Friday 7 Apr 2023 - Good Friday

April 7: John 18:15-18

Key Verse: John 18:17
‘You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?’ she asked Peter. He replied, ‘I am not.’

Devotion:
What do you do when people mock you about knowing Jesus? What do you do when people mock Jesus around you? We all like to think we would stand up for Jesus and not allow anything bad to be said about Him, but we may well fail in the same manner as Peter did here. The failure is not because we do not know Jesus or that we do not love Him, but because we fear for our own lives instead.

Jesus has taught us we are to deny ourselves and follow Him; but this is a very big ask of many people because they have so much to lose in the world. When a certain rich man asked Jesus how to be saved he was told he would have to sell everything first – this was the centre of this rich man's life! When we cling on to worldly things our bond with Jesus is not as strong as it could be and certainly not as strong as we think it is! The world and it’s temptations goes much deeper than all the bad things we can think of!

We are going to face many things in our lives which will tempt us away from Jesus just as Jesus Himself had to face temptation from the evil one! The temptations will sound much better than anything we have in our lives; that is what makes them temptations! Jesus knows we are going to face them and He tries to give us the strength to reject them – but it is our choice as to what we do in the end.

Peter chose the easy way out because he saw what was happening to Jesus. He did not want to get taken away by the Romans and probably could not see why this should happen to Jesus. He may have been thinking: how is Jesus not saving Himself? But Jesus made the choice to do this for us. He willingly gave His life for us.

Points to Ponder:
Who were Jesus disciples at this time?

Do you realise Jesus did this for you too?