The Last Step Before the Fall

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: The Last Step Before the Fall ------------------- Date: 11/2/2001
Keywords: "self-confidence" "temptation"
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Passage: John 13:36-38*

36. Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow later."

37. Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You."

38. Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times.

Questions

1. In this passage, Jesus is intent on preparing His followers for life after He is gone. It is His last night with them. What do you think is the "mood" of this scene?

 

2. What emotion do you hear in Peter’s question, "Why can’t I follow you now, Lord?"

 

3. As you meditate on verse 37, do you come to the conclusion that Peter suspected he was in danger of falling?

 

Practical help

Peter was warned. His resolve was not as strong as he thought it was. He would be tested and found lacking. We read in other passages that describe this same exchange that Peter had so much confidence in his own resolve and strength that he boasted that even though everybody else might fall away and deny Jesus, he wouldn’t! (Mark 14:29)

There is something COURAGEOUS and NOBLE about a godly resolve to stand firm. There is something UGLY and TRAGIC about a self-confidence that is blind to one’s capacity to fall.

Those who struggle with a besetting sin (like an addictive compulsion to lust carried out in front of the computer screen), may be tempted to put far too much trust in their own resolve. When they do, they will be as disappointed as Simon Peter after his three-fold denial!

Peter’s deliverance lay in Jesus’ ability to deliver him, not in his own ability to be strong. Followers of Jesus from that day to this need to remember Paul’s words from Ephesians 6, "Finally, be strong IN THE LORD and in the strength of His might."

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*"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."