Matthew 26:58 But Peter followed him at a distance right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.
For those who don’t know, this verse speaks of what Peter did when Jesus was captured and being led to the high priest basically to begin the process of being crucified.
So…What happens when we follow Jesus from a distance? Well, in Peter’s situation he ended up finding warmth from the enemies fire at the courtyard, hanging with the guards that captured Jesus, even using profanity to emphasize how much he didn’t know Jesus when accused of being his disciple by the local people.
In our times we do much of the same. Finding warmth from the enemies fire. The fire is acceptance from the world or compassion from the world instead of God. Sometimes we have pity parties and seek comfort from people in place of God. That’s dangerous because when people aren’t around to pour out our problems we fall into depression. God is always around and we should seek him.
Now…Hanging with the guards, the guards in this verse represent our surroundings. Who are we surrounding ourselves with? Peter was a good guy so he wasn’t doing a bad thing here or was he? He was actually overwhelmed with fear, fear of taking a stand for Jesus and receiving a death sentence with him. So he chose to blend in. The only time we should blend in, is when we are surrounded with believers. The bible says we are to be a light and we can’t accomplish that in a sports bar, a sexual relationship outside of marriage, gossiping, partaking in sin with other people only makes us a bad witness and when we fall to those desires we are actually receiving the same death sentence Peter was afraid of back then, an eternal death apart from God when we deny Christ. No thanks.
Peter goes on in the verses that follow and actually cursed the name of Jesus denying him 3 times with profanity. This is understandable in his situation because he was looking at possibly being crucified if he said he knew him. I don’t think I’d have the courage myself, death is one thing but the cross is something else.
I bring this last part up because Peter walked with Jesus and was told many times in scripture and probably many more times that weren’t recorded of this event that was to take place but Peter didn’t listen and wasn’t ready when it actually went down. He denied even knowing Jesus cursing his name with profanity. Basically went 100% flesh.
It’s simple…When we follow Jesus from a distance we fear people more than the Lord. isn’t that what’s happening today. Crazy shootings, bombings, rumors of wars there’s fear of people rising in our nation everyday more and more and no fear of the Lord but unlike Peter we need to listen to what the bible says about these things and be ready before the next trial hits.
Draw near to him and he will draw near to you.
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