Great Unexpectations: Jesus Challenges Our Perceptions

Let me just say this for those that are joining us via podcast,

just to let you know that I encourage you to read Luke chapter 7,

Luke 7:1–35

verses 1 through 35, because that will give you the scriptural background.

We're going to cover those scriptures in the message today, but also it would

help if you read that before listening to the rest of the message.

But Jesus was a surprising person to be around. Everybody agree?

I mean, he left religious leaders marveling.

His teaching left crowds astonished, and people were constantly left asking

why he did the things that he did.

And there are times, if we are honest, where Jesus does not meet our expectations.

What we expected him to do, he does the opposite sometimes.

And that's why today, if you had a title. You could call it Great Unexpectations, okay?

When we meet him in the Bible, he often says, Jesus often says things that challenge and even disturb us.

When we actually look at our lives, we often wonder why Jesus has taken us down

this particular path. Anybody relate?

We are by no means the first to experience this, though.

In fact, in chapter 7 of Luke's gospel, we see a prophet and a religious leader

here wrestling with Jesus's real identity and Jesus's shocking behavior.

And so that takes us, first of all, to unexpected faith.

After an extended period here in this scripture of teaching,

Jesus entered into his adopted hometown of, do you remember where it was?

Capernaum, along the Sea of Galilee. We learned that in chapter 7,

verse 1, as Sharon wrote earlier.

There a group of elders of the Jews came to him, it says in verse 3,

asking Jesus to heal a centurion's servant, a man valued highly,

it says in verse 2, who was on the point of death.

And in the Roman military scheme, let me just say this, a centurion was a commander

of a unit of roughly a hundred men.

And in that role, this centurion had become wealthy enough actually to build

a synagogue for the Jewish people in Capernaum. We learn that in verse five.

And he's powerful enough to have Jewish elders, get this, willing to help him,

it tells us in verses three through five with his situation.

Well, on the surface, I think sometimes it would be hard to imagine someone

less likely to send people to actually approach this itinerant Jewish rabbi

in order to plead for help on his behalf.

But this is clearly, I want y'all to know this, no ordinary centurion is it.

In fact, if we look back in verses 6 and 7 of this passage of Luke 7,

we see that he is a humble man pleading his unworthiness to approach Jesus or

even have him come under his roof.

And in any event, though, Luke has already taught us to expect that,

guess what? it is outsiders and the unlikely who will come to Jesus.

Y'all, isn't that good news? Isn't that good news? I mean, we're not told how

this centurion has heard about Jesus or what he understands about Jesus's identity as the Messiah.

He simply needs help, doesn't he? And he believes that Jesus has extraordinary

power to save his cherished servant, his slave.

And as a man with authority in the realm of the military, he has a sense of

what it means for Jesus to have authority in the spiritual realm.

And so just as the centurion here has soldiers at the ready to do his bidding,

it tells us that in verse 8, as we heard read earlier, in the same way he believes

that Jesus, don't miss this,

has authority to accomplish, guess what church, whatever he wishes.

This man's faith is great. And when Jesus heard this, it actually says he was

amazed at him in verse nine, for he had not found such great faith even in Israel.

Wow. In response to this faith, what did Jesus do? He healed the servant from a distance.

For when the envoys, if we read, returned home, they found that the servant

was well, it tells us in verse 10.

And in this brief story, we see both Jesus's incredible power and unusual faith

that was shown to us from an unlikely source here in this centurion.

In fact, the significance of this miracle is going to be seen in the next few

verses even more because it leads us next to an unexpected power.

Not long after the healing here of the centurion's servant, what does it say in verse 11?

Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd.

And let me just tell you, Nain was a small and otherwise insignificant town.

It was located about 25 miles south of Capernaum.

And approaching the entrance of the town, Jesus encountered a truly pitiful

scene, if you remember, that was read earlier in verse 12. a widow accompanying

the dead body of her only son.

Imagine a widow already lost her husband, and now she's lost her only son.

And this woman was in dire straits, right? I'm not talking about the band,

but she was in dire straits.

And not only was she enduring the grief of loss here, but as a childless widow

in that society, she would have no one to provide for her in her old age.

I mean, this was quite crushing.

And really all her hopes and all her security had died with her son.

And it's no surprise that upon seeing that sadness, what does Jesus do?

What does it say in verse 13?

Yeah, and his heart went out to her. He was moved with compassion.

He looked at her situation. But not only does Jesus care, guess what, church?

Jesus can help, even when faced by death. And that ought to excite you. I'm just saying.

Jesus' compassion is on display here in this passage in verses 14 and 15 as

he tells this woman not to weep. Can you imagine that?

In the funeral, tears shed, you grieve the loss of the loved one. And what does he do?

He raises her son from the dead and returns him to her. I mean,

come on, church. I'm talking.

Can you imagine being at a funeral and been there when Jesus walked the earth

and you were at this place and Jesus came in and all of a sudden he walked up

to this casket and the whole procession stopped and he spoke those words, I say to you, son, arise,

and he jumped up out of the casket. What would happen?

What it says here, great fear fell on all the people. I don't know how many

of you have been to a funeral where the person in the casket jumped up.

But I promise you, if that was you or me, we would be like heartbeat,

heartbeat, heartbeat, right? I mean, it would be going.

And the people correctly interpret

the significance of Jesus' ministry because look back at verse 16.

The arrival of Jesus signals that God has come to help his people. They saw that.

In fact, this is a story of incredible power.

Think about it. power that was sufficient enough to raise the dead.

And y'all, you know what? I have to say this because this was an awesome miracle,

but I want you to know that Jesus also has the power that's an even greater

miracle than raising somebody from the dead physically.

Did you know? Is raising a dead man who is dead in his sins to life in Jesus Christ.

He is dead, church, spiritually, and that's the greatest resurrection of all

when somebody is made alive in Christ.

Wow. I mean, but Luke here is remarkably matter of fact of the way that he reports it.

It seems we're not supposed to focus too much on the details of this particular

miracle, but instead to see it in light of a bigger picture.

And Luke does intend for us to read this brief story, I believe,

in connection with the healing of the centurion's servant in the previous verses,

because the literary parallels between the two church that links these two miracles,

I think they're significant.

Let me share them. In each story, we see a person in the grip of grief.

A beloved person in the grip of death even.

We see a miraculous healing and a large crowd that observes the miracle.

And Luke's reasons for including these stories, I believe, beyond just demonstrating

Jesus's power to raise the dead become more clear to us in the passage that

follows here. So let's move ahead.

We see an unexpected Messiah.

In fact, it says here in verses 17 and 18, look there, that news of all of these

things spread rapidly around the areas and eventually reaching who?

Who does it reach the ears of?

John the Baptist. Where is he, by the way?

He's in jail. He's in prison. And it prompts him, though, to send messengers

to Jesus in order to ask him a question.

And we see it in verses 19 and 20. What question has John asked Jesus?

Are you the one who is to come or should we expect somebody else?

In other words, are you the one or should we look for another?

And y'all, the question is direct, is pointed, right?

John wants a straight answer regarding whether or not Jesus is in fact the one

who is more powerful who was to come.

As it talked about in chapter 3 of Luke, in verse 16.

In fact, John doubts about Jesus. His doubts about Jesus are really surprising, I think.

In light of his experience, if you remember, at Jesus's baptism.

You remember that all the way back in chapter 3?

Why would the report of Jesus's healing ministry give John cause to doubt him?

Well, guess what? Luke doesn't answer that question, but he's given us enough

context here to piece together that answer.

We know, first of all, that John was in prison, as we talked about,

at the time of these events, we learned back in chapter 3, verses 18 through

20, And that explains why he had to hear about Jesus's ministry from other people.

And before his imprisonment, think about this.

John had spoken about the coming of the more powerful one in terms of what?

Judgment. You remember? John was calling them to repent.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand, calling them, telling them about the one who's

going to judge the world.

Remember, he promised the crowds at the Jordan that he will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit and with fire,

his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather

the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

That was John's message.

And in light of that, if you think, church, it's not difficult to imagine here

why John was puzzled a little bit.

He had understood the coming of the Messiah as a time of justice and punishment for sinners.

And the Messiah was going to purify Israel and reestablish good in the land.

Just to put it plainly, he would burn up the human trash and cut down the religious

deadwood. We learned that back in chapter 3.

But John's entire ministry was built around that understanding.

And he had called people to repentance in light of what? In light of this coming wrath of God.

In fact, but instead of bringing fire, think about it for a minute.

And wrath right now, where he's at when Jesus came, what was Jesus doing?

He was seemingly, think about it from John's perspective, he was seemingly going

from two-bit backwater town to two-bit backwater town on a good campaign, doing good.

Healing and preaching, all right?

And so in John's understanding, the Messiah wasn't supposed to come and show

mercy to Roman army officials.

Remember Rome had oppressed, right? And we can understand why this was not an

academic question for John.

You know, as he's sitting there rotten in Herod's prison, right?

Maybe he cherished hopes that Jesus would use his extraordinary power to free him from prison even.

But Jesus actually showed in this passage here, no inclination to bring the

wrath of God to his enemies at this time because that brings us to this and

something that we encounter, I think a lot ourselves, we get an unexpected response.

Might imagine that Jesus would reassure John here that in fact he was going

to bring judgment to the world. You know, John, hang on, it's coming.

But in verse 21 of chapter 7 of Luke, instead, what did Jesus do?

He says, Jesus cured many who had diseases, sickness, and evil spirits,

and gave sight to many who were blind.

It's almost as if Jesus wants to make the point abundantly clear to John's disciples

that they should take back to their master a report of what they had seen and heard.

A message of healing for the sick, life for the dead, the good news for the poor, in verse 22.

And actually, Jesus' description of his ministry, look at verse 22.

It's kind of like a patchwork of quotes from the book of Isaiah.

But we've actually seen earlier in a previous passage that we studied in Luke,

that Jesus understood that the prophecies of Isaiah were being fulfilled in

his ministry. We saw that back in chapter 4.

But it turns out, Eastwood, that the very miracles that made John unsure about

Jesus were actually the things that showed that Jesus was the Messiah.

And John was not wrong on the facts. There will be a time for judgment.

It's coming. But he was wrong about the timing.

How many of y'all, how many of us have ever been wrong about the timing, right?

Jesus is in effect telling him that now is the time for healing and patience

and forgiveness and good news.

It's a time of grace, right? It's a time to call people to himself, but it's a time of grace.

And Jesus didn't meet John's expectations here of what the Messiah would be

like. And as followers of Christ, I can't help but think that we have to realize

that Jesus may not always meet our expectations.

May not do for us what we would want a deliverer to do. Let me explain that.

He may not take away a difficult situation in your life or my life or heal a

broken relationship in the way that we would hope.

He may deem it best for his power to be displayed in your weakness and my weakness

rather than in our strength, as it talks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

He may call you and I to love people that you would rather not love.

In Luke 6, it talks about that.

Following Jesus, in other words, Eastwood, means you may get the unexpected.

Because Jesus does not always go the way that we would expect him to go.

Y'all, I found out that so many times in my life. I'm just telling y'all,

as we read the word, it's like, you know what? That's not what I was expecting.

Not what I expected him to do. But notice also in this passage how patient Jesus is.

We might expect that he would just blast John for his doubt,

right? Well, John, you ought to know better, right? I mean, you know,

that's what we would do, right?

Instead, what does he do? He simply points John to himself and informs him that

it's exactly what he should be doing. In other words, he points John to him,

to Jesus, the Messiah, and says, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

And he actually finishes his message to John, if you notice there in that passage,

with a promise of blessing for those who are not discouraged by the fact that

he does not do things in the way that they might expect.

Look at it, verse 23 of chapter 7 of Luke.

He says this, Jesus says this, blessed is anyone, what?

Who does not stumble on account of me.

He's telling us right there, I'm not going to always do the way you expect me to do it.

Blessed are you if you don't stumble because you don't get what you expect.

In reality, church, things would only get harder for the disciples who were listening to Jesus.

The plan of God would only get more confusing and disappointing as the Messiah,

guess what, was crucified at the hands of wicked men.

What kind of victory could that possibly be?

But guess what, church? We know this today. His sacrificial death,

what, would prove to be Jesus's ultimate triumph. Amen?

The way of the cross, church, leads to a crown. It talks about in Philippians 2, 8 through 11.

He's been exalted. His name is above every name. And if we follow this kind

of Messiah, there are bound to be some things that don't immediately make sense

to us, things that don't seem to go the way that we think they should go always.

And for that reason, guess what? Jesus promises that if we're not tripped up

by him and his ways, what's going to happen?

We will be blessed. That just means we're going to be happy.

We're going to be blessed. Following him, in other words, will be worth it. Follow the master.

Follow Jesus. Because you know what? When we do that, we see unexpected greatness.

There will be unexpected greatness. Because once John's messengers have left,

if we see the passage, Jesus turns to the crowd and he talks to them about John.

He doesn't want anybody to think that just because John isn't clear on this

issue that he wasn't a great prophet.

Three times, actually, church, Jesus asked them what they went out to see when

they went out to John in the wilderness.

Did they go out, look at it, did they go out to see, in verse 24,

did they go out to see a trembling weakling, a reed that's swayed by the wind?

Is that what they went out to see? Of course not.

Did they go to see a child of luxury a man dressed in fine clothes.

No, it tells us in the passage. Look at verse 26.

They went out to see who? A prophet.

And y'all, the repetitive questioning here of Jesus to the crowd,

it might seem to just kind of like a bit of badgering, you know,

you think about it, or you may be hostile even to a modern audience.

But in the Hebrew world, I want y'all to miss this today. In the Hebrew world,

repetition signaled emphasis.

That's what he was doing here. Jesus simply wants the crowd here to really understand

who John is in order why that they might be able to grasp who Jesus is.

Knows what he's doing. John was, in fact, what did he say in verse 26?

Look at it. More than a prophet.

Well, he was the long-awaited prophet that would be who? The forerunner to who?

To Jesus, the Messiah, it says in verse 27.

And in light of that unique role, Eastwood, rather than any extraordinary personal

merit on John's part, John and Jesus here declares that among those born of

women, there is no one greater than who?

John. Verse 28, he says it plainly, but he doesn't stop there, does he?

It's a measure of the greatness of Jesus and his kingdom.

Listen to this, church. Don't let anything rob you from this.

Look what it says in verse 28, that even the one who is least in the kingdom

of God is greater than John.

Now, how many of you here today feel like you're the least in the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, you're greater than John. Isn't that unexpected greatness?

That's who God calls us. That's what he tells us in his word.

And as the last prophet of the old order of things, John is great.

But guess what, Eastwood? The new order of things, inaugurated by who?

By Jesus, signaled in the very miraculous healings that it really confused John.

It's so great that the very least person, The very one most undeserving in his

kingdom has more spiritual privileges than John ever had.

Y'all, we have a high priest who knows what it's like. He's been in your shoes. He's been in my shoes.

We have such blessings, such privilege as a child of God, more than John ever had.

And Jesus is reminding us of that.

Well, that leads us to this quickly. grumpy children.

Ever been a grumpy child? Anybody ever remember throwing a fit when you're a child?

And does anybody remember spanking? I don't know, but I'm just simply saying,

yeah, it's like, as always though, here, listen to this.

The revelation of Jesus, guess what?

Just like it does today, it demands a response.

The religious leaders had rejected John's baptism, hadn't they?

And his message of repentance.

And in so doing, they rejected Jesus and God's purpose for themselves.

It tells us that in verse 30.

And like grumpy children, it says, who are not satisfied.

Basically, look at it this way. They're not satisfied with any games that their friends suggest.

Not satisfied, you know, whatever's going on. They reject both John,

the prophet who preached judgment, and also Jesus, who lavished mercy on people

and attended their parties.

That's unexpected, isn't it? And Jesus even says this in the passage here. He talks about it.

And by this point in Luke's narrative, we have come to expect that the tax collectors

will see truths that the Pharisees do not.

Do you remember the party at Levi's house a while back we talked about in Luke chapter 5?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

And in fact, all the people, even the tax collectors, heard Jesus.

And having been baptized by John, they embraced God's way. We saw in verse 29 of chapter 7 here.

And as Jesus had been describing, he's been demonstrating it the whole time.

Jesus summarizes his point using what was most likely a common proverb in verse

35, that last verse Sharon read today.

What does it say? Wisdom is proved right by all her children.

You see, the gist of that saying seems to be that Jesus' followers will show

that his ways are correct.

Wisdom or God's way is proved to be right, is acknowledged as right by the approval

of her children, those who had been baptized by John and accepted Jesus' words.

Y'all, how do you respond today? Think of it for just a moment.

How do you respond or how do you tend to respond when Jesus says or does something

that you don't understand in your life or maybe instinctively just disagree with it in your gut?

Like i don't agree with that i don't agree with that answer i don't agree with

what you're doing god how do you tend to respond in those situations.

Tend to get bent out of shape or shake your fist or do you realize that we have

a God his wisdom is beyond our comprehension and we have a God who does the

unexpected great un-expectations,

y'all I've seen some people about lose their hair over

some things God was doing I mean I

won't spend a long time here but I remember one church I

was at some years ago we have one of the greatest youth revivals

ever we had like 13 people saved within a

matter of like a week there and there was just people who were literally transformed

by the power of god and i remember that there were several of the youth there

that actually had things in their life they wanted to get rid of the holy spirit

was working in their lives and i didn't mention this,

they came to me and they said, Brother Judd,

look, I need to get rid of this. One of them had a crack pipe.

Another one came and they had tarot cards they wanted to get rid of.

Y'all, they were saying, hey, can we bring the stuff that we know God doesn't

want in our life? We want to follow God. We got a bunch of junk.

Can we bring it and have a bonfire and just throw it on that fire?

And what did the young student minister say let's do it let's do it and so everybody

was fired up y'all we had a big bonfire and people brought i kid you not crack

pipes tarot cards pornography.

Music albums cassettes back then they threw it in the fire what do you think

happened at the next business meet there was a parents that were upset because

their hard-earned money that went to buy some of this garbage was now burned up.

See, God had done something in their kid's life that was unexpected.

He actually transformed a child's

heart and life for the kingdom of God instead of things of this world.

Now, hallelujah, we had some people there that actually said,

hey, you got somebody who's going to hell that's now going to heaven, right?

What wouldn't we give for that? Amen. But let me just share this.

I'm just sharing this as a modern example somewhat of a fact that y'all,

sometimes God does some unexpected things in people's lives.

And it takes us by surprise. When God gets a hold of a heart and a life changes, old things pass away.

Behold, all things become new. When that happens and somebody's life is transformed,

guess what? There's a change.

There's a new way of life. There's a new mind. There's a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Y'all, don't, hey, God's gonna do unexpected things in your life.

Let me just say this too as we close. God is gonna do unexpected things and

already has in our church.

And some of it may take you by surprise.

In fact, some of it may rub you the wrong way. Maybe you get bent out of shape

over something. It's possible.

But just look at it this way. God doesn't do things always the way we think

he should. Expect the unexpected.

Expect the unexpected. I found that God hardly ever works like I think he will.

When God calls somebody to repentance or when God doesn't work,

many times it makes us uncomfortable.

Because of what he's doing.

Just think about that today. Think about this passage today.

Think about what Jesus is doing today when he is reaching out to these.

In fact, Jesus even said at the end of that chapter, you know,

I mentioned he attended their parties because they were pointing the finger at Jesus.

If you read the passage about who, he's a glutton. He's a wine bibber.

Jesus was attending their parties, showing them kindness and love, right?

To let them know about his kingdom and about the forgiveness of his kingdom.

But yet we had people there in that passage that we see that were pointing the

fingers at Jesus because he was doing the work that his father called him to do.

It just wasn't in the way that they expected. Let's stand.