Born to Crush Expectations

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church.

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As Dave said, I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here. And I'm really glad that you have taken the time out of your busy week to gather together to worship

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God this morning. I hope that it's more than just the cuteness you came for, but also the message that the cuteness is going to bring to us.

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And so God is with us. Did you guys know that? God is with us. Emmanuel, think about that name,

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Emmanuel, God with us. And not just this time of the year, not just on Christmas morning, but he is with us all the time.

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He is there with us every day providing strength, providing encouragement, conviction, guidance.

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I hope that that's your reality. I hope that's real for you this past week. This morning, we're going to have the

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Kids from Recast Kids program come in and help us by leading us in worship with a program that's meant to draw us into the reality of the amazing gift that God gave to us that we celebrate at Christmas time here, an amazing gift that was given to humanity in Bethlehem nearly 2 ,000 years ago.

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And it's going to be cute, and it's going to be fun, but I'm also praying that we don't miss the message of what

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God wants to show us through these kids this morning. God has expressed his love toward all of us in sending his son,

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Jesus Christ. And this morning, we're going to be having a smaller chunk of scripture at the end after the

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Kids program. We're going to have a connection time. We're going to have some time to worship and to sing some songs, and then I'm going to take more of a short devotional as opposed to a full -length sermon.

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Otherwise, we could be here all afternoon with the Kids program, but we are going to be looking at a short text in Matthew chapter 17, and I find it interesting that most everyone on this planet has some expectation of Jesus if they've heard his name.

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But in our text this morning, we're going to see that even those who were close to Jesus had a hard time grasping what his mission was.

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They lived with him. They walked with him. His inner group of disciples, they knew that he was special. They could have told you he was unique.

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Peter could have even told you he was the Christ, the son of the living God. But they were not altogether sure why he came to earth.

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Think about that. They knew he was special. They knew he was unique, but they were confused. They were confused even nearly up till the end.

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But the fact of the matter is Jesus didn't come to fulfill any of our expectations. He came on the mission of the

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Father to bring forth a kingdom through humility and sacrifice.

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He was indeed born as a king, but he was an expectation -crushing king.

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So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to Matthew chapter 17, verses 22 through 23.

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Just two verses. We're going to read a very short text this morning, but one that reminds us of who our

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Lord and Savior is and some difficult words that he gave to his followers. Matthew chapter 17, verses 22 through 23.

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And follow along as I read God's holy and precious word to us this morning. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the

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Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.

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And they were greatly distressed. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word.

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I thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to even hear the word expressed through the mouths of little children.

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We have a chance to sing the truths of your word together in this gathering. We have the opportunity over this holiday season to reflect on incarnation, that amazing and glorious reality that's expressed in the name of Emmanuel, God with us,

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God with his people. God with me. And so,

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Father, I pray that all of us would take that to heart this holiday season and this morning, that you would be with all of the kids during this program.

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I thank you for all the volunteers and all the workers that have made this possible. And Father, I lift up every kid that has a part to play in this.

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I know that there's some anxiety and some nerves that come together in a morning like this. Father, I pray that you would be with all of them and just allow the truth of your word to shine through them, even in the midst of all the cuteness, in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, you can go ahead and be seated. I just want to point out at the start, I'm so grateful for Ginger's leadership.

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Ginger Rixey's leadership over the Recast Kids program as our children's director. Just very grateful for that.

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And of course, she couldn't do it without all the volunteers, and Dave already recognized them. But I just want to point that out from up front as well, that God has blessed us with an excellent kids program for Sunday mornings back there with a lot of great volunteers.

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And I also just wanted to point this out. She probably wouldn't even want to be recognized for this, but Arlen Reimann is the one who actually wrote the presentation this morning.

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So if you know Arlen, just tell her thanks for that, just using her gifts and her talents to serve the church too.

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So she actually wrote the program itself, so kind of cool that she applies that gift to the church.

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Let me encourage you during the remainder of our time to get comfortable. If you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you can take advantage of that.

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And then keep your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 17, verses 22 and 23. Short text, but a lot in there.

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And we're going to make a few brief observations from this short text this morning in the remainder of our time. The text really is only one sentence.

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It's only one sentence long, and yet I think I could preach a couple of sermons on it. It's a lot of density in there.

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And really, I would like to consider five expectations that people have of Jesus that we can kind of see him crushing in this text.

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I think it's really important, very, very vital, very, very important for all of us that we worship the

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Christ that is. Not a Christ that we want, not the Christ of our expectations, not the

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Christ that we might expect to have arrive, but the one who actually arrived. And it's very vital and important that we embrace his mission, the reasons that he declared he came here.

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Because we can have all kinds of agendas for Jesus, right? How many of you have ever seen a bumper sticker that had an agenda for Jesus?

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Jesus was a Republican, Jesus was a liberal, Jesus was a, you fill in the blank, and everybody's got him adopted into their mindset, right?

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No, this isn't going to turn political. Everybody's like, oh, wait a minute. Now, I'm not going to go that direction with this, but the fact of the matter is we all have our own thoughts about Jesus, and we all have our own expectations of how he rolls in the way that he is.

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So we need to come to his word to see what he really says, and then embrace his mission and his purposes.

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So it's really cliche this time of the year to say, Jesus is the reason for the season.

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Very cliche, right? And in many ways, it's also cliche to say Jesus came to die, right?

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Is that a cliche? Is that something you're used to hearing this time of the year? Jesus came for the purpose of being a sacrifice for us.

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But the reality is, the pressure kind of sits on me a little bit over Christmas time, because I feel like there's some kind of pressure on pastors to say something that's novel about Christmas.

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Can I come up with a novel Christmas message that's new to you? Something that you haven't already heard, and I'm not sure that I'm really supposed to.

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At the end of the day, I'm not sure that that really is the calling here. To give you something that's novel or new, you can read it yourself any day of the week.

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You can dig in, and you can get into God's word, and it's all the same word year in and year out. The same messages, the same stories, but at the same time, it's vital.

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It's what we need. And how many of you need reminders? I know I do. I need to be reminded of the same truths over and over again, and I don't always get them in here, and so it's very vital that we understand these things.

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Keeping the life of Jesus before us should correct our notions of what we think we need. We thought, thinking about the arrival of Jesus, we thought we needed a powerful hero who would conquer our enemies.

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We thought we needed a healer who would destroy all of our sickness. We thought we needed a jester who would keep us smiling and laughing.

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All different kinds of people thinking different thoughts about what they needed. But he did not arrive in that manger to meet our expectations.

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He came to that manger to fulfill his mission. And in our text, he explicitly told his disciples the direction that his plan was heading.

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We're going to go to Jerusalem, and some things are going to happen there. And they didn't like what they heard.

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Does this sound familiar? Jesus says, here's the plan, but God, I'd like to head this, but here's where we're going.

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But I'd like to, here's where we're going. He's the one who calls the direction and sets the agenda and sets the mission.

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So the first expectation is, we're going to look at five expectations this morning that Jesus is happy to crush for us. Sounds a little bit of a downer, but it's good in the end.

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I think you'll get it. Expectation one is that God would come to us in power and awe.

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How do you expect a God to show up? How do you expect the Lord and the creator of the universe to show up?

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Again, a bit cliche this time of the year, but we see it here in verse 22. Jesus gathered his disciples in Galilee in preparation for his final trip to Jerusalem.

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And he began by referring to himself as the Son of Man. Now, how many of you have ever heard Jesus refer to himself as the

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Son of Man? You've been around scripture enough to know that he liked to call himself that. But there's a little bit of a mystery attached to, why in the world would he use that title for himself?

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Well, certainly it was a messianic title from the Old Testament, but it also has a powerful, kind of a playful phrase.

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It's a playful phrase that Jesus used for himself, and I think he's kind of toying around with us a little bit and joking a little bit when he uses that phrase.

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You see, he was truly God in flesh. So why would he call himself the

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Son of Man? Why not the Son of God? Why was Son of God not his favorite title for himself? But instead, he'd go around the countryside speaking of himself in a third person saying, the

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Son of Man says to you. Now, I'm a son of a man. Every man, every male in this room is a son of man, right?

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You had a father? Anybody here without a father? All of us are sons of men. And so at the end of the day, what is unique?

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Why is Jesus calling himself that, the Son of Man? It's simply this.

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I actually think it was novel for Jesus. I think it was unique and surprising to him because he was equally

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God, the second person of the triune Godhood. God born to humanity.

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God born of a woman. And in this, we find the connection from our text here, in this phrase,

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Son of Man, we find the connection from this text to Christmas. He was born of a woman, and this was amazingly unique for Jesus.

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I think he thought about it often. In this phrase is wrapped up the wonder of incarnation.

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God came to us as a son of humanity. Eternity unified with humanity.

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How would you expect a king to arrive? Our expectations might involve a little bit more pomp and circumstance than a manger.

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But if we plumb the depths of our expectation, as cliche as this is, as frequently as you've heard this, as often as we've heard this, every

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Christmas, time and time again, I still think we expect power to show up in power.

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We expect escorts and security and fine clothes and regal entrances.

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But Jesus, by his favorite self -title, Son of Man, is reminding us of his expectation crushing entrance.

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He came intentionally with humility. The second expectation is that God in flesh would certainly command allegiance, wouldn't he?

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Wouldn't you expect him to be the kind of guy who everybody would be attracted to, everybody would be drawn to, everybody would love, everybody would go to their death for?

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He's the kind of guy who would just be a leader among leaders, right? A commander that all would follow.

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He would only choose the best of the best to be in his posse, right? Betrayal?

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Out of the question for the God -man, right? Who would ever expect God in flesh to be betrayed?

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If you really think about it, if you really think about who he was and what he could command, how in the world could he be betrayed?

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Well, we all know that, of course, that is exactly what's going to happen. In our text, Jesus is predicting the coming events of his death in Jerusalem.

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He is doing this, by the way, to mitigate and to help the shock of the disciples when these things come to pass, so that he's actually told them a couple of times.

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These still are thick, they still don't get it, but he's told them now, this is the second time in the Gospel of Matthew, he said,

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I'm going to Jerusalem, I'm going to die. Like, no, no, no, you're not going to die. Peter actually rebukes him and says, not you,

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Lord, of course you won't die. I mean, who in the world would betray you? How in the world would somebody kill you?

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In verse 22, he states that he's about to be delivered into the hands of men.

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How many of you think that that sounds dire? To be delivered into the hands of men? To be delivered to them, to have them do whatever they would wish to you?

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That is not a good thing. And he says, this is, I mean, knowing, cognizant of what's going to take place, he tells his disciples in a moment of intimacy, this is what's going to happen.

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I'm going to be delivered, betrayed over to sinful men. And that word delivered, it could just easily be translated.

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The word has a lot of semantic range, but it could be translated as betrayed, and maybe even some of your translations have that, the

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ESV has delivered over, but in context, I think that betrayal is a better translation.

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Jesus wasn't merely surrounded and arrested, but we know that he was handed over to the authorities by a person he shared life with, by a friend.

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Have you ever considered the way that Judas breaks our expectations of leadership? What kind of command would the best leader of all have over his men?

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Do you expect a good leader to be a good judge of character? How many of you think so? You expect a leader to be a good judge of character?

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Of course we do. Do you expect them to select good and loyal people to surround them? Of course you do.

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But Jesus entered into deep human pain by opening himself up even to the betrayal of one of his best friends, the worst possible type of betrayal.

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Jesus breaks the expectation of strong command and demanded loyalty. Expectation three, the

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Messiah would conquer. That's a pretty routine expectation, especially in their time and their era.

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Many in that day and even in ours expect Jesus to solve all of the problems and to fix all of the brokenness right here, right now.

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We expect him to break into our tough week and fix it, right? And they expected on a bigger global scale, it's time for him to kick out these

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Romans who oppress us and occupy our territory. But in verse 23 he says, no, here's what's going to happen.

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I'm going to be delivered up to the hands of sinful men, betrayed, and they're going to kill me. He says it in no uncertain terms in verse 23.

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This phrase, I think, that they're going to kill me, I think it lodged in the minds of the disciples in a way that keeps them from even being able to understand and grab a hold of the encouragement that Jesus offers at the end of this text.

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He offers them encouragement of resurrection, but they're still, what's ringing in their ears, he's going to die.

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That's what's ringing in their ears. You see, I think everybody, and I think to a person in this room, everybody wants a powerful hero on their side.

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The Packers want their Aaron Rodgers to carry them. The Patriots have their, somebody said it,

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Tom Brady. The Lions had their, who did they have?

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Harrison. Yes. How long ago was that? Just one of the ... Too long.

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Too long. That was a long time ago, wasn't it? Man, it's been a long time since we had a hero in Detroit, isn't it?

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Goodness gracious. We want strength on our team, don't we? Everybody wants the hero on their side, but Jesus breaks that expectation by letting himself be killed right at the point that his followers thought he's got them where he wants them.

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Remember, in the text last week, we talked about he had just revealed his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John going, this is the time.

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He peels back his humanity and shines out in blazing glory for Peter, James, and John. They fall on their faces and they're like, okay, let's set up base of operations, says

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Peter. I'll build three lean -tos. We'll start here. This will be the ... I think his mindset is, this is the place where you're going to launch the attack against the

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Romans. This is the place where it's all going to get taken care of. Now, and what does he say to them next?

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Oh, no, no, guys, we're going to Jerusalem. I'm going to die there. I'm going to die there. Can you imagine how stark and shocking that message would have been to those, especially

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Peter, James, and John, who just watched him in his glory, they're like, you can do anything you want. He says,

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I am going to do what I want. I'm going to go pay the price for everybody's sins.

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I'm going to go die and be the sacrifice, because you guys don't see it, but love doesn't look like conquering the

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Romans. Love looks like conquering your sin. That's what love looks like.

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I'm going to go do that. You see, we want strength on our team, but we didn't know how the strength needs to be applied.

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Could you give me a raise this year, God? Could you give me a better car? Could you give me a better house? Could you give me a better relationship?

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Could you give me better ... Is it enough that he took your sins? All the rest is just cake, right?

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We don't deserve any of that, but that he would wash away our sins and give us a promise of eternity with him, what glory, what beauty, what majesty, what a gift.

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When Jesus breaks the expectation of kingdom through power, and instead he shows us a better way, kingdom through humility and sacrifice.

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Expectation number four, we expect death to be terminal. All right, is that an expectation?

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Death is terminal. There's been hope sprinkled throughout scripture before the arrival of Christ regarding an afterlife, but even

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Jewish notions about afterlife, the disciples, those 12 who were standing there, if you had pulled them, they would have had confusion over what happens after you die.

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The Old Testament did not sew it up well, and if you don't believe me, go study it yourself and look for the

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Old Testament understanding of the afterlife, and you will walk away scratching your head. It took Jesus' arrival to make clear what that's all about after death.

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They didn't really have that well in hand. The Jewish notions of afterlife varied a lot, and afterlife in this flesh is hinted at, sure, but not well developed until Jesus, and he says in no uncertain terms in verse 23 and other places in the gospels that he will be raised on the third day.

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The grave would not have the final word, but the disciples' response at the end of verse 23, by that response, it seems like they didn't get it very well, but it's right there for us to read

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Jesus gave them a cause for hope in the text, a cause for hope.

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Yes, I'm going to be betrayed. Yes, I'm going to die, but I'm going to be raised to life on the third day.

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He changed the expectations of the permanence of death to the hope of a resurrection of eternal life, and by the way, we're all beneficiaries of that, aren't we?

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At the end of the day, that is our hope. I hope that's in part why you're sitting here. Certainly, many of you just came to see cute kids, but I hope that there's a part in your heart that recognizes there's a longing in your heart for more than this world.

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Now, some of you have realized that through faith in Christ, but some of you are here, and you're just kind of going, I don't ...

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I'm not there, I don't even know what you're talking about. Like, what do you mean hope, and what are you talking about, what is this afterlife that you're talking about?

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I thought we were just going to be worm food or something, and so much more than that. I'd encourage you to come and talk with me if this stuff produces a curiosity in you about what the

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Bible says about the afterlife, and what Jesus was saying, and what he's getting on about resurrection, and what is that all about?

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I'd love to talk with you about the hope that you can have of an eternal life, your sins taken care of, your sins paid for on the cross.

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The fact of the matter is, what a lot of people hear pastors saying is, I'm a terrible person. How many of you ever heard, walked away from a message, and you felt like you were a terrible person?

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That's not wrong, it's just not the whole story, do you know what

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I'm saying? I'm not up here to tell you only that you're bad, I am here to tell you that, because you are bad enough to deserve condemnation, but God loves you so much that he sent his son to die on the cross for your sins, that anyone who believes will receive forgiveness and eternal life.

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That's the promise, and he was raised, and he predicted, and he said, I'm going to die, and I'm going to be raised on the third day, and do you know what happened?

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Well, this is Christmas, Don, you're not supposed to talk about Easter, we're just dealing with this text right now. He rose again on the third day to demonstrate that he has the power over sin and death, and he can do so for you too.

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And that's our hope, that he will bring back to life those who die with faith in him.

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He changed the expectation of the permanence of death to the hope of resurrection to eternal life.

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And the fifth expectation, the fifth expectation is a little bit tricky, because we expect

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Jesus, and we've kind of tamed him to the point where we think he only ever gives peace.

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The only result of interaction with Jesus in our minds is that someone would walk away with peace.

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What does the text say? How did they leave this interaction with Jesus? What does it say?

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Filled with grief, the ESV, greatly distressed. What?

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An interaction with Jesus that leaves us with distress? How is that possible?

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You see, they left this interaction in turmoil inside. Would Jesus ever do that?

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Now certainly he did offer them peace, didn't he? He did tell them that he was going to raise from the dead. He gave them a cause for rejoicing, they just didn't hold on to it.

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You see, I want to point out, Jesus doesn't force you to peace. The angels sang it on that day, didn't they?

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Peace on earth, good will to men. And there's no question that Jesus will indeed lead the whole world into peace under his final rule and reign for those who are his.

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But the expectation here, this side of his eternal kingdom, is that he offers peace whether we take it or not.

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He doesn't force it. The peace he offers must be received, and that peace is a peace with the

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Father through his sacrifice. And so, let's shed our false expectations this morning as we come to communion.

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The son of man, born in humility. He was betrayed by a close friend.

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He was killed by sinful men. He was raised again to life on the third day by his father, and he offers peace to any, to any, to anyone who would receive it.

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So, if you've received peace with God that is offered through Jesus Christ, then I encourage you to come to one of the tables in the back and take the cracker to remember his body that was broken for us, and take that cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for us on the cross.

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And do this this morning, together, in the gathering of his people, in remembrance of him.

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But if you've not yet received Jesus as your king, if you do not recognize him as your savior, if you have not asked him to save you, then

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I'd encourage you to skip communion, but take in this last song instead, and let's go out from this place, rejoicing in the

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Lord, who came on his mission. He didn't come to meet our expectations.

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He came to meet the mission that his father gave him to fulfill. Let's pray.

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Father, I thank you for your word that corrects any false assumptions that we have about Jesus, and cuts right down to the heart of his mission.

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We can think that he owes us a variety of different things, and at the end of the day, your scripture bears truth that he owes us nothing, but has willingly given us everything.

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That certainly there is a hope, that he is a powerful hero on our side, defeating the forces of darkness, for anyone who would accept him by faith.

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He is a great bringer of peace, in the midst of our chaotic weeks, and chaotic days, and chaotic holidays.

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But Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't experience Christ in that way, if there's anybody here who doesn't recognize him as Lord, and King, and Savior, Father, I pray that today might be a day of salvation, that they might come and talk with me, or come and talk with Rob, the elder on duty, or Dave, up here at the end of the service,

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Father, they might catch one of the elders, and Father, that you would allow today to be a day of truth being communicated and conveyed.

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Father, we rejoice in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, for those who are all in with you, those who have jumped in the water and have found it fine,

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Father, I pray that you would allow us to rejoice now, as we stand in these lines that might be a little bit longer, help us to meditate and consider the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

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Rejoicing in the incarnation that he came to us in humility, rejoicing in a sinless life, rejoicing in the plan that was set forth from the foundations of the earth that he would be slain for us, and that he would indeed demonstrate victory over sin and death by raising to newness of life on the third day, a demonstration of that which we hope for, that which we long for, and that which is ours in Jesus Christ, and it's in his name that I pray.