No Good Fortune, No God

Last Sunday’s sermon was preached by Pastor Harry with the title “No Good Fortune, No God” (Matthew 26:57-75). The sermon and the whole service can be watched on our WIC YouTube Channel.


Today’s sermon title is: “No Good Fortune, No God”. I trust this doesn’t apply to our newly-weds, Alan and Maria! We’ll be blessing their marriage in just a while. For them, it must have been a year of good fortune – perhaps particularly for Maria: falling in love; becoming Jesus-centred in her faith; getting baptized in an exotic country; and then the church wedding soon after. Even more, Maria is really playing an active part in church life with her creative digital fliers designed for us each week. That sounds like very good fortune, right? So I’m sure they’ve both drawn closer to God.

 

But being close to God – as Peter found out – is still no guarantee that the good luck will last for ever. Maybe Peter thought that nothing could go drastically wrong with Jesus close by. So his first shock must have come when he saw that Jesus wasn’t defending Himself at all! Jesus was allowing Himself to be betrayed, arrested, and dragged before the high priest’s supreme Jewish court. But the worst came when Jesus said He was fulfilling the words of the prophets! The disciples knew exactly what that meant – death! So the Bible says they all deserted Him and fled at that point. Everyone!

 

Peter decided to follow the events by hanging around unrecognized in the high priest’s courtyard. Bad luck – three different people recognized him: a servant girl; another servant girl; and some other bystanders. Peter was so scared of losing his life that he forgot all about Jesus. Jesus was no longer on the throne of Peter’s heart – all that mattered to him right now was to save his own skin. So he was consistently denying that he knew Jesus at all – until the rooster crowed, and he remembered Jesus’ words. Peter walked away, crying bitterly – aware of his weakness; aware of his shame.

 

Ania and I spent the first half of last week in Gdańsk, to meet up with some old friends. Some of you might remember Eric, who was in charge of IT in our church several years ago. He met and married a Polish lady called Celina, who started attending our services at exactly the same time with her son, also called Eryk! They’re living in the States now, but Celina and little Eryk visited Poland to see their relatives, and we met up with them.

 

Life hasn’t been easy for them in America. Celina and her son found it difficult to adjust there. Little Eryk in particular felt uprooted: first, when he came to Poland from Spain; and then, after he was just getting the hang of reading, writing and speaking Polish, he had to start all over again in the USA. It’s left its mark on him; and his bad fortune has shattered his faith in God. How can God exist if He doesn’t answer his deepest prayers?

 

We all share Eryk’s dilemma. There are times when we too feel deserted by God, who seems deaf to our needs – just like Peter, and in fact all the disciples. Actually, God never abandons us – but sometimes we don’t realize this till many years afterwards. It took me my whole working life – 40 years – before I saw that God really had called me to be a pastor, all those years earlier! And in the time interval until you understand, God can even crush you completely and lead you through hell. He can certainly destroy all your hopes and plans. He’ll allow you to fall into sins you never thought possible. Not because He’s cruel – but because He loves you so much that He wants you to rely on Him alone.

 

How can we overcome our depression – our turning away from God in anger? And how did Peter do it, to become one of the greatest and most fearless leaders of the early church? No way did he do it himself! When release came, it wasn’t Peter’s doing at all. Neither was it my doing when I was finally appointed pastor. In Luke 24:49 the Jesus who had risen from the dead appeared to His disciples, and simply said to them: “I will send you the Holy Spirit, just as My Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven”. And they became fearless; full of God’s Spirit; and a powerful revival began.

 

So that’s my message to you – and also to you, Alan and Maria, when things in your marriage start to get difficult. The message is this: it’s not about good fortune or bad fortune at all. It’s entirely about God’s Holy Spirit power coming down to us from heaven.

 

You can’t create it or call it down in any way. You have to wait and trust in the Lord – sometimes for a very, very, very long time – and when it finally comes, it might even equip you for a completely different purpose than you yourself had ever intended. Just don’t lose hope – never lose hope. Never lose your faith and trust. God is simply waiting for the right time to bless you with His amazing power – because He loves you: you can be sure of that. That’s why He died for you, on the cross. Amen.

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