Sermon Tone Analysis

“You keep using that word.

I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

(with picture of Inigo Montoya on screen)

Good morning and Happy Palm Sunday everyone.

My name is Andrew Southwick and I am honored to be with you this morning.

We kick off the Holy Week remembering Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which would precede, of course, His death and resurrection, thus securing eternal life for all who would believe in Him.

And certainly, in believing in Jesus, we’ve come to have various expectations about who He is, and what He does in and through our lives.

But while we all have expectations of/for Jesus, how many of us have accurate expectations of Jesus?

I’m not saying that we lower our expectations because Jesus doesn’t always do what we want Him to do, but to dig into God’s Word, learn what He revealed through the Scriptures about Himself, and then expect Him to do what He has said He will do for now and forevermore, and not just wish that He will do something that is only momentarily convenient for us.

Indeed, life doesn’t turn out the we plan it, does it?

My ethnic ambiguity creates misguided expectations brief example

My expectations for myself as a new husband (mineral oil) illustration

Its true.

Our expectations of ourselves, of each other, and of Jesus are many times not wholly accurate, and sometimes flat out incorrect.

Now, this is nothing new.

When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem He was given a Savior’s welcome, and rightfully so.

But as we will see this morning, the great majority of those who cheered for Jesus, would turn on Him 5 days later and demand that He be killed for no reason, save maybe that He did not meet their expectations of Him.

And as we journey through the Scriptures today, I invite you to take an inventory of your own expectations of Jesus, and line them up with the truth of what will be shown to us today in God’s Word.

Far too many Christians are frustrated and disillusioned with God because they do not have accurate expectations of Him, and maybe some of you can relate to that this morning.

If so, my prayer is that the examination of God’s Word today will be an encouragement to you, as much as it is a proclamation of God’s truth to all those who have ears to hear.

And it is my prayer that as you are encouraged, that you will also know a next step that you can take as you follow Jesus, whether its your first step with Him, or your 101st step, so that you can consistently apply His truths in your lives as soon as you hear them today.

Let’s pray as we go to God’s Word.

First, we are going to see the macro-picture, so to speak.

And it comes from John chapter 12, starting in verse 9.

Let me set up the scene really quickly:

During the first century, Rome had dominion over Israel.

In about 63 BCE, after much turmoil and civil war within Israel, the Romans invaded and conquered Jerusalem.

In order to keep control over the Galilean and Judean peoples, Julius Caesar and the Senate installed Herod as king.

It would take Herod three years to finally gain all control over the still hostile Jews, but he would in due course keep a firm rule over the whole region.

He eventually became one of Augustus’ favorite military leaders, and was admired by the new emperor because of his immense development program.

Not only did Herod expand the Temple in Jerusalem to be more grandiose and Hellenistic-Roman in style, but he also imposed a sacrifice that the priests would give on behalf of Rome and the emperor.

Additionally, Herod had whole cities named to give reverence to Caesar as well as imperial temples and fortresses to reinforce Roman control.

The great building campaigns were not possible without taxing the peoples of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea greatly; leaving the majority in poverty.

Not only were they required to pay taxes to the Empire, but they continued to function as a “temple-state” and were also required to pay the tithes and sacrifices of the Jewish religion.

The offensiveness of being forced into what could be labeled idolatry along as the difficult economic reality must not be understated.The historian Horsley states:

“The demand for tribute to Rome and taxes to Herod in addition to the tithes and offerings to the Temple and priesthood dramatically escalated the economic pressures on peasant producers, whose livelihood was perennially marginal at best.

After decades of multiple demands from multiple layers of rulers many village families fell increasingly into debt and were faced with loss of their family inheritance of land.

The impoverishment of families led to the disintegration of village communities, the fundamental social form of such an agrarian society.

These are precisely the deteriorating conditions that Jesus addresses in the Gospels: impoverishment, hunger, and debt.”

After Herod’s death in about 4 BCE, the Romans would appoint Antipas to rule and would eventually install Roman governors to help create more stability.

The Jews responded in various ways to the rule of Rome.

1. Compromise to the demands of the Roman Empire.

2. Basic acceptance, but resistant to blatant injustices.

3. Nonviolent rejection of Roman rule.

(i.e.

Protests and counter culture.)

Secular scholars who uphold that Jesus was a good man and a good teacher tend to see Jesus in this kind of light.

A wise, socially conscious radical, so to speak. 

4.

Violent rejection of Rome (Zealots).

Barrabus, the prisoner for whom Jesus was exchanged when He was sentenced to the Cross, was likely one of these zealots (John18:40).

Now, Jesus’ entire life takes place in the context of being part of a dominated people.

Being a people under foreign rulers was nothing new to the Jews leading up to this period.

The Jews had been subject to Babylon, Assyria, Persia, the Greeks, and finally Rome.

It was the Persians that allowed the Jews to return to their homeland after years of exile; however they were now to be set up as a client state.

Freedom had not arrived, just a new kind of exile.

In a manner of speaking, the Jews were allowed to be in their homeland, but they weren’t allowed to be at home in their homeland.

For the most part, it is reasonable to say that Israel did not ever feel that they had been liberated from exile, so leading into the New Testament era is an ingrained hope that a “new exodus” would free God’s people from the oppressive weight of the Roman Empire.

Expectations.

What were the Jews expectations concerning Jesus?

The fanfare that we read about surrounding Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem comes from a Jewish people who wanted a politically-conquering lion, not a sacrificially surrendering lamb.

The people had both seen and heard of Jesus’ miraculous works that had preceded His arrival, and so, naturally, they thought that if this Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead, and heal the sick, and feed thousands upon thousands of people with some sardines and a couple of dinner rolls, surely He recognizes our plight and is here to be our political messiah.

Surely this Jesus is here to break us free from the bondage of Rome and its oppressive government and leaders.

Surely this Jesus will bring us this freedom, after all, we are His chosen people.

Imagine their disappointment when Jesus stood before both Herod and Pilate, and did not remove them from power.

Imagine their disbelief when the conquering king they were expecting, submitted to the very government that they despised.

Imagine their dumbfoundedness when Jesus, who was supposed to be an all-loving and all-compassionate and good God, seemingly did nothing to dull the pain of their oppressed and impoverished existence.

All this hooplah, all those miracles, and He just stood there?

He didn’t say a word in defense or protest?

And so it is perhaps no surprise that less than 5 days later the same crowd that cheered His arrival, now cheered for His murder.

And why?

Because Jesus did not meet their expectations.

They were expecting someone totally different to do something totally different.

Do you ever feel like that when it comes to Jesus?

Do you ever wonder why He isn’t delivering you from wherever you are begging to be delivered?

Do you wonder why Jesus isn’t moving in your life with the urgency that you feel is necessary?

I googled some of the top reasons why people are disappointed with Jesus as a part of my research for this message.

And just about every disappointment I could find and verify had to do with the person’s or people’s expectations of who Jesus was/is, and what He promises to do.

And you know what else the disappointed people had in common?

In every case of disappointment with expectations concerning Jesus, there was an accompanying misunderstanding of what the Scriptures said about Him.

Let me illustrate (I am paraphrasing from a variety of sourced surveys):

The number one disappointment with God is that “God is not doing what I want Him to do to fix my life.”

Now, this disappointment was supported with the supposed biblical explanation that “God won’t give me more than I can handle.”

And people are disappointed because they feel like failures who have no hope.

They feel like failures because if God won’t give them more than they can handle, how come they can’t handle their current situation?

They feel hopeless because if God won’t give them more than they can handle then they must have really messed up and now they are beyond God’s reach for help.

A misunderstanding of who God is, brought about by a misunderstanding of His revealed Word, will inevitably lead us to wrong expectations about Jesus.

You see, “God won’t give me more than I can handle” is found nowhere in Scripture.

Rather, it is a misinterpretation of which says,

Paul is writing about the strength that God gives believers to resist temptation.

Paul is not saying that every situation we find ourselves in, we will be able to handle.

In fact, God is in the business of giving us more than we can handle.

Math class illustration (if time allows)

Do you think Noah could handle the flood and the ark?

Could Moses handle leading the Israelites out of Egypt?

Could Joshua handle the battle at Jericho? Could David handle facing a giant and running for his life all the time?

Could the disciples handle feeding 15,000 people with a boy’s lunch?

Of course not.

If we could handle everything, we wouldn’t need Jesus.

Jesus purposefully leads to the ends of ourselves so that we can see how much we need Him to live and move in and through us, and to sustain us both now and in eternity.

Or how about this?