Lk. 22:45
“The religious leaders seized Jesus and led him away, but Peter followed from a safe distance.
They brought him to the home of the high priest, where people were already gathered out in the
courtyard.”
A true member of a group will proudly wear the badge of the group, football fans are a very
good example of followers. I used to work with a fellow who was an Arsenal football fan, and at
the time the Club was not particularly doing well, but this individual despite his not so fantastic
salary, was a season ticket holder, Des, would travel all over Europe supporting hie beloved
football club. I recall a season that they had a match against a Club in the East of Europe and
he could not afford to go by air, he took a few holidays so he could travel by coach, the entire
trip took 4 days! The most serious discussion I ever saw him had was discussing Arsenal
football – That is a follower. He was always proud of his Club and even when they lost a match,
he believes the next match will be better. When it got to a time when the Season ticket became
too much for him, he joined up with a friend to buy one, and they alternated the use of the ticket
to attend home matches of Arsenal. A true fan does not follow from afar, rather, they follow
closely.
As a follower, Peter was very close to Jesus, however, although he professed to love Him, he
nonetheless was a far off follower, a look at the times Jesus needed “help”, Peter was not there,
the first at the garden of Getsemane when He wanted him, James and John to pray along with
Him and when He was arrested. To be a far off follower, is an indication of lack of commitment
and sacrifice. It is easy for a far off follower to turn back from following. The far away follower is
prone to distraction and falling away as was Gehazi and Demas. The farther away a fellow is
from light the deeper he goes into darkness, in the same way, the farther off a Christian is from
Jesus, the easier will it be for the kingdom of darkness to overwhelm him.
Samson lived a reckless life, he gradually pulled himself away from God by clearly being
disobedient to his birth covenant, he ended up selling himself cheaply to the very enemy he was
born to take out, he lost everything because of his distance from God.
In Is.1:18-19 the Lord says the route to having the best of God is in willingness and coming, but
that must start from coming to Him and being in extra close proximity, it by doing so that we can
correctly be a reflection of Him. How close you to Jesus will determine will determine how far
you go in every area of life. The closer you are to the Lord, the easier the spirit of God will light
on you.
Are you close to Him?