THE CHRIST THAT COUNTERS EXPECTATIONS

Introduction

-What is neat about this video that shares a snippet of Rev. J. M. Lockridge’s sermon is that he is describing Jesus as Jesus Himself is described in Scripture.

~Pastor Lockridge doesn’t describe the Jesus that his flesh wants, but he describes the Jesus that is

-This is important in a day and age where people, and even pastors, try to shape Jesus into their own molds and convictions

-But the whole point of John’s gospel is to tell people who Jesus really is, and the thing you notice quite often is that Jesus never meets the expectations of people’s preconceptions

~The Jews wanted a political savior, not a spiritual Savior. The Greeks wanted someone who fit their mold and idea of wisdom—to follow in the footsteps of the philosophers. And a crucified Lord definitely did not fit anything that either group expected or wanted.

-The world wants a savior that says that they can believe whatever they want to believe, do whatever they want to do, and unite people in a common brotherhood of lost, sinful humanity

~But the Jesus that exists and has revealed Himself said He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword / a division among people—you either believe Jesus as He revealed Himself or you don’t; there is no middle ground

~And some of the things that Jesus reveals about Himself are not comfortable to us in our natural way of thinking

-This is even true of Christians—we have an idea of what we want Jesus to be like, and we have a tendency to overlook the parts of the Bible that make Jesus to be something other than expected. And then, when we run into troubles in life we become disillusioned because the idol Jesus we set up in our mind doesn’t rescue us since we think that’s Jesus’ main job.

-And in the passage we look at today, Jesus did not act according to what His disciples, friends, or even we would think would be a normal, natural response. When Jesus hears of one of His friends being sick unto death, Jesus doesn’t react in a way that meets people’s natural / earthly / fleshly / human expectations but acts instead with higher purposes in mind.

-You see, Jesus is not bound to the constrictions of worldly, human expectations, but acts according to heavenly principles, and so we are the ones that need to shape our thinking and beliefs to what He has revealed.

-So, I hope after today we will accept and relate to Christ as He is revealed and not restrict Him to our earthly-minded desires.

John 11:1–16 ESV

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

-We are familiar with this story, and so we know what happens in the end—Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead. But I want you to think about this passage from the perspective of Mary, Martha, and the disciples. They don’t know what the end is going to be, so when Jesus acts in the way He does, they’re not sure what to make of it because they weren’t expecting it.

-Mary and Martha expected Jesus to come cure their brother before he died. The disciples expected Jesus to stay out of Judah because the religious leaders were seeking to kill Him.

-Instead, Jesus does not immediately go to cure Lazarus against Mary and Martha’s expectations. But He does eventually leave for Judah which goes against the disciples’ expectations.

~So, when Jesus doesn’t do things like we would expect (for example, curing us or a family member when we think He could have or should have, or doesn’t pay the bills when we think He could have or should have, or doesn’t protect us from the emotional or physical abuse like He could have or should have) we don’t want to become disillusioned expecting things of Him that are just not biblical. When we know Jesus as revealed, we have something solid to hold on to and we know something greater (beyond our comprehension and understanding) is going on.

-So, let’s look at 4 lessons about Jesus from this passage that may help us know a little better about why Jesus sometimes does what He does…

I) Jesus acts from an eternal perspective

-In v. 4 Jesus says that Lazarus’ illness isn’t unto death (meaning that Lazarus, although he will die, he will not stay dead)—but Jesus gives insight into something deeper—what is going on with Lazarus is so that God is glorified and so that the Son of God, Jesus Himself, would be glorified

~That means that by Lazarus dying, and then being raised from the dead, something of eternal purpose would happen that would go beyond the temporary pain of his loss.

-We have this notion that Jesus should ease our burdens and pains immediately, on the spot—a fast-food mentality type of religion. But Jesus, being both God and man, and knowing the end from the beginning, causes or allows some things to happen because it will lead to a greater glory for Him and the Father.

-Mary, Martha, and the disciples didn’t know it at the time but by Jesus allowing Lazarus’ death and then going to Bethany to raise him afterward, they would learn that He has power over death which was much more needful than just curing Lazarus.

-And so, Jesus countered their expectations because something of more eternal significance was at play—the glory of God the Father and God the Son. When we know and trust that Jesus works from an eternal perspective, meaning He sees the end from the beginning. And we may not fully understand or like it, but at least we can rest that He is doing what is best for His glory, having the whole eternal picture in mind.

-As kind of an example of trusting that Jesus sees things and does things from an eternal perspective, there a story of a businessman flying into Chicago’s O’Hare coming back home from a conference. As the big plane was coming in for the landing, flying over Chicago’s busy expressway, he noticed a colossal traffic jam. He could see people getting out of their cars, some were standing on their bumpers, straining to see what was going on. As he glanced northward, he saw what the motorists could not possibly see—the flashing of red lights as emergency crews worked an accident scene. The businessman could tell from what he saw that the accident would be taken care of rather quickly, so after the plane landed at O’Hare and he proceeded to get his car and head home, he had a completely different perspective from the average traveler on the expressway. He knew what was ahead and he knew he would soon be home.

-That is where Jesus is looking from. Jesus had the perspective that allowing Lazarus to die and then raise him up would give Jesus the glory and it would work faith into the lives of those who witnessed it.

-At the time when things happen, we don’t necessarily understand, and we don’t always get the answers we look for when we want them. You think of Job, all this stuff was going on in his life and he didn’t know why these things happened. And in the end God tells Job that he is in no position to question God. But God knows all, sees all, and acts in power according to His wisdom, plans, and purposes—that is, from His eternal perspective.

-And when Jesus runs counter to our expectations, we realize that He is acting in accordance to His eternal perspective and is bringing about something that in the long run will give Him the greater glory.

II) Jesus acts with an eternal love

-In our passage there is the repeated proposition that Jesus loved these people. In v. 3 the message is that the one He loves is ill. And then in v. 5 it is specifically pointed out that Jesus loves Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

-But vv. 5 & 6 make for a strange, almost seemingly contradictory, phrase. Listen to how it comes across as I paraphrase it:

Jesus loved this family, so when He heard Lazarus was ill, He stayed two more days before leaving to go to them.

~That just sounds so bizarre in our ears.

-When someone you love is ill unto death, you don’t just hang out for a few days before you go.

~Now, if you follow the timeline of the chapter, Lazarus probably had already died or was soon dead after Jesus received the message.

~Nevertheless, to at least bring comfort to the family you would have thought He would have left immediately to be with them because He loves them

-But this Jesus that runs counter to expectations loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus deeply—and He waited two days after receiving the message before He left to go to them. We have to wrestle with that. Jesus loves people with an eternal love and still allows things to happen in their life.

-And, I guess in conjunction with my previous lesson that Jesus does things from an eternal perspective, what Jesus chooses to do with the end in sight He does out of love for those who have to suffer through it.

~Jesus, with His eternal perspective, knows that something even greater is down the line for the ones that He loves, so what happens now is temporary but, as Romans 8:28 tells us, that eventually those things work out for our ultimate good because we love Jesus and He loves us

-Us humans, we allow our kids to go through the temporary pain of getting a shot because we know in the long run that it will protect them from disease.

~We allow our kids to stumble and fall and fail in life, and feel the pain of the consequences, because we know that in the long run they will gain wisdom and knowledge that will do them service later in life.

~Allowing our kids to experience that pain is not a sign of a lack of love on our part—in fact, it is a sign of a great love. So, their pain and our love are not incompatible.

-The same with Christ and His love. Just because bad things happen in our life doesn’t mean that He lacks love for us.

~The Bible is abundantly clear that God loves us with a complete, eternal love that we couldn’t even begin to comprehend. But that doesn’t mean that He makes all our troubles go away.

-That runs counter to what we want and what we expect, especially with so much false teaching out there that God wants nothing more than for you to be happy and healthy and trouble-free.

-That’s not the Jesus of the Bible. That’s not the Jesus that exists. Jesus loves you (enough to have died for your sin), nevertheless He allows things to happen that will in the perspective of eternity will give Him greater glory which for us is our ultimate good. The best thing for us is when Jesus receives His due glory.

III) Jesus acts as the eternal light

-The disciples are not overly keen on the idea of going back to Judah. In the previous chapter the Jewish leadership tried to have Jesus stoned to death. The disciples knew that there was a mob waiting to kill Jesus and probably kill them too.

-So, Jesus gives them this analogy in vv. 9-10:

9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." (Jn. 11:9-10)

-As the analogy goes, in a first-century Jewish agricultural society you could only do work while daylight was out, and it was smart to do any travelling during the daylight, otherwise you stumble, fall, come into the hands of robbers, and other dangers. You do everything in the light.

-Jesus in an earlier chapter claimed to be the light of the world—and He had elsewhere used the picture of working and walking in the light as following the will of the Lord.

-Jesus is telling the disciples that as long as He is still on earth He will continue to do and work the will of God up to and through His death. And those who would follow Him must follow His light, they must walk in His footsteps, they must do the will of God while they still have the chance and get rid of the excuses.

-If it were up to the disciples, they would do whatever they could to have a safe, comfortable life—so facing impending doom was not part of the plan. Even Thomas, in v. 16, is very fatalistic—it’s like he’s saying, “Well, if Jesus is dead set on going to Judah (no pun intended), and He’s probably going to die, we might as well go and die with Him because it would be better to die with Him than to live without Him.”

-But Jesus’ perspective is that God had a plan with Lazarus’ death and the timing of Jesus’ arrival, and He wasn’t going to allow earthly circumstances to keep Him from walking with God and doing the work of God.

-So, we walk in the light. We follow Jesus in His work even when circumstances are not ideal.

-A few weeks ago we had the outreach training, and there was an attitude that I caught in it that is Christlike but goes against the norm. Because for some reason we American Christian think that Jesus would never demand of us anything that would make us uncomfortable. We don’t expect Jesus to move us or grow us any more than where we are at right now—comfy in our own contentment.

-We don’t expect Jesus to actually demand we share the gospel with others. And we definitely don’t expect Jesus would want us to go out in the heat or the cold to do it. I mean, God forbid we sweat or feel chilled fulfilling God’s commandments.

~But that’s exactly what He expects because that is where the light is leading us. He doesn’t care about comfort. We have work to do while there is light. And if we suffer, so be it—it is nothing compared to the suffering that He endured. So, all our whiny, pathetic excuses can go right out the window.

~We don’t expect that from Jesus, yet that is what He is calling us to

IV) Jesus acts to create eternal belief

-In vv. 14-15 Jesus says something else that is shocking. He tells the disciples that Lazarus died and He is glad that He was not there—that sounds almost cruel, but again it is coming from the eternal perspective where He sees what ultimately becomes of it

-And the explanation in v. 15 that He gives for what He says is so that they may believe—and that is one of the ultimate goals that Jesus has for what He does and allows to happen

-For unbelievers, He wants them to repent of their sins and believe in Him. And for believers He wants to strengthen their faith.

-Could Jesus have prevented Lazarus from dying? Absolutely. He wouldn’t even need to be there to do it. He healed the centurion’s servant and the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter without being in their presence. But He didn’t do if for Lazarus. Why?

~So that He and the Father got the glory and so those who would see what He did would believe.

-And it is quite possible that what God is doing and allowing in your life is so that you would give Him the glory and so that you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved

Conclusion

-So, if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ (that He died for you and rose for you) and you’ve never submitted to His authority in your life, today is the day. A crucified Savior might not be what you expected, but that is the only Savior that there is. During the invitation, come forward and believe and be saved.

-Christian, maybe you need to come to the altar and wrestle with who Jesus is as compared to what you wanted to expected. Submit yourself to the Christ that has been revealed.

He is the lover of our souls

He is the Alpha and Omega

He is the Good Shepherd

He is the King of kings

He is the Lord of lords

He is the Supplier of Needs

He is the Propitiation for Sins

He is the Master with all Authority

-THAT’S MY KING

-That’s Jesus.

-My question is: Is He your King? Is He your Jesus?