Why do you follow Jesus?

Lately I’ve been thinking about why I follow Jesus, and why others follow Jesus. I know people who have been very intense Christians, to the point of having deep theological discussions with our friend group, who have decided they don’t believe Jesus is real anymore, or if He is real, that he’s not really God. And it’s caused me to think about why I believe and why others before me believe in and follow Jesus.

At the end of the day, I follow Jesus because I’ve met Him. I’ve encountered Jesus in different ways and times throughout my life, and I can’t possibly ignore those times.

But this thought process has brought me to looking at Peter’s life from when Jesus was arrested to < 2 months later at Pentecost.

I mean Peter is so on Jesus’ side that he chops a guys ear off when Jesus is being arrested. I don’t know if it was like a warning shot or if he just had really bad aim, but Peter is gung-ho ready to fight people about Jesus.

Then a couple hours later, literally within a couple hours, he denies being a disciple of Jesus and even says he doesn’t know Jesus 3 times!

Then Jesus is killed and resurrected and appears to Peter and a bunch of other people during a 40 day window.

But when he talks to Peter, he asks Peter a question 3 times, which is super important and really cool to study, but not what this talk is about, but after those questions, Jesus basically tells Peter that he’s going to be killed by other people. Peter looks around, sees another disciple (John), and asks Jesus, “Well, what about him?”. Like, “if I’m going to suffer and die horribly, others are too right?”

Jesus response gets me every time, He tells Peter, “If I want him to stay alive until I return, what’s it to you?! But you need to follow me.”

Jesus tells Peter not to worry about the path that others are on, and focus on following Jesus, no matter where it leads.

William McBirnie says it perfectly

Peter was a rare combination of courage and cowardice, of great strength and regrettable instability. Christ spoke more often to Peter than to any other of His disciples, both in blame and praise. No other disciple is so pointedly reproved by our Lord as Peter, and no disciple ever ventured to reprove his Master but Peter! However, by degrees and under the teaching and example and the training of Christ, Peter’s overly tempestuous character was gradually brought under control, until finally after Pentecost it became the personification of faithfulness to Christ

William Steuart McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2013).

So all this happens, Peter has this crazy conversation with Jesus, then within the next month, he’s preaching to huge crowds of people and the truth conveyed through his passion leads about 3,000 people to decide to follow Jesus and be baptized. The rollercoaster of Peter’s life over these 2 months is CRAZY

What happened to Peter that kept him coming back to Jesus? What was it that hooked him so deeply that even right before he was killed, as Jesus predicted, he gets almost 50 more people to follow Jesus.

The Search for the Twelve Apostles (Chapter Three: Simon Peter)

History tells us the amazing fact that in spite of all the suffering Peter was subjected to, he converted his gaolers, Processus, Martinianus, and forty-seven others. Peter, the Rock, as he predicted, met his death at Rome by the hands of the murderous Romans, who crucified him, according to their fiendish manner. He refused to die in the same position as our Lord, declaring he was unworthy. Peter demanded to be crucified in the reverse position, with his head hanging downward. Ironically enough, this wish was gratified by the taunting Romans in Nero’s circus AD 67.

Of everything Jesus said to Peter, I think one of the most heart-wrenching things was “What’s it to you? You need to follow me.”

Oh man, the only spot I want to be is following Jesus. I want to be in His plan for me. Not for someone else. I hope you do too.

Follow.

Jesus.