The Village Church
Road to Easter: Doubts, Misunderstandings and Unbelief - Audio
Well, we're going to take a break from the Amaya. So, for Easter, I'm pretty sure you want a break from the Amaya. So, if you have your Bibles, open them to Matthew, Chapter 11. So, we're going to take a four-week break from the Amaya. You're going to do a series on Easter. It's called "Road to Easter." We're going to be looking at Easter. Jesus is "Road to Easter" for the next few weeks. As many of you know, this is an exciting time of the year for a lot of people. Because spring is here. When spring comes, the weather warms up. You can go outside, you can have cookouts. You can do whatever you want to do outside when the weather warms up. And it's an exciting time of the year for a lot of people coming out of the winter season. Now, I know for some of you who have allergies now, on the other hand, it's not really an exciting time of the year for you, but bear with me. And there's one more thing that's exciting about this time of the year. And that's Easter. It's Easter season. And a lot of you, I know Markey and I have, we're starting to think about Easter plans and Easter preparations. What are we going to do for Easter? So you know, you have Easter checklists, right? You have your road to Easter checklists. And every holiday has a checklist. Every holiday does. The angel's got to do, the angel's got to buy, the angel's got to prepare for family to come into town. For Easter. What are you going to serve Easter dinner? What are we going to eat this year? How many Easter Ed hunts I'm going to take the kids to this year? How many trips? So I got to go to the store to get more eggs. How many? I got to get my nails done. I got to get my hair done. And most importantly, you got to get your Easter outfit because it ain't Easter without the Easter outfit. So you got to get it. And I think all of us, all of us here have different plans and different roles we take to get ready for Easter. And majority of the time, majority of the time is spent with preparations for Easter. And we never ever have time to embrace it. We just prepare for it. The business of it. And what we need to do, we need to learn how to embrace Easter. And embracing Easter, it takes you back to the first Easter. The first Easter. And when you do that, it takes to focus off of you. Take to focus off of your plans and your preparations of Easter. And it places it firmly and rightly on Jesus, on his role, on his journey. Because whenever you read through the Gospels, whenever you read through the Bible, you know that the role he took is very different than the one we're traveling right now. His role didn't consist of going to the barbershop and getting his hair cut. Then go to the market to get new sandals and a new outfit. No, his role was marked with much doubt. There was misunderstanding. There was unbelief. There was rejection. Betrayal. Being forsaken. Beaten. Death. And in the end, victory. Victory. The Gospel of John tells us, tells us that Jesus, he was in the world. The world was made through him. And yet the world did not know him. He came to his own. And his own people did not receive him. This morning, we're going to begin to look at Jesus's role to Easter. See, because without his journey, there would be no Easter. There would be no Easter. Let me put it this way. There would be no Easter bunny if Jesus didn't travel his role. You realize that, right? There's an Easter bunny because he's the coke teller of what Jesus has done. There would be no Easter egg hunts. There would be no stores filled with Easter egg baskets if Jesus didn't do what he did. And most importantly, there would be no Easter outfits if Jesus didn't come and do what he did. All those things, they're fun and they're fun, but they're the coke teller. They're not the main point of Easter. They're fun. Family can do things together with Easter egg hunts, but they're not the main thing. Jesus is the sinner, the cornerstone. He holds all the things together. And without him, there is no Easter holiday. There is no. And so do you doubt that? Do you misunderstand that? Now, I know all of you are going to say no, Alex. We believe that. We believe Jesus is the reason. No, we're good southern Bible-believing people. You think you preach it to the choir here, Alex? But if I look at your life, what does your life say? Now, what do you say on Sunday morning? Now, what do you say on Sunday school, but the way you live your life, do you believe that Jesus is the reason for Easter? If I just watched you, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But there's your life, testify to the fact that Jesus is who he says he is. Now, I know some of us have doubts, some of us have misunderstandings, and we're not the only people in history to have those. Jesus was doubted constantly in history of ministry. He was misunderstood. He was rejected by the religious establishment of the day. And not only that, the people who followed him had doubts. You realize that, right? All the apostles had doubts. What were their doubts? They had a different picture of what the Messiah came to do. They wanted one that was going to come to defeat the Romans, right? Is that what Jesus came to do? So, even those who followed him struggled with doubt and misunderstanding. And one of those allies, one of those who had doubts and misunderstanding was John the Baptist. John the Baptist. So, if you have your Bibles, open them to Matthew, chapter 11, beginning in verse 2. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another?" And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The death here. The dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Please pray with me. Father God, as we come to your word, your scriptures, Lord, we pray that your spirit will come. That he will be the one moving and working, that he will come and apply your truth to our lives. Apply it to my heart, Father. I'm just a vessel. Nothing special about Alex. I'm just a vessel that you use. And so, I pray that my heart will be humbled before your scriptures and before you. And that you will use what I say to encourage your bride, whom you love, whom you die for. And so, Father, glorify yourself in Christ and my prayer. Amen. John the Baptist had doubts and misunderstandings about Jesus. When he heard in prison about the deeds that Christ was doing, he sent word by his own disciples. And they said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" So, all this question, and it makes sense once you understand who was John the Baptist. What was his role? Why was he important? He was a relative of Jesus. John's mother and Jesus' mother were relatives. And more importantly, John was the forerunner of Christ. He was chosen by God to prepare the way for the Christ. And in his ministry, the word says, "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the obedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready for the Lord of people prepared." That was going to be John's ministry, his calling. And John was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi and Isaiah concerning the Messiah, the Christ. Isaiah 40 says, "A voice cries in the wilderness, prepared a way for the Lord, and makes straight in the desert a highway for our God." That's John the Baptist. He was the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing a way for Christ. Who else is John the Baptist? What else did he do? He baptized Jesus, right? When Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, he was baptized by John. And what happened after he baptized Jesus? John saw the heavens open, and the Spirit of God is standing like a dove and coming to rest on Jesus. John saw these things. He brought witness to these things. Thirdly, John even testified about Christ to others. He brought witness that Christ was the Son of God. In the Gospel of John, you read John saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." What was he referring to, Jesus? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And finally, John, during his ministry, he was never in competition with Jesus even. He never competed with him for his glory. He knew he was just a forerunner to Christ. That's why he says, "I'm not the Christ. I've been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hear him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, my joys may complete," says John. "He must increase. I must decrease." So John's story is complete because Jesus is here. He rejoices at the bridegroom's voice. But when you read Matthew 11, is he rejoicing? Is someone rejoicing? Can they ask that type of question in Jesus? Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? Think about that. We know John's circumstances are different. He's in prison now. And he was thrown in prison by Herod. He was the governor of Galilee because John spoke out against Herod taking his brother's wife as his wife. And when John spoke out against that, he was thrown in jail. And so John is no longer on the scene. He's no longer on the ministry scene. So he really is decreasing in a physical way. And so in jail, he hears about the deeds of Christ. He hears about the works of Christ, the miracles, the healings, hanging out with tax collectors, hanging out with sinners, his teaching and his preaching. And so John sends his own disciples to Jesus and asks a question. A question that shows doubt, misunderstanding and uncertainty in John about who Jesus is and what he came to do. What's the question? Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? Jesus, are you the Christ? Are you surprised to hear this question from John? Are you disappointed in John that the forerunner of the Christ could ask this type of question? The one who actually saw the spirit to sin on Christ could have doubt about who he is. Is it just because of his circumstances? Is it just because he's in jail that he doubts? And as I read and studied this week on this particular question, everyone's all over the place about what this question is. And is it really John's doubt? Some says this is John's not really doubting. This is his apostles doubting. His disciples are doubting. So John has been a good leader and so he's asking this question for them and not really for him. I don't really buy that. This is John's question for John, for his benefit. He personally wants to know is Jesus the one who is to come or should he look for another? See, I believe he asked his question about Jesus because Jesus wasn't meeting some expectations John had of the Christ. We all have Christ's expectations, Jesus' expectations. We do. We all do. And sometimes those expectations don't line up what the Bible says. You see, John had the expectation that once the Christ came that he was going to immediately set everything right in the world. But what do you mean by that, Alex? Here's what I mean. In Matthew chapter 3, John talks about when the Christ comes, he's going to bring judgment on those who don't repent. And blessings to those who do. John, I think, was expecting judgment to come immediately. Soon as Christ came on the scene, he was going to bring judgment at that point. And so his doubt is actually just misunderstanding. One of my seminary professors says, "John is not troubled by what Jesus is doing, but by what he's not doing." Are you troubled by what he's not doing? When you see what happened in Japan, are you troubled that Jesus didn't do anything to stop it? So don't look down on John, for we too are troubled when Jesus is not doing what we expect him to do. I am what we all are because we're human because we're human. John's Christ's expectations were different from what Christ actually came to do at that moment in history. Like many during this time, most of the people during this time in Christianity had a Christ's expectation geared toward Christ coming to defeat the Romans. That he was going to come to defeat Rome and he was going to become the king of political Christ, a revolutionary Messiah. And John's own disciples had that same struggle. I mean, take Peter for example. What did Peter do when Jesus told him he was going to go to Jerusalem and die and be rose again? Did Peter jump up and down and say, "Yeah, Jesus, you get him." Jesus actually pulled Jesus to the side and rebuked him because Peter didn't get it at that moment. He did not get it. He had doubt, he had misunderstandings about the Messiah and what he actually came to do. I recently read an article on CNN.com about a biblical expert who has some really crazy views about Jesus. Crazy views about Jesus. This person is his co-founder of something called the Jesus Seminar and this seminar is a group of scholars who they cast doubts on what Jesus said in the Bible. They say he didn't say half the things that the Bible says he said and he didn't do half the things that the Bible says he does. And so they go around and all they do is cast doubt on the Bible and who Jesus is and what he came to do. They say this one person who this article is about, he says he is a Christian absolutely. That's what this guy says about himself. And yet, at the other end of his mouth he says Jesus did not rise from the dead, nor did he die as punishment for humanity's sins. Is that disconnect? Can you absolutely be a Christian without those two things happening? Not according to the Bible. This man, he reinvents Jesus. He has a Jesus of his own imagination. He says Jesus was an ex-ported peasant with attitude. He called for non-violent resistance to Rome and just distribution of land and food. He was crucified because he threatened Roman stability. Not as a sacrifice to God for humanity's sins. Are you kidding me? He turns Jesus into a first-century Gandhi who is nothing more than a non-violent social activist. Is that who Jesus is? No, it's not. And what's sad is this guy says he speaks at 30 churches a year about stuff like this. 30 churches a year, he speaks at believing stuff like this. Doubt, misunderstanding, unbelief. It's not just in first-century people. It's right here, 2011. People who claim to know Christ and get don't know him. Who claim to understand Christianity but they really don't get it. He was a sacrifice to God for our sins. And when you take the supernatural out of Christianity, you end up reviews like this. That cast doubt, misunderstanding, and unbelief. You might not be this extreme, like this guy, but we all had Jesus' expectations. Who is the Jesus of your imagination? Who is he? And here's the thing, your Jesus' expectations and the Jesus of your imagination, they are on the collision course with the Bible. They are. Because the Bible will shatter those things. If you're going to believe what the Bible says, or you're going to go off and doubt, misunderstanding, and for some, you're going to run off and unbelief. If you are expecting Jesus to make everything in your life nice and easy, and that's a misunderstanding. If you are expecting him to make everything in this world, at this moment, right before the Second Coming, then that's a misunderstanding. If you are expecting him to settle with just you want him to be your savior but not your lord as well, then that too is a misunderstanding. Just because Jesus does not promise us heaven on earth, that does not make him less of a savior and redeemer. Just because he doesn't fix all of our problems when we want to fix, that does not make him less of a savior or a redeemer. Praise God that Jesus does not subject himself to our doubts and misunderstanding and unbelief. He lives above them, and yet he does not abandon us because of them. Did you have doubts? Do you? Do you have misunderstanding? Do you struggle with unbelief or does it just mean? Come on people, don't be too holy now, be honest. Because if Peter can do what he did, you can too. If Peter struggled with it, you will too. None of us didn't hang out with Jesus for three years. They did and still held doubts. How about you're going to struggle with doubts? Yes, you will. You will. But he knows what he does. He shepherds us gently through those things. This is what he did with John the Baptist, verse 4. Jesus answered him, "Go and tell John what you hear and see, that the blind receive that sight, the lame walk, loppers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me." Do you think Jesus is taken by surprise by the things you struggle with? Oh my goodness, Alex, I didn't know you struggled with that. Dang, if I were known that, I would never have saved you. If I were to know him that, you know what? No. Are you surprised by your doubts? Are you thinking surprised by the things you misunderstand? Are you thinking surprised by your unbelief? No. Sometimes we think he is. He knows you better than you know you. He died because he knows you. He got to learn to accept that. Keep in mind he traveled the road to Easter for a purpose. He had to. He's never taken up guard by the things we struggle with. Neither was he taken up guard by John's question. And you know that Jesus didn't derail John, did he? He didn't say, "John, you're the forerunner, man. You're my secretary of state. If you're a dollar, you're going to send a fair guy into the camp, brother." Did he do that to John? No. He did not. He didn't say, "John, you should know. You and all people should know better." No. Not if Jesus gave him a yes. He didn't say yes either. Instead, he pointed John and his disciples to the things that are heard and seen. The things that are heard and seen. What does that mean? It means the word and deeds of Jesus' ministry. You see, both of those are important. His deeds in the preaching of God's Word is what he pointed John to and he points us to as well. He preached the gospel. In this God's Word, and yet he had deeds as well, working together. Both of those things should be evidence enough that Jesus is the Christ. The blind receive this sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have good news preached to them. All those things point to Jesus being who he says he is. And these words are, but the same words he almost says he says in Luke 4. And he went into a synagogue when he first began his ministry in Nazareth on the Sabbath. And he stood up in the synagogue. And this is what he said to the people when he stood up. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty of the captives. The receiving of sight to the blind to say that liberty those who are oppressed. And to proclaim the year with the Lord's favor." Then he says to the people, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your sight." Sounds familiar? He's doing what the Father has sent him to do. And he's going to do what the Father sent him to do. And he is letting John know that, that yes, about him being here, he is establishing God's kingdom when he came. But not in its fullness. Not in its fullness. There will be healings. There are going to be miracles. You're going to taste of it. You're going to taste of the world to come. But not completely. The banquet is still to come, John the Baptist. It's still to come. Judgment is still to come. It's going to come, but not yet. Every year we celebrate Easter. It's us getting the taste of what's to come, that we too, who know Jesus, where one day have a resurrection of a new life, every time we celebrate it. And this Easter, we're going to have the Lord separate this Easter to celebrate that. Because every year people, it's a taste. Yes. I will one day be resurrected to new life. Jesus says, until then, until I come back, blessed are those who are not offended by me. Because I'm not doing the things they want me to do fast enough. Because I ain't doing it as quick as they want me to do it. Blessed are you when you don't get offended because Jesus is not living up to your expectations. When Jesus shows you, he's not a Jesus of your imagination. Blessed are you when you don't get offended by that. Blessed are you when you don't get offended because he is not bringing perfect restoration to your life. Blessed are you when you don't get offended by Jesus because he ain't made everything in your life right yet. Blessed are you. That sounds for me, it sounds like a bad issue, doesn't it? Blessed are you when you don't get offended because of your suffering and the losses that we're going to all go through. Blessed are you when you don't get offended when Jesus reveals that your expectations are just unbelief, doubts and misunderstandings. And blessed are you who know that Jesus does not hold those things against you. Blessed are you who know that he does not hold those things against you. He knows that his bride is a very unfaithful bride. He knows you. He knows you're going to doubt. He knows you're going to have misunderstandings. He knows you're going to struggle with unbelief. He knows that each and every one of us are going to go through things, hard things. They're going to shake us. They're going to shake you. Shake your faith and to say that's not going to happen, that's foolish. And if some of those things will be so hard that they even make us question, is he really good? Does he really love me? Or is this just me? Have you ever thought those things? Is he really for me? Is he really my savior? Is this stuff really true? Have you ever said that? Is it really true, Jesus? Are you really faithful? At the end of the day, are you really for me? Because my circumstances, my circumstances, God, I can't see it. The answer to that question is yes. He is faithful. Yes. He is good. Yes, he is for you. He knows that you are but does. He knows you're going to fall short, and he knows that you have issues beyond belief. And yet, he still fully embraces you. He still fully embraces you, each and every one of you who know him. And so, learn to rest in that embrace people. You know what an embrace is? It's like this. An embrace. Can you rest in his embrace around you? Can you be still in that embrace? Can you be comforted in that embrace? Amazing is his love, and eternally strong is his embrace around his people. Each and every one of you. As I always say, you firmly grounded. You firmly rooted. When I became a believer, you know, it's back when I was in college. And I shared this with a lot of you. You know, I thought, you know, Jesus saved me, but I believe that it was up to me to keep myself saved because I thought I could lose my salvation. And so, I started, I had to perform. That's what I had to do. I had to perform. He purchased my salvation, but you know what? I had to protect him from coming to repossess it. Because if I didn't do well, if I didn't walk well, then he was going to come and take what he gave me. So, the first two years of my Christian journey, that's all I did. I worked, man. I just worked my tail off. Quiet times every day, memorizing seven verses a week, in this Bible study, in that Bible study, sharing my faith, all those things are good things. But man, I was killing myself because I believed the more I did those, the more faithfully I did those, the more he loved me. And whenever I didn't have a good week in him, he didn't love me anymore. Is that a disconnect for me? Yes, it was. I never thought about grace for two years of my Christian journey because I believed I needed grace to be saved, not grace to live. I didn't believe I needed grace to live. And so it took me two long years to get out of that misunderstanding. I had no more depression and all that. It took me two years for God to heal me with my misunderstanders in doubt. Because man, I was killing myself. I flat out burned out. I got tired. I got angry with God. And so I was broken. But it took me two years to get out of that. And what has happened now over the last six, seven years of my life, I'm learning about how to live a grace in that life. I still struggle with perfectionism. I still struggle with working for God because I think he loves me more when I do. But I know that stuff is not true now. I fight against it. And the spirit is turning my misunderstanding into understanding. My doubts and the certainties, my unbelief and to believe. You see, the gospel, usually when something sounds too good to be true, is not true. And when you think about it, the gospel is too good to be true. When you think about it, it's true that God's considering his son to die for sinners like us. That he would love us in spite of us. That Christ would give us all of his righteousness and he'd take all of our junk. That does sound too good to be true. But it's true. It's supernatural. So, do you know him? Do you know him? Or are you going through the motions? Do you want to know him? There is only one way you can be made right with the Father is to a personal relationship with his son. Personal relationship with Jesus. Resting and depending upon Jesus for the rest of your life. And so, if you're here, you're here for a reason. God wants you to be here. He wants you to be here to hear the gospel. And it's out there for you. All you gotta do is say Jesus, I surrender. I surrender. Please pray with me. Father, God, I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you travel the road, you travel, because you love us. And it was only way we were going to be made right with you. You die for our sins and Lord, we thank you for that. You're also a resurrected Father. And because of those things, our sin no longer is our master. There's no longer has control of us, though we still struggle with it. But it's no longer our identity. Those of us who know Jesus, we are in Jesus. Our identity is in Jesus. And who we are is in Jesus. Teach us, Father, how to learn to embrace the gospel, Easter, who we are in Christ, our righteousness in Christ, to be able to rest in what you are for us. Some of us don't know how to rest, constantly working for approval, constantly performing because we want you to earn your love and favor. We can't earn it, Father. You have freely given it, Father. Teach us what that means. I pray for all of us, Lord, that in our walks with you, Father, you give us a heart that long to know you more, long to fall in love with you more. And Lord, I pray that you will be glorified, that you, Lord, will just continue to remind us of your faithfulness and sustain us as we go about our weeks this week. The only things we've got to do, keep us firmly grounded, Father, Christ and my prayer. Amen. 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