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The Final Step of Peter’s Journey

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What Does it Mean to Let Jesus IN?

Over the past several weeks we’ve been going through the journey of Peter getting to know Jesus and the development of their relationship. This week we’ll discuss the final step of that process.

Have you noticed how all the previous messages have included words starting with the letters IN.

  • INtroduction
  • INvitation
  • INstruction
  • INterruption
  • Re-INstallation

This week we’ll look at INdwelling.

This journey began with Peter’s INtroduction to Jesus. All relationships begin here. Introduction is the act of introducing two people. We need to be introduced to Jesus as well as introduce others to Him.

The next step on the journey was Jesus INvitation to Peter to join Him in His journey. Invitation is what happens after being introduced. Peter needed an invitation from Jesus. One we’re introduced, Jesus invites us all to join Him.

As Peter is following Jesus, he gets INstruction from Him. This is when someone is showing and telling you how to do something. Instruction is the next level of learning. The Bible is full of God’s instructions for how we should live our lives.

Then what happens too often in everything we do is INterruption. This is where Peter let the things of the world interrupt his relationship with Jesus and he denied Him three times. Don’t let the world interrupt your relationship with Jesus. But if it does…

Jesus will forgive you and allow reINstallion.

This part of the journey is one of the hardest. After we mess up, why would anyone want anything to do with us, especially Jesus? This is probably the most important thing in this journey. This forgiveness we receive from Jesus is the reason He gave Himself up to be hung on a cross.

Don’t let this act of love go to waste.

This brings us to the final step of Peter’s discipleship journey – the INdwelling of Jesus. Indwelling is to inhabit or possess a person. This is what Jesus wants. He wants to inhabit and possess us fully. When this happens, we’ve come to a level in our relationship with Him that involves Him in everything we do.

The act of letting Jesus IN isn’t the same for everyone. But it’s up to us to take the journey.

How Much are You Willing to Sacrifice for the Ones You Love?

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God was Willing to Sacrifice His Only Son…That’s a Lot!

Most people are familiar with the Bible verse, John 3:16. It is the most popular verse out there. The reason for this is in its simplicity. This one verse summarizes the entire Gospel message in one simple statement.

This is the Gospel in a nutshell.  

  • Martin Luther called it “The Gospel in miniature”.
  • Biblical Commentator William Barclay wrote that it is “the very essence of the Gospel.”
  • Comedian Jeff Foxworthy stated, “This is the promise that bears hope for the hopeless.”
  • Gospel preacher, Robert Jackson, entitled it “The greatest sentence ever written.”　
  • Author Max Lucado described it as the “hope diamond of the Bible.”

John 3:16.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, the inquiring Rabbi, who came to Jesus by night:

For God

so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him

should not perish

but have everlasting life.

John 3:16, “is a twenty-six word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with Life, and urging us to do the same,” wrote Max Lucado. “Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions.

If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here.”

An unknown author penned this tribute to John 3:16

“God“…………………………………………..….The greatest Lover

“so loved”………………………………………The greatest Degree

“the world”……………………………….….The greatest Company

“that He gave”………………………………………The greatest Act

“His only begotten Son”…………………………The greatest Gift

“that whosoever”………….………..……The greatest Invitation

“believeth”………….………………..…….The greatest Simplicity

“in Him”………………….…………………..…..The greatest Person

“should not perish”….……………….…….The greatest Promise

“but”………………………..………..………The greatest Difference

“have”….……………………………………..The greatest Certainty

“everlasting life”………………………..The greatest Possession

God’s willingness to give His Son to be killed on a cross by the very people that He came to save shows how much God loves us. This level of sacrifice is hard to emulate.

The Rev. George Bennard was “praying for a full understanding of the cross and its plan in Christianity.”, when he wrote the famous hymn, The Old Rugged Cross. He spent many hours in study, prayer and meditation, until he could say, “I saw the Christ of the cross as if I were seeing John 3:16 leave the printed page, take form and act out the meaning of redemption.”

As humans we overcomplicate the simple. We think everything has to be difficult. We think the message in John 3:16 is too amazing to understand and too simple to accept. It’s not!

It’s everything we need to know and nothing we don’t.

God has done all of the hard work… we just need to believe, accept and share!