What are Your Expectations?

Matthew 20:20-28

 

 

Ezekiel Elliott

There was a recent Columbus Dispatch article about all of the Ohio State football players that are expected to be drafted in the National Football League. There are a total of fourteen Buckeyes, with six of them expected to go in the first round, which would tie a record. Those are pretty lofty expectations.

 

When I asked Jesus into my life in the summer of 1970, I expected that life would be a spiritual mountaintop experience from

then on. In the fall of 1974 when I got married, I expected to have the perfect marriage. We all have expectations of our spouse, our children, our work and our life. And in reality, those expectations are what we expect from Jesus.

 

James and John also had lofty expectations. They wanted to sit by Jesus in his kingdom on his left and on his right. After all, they had given up the family fishing business when they responded to Jesus’ call to follow him. No doubt this was a huge economic, social and relationship sacrifice.

 

As a result, they expected something in return. I scratch your back, you scratch mine...

Expectations. What’s even more amazing is that they asked for this “favor” shortly after Jesus had announced his death and resurrection for the third time. Could Jesus’ closest followers actually be this dull, this ignorant?

 

“Listen to me carefully. We are on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death. They will then hand him over to the Romans for mockery and torture and crucifixion. On the third day he will be raised up alive.”      MSG

 

This statement seems pretty clear to me. The disciples heard what they wanted to hear; what they hoped to hear; what they expected to hear. Expectations and hope go hand in hand.

 

What are your expectations of Jesus? What do you hope to get from him? A job, a spouse or children without issues? A life without tragedies or without struggles? What can you realistically expect?

 

The Bible tells us that what you can expect from Jesus is that he will be faithful. He will be with you always, and never leave you no matter what you do or what is happening in your life. He will always love you and be at work in your life to draw you closer to him, and to use you in the lives of others.

 

That’s an expectation that you can count on.

 

 

 

 

 

The War Within

Psalm 2

 

Are you the kind of driver that when you pass a police car on the road you look in the mirror to see if he whips around and turns his lights on? I don’t know if it’s a guilty conscience or what, but I do that. Maybe it’s because there are consequences for breaking the law and I/we don’t like consequences.

 

We also don’t like to think of God as a judge. We prefer to think of Him as being a loving, forgiving and understanding Father who takes us in His arms and comforts us. But Psalm 2 is very clear as it presents God as a judge of those who don’t obey the law,

who rebel against Him and who prefer to go their own way.

 

^4 “But God in heaven merely laughs! He is amused by all their puny plans. ⁵ And then in fierce fury he rebukes them and fills them with fear.            TLB

 

And again it is written: ⁸ “Only ask and I will give you all the nations of the world. ⁹ Rule them with an iron rod; smash them like clay pots!”               TLB

 

The worst part of God being a judge is that we deserve to be judged. Isn’t our natural inclination exactly what the psalmist wrote about? Don’t Paul’s words in Romans 7 apply to us as well?

 

^21 “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with

me.²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” NIV

 

There is a war within us that we battle every day. And because of our sin, because of this war with us, someone had to pay. God the judge had to judge. Judgement was required.

 

Thankfully, Christ paid the price for our sins. Indeed, as Paul wrote, ^25 “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

 

 

It’s All Good

Revelation 22:1-5

 

“It’s all good”, is a popular response nowadays that means, nothing is bad. But the irony is that some things are bad, painful, irreversible and even life-changing. Is it all good after having a still born baby or when a family member dies unexpectedly? Is it all good when you get fired from your job of 30 years? Is it all good when a relationship is irreconcilable? Is it all good when life feels like there’s no hope?

 

At the time when John wrote the book of Revelation, the believers in Asia Minor were on the verge of suffering sever persecution for being a follower of Jesus. The Roman authorities were beginning to enforce emperor worship which would be unacceptable for a Christian.  What could this persecution mean for an individual?

 

“Nero was quite insane, and is reported to have tortured Christians with great cruelties for his own enjoyment. According to the Roman historian Tacitus:

Besides being put to death they [the Christians] were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clad in the hides of beast and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed.”

 

“It’s all good”, would seem like a hollow response at best.

 

In the Book of Revelation, John gave the persecuted church a future with eternal hope through these words:

 

“And he pointed out to me a river of pure Water of Life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, ² coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew Trees of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month; the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. ³ There shall be nothing in the city that is evil; for the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.”          TLB

 

For the first century believers, as well as for us, these words bring great hope. It’s not that “it’s all good”, but we can have faith in a loving sovereign God that He has a future for us without pain and suffering. In other words, evil and pain do not have the last word… God does.

 

 

 

Now THAT IS all good.

 

 

Consequences… Nobody Likes Them

Revelation 20:7-15

 

Consequences… nobody likes them.

 

My wife and I love college hockey, so even though we are not Buckeye fans, we’ve attended games for over ten years. During most of those years we parked in a secluded area where the handful of parking spots are marked - “Staff Only”; and of course we are not staff. But it’s never been a problem… until this year.

 

Following our most recent game, we discovered a parking ticket on our windshield. I was irate to say the least. For years we had parked in the same spot, along with other

fans, and never got a ticket. My wife has bad knees, and this is the closest parking location not requiring a handicap sticker. On top of all this, it was 10pm on a Saturday night. How many OSU staff do you think were looking for a parking spot at that time?

 

 

 

Consequences… nobody likes them.

 

My NIV Study Bible has two sub-titles for this passage in Revelation, both involving severe consequences.

 

“The Judgement of Satan”

^10 “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”            NASB

 

“The Judgement of the Dead”

^13 “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”       NIV

 

Consequences… nobody likes them.

 

Thankfully, God through His gracious love, has provided a way for us to live without fear of condemnation. Read these words that Paul wrote to the Romans.

 

 

^24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!... There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”              ESV