How Much Do We Really Know?

  

“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.’” John 13:36 – 38.

 

I think it was Oswald Chambers who talked about “the graciousness of uncertainty.” While I don’t recall the context of the phrase, it is a reminder that our Lord Jesus reveals Himself in uncertainty – an uncertainty often manifested in the midst of certainty. That is, when we are so certain that we know the truth of ourselves and our situations, God often leads us into whitewater and upsets our equilibrium.

 

We can receive God’s graciousness in uncertainty when we realize that we don’t know as much as we think we know, whether our purported knowledge is about ourselves, about our situations, or about others (especially others!). Is it not the mercy of our Lord Jesus that He upsets our self-centered knowledge rather than allowing us to continue in our misconceptions and delusions? Is it not His graciousness that brings us to the end of ourselves, again and again and again – driving us back to His Cross?

 

Peter wants to know where Jesus is going; he will find out soon enough. This will not be the last time that Peter has the experience of following Jesus into unlikely places, of seeing Him and then not seeing Him and then seeing Him again.

 

Peter will later write, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps…Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” (1 Peter 2:21; 4:12 – 13).

 

From the home of Simon the Tanner, Peter will follow Jesus to the house of Cornelius – a place where Peter would not have expected to go (Acts 10). In Antioch (Galatians 2:11 – 21), Peter will receive Paul’s rebuke, again, a place Peter would not likely have chosen to be.

 

In the Upper Room Peter did not understand the situation he was in, he did not understand his surroundings, he did not understand what Jesus was saying and doing (recall John 13:6 – 9). This reminds us of Peter’s confession and denial in Matthew 17:13 – 23; one moment Peter is receiving the revelation of the Father, the next moment Peter is playing the role of Satan.

 

O dear friends, it is good and proper that we be sure of Jesus Christ and His faithfulness and trustworthiness; it is not very smart to get caught up in ourselves for we just don’t know as much as we think we know – not about ourselves, not about our situations, and most certainly not about others.

 

Jesus says, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”

 

This is, dear friends, a motif of discipleship, of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus must do a work in our souls, in our hearts and minds, for us to follow Him. Jesus brings us onward and upward, He leads us through valleys and up mountains, into places of bright light and shadows of death – into times of rejoicing and seasons of sorrow. Our Good Shepherd leads us thusly that we may know Him and be blessings to others. Jesus teaches us the Cross, then He teaches us the Cross again, and then again and then again. We experience Easter one morning, and then another morning, and then another morning. We are transformed into His image from “glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 8:29).

 

Peter’s denial of Jesus will cause him to “weep bitterly” (Luke 22:62). Yet, Jesus has not only told Peter, “I have prayed for you,” (Luke 22:32), but Jesus has told all of the disciples, just as He has told all of us, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (Jn. 14:1).

 

Let us remember that chapter breaks were not in the original New Testament manuscripts, therefore let us not stop after reading John 13:38 but rather continue reading to listen to Jesus. What do you hear?

 

“Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times. Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” (Jn. 13:38 – 14:2).

 

In our uncertainties, in our confusion, and even in our times of denial, Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus has prayed for us (Jn. 17:20), Jesus is going away for us, Jesus is coming to us again, Jesus is taking us with Him so that where He is, we may be also. We have His assurance that He wants us to be with Him (see also Jn. 17:24).

 

Jesus Christ wants to be with us! He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Jesus Christ is the Guarantor of our faith, the One who guarantees that He will be with us and that we will be with Him – for without Him we can do nothing, and “nothing” means just that, “nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

 

When we were “dead in our trespasses and sins” we were “made alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1 – 10). We are “His workmanship” – we are not our own. We were marked out in Christ “before the foundation of world” that we would be “holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:3 – 12).

 

O dear friends, in one sense we don’t know as much as we think we know, not about ourselves, our situations, or about others. However, in another sense, if we know Jesus Christ then we know all that we really do need to know – for we will find Him coming to us again and again and again, never leaving us, never forsaking us – in our uncertainties, our denials, our arrogance, our fears, our selfishness – Jesus is always with us, coming and going, convicting and healing, wounding and making us whole; bringing us onward and upward in Him, guiding us into the depths of the Trinity and life with one another.

 

Life in Christ in the Upper Room means that Jesus uses even our denials to bring us to the Cross and Resurrection. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled…”

 

Jesus brings us to the end of ourselves so that we may know Him as our All in all.

Is this worth knowing?