Foresaken
“Then they all forsook Him and fled.”
This after Peter had clearly said to Jesus in verse 31:
“If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
Truly, it must be one of the saddest verses in the whole Bible. They all forsook Him, that is every single one of the disciples. Maybe this morning, you are feeling disappointed. Maybe you are going through a painful divorce or a broken friendship. Perhaps a business partner has let you down and you feel deserted. Just when you needed your brothers in the faith to stand with you, they seemed to have vanished into the mist.
Oh, I know that feeling very well... But the Good News today is that Jesus Christ will never desert you. He has put His money where His mouth is - so to speak. You see, He has holes in His hands and a hole in His side to prove it - He has never and will never desert you. He is not like the fair-weather Christian... When everything is going well, he is standing with you but when the sea becomes dark and stormy, he is nowhere to be seen. In these perilous times that we are living, we need to be loyal. We need to be faithful, steadfast - immovable like the Rock of Gibraltar.
Many years ago when I had just started farming here at Shalom, we had a bush fire - It was an ugly one! I went on the little tractor that I had, a small fire-fighter on the back (a small tank of water) and my oldest son. He was only seven years old at the time. He sat next to me on the tractor and we were busy, with lots of others, trying to put the fire out. The wind turned, and the fire came straight at us! As I was battling to get the tractor into reverse, the next thing I looked around and we were engulfed by flames. By the grace of God, we managed to get out of that scrape!
We sat down on a rock, me and my little son and I said, “Andy, you had a chance to get away, why didn’t you do it?” He said, “No dad, I am with you all the way!”
Don’t forsake the only one who can pull you out of that fiery trial today.
God bless you and goodbye.