After Jesus had said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” He told him what would happen to him when he should be an old man. He said, “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.”
Perhaps you say, “Poor Peter!” but we should rather say, “Happy Peter!” for though we do not know for certain in what way Peter was put to death, we know that by his death he brought glory to God.
And then Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”
What a comfort those words must have been to Peter when he was an old man and it all came true — when he was bound and carried away to die; what a comfort to know that he was following his Lord, and that even though the path lay through suffering and shame and death, it would take him where Jesus was on the other side.
When Peter heard what should happen to him in his old age, he turned and saw John following, and he said to Jesus, “Lord, and what shall this man do?”
Jesus said to him, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me.”
Peter had to learn what we all have to learn, that we and our fellow disciples belong to the Lord Jesus; He has His own plans and purposes for each, and the right to do what He wills with us, the right to call one home to be with Himself by a violent death, and the right to leave another to serve Him here to extreme old age. The one thing we need concern ourselves about is just this — Are we, am I following Him, following Him in my youth, following Him everyday, till I reach Him where He is?