Jesus and eleven disciples had left the Upper Room; the Passover meal was over. Judas Iscariot had gone to do his evil business, but more evil was waiting to tempt the disciples. Jesus knew what would happen but His men refused to accept the truth about their own weakness and His power. Quoting from Zechariah 13:7-8, Jesus predicted that none of the disciples would stay loyal to Him: they would all fall away.
 
Peter deliberately contradicted his Master. Perhaps he could accept that the others were weak and might well desert their Lord, but he was stronger than them. Peter boasted that he would be utterly dependable. Pride had risen up like a poisonous snake to strike at the truth of Jesus' words. But Jesus persisted, with crushingly accurate detail, to tell Peter how weak he would be less than 12 hours later. Even then, Peter's self-important delusion (that he alone could support Jesus in His time of suffering) got the better of him, and led the others to repeat the same empty promise.
 
The arrogant fisherman could only see what he would do for Jesus, and not what Jesus would do for him. The promise of rising from death was ignored, along with the assurance that they would see Him again in Galilee. Jesus would not be left behind but would go ahead of them – a promise they forgot until the angel outside the empty tomb reminded them (Matthew 28:7).
 
The essence of sin is a refusal to accept God's Word as being fully true. That was how Eve and Adam started their fall from grace. It is the same for us. Our proud hearts are unwilling to believe the truth about ourselves, which is why we need God to tell us that we are prone to sin and that, despite our sincere protests, we will fail Him, others and ourselves. The other truth that we often refuse to accept is that nothing defeats Jesus; He is stopped by nothing and even when we think He cannot act in power, we find Him going ahead of us to welcome and forgive us. It is not what we can do for Him that counts, but what He has done and is doing for us. Accept these two big truths and enjoy the godly adventure that is the life of faith, instead of a series of woeful spiritual defeats.