# 394 Keep Following Jesus

The Book of Genesis

Day 394

Ge 41: 32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

We  have been taking a little break from the study in Genesis to pursue the importance of repetition in the Scriptures. In particular we are looking at the “verily, verilies” found in the Gospel of John. When God repeats things, He is merely underlining or highlighting them for us. He gives them an extra sense of urgency. There are 24 “verily, verilies,” in the Gospel of John and today we look at the last one. It is found in Joh 21:18-23,

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.  19  This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.  20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?  21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?  22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.  23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”

Once again we have a “verily, verily,” that is more prophetic than underlining a spiritual truth. It’s a prophecy concerning the future for Peter. His death is not recorded in Scripture, but tradition says he was crucified upside down sometime during the Nero persecution. Jesus tells Peter that one day he would be tied up and carried away as a prisoner, and that he would likely die an early death. We can glean this latter information from Jesus statement about John.

So, one thing this “verily,verily” can teach us is that God is all knowing. (omniscient) In these “verily, verilies” Jesus has predicted the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, and now the death by which Peter would glorify God! And all of these future things came to pass!

This kind of knowledge is too wonderful for me. Some may take this omniscient quality of God and throw up their hands and say “What’s the use? God knows everything before it happens, what difference will it make as to how I live or what I do?” Don’t go there! Rather go with the advice that Jesus gave Peter, and keep following Jesus.

Make your #1 goal in life to keep exercising faith. Jesus told Peter, “this is how you are going to die, nothing you do will change that, in the meantime, follow Me.”  Peter follows up with a question that most of us might ask, “But what about this other guy? What about John?  And Jesus replies, “That’s none of your business, and He repeats the command to follow Him. 

Did you catch that? He repeats the command. Repetition! Underlined truth for Peter and you and I. “Follow Jesus! You don’t know your end on this earth, you don’t know mine. God knows and let that be enough! In the meantime keep following Jesus. Because in following Jesus you can know what really matters! Not your end on earth, but your beginning in heaven! Yes you can know this! John wrote in 1Jo 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.