Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial Keywords: "denial” “Mount of Olives" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Mark 14:26-31* 26. And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27. And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.' 28. "But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." 29. But Peter said to Him, "[Even] though all may fall away, yet I will not." 30. And Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, that you yourself this very night, before a cock crows twice, shall three times deny Me." 31. But [Peter] kept saying insistently, "[Even] if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And they all were saying the same thing, too. Question How did Jesus know that Peter would fail him?   Practical help The disciples didn’t make it into the Kingdom of God on merit points. Take a look at verse 27. Peter sure wanted to. He argued that it didn’t matter what the other cowards were going to do; he would be a rock for Jesus. How about you? Have you argued with God lately about your condition? So you peeked a little at something you shouldn’t have. That doesn’t mean your so bad, does it? You’re not as bad as those others over there, you argue. Yet, God is holy. He requires sinlessness, but you I want to settle for “not so bad.” This is no different than Peter arguing with Jesus about his own skills and abilities and how they were going to enable him to stand strong in the face of all temptation. The good news in all of this is: 1. God knows your weaknesses better than you do, and 2. He loves you anyway. Before you can accept the good news, however, you have to receive some bad news: You are hopeless without God’s help. So don’t try to clean yourself up before you go to Him and tell Him what He already knows. You’re a mess. You need help. Ask Him if He will be merciful on you, a sinner, and see what happens. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2004 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." ---