leaders to \u201cshepherd God\u2019s flock\u201d (1Peter 5:2), overseeing God\u2019s people with care and compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We may not all hold a formal leadership title. But as members of God\u2019s flock, He has commissioned each of us to follow Him, to carry out whatever He has entrusted to us. And Peter promises that when our chief Shepherd returns for us, He will reward our faithfulness (v.4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Gospel of John reveals some of Peter’s greatest missteps and moments of weakness, from a failed water-walking attempt to cutting off a man\u2019s ear. His darkest moment came when he denied being Jesus\u2019s disciple. But for all of his fumbles and failures, Jesus never rejected Peter, even after Peter\u2019s vehement rebuttal. It\u2019s clear in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":72652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[305],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72756],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"JESUS'S FINAL INVITATION<\/b> The Gospel of John reveals some of Peter's greatest missteps and moments of weakness, from a failed water-walking attempt to cutting off a man\u2019s ear. His darkest moment came when he denied being Jesus\u2019s disciple. But for all of his fumbles and failures, Jesus never rejected Peter, even after Peter\u2019s vehement rebuttal. It\u2019s clear in John 21 that the relationship between Master and disciple was restored.<\/p> It was an early morning of breakfast and conversation, seaside. Three times Jesus questioned Peter\u2019s love for Him, echoing Peter\u2019s trilogy of denials in the previous chapter. Jesus\u2019s responses involved calling Peter to care for His sheep, for His Church. It\u2019s a redemptive example for us, as we see that Peter had been forgiven and included in Jesus\u2019s plans for His kingdom.<\/p> Jesus also revealed a hard truth: Peter\u2019s future martyrdom. We shouldn\u2019t see this as a punishment for earlier mistakes, since Jesus didn\u2019t give any indication of this. Neither did He elaborate on the details or even the time frame regarding the end of Peter\u2019s life. Instead, He issued both an invitation and a command.<\/p> \u201cFollow me.\u201d Jesus places how Peter will die in the context of how he should live. \u201cFollow me.\u201d This two-word sentence is the driving theme of Jesus\u2019s directives to Peter. When we reflect on the conversation in whole, we are reminded of what it means to say yes to Him. The call to follow Jesus is a commitment to discipleship, a commitment to live out the gospel in a world that is opposed to the message of hope.<\/p> \u201cFollow me.\u201d Jesus\u2019s instruction to Peter isn\u2019t just a one-time action. In the original Greek reading, the phrase carries the meaning of repeated action. Each day that we live is an opportunity to embrace the invitation to follow Jesus, to love Him deeply, and to serve Him wholeheartedly.<\/p> Perhaps when reading John 21, the revelation of Peter\u2019s death alarms us, maybe even disturbs us. Jesus refuses to shield us from the truth. As His disciples, we will encounter hard seasons and challenging times, and often. But whatever interval of life we go through, we submit to His will. Jesus knows from experience what opposition, pain, and grief feels like. And \u201cas our merciful and faithful high priest\u201d (Hebrews 2:17), He is with us, infusing us with the strength to endure all that we face.<\/p> Other scriptures, including Peter\u2019s writings, reveal to us that Peter remained faithful to Jesus's call to \u201cshepherd [His] sheep\u201d (John 21:16). Echoing Jesus\u2019s words, Peter encouraged other leaders to \u201cshepherd God\u2019s flock\u201d (1Peter 5:2), overseeing God\u2019s people with care and compassion.<\/p> We may not all hold a formal leadership title. But as members of God\u2019s flock, He has commissioned each of us to follow Him, to carry out whatever He has entrusted to us. And Peter promises that when our chief Shepherd returns for us, He will reward our faithfulness (v.4).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"33","scripture":"John 21:1-25, Hebrews 2:17-18, 1 Peter 5:1-4","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014John 21:19<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\r\nby Tameshia Williams<\/i>
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\u2014John 21:19<\/em><\/p>
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