Right and wrong expectations. You woke up this morning and you
had some expectations. When you flick that switch,
you're expecting the light to go on, and it did.
Most likely. You went to the bathroom, turn
on the fog, the tap or whatever for the shower, whatever that
was, and you wanted water to run and it did.
You turn on the coffee maker, get some hot coffee, and it got
hot. Expectations are everywhere.
You came to church this morning expecting a service here, and
there is one right now. We're in it.
Maybe last week you were expecting a paycheck or over the
last few weeks and you got one. Most of life is built on this.
But what if they're not met? What do we do when we realized
to our disappointment, what we had expected is not going to
happen and it doesn't? What do we do?
What do we do when our expectations are such that we
wait, we hope, maybe pray, and nothing happens?
Many years ago in Mexico, 1987 and I got married and we made
our way to Canada that same week and started work here.
We had all kinds of expectations and many of them were met that
first summer. We worked for a cash crop farmer
doing field work, picking cucumbers, tomatoes, that kind
of stuff. Peppers I think it was, I don't
know if we did Peppers, but anyway, it was just cash crop
farming. And it was hot near Saint
Thomas. And there's this one small
field, maybe a few acres, kind of tucked in a large row of
trees, kind of around semicircle.
And the trees stopped the breeze from blowing.
And it was so sultry, hot. It was just hot.
There was this mother with her daughter.
We knew the family. The rest of the family was
elsewhere but working elsewhere. But the mother and her teenage
daughter were working there too. And this young teenage girl was
helping her mom pick cucumbers. I'll never forget.
She didn't like it, not one bit. She was dragging the hamper and
picking the cucumbers, bending over and picking cucumbers,
complaining the whole time I was listening.
Anna and I were a young married couple.
We had to make a go of things and we just tried to earn a
paycheck, pay the rent, pay the bills and get ahead.
I was listening to this young girl and I asked her at one
point and said when you came to Canada, what were you expecting?
I'll never forget this young girl's response.
And she responded the way maybe a young teenage girl only could.
And she said, I thought it would be like heaven or something.
I heard that comment. And that's no 38 years later,
more still remembers if she said it yesterday, her expectations
had not been met, not even close.
What you'd hoped for had not happened.
And it was so far from what she wanted.
I'm going to ask us this question this morning.
What are you expecting? What did you expect?
Is your life where you expected it to be at this age where
you're at now, happily married, happily retired, healthy, fit,
wealthy friends? If it is good for you.
I don't think there's anybody here would say, Yep, 100% of my
expectations have all been met. That doesn't happen that way.
Most of us, we've had a lot of missed expectations.
So how are you handling it? How are you doing?
How are you handling it? And I imagine this for many of
us growing up as a child, just can't wait till we're 16 and get
that beginner's permit and start driving and only to be met with
a mountain of obstacles and challenges.
We got to do this and that. And then there's insurance to
pay and this job and all that stuff.
And maybe you dropped out of school and you're going to get a
good job, you're going to make lots of money and you're going
to feel satisfied. And then that job was not what
you expected. Now you're past the point of
going to school maybe, and you got stuck with debt and who
knows what, and you're working at a job you don't like and on
and on it goes. You're not getting out of it
what you wanted. And maybe you're in a
relationship that's not working. It hasn't worked out and years
have gone by and just life is just one big disappointment.
You had this dream, what it's going to be like and it just
felt flat and flat lined. It died.
Maybe it's even church. Some preacher let you down and
started say preaching things that said things to you that
sold you a bag of goods and you're going to follow Jesus and
things will be better and never talk to you about the cross.
And you have struggles now. And yeah, on it goes.
Everybody at some point meets up with missed expectations.
It's an unavoidable reality. But what is in our power is
this. We can choose to adjust, and
according to the teaching of Jesus in Scripture, there's
hope. Even then, yes, expectations
will be missed, maybe wrongly, but we will be equipped,
prepared to adjust and adapt. How we respond to missed
expectations determines our path forward.
In Scripture, we find many stories of wrong and missed
expectations. We'll go into Mark Chapter 11 in
a minute, But beginning in Genesis, did Adam and Eve really
think that they were going to get kicked out of the garden if
they ate a forbidden fruit? No, the expectation was if we
eat, we'll be like God. That was the expectation.
The reality was they died spiritually or the children of
Israel. God promised the salvation,
rescue out of Egypt into the promised land.
Did they expect the hardships of the desert?
No, but that was the path through which they had to
experience life and they didn't do so well.
We know the complaints they had and resulted in a lot of
consequences. And finally, 40 years of
wandering in the desert. People are still like that
today. We must align ourselves with
Christ, even in our unmet expectations and walk together
with him. This morning we want to go
through Mark Chapter 11, the gospel of Mark and we want to
see what happened there. Mark chapter 1 to chapter 10 was
about a three-year time frame. I think I mentioned this last
Sunday. Then from Chapter 11 to the end
of the, the gospel, that's only a that's only a week.
We will notice as we go through this passage that the
expectations were high. Jesus on his way to Jerusalem,
the crowds expecting big things, big doings.
What the crowds expected Jesus would do was not what Jesus came
to do. Very opposite expectations.
And it would be the crowds missed expectations.
That would be the leverage the religious leaders would use to
arrest Jesus, torture him and have him killed.
When we have expectations and they're not met, we need to be
ever so careful how we respond. And we'll see in our sermon this
morning that the crowd was disappointed with Jesus.
We'll also see Jesus was disappointed with a crowd as
well. It worked both ways.
Let's read Mark 11 beginning verse one, and your Bibles are
in your devices. Turn to Mark Chapter 11, verse
one. Now when they drew near to
Jerusalem, to Beth Phage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the
village opposite you, and as soon as you've entered it you'll
find a colt tied on which no one has SAT.
Loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, why
are you doing this, say the Lord has need of it, and immediately
he will, He will send it here. So they went their way and found
the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they
loosed it, But some of those who stood there said to them, What
are you doing? Loosen the colt and they spoke
to them, just as Jesus had commanded, So they let them go.
Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on
it, and he sat on it. And many spread their clothes
and clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches
from the trees and spread them on the road.
Then those who went before and those who followed cried or
think Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Blessed is the Kingdom of her
father David that comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. And Jesus went into Jerusalem
and into the temple. So when he looked around at all
things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany
with the 12. We can just imagine the
excitement and the energy, the anticipation of the crowd.
Many of them, we can safely assume had heard of him for
sure, maybe even had heard him personally speak, not just heard
of him. Maybe I'd even experienced some
connection with him. We don't know.
But there was. He was very widely known, but
this time was different. He's riding into town, into
Jerusalem. He's being worshipped.
He's recognized as the Messiah. Something really big is going to
happen. The long-awaited prophecy is
finally be going to become reality.
What they didn't know in less than a week he was going to be
dead. Jesus knew this, but they
didn't. The danger of wrong
expectations. They expected a Messiah, A
deliverer. They expected Jesus, Jesus to
come and save them from the Romans.
It was true the Jews did need saving, but the saving they
believed they needed and hope would get and the saving Jesus
came to do was different. But Jesus came to offer could
not have been more different than they expected.
The Jews believed they needed saving from the Romans.
They control the country. They control the nation.
They were waiting for the day and that would happen.
They would once again be free and independent and make their
own rules and live by their own laws and no subjection to Rome
anymore. Jesus knew that.
Jesus knew that the Jews needed saving, but in a much deeper way
than just being their own nation.
The real power that the Jews were under was not the power of
Rome. It was the power of sin that
they had no idea of. No, we're God's children, and
Jesus had come to break that power, and he would on the
cross. The Jews believed the Romans are
our biggest problem. No, Jesus knew sin is your
biggest problem. So they wanted a king, a ruler.
In addition to wanting to be free from the Romans, they
wanted a king who they could follow, who would lead them,
show them the way like King David of old.
The Messiah was going to do that.
They looked at Jesus as the ruler and they praised him on
the way into town. But again, the kind of king they
were expecting and the ruler that Jesus was going to be was
vastly different. You see, people always seek
someone to follow or something to follow, and we all follow
something. There's no such thing as
following nothing. The trends, culture, whatever,
we follow something. Even Jesus as a man followed his
father. It says in the Gospels.
He came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father.
Not only that, the crowd also wanted, they wanted a savior, A
Messiah. They wanted a king, but they
wanted a conqueror. They were under Roman rule,
government of the Romans for so long, having been subjected to
Rome for so long. They would somebody who's going
to pay them back, maybe settle a score or two in all these
things. This is what they were
envisioning this Jesus Messiah to be.
When he walked into town, he wrote into town.
They got him wrong. Jesus did not come to fix an
earthly political system. That was not why he came an
earthly ruler to run the country economically, never mind going
to war with his enemies. Instead, he presented himself as
a gift, as the Lamb of God, as a shepherd to serve and in the end
sacrifice his life for the sins of the world.
How about us? What expectations are we missing
in life? The problem is not the
circumstances. The problem is not God or
anything else. The problem is here, what
expectations are we missing? It is painful.
We expected fully this would happen.
Maybe you served someone, gave yourselves to someone only to be
rejected, and then you didn't expect it.
And but if our meaning and purpose and value is tied into
that, we will be terribly disappointed.
What are you and I expecting of Jesus to make our life better?
There's many people who've made a mess of their lives when they
heard that. If you follow Jesus, it will be
better. The problem is the word better.
What's better mean? It means closer to Him, living a
holy life, walking with Him. The word better is often not
explained. It's true that with Jesus things
go better spiritually for the soul, for the heart, for a
relation with Him, The sinful flesh, the sinful cravings, the
addictions and lust. They don't like it.
If better means in our world all we'll be satisfied with that.
No, then we have a misunderstanding.
Wrong expectation. It's not better than providing
more room and space for self. The Jews had this idea Jesus
going to come and make life better so we get what we want.
Well, Jesus had expectations too.
God has expectations. He gives us His commands,
expecting us to live by them. It's not like God is saying,
well I know I'm expecting it, but it's no big deal.
It's OK if you don't meet it. I got you covered.
No, He does expect us to walk with him, to follow him.
So these had expectations too. Well, let's read on Mark 11
verse 12 to 19. Now the next day when they had
come from Bethany, he was hungry.
So they go out of town to sleep, and he's hungry.
And seeing from afar fig tree having leaves, he went went to
see if perhaps he would find something on it.
When he came to, he found nothing but leaves, for it was
not the season for figs. In response, Jesus said to it,
the fig tree let no one eat fruit from you ever again.
And his disciples heard it. So they came to Jerusalem.
Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who
bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the
money changers in the seats of those who sold doves.
And he would not, not allow anyone to carry wares through
the temple. Then he taught them, saying to
them, Is it not written? My house shall be called the
House of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of
thieves. And the scribes and chief
priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they
feared him, because all the people were astonished at his
teaching. And when evening had come, he
went out of the city full day in the temple.
It's not surprising that Jesus was upset at what he found in
the temple. Now we know that he knew what he
would find. He'd been there the night
before, and him being God knows all things.
But that does not make it any less disappointing.
It has been said disappointment is the definition of unmet
expectations, and that's true. Think for a moment.
You may be working with people who you are in charge over.
Maybe a teacher over students, maybe an employer over
employees, maybe a parent or children.
You kind of already know they're not going to clean the room,
they're not going to do the job, they're not going to finish the
assignment. You already know that, but it's
still a disappointment nevertheless.
The point is that in time you get to know who your people are,
and at times you also know what they will do or won't do.
It's still disappointing when they do that.
So Jesus has right expectations. Let's look at what his
expectations were. He sees his fake tree and goes
to it and sees if there's going to be any fruit perhaps on that
tree. Well, he doesn't find any fruit,
he just finds leaves. It says here there was not the
season for figs. We may ask then why would he
look for something that wasn't time for?
One commentator explained this by saying that it was true it
was not the season for figs, for ripe figs.
But it's not to say there shouldn't have been small green
ones on there. And I'm not going to make too
much out of that. But the point of the story here
is that Jesus wanted to see what this tree was like.
The tree had a lot of leaves. Look great, beautiful tree, lots
of leaves. But the absence of fruit was was
noted. And So what commentators also
point out is that this was an object lesson and he cursed the
tree. He doesn't give the tree a
chance. He doesn't say, OK, hopefully
next year you're better. He says, may no one ever eat
fruit from you again. He ended it for that tree.
That's a bold claim. It was just a tree, looked good,
but it's all it had, just good looks.
Does that somehow ring a bell in our minds?
Well, we'll get to this passage a bit later on.
Well, it's going to be. We're going to get back to the
story. But Jesus cursed the tree, so he
keeps going. His next stop is the temple.
What Jesus wanted to see in the temple, what met his eyes when
he walked into the temple was vastly different.
He'd been there the night before.
He had seen what was going on there.
I wonder how he slept that night as a man.
Was it going through his mind to come and clean that place out in
the morning? I don't know if he thought that
and then cursed the fig tree on the way in.
Did he have an attitude? Well, you know, he was upset.
He was, he drove out. He was not a nice guy.
When he drove out the people from the temple, There was some
serious stuff that happened when when Jesus walks into the
temple, he sees a huge, successful, thriving business
going on. What had happened?
The Mosaic Law was that when people were commanded to go to
the temple to worship, they were also to bring sacrifices.
They were supposed to bring offerings to the temple, and
they did. Well, some people have just so
happened to come from far away. They don't have animals with
them. You can't bring an animal, let's
say from Rome or from any other country, from Egypt maybe, or
from any far off country. When they go to the temple for
Passover, you can't just bring animals from who knows where.
So you bring money. Other people close by, the
farmers, they bring their animals.
So you trade. I mean, you, you buy animals,
you exchange and then the money that you bring into the offering
of the temple, you couldn't put Roman money into the temple
offering. You had to exchange it for
Jewish money. And then you change do the
exchange thing and then you have the Jewish money to put in the
offering of the temple. You couldn't have Roman money
for that. So there's a lot of stuff going
on here. And the animals that were
brought also had to be inspected.
It couldn't be animals that were sick or diseased or anything
like that. So the animals had to be good
animals. A lot of stuff going on in the
animal. You can just imagine the
bleeding of the sheep and the moon blowing of the cattle, or
the doves were there and the cages and Jesus goes in there.
He sees this whole thing going on.
Everything is going on except one thing.
Prayer wasn't going on. The very thing the temple stood
for was missing. I'm not saying they didn't pray
pray in the Holy of Holies or there was no prayer going on,
but that was so miniscule or minor it wasn't noticed.
The very thing the temple was stood for was neglected.
The primary activity of the temple, what it was intended for
wasn't happening. So Jesus sees all the Wheeling
and dealing and going on the hustle.
The bustle had nothing to do with worshipping God.
It was all market and profit driven.
There was nothing in that temple court that pleased him.
He could see right through the whole thing.
His expectations clearly were not met.
So what'd Jesus do? OK guys, we'll come back
tomorrow. Hopefully you got this fixed.
I'll give you another chance. He ended it.
Now we know it wasn't ended for long.
No doubt the next day or a few days later, the probably did it
again or the next week or the following weeks.
But the temple ministry didn't last very long after that, only
some 30 years or so. But Jesus took action.
He goes in there, he drives out the people, drives out the
cattle, overturns the money changers.
I, I get stuck at the money changers.
I can just imagine. The stacks of coins and shackles
and whatever else they had, He just takes and lifts that table
and everything goes splattering and clinkering all over the
floor. I would be mad too.
You did that to my money. He wasn't making friends,
people. He wasn't making friends.
How are they going to fix that? It's not like, OK, the
computer's admits we're going to fix the house, fix the software.
OK, now we're back on track. No, no, you got to pick up those
coins and count them, and someone picks up the rest.
Everybody else's coins too. And who knows what happened?
And the Pharisees are mad. Are you surprised?
Just in Mark 11 was 17. Then he taught them.
After all this saying, is it not written?
My house will be called a House of prayer for all nations, but
you've made it a den of thieves. He pokes and then twists.
Now he calls them thieves. Who are they stealing from?
From God and each other. The focus was not God.
The focus was everything else. Market driven worship.
He calls them identity thieves.
If the honor goes to somebody else, something else than God,
it's stealing from God. I couldn't help but as I went
through this already last week and this last week, especially
previous week and this last week, what would Jesus say today
to the majority of North American churches?
The way we worship. I don't want us to go away with
guilt and saying, oh, our worship is bad, we need to stop
it. No, I believe God wants us to
sing well and to praise well and to preach good sermons and to
teach good lessons and all that's that's good.
But is that the focus? Jesus says in John 424 those who
worship the Father must worship the Father in spirit and truth.
He never says worship in performance and excellence,
never says that when worship becomes external, focused, more
on show than content, more on perfection and substance, more
on appearance than what's in the heart, it is robbing God.
And it's not just worship in church, it's how we get up in
the morning, how we live our lives from day-to-day.
We're supposed to be vessels and temples of the Holy Spirit all
day long, every day, seven days a week in our sleep at when we
get up and we all fall short. Yes, we all mess up, but there's
grace and we can repent. But what's our focus?
Too often we find that we're drawn to I want it better
performance driven, some dream we may have and then
expectations. They are all part of it.
When the outward is elevated at God's expense, it's become about
show. That only draws us further and
further away from God. We crank it up, make it bigger
to make it better. It's not working.
How do we solve the problem of the distance between US and God?
Well, Jesus keeps going. Jesus spoke to the disciples and
we can learn from what He said to them.
Let's keep going in Mark Chapter 11, verse 20, now in the
morning. Now Jesus again has left
Jerusalem. He's been to Bethany, this
little town where he's sleeping over the nights.
In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fake tree dried
up from the roots. We're back to the fig tree
again. And Peter, remember he said to
him, Rabbi, look, the fake tree which you cursed as withered
away. Wow, Lord, look what happened.
And Jesus said sort of hidden said to him, have faith in God.
For surely I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be removed
and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that those things he says will be done.
He will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever
things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them
and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying,
if you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your
Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in
heaven forgive their trespasses. So Jesus back to going back to
Jerusalem. The fig tree is dead.
That's a that's a fast death and it's withered.
Peter sees it. Look, look, Lord, it happened
and Jesus has a little object lesson there in this passage.
The fig tree is dried up and Timothy Geddert in his
commentary writes the following. I'll put it here.
His Mark has deliberately used the fig tree cursing in order to
present the reader with a graphic illustration of the
fruitlessness of Israel's leadership.
The disappointment of Jesus in finding all their religiosity to
be nothing but leaves and the inevitability of their utter
rejection and punishment and consequence of their failure to
produce the framework around the cleansing there for slants.
The meaning of that event in the direction of disqualification
and that primarily of the religious leadership of Israel.
This illustration, this example of the fruitless fake trees a
judgement statement against the religious structure and
establishment of Israel's worship system.
It serves as a timely warning for us to Jesus said to the
tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again and judgement and
in less than about 30 years time or so, Jerusalem, the temple,
everything was destroyed. The Jewish religious leadership
ministry was an empty, fruitless show, an empty performance and
did not pass the expectation test.
Jesus expected more. In Revelation, the first 3
chapters, we find how Jesus appears to the Apostle John and
he has the seven churches that he has to write letters to and
he expresses his disappointment how they're not living up to
what he expected. It goes on today.
Here we know Jesus shows us how to have right expectations.
We go by faith. Only when our faith lines up
with Jesus will our expectations be right.
The disciples were surprised that the fake tree dried up so
fast makes one thing well what had they expected a year from
now? They had seen so many miracles
from Jesus by this point. Why was this surprise?
Jesus told them and said if they had faith they would say to this
mountain be removed and cast into the sea.
What mountain was he talking about?
Timothy, gathered again in his comments, states that as they're
walking up to Jerusalem, maybe Jesus pointing at that mountain
there, this hill where Jerusalem's on.
If you say to the mountain be cast and see it'll happen
physically, literally, physically, as in OK, that's
going to pick up and dump into the sea.
That's not what he meant. It'll be of no more consequence,
no more value, no more meaning, no more purpose.
Maybe I'm exaggerating that, but that would not be the the the
focal point anymore which everything would twirl and twist
and turn. We must keep in mind when we
pray for God to move some mountain in our life.
God is not an ATM machine. You pop in a prayer and outcomes
this answer that we so desperately crave.
What this does mean is we get in line with God in relationship
with Him, and then our prayers will be such that what God
wants, we will want. We're work in unity with Him on
His projects. Our prayers will align with
God's desires, what He expects, not some cheap shortcut to
heaven God may well have designed for us to suffer, and
offering a prayers to avoid certain things may not happen.
The question we must ask do we really truly have faith in God
and want what honors him alone? Or do we want what we want and
do we prayers? God won't always answer.
Maybe there's a mountain in your life that needs moving and God
wants it moved. There's a there's a blockage
there. He talks about that here.
That blockage can be forgiveness.
Maybe a relationship is not working the way it should.
Maybe something's not happening and there's bitterness.
There's unforgiveness in that. And this goes to all of us.
I'm including myself here. We have to work on this.
OK? Lord, what's blocking this?
Why can't I not move for Why is this mountain not moving?
Have I truly surrendered? Do I want what he wants?
And am I OK if he'd make takes a different path?
Forgiveness is what blocks our closeness with God.
It contaminates it. It's easy.
Lord, forgive me, but then to extend that forgiveness to
someone else, that's different. Often times we would like God to
extend forgiveness to us, grace to us, but are we as quick and
ready to extend it to others? Forgiveness in the life of a
believer is not optional. It's the path the believer must
walk to be in a relationship with God.
God Forgives those who repent and seek Him.
And when God's people have been wronged and bad things have been
done, and they must forgive those who do the wrong.
This is a much bigger topic to unpack here.
And if you have questions, you can talk to me later.
But unforgiveness is not optional.
Forgiveness also does not mean not holding accountable.
That's another topic again. But then Mark goes further.
He talks about prayer. Prayer is the breath of the
heart and soul. We don't just breathe in and out
once a week. Do we come to church Sunday
morning, hear a sermon? That's the breath for the week.
No, When we forgive, the prayer is the channel.
It opens the channel for the prayers to go.
When we have faith, when we forgive, when we pray, we align
ourselves with God. That puts us in a good place
with God and that gives us orientation towards God.
When we find ourselves in that position, our lives are lived in
faith and grace and the prayer life, and then things start to
change. And then when expectations are
not met, when things do turn out different than they should,
we're still just as firmly grounded and rooted.
And these things do not shift us, do not faze us.
All of what we've covered so far, all of it does not exempt
us now from being disappointed or struggle with missed
expectations. That can still happen.
Jesus expected. He got a lot of it.
Let's continue reading Mark chapter 1127.
Then they came again to Jerusalem.
Remember, they're still walking past this fig tree, and they're
still walking to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the
temple, the chief priest, the scribes, and the elders came to
him. And they said to him, By what
authority you do these things? Are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority to do these things?
But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one
question, then you answer, Then answer me.
And I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?
Answer me, they reason among themselves, saying, If we say
from heaven, he'll say, then why did you not believe him?
If we say for men to fear the people, for all count of John to
have been a prophet. Indeed, the answer to Jesus
said, We don't know. Jesus answered and says to them,
Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
In other words, expect opposition.
When we do have the right expectations, we must anticipate
opposition. Expect to not be liked, Expect
to be misunderstood, expect to be persecuted.
Once we have those expectations, that turns out the the other
way. How?
How can it be not expected when it's expected?
Walking with God will draw out the opposition.
We should be more concerned about not being persecuted than
we are about being persecuted. Jesus did say to his disciples,
if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
That's a promise. As God's children we should not
expect to be left alone. Oh yes, it's easy and more
comfortable when no one challenges us, no one confronts
us. But that's not normal.
When the Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God meet, there
is tension. The authorities in Jesus day had
been watching and we're very angry at Jesus for what he had
been doing and was doing. So they asked, but what
authority are you doing these things?
The question but what authority? That was a trap.
They were hypocrites. They wanted the loyalty and
support of the people, so they had to be careful how they sold
themselves. Jesus knew that.
Jesus knew how they worked and he used it.
So Jesus talks about John's baptism and asks them, so this
baptism of John was from heaven or from men and oh boy, what do
we do now? They were cornered and they
wanted to be in the people's good side so bad.
They just wouldn't answer from that side.
But they hated John so they couldn't tell him that.
So they just, well, we don't know.
This was a lose, lose response for them.
So they just said we don't know. Well, they're not responding was
a response. You see, we cannot not respond.
We do respond one way or another.
There's no such thing as not responding.
Silence is a response and sometimes a very good one too.
I don't want to go too far from the topic here, but when Jesus
stood before Pilate, only days later, one of the gospels talks
about he wouldn't answer Pilate when Pilate questioned Jesus and
that was a response. We all have expectations, all of
us. How we manage, how we hold our
expectations reveals a lot about our relationship with God and
with each other. Jews had expectations, they got
him wrong. The Pharisees got Jesus wrong.
Jesus had a Great Expectations. They weren't met from the crowd.
The question I want to ask us this morning before we close
this what is Jesus expecting from you and me and is he
getting it? Is Jesus getting what he is
expecting from us? We can be wrong about a lot of
things in life and in the end it won't matter much What Car we
drive in the house. We all those things.
But there's something in life we cannot afford to be wrong about.
That's about our relationship with Jesus.
If we miss Jesus, we miss it all.
Mine and your expectations are not the measuring stick by which
God runs the world. Mine and your expectations in
life are not the benchmark of the point of reference from
which the world around us orients itself.
Our Calling is to get in line with God's expectations and make
Him our focus, make Him our point of reference.
Everyone is called to walk in relationship with Jesus.
How would it be if we, like Jesus, did not base our lives on
earthly temporal expectations and instead we live our lives in
complete surrender to Him as a Father, Expect Him to guide us
and lead us. And when all the disappointments
come, OK, you know what? This is part of life.
I would say this morning, if there's somebody listening who's
never given their life to Jesus, never made Jesus their Lord and
Savior, never accepted him, why not do it?
There'll be missed expectations. The world will not understand.
That's true, but your life will have a purpose in the course in
the direction. I want to encourage us this
morning to look to Jesus. Allow Jesus to lead us and trust
Him. Then when life does not and will
not work as expected, it won't alarm us, won't derail us, won't
topple us. It will strengthen us, it'll
grow us and we'll walk in harmony with Jesus.
Let's pray, Lord, may our expectations in life never be
such that they draw us away from You and point to ourselves.
Your people, the Israelites, often demonstrated with their
lives their misguided expectations.
But we thank you for saving us from our sins, for giving us
eternal life. We pray, Lord, that as we look
into the story of salvation repeatedly, guide us, Lord, help
us to understand. Help us to see how much you
loved us. Help us to surrender to You in
all things and whatever it may be that you see fit for us to
experience. Help us, Lord, to be thankful in
it, accepting what you bring into our lives.
Protect us Lord from being entitled, making life all about
ourselves. Help us Lord, to surrender our
lives to You and live in a relationship with You, expecting
You to give us peace in Jesus name, Amen.