Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Jesus Christ. It's in his name that I pray. Amen. Please be seated. Church, so good to see you this morning. Welcome to Easter. This is our climactic moment. Like I said in my prayer, every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection, but this one is the epitome. And one thing you may not know is that historians believe, apparently those that dig in and dig deep believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually occurred on April 5th.
[00:00:28] So what's the date today?
[00:00:30] April 5th.
[00:00:32] So 0033 could be the exact date and time. We won't know. We can find out when we get there.
[00:00:40] But it's kind of fun to think that.
[00:00:44] Think that. Anyway, Resurrection Sunday is always a fun time for us. We get to celebrate a little bit more, we get to rejoice a little bit more. It's because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes Christianity unique. You may not know this either, but every other religion on the planet, people may say, well, what makes Christianity unique? Why is that? Why do you think that's the right religion? You need to know this. Christianity is the only religion that proclaims a savior who suffered, a savior who died, and a savior who rose again from the dead and lives to this day. Every other religion on the planet, every single one, worships or follows leaders who can be found in their graves to this day.
[00:01:26] But the only grave that is empty is the one from Jesus Christ, and we are grateful for that. We serve a risen Savior, and he lives in us today. And that's very exciting. So we get to celebrate that this morning, which is really cool. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor. I haven't had a chance to meet you.
[00:01:44] Hopefully, I'll get to do that afterwards for all of you that baked all of those wonderful dishes for this morning.
[00:01:51] I came in the door and immediately. I don't know if there was any left when you came in the door, but immediately I was greeted with this wonderful smell of cinnamon buns. I love cinnamon buns. And you can tell, right? So I came in and it was like, oh, it's Easter. That's awesome. I don't know if that's what people smelled when Jesus rose from the dead, but I like to think that that was indeed the case.
[00:02:19] So I was flying home one time at Christmas. I've told this story before, but it's so powerful to our message today that I had to share it with you. And it made such a big impact on my life. For some reason, Beth had gone on before me, and she was going to be with her parents in West Virginia. We'd have kids at the time, I don't think. And so I was running behind like pastors usually do. And so I had to actually fly on Christmas Eve.
[00:02:46] I got to o', Hare, and I was waiting there at the gate for my flight to leave. And as I waited there at the gate, I got there plenty of time ahead of time, because I wanted to be early. I wanted to get a coffee, I wanted to relax. And so I got to the gate, and I wanted to be sure I didn't miss a flight, right? I can't not show up on Christmas Day.
[00:03:08] And so I ended up getting to the gate plenty early. And because I'm a pastor, I'm also very sleepy. And so I actually ended up having a nap. And I slept my time away at the gate. And I was sure I wouldn't miss a flight because I was at the gate.
[00:03:23] Nobody else was there, but I was there early, so I didn't think much about it. And as the time came closer to my flight to be leaving, I woke up and I realized there's no more people here than there was before. I fell asleep, and I looked around and I kind of wondered what was going on. And so I figured it probably was Christmas Eve. Not a lot of people are flying today, so no big deal. But I thought I'd check the board anyway, so I went to the board, and I found out that within 20 minutes of my flight actually leaving, they had switched my gate. And I didn't know about that. And so as I went to the screen and found out that they changed the gate, I also realized that the gate they changed to was all the way on the other side of the terminal. And so I grabbed my stuff and I started to run. And I'm panicking at this point because, again, it's Christmas Eve and I have to be there for my wife on Christmas Day. And so I ran to the other side of the terminal just in time for me to see them close the door.
[00:04:21] And I begged them. I begged them. I said, please, it's Christmas Eve. Please let me on this flight. You have no idea the kind of woman I live with. You're gonna have to let me on the flight.
[00:04:31] That's only funny because you know Beth, right? You know that's not true. And she said, I'm sorry, sir, you're too late. And the gate is closed. And I miss my home flight on Christmas Eve. I was at the same airport, same time, same destination, but I was at the completely I was at the complete, completely wrong gait. It's Christmas Eve. I'm supposed to be excited about coming home. And instead I'm running in circles, running and panicking, and I miss my flight. I ended up flying, I think Christmas Day, and I ended up getting there late in the morning. And so they had to put off Christmas because I was late. Now, please understand. Here's the thing, and this is why I love this illustration for today. I didn't miss my flight because I wasn't there.
[00:05:15] I missed it because I was operating under the wrong expectations.
[00:05:20] This is exactly what happened On Easter morning 2,000 years ago.
[00:05:27] Like his birth, God did incredible things. He did an incredible miracle and most people missed it.
[00:05:33] Like, the only people that showed up at Jesus birth were shepherds. That was it. And they only showed up because the angel said, hey, listen, there's something going on you really want, you're not going to want to miss. And so they went out and they saw that Jesus was born. But the rest of Bethlehem and the rest of Jerusalem and the rest of Judea, all sleeping, none of them. Everybody missed it.
[00:05:55] And the same kind of thing happened on Easter, not just on the day that Jesus was born, but also on the day that Jesus died and he rose from the dead.
[00:06:04] And they didn't miss it. They didn't miss it because they weren't paying attention. They missed it because they expected the wrong thing.
[00:06:12] They came to the tomb expecting death. And so they walked right past the resurrection.
[00:06:18] So my question to you this morning, and this is kind of where I want to park, is have you ever been disappointed with God because he didn't meet your expectations?
[00:06:27] Yeah, like I think most people have, right?
[00:06:31] We have expectations in our lives. We have expectations about how God will move and how our lives will work out. And I think for most of us, we've lived long enough to know that a lot of times our expectations, expectations don't come to fruition.
[00:06:45] Our lives don't end up quite like we had expected them to. And it's not because God failed. I think it's because he didn't do what we expected him to do.
[00:06:56] Most of us don't lose faith because God is absent. We sometimes lose faith because we're simply expecting something different.
[00:07:04] A lot of times during those moments, we lose our faith because we just expect God to move in a different way. Way.
[00:07:11] And this behavior, this kind of behavior of, you know, expecting God to move differently, expecting different things from God, this kind of movement attitude is seen in the world. We expect that from the world. I mean, John, for instance, John 1:10 said that Jesus came into the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
[00:07:35] So we expect that we think to ourselves, of course the world is not going to recognize Jesus because they don't recognize his authority and they don't recognize recognize his power. And so obviously they're going to have different expectations and they're going to be disappointed a lot in their lives and they're going to miss what God is actually doing around them.
[00:07:55] But here's the tension on Easter morning. It's the people closest to Jesus that miss out on what God is doing.
[00:08:06] It's the people that Jesus loved and was friends with that had the same problem. They walked with Jesus, they heard what he said, they listened to his messages, they saw his miracles. Listen. They heard Jesus say he would rise from the dead three different times. That's what we have recorded in the Gospels. He may have said this a lot more than three times, but in the Gospels we have at least three times.
[00:08:33] And yet the resurrection morning came and, and they all missed it. All of them missed it. None of them expected it. And when the stone was rolled away and the grave was empty, their attitude was not woo hoo like us today.
[00:08:50] Their attitude was what in the world is going on?
[00:08:55] We're all going to die. That was their attitude.
[00:09:01] So think of how your expectations manipulate how you plan and operate.
[00:09:08] Whatever we expect to happen, we plan around.
[00:09:11] What do you expect in your life? Well, you expect a paycheck. You expect a relationship to pay off. You expect a car that works. When you put the key in, you expect certain things. And when you don't get those things, what is the attitude that you have? It's probably what?
[00:09:29] Oh, well.
[00:09:31] Well, Jimmy, you are a very patient man. Because my attitude is a lot like come on, not oh well. My attitude is come on or disappointment or anger. Because I can't control a situation, it's not working out like I assumed it would work out. I assume certain things will come. I expect certain things to happen. And when it doesn't happen, I have a tendency to get really, really disappointed or aggravated or confused or fearful. Fill in the blank.
[00:10:04] What do we call it when somebody is pregnant? We say that they are expecting. Right. Why do we say they are expecting? Because something is coming that's going to change their lives. Right. For those of you that have kids, you know what expecting means. Expecting means there's something real about to happen and you can't put the brakes on Right. This is going to happen.
[00:10:28] Something is coming, and it's going to change everything in your life.
[00:10:32] You are going to be a different person because of what is going to happen. So you begin to prepare differently. You paint a room, you buy a crib, you readjust your bank account, you change schedules, and you change your priorities, all because you are expecting this bundle of joy to come who is going to just change your life. Something really small that now is going to dictate your entire life from this point forward.
[00:11:01] We call it expecting because you live in the light of what hasn't arrived yet. But it's guaranteed to change you. And so you need to change your life based on what you expect.
[00:11:15] Your expectations shape your reality.
[00:11:19] Now, we have a great illustration of this, and I think Sean and Morgan are actually joining us online. So welcome, Sean and Morgan. And so Sean and Morgan just had their baby. And this is Charlotte Grace. I know you already saw a picture of her, if you missed it earlier.
[00:11:34] She was born April 1st, and 7 pounds, 12 ounces. And she is the cutest thing ever, isn't she? So we're excited about that.
[00:11:45] And I've told Sean. We went to lift, and I sat down with him, and he's lifting it. I waited until he was in a very vulnerable position, lifting. And I said, there's something you should know, Shawn. He goes, okay, what is it? What is it? I said, this little bundle of joy, this little thing that you can't wait to have, is going to change everything about your life.
[00:12:07] What you expect is not just something you believe. It's something you plan your entire life around.
[00:12:15] Expectations, drive, behavior.
[00:12:21] And if you don't get what you expect, what do we call that? Disappointment.
[00:12:28] Call that aggravation, Confusion?
[00:12:32] Let me put it this way.
[00:12:33] Seven days ago was Palm Sunday. Didn't Darren do a great job on Palm Sunday?
[00:12:39] I think Darren did awesome. Thank you, Darren. I know you waited for that all morning.
[00:12:46] He hates the acknowledgement. But I am really grateful that you took Palm Sunday so we could be with our daughter. Thank you for that.
[00:12:53] But on Palm Sunday, just seven days ago, what did everybody expect?
[00:13:00] King?
[00:13:02] Was it a moment of sadness?
[00:13:05] No. There was probably hundreds of thousands of people, and they're all pushing each other and pushing and trying to get to the front so that they could see this Jesus who they've heard about. And they're throwing palm branches and they're throwing cloaks down. And it is a day of rejoicing. It is not a day of sadness. It is a day of expectations.
[00:13:25] These People were excited about a new king, a new beginning, a gift from heaven, finally giving them their Messiah.
[00:13:33] But you fast forward five days, and how did the expectations change five days later? They're no longer praising Jesus, saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the Son of David.
[00:13:49] What they expected seven days ago turned into something that created disappointment and sorrow and hatred for them.
[00:14:00] And so fast forward seven days, and what are the expectations on Easter morning?
[00:14:06] What are the expectations on Easter morning?
[00:14:09] Sadness, brokenness.
[00:14:13] Visit a tomb, take flowers, take spices, pay honor to the. To the dead. Complete and utter despair and disappointment.
[00:14:26] It's amazing how a week changes your expectations, isn't it?
[00:14:32] We all have expectations of God.
[00:14:35] My question is, have you lived long enough to understand how God doesn't live up so often to our own expectations?
[00:14:43] Because if Easter teaches us anything, it is disappointment often comes from wrong expectations and wrong assumptions.
[00:14:54] And God is never absent.
[00:14:57] God is always doing more than we expect.
[00:15:00] So let's read the story. All right, I'm going to read out of Mark's Gospel this morning, Mark's account of the resurrection, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one of these gives a story, a version of the resurrection. Some include details that others don't, which I love, so that we have a complete picture of what happened that morning. But I'm pulling from Mark today because what I love about Mark is he adds details that the others don't.
[00:15:30] So read with me, if you would, mark 15 starting in verse 45, and then we're going to get to 16 about the resurrection. But I want to build up to it. So verse 45. And Mark 15 says this, and when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. Now, I want you to see in this passage of Scripture what these folks on Friday or Thursday, depending on what your view of the crucifixion fiction was. But this is what happened when Jesus died.
[00:16:00] Mark gives us snippets, details, specific words, so that we get it. This is what people expected, because these are the details they had to deal with. Okay? He learned from the centurion that he was dead. Dead.
[00:16:16] He granted the corpse to Joseph, and Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud. That's what you do when somebody dies, kind of like a mummy. All right, think of it that way. You wrap the body in a linen shroud and taking him down, he wrapped him in a linen shroud and he laid him in a tomb. All Right. This is all death talk.
[00:16:40] Mark wants us to know this is dead. This is as dead as dead gets. Nobody's confused about this. Jesus is dead. Dead that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. All right? So the plot thickens.
[00:16:56] Like this is like.
[00:16:58] You don't leave the tomb empty hoping to yourself the person is going to revive sometime. When you put the stone over it, it's dead. It's like putting dirt on a coffin. It's the last thing you do.
[00:17:10] And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. All right, details. So I want you to notice, first of all, their expectations were driven by physical realities. All right? Driven by physical realities. They saw, they experienced, they heard these kinds of things that led them to believe that Jesus was dead. He was on a cross. The centurion confirmed he was dead. They dress his body in a death shroud. They put him in a tomb. They put a stone over the tomb. All of these things are there. So they help us understand, the reader understand. Mark wants us to understand.
[00:17:50] Jesus is dead. Fill in the blank. Jesus is dead. All right, because of these details, what is the expectation of people when they go to visit the dead guy? They are going to see somebody who is dead.
[00:18:12] So they are devastated.
[00:18:14] Hope is gone.
[00:18:15] Fear that they would be hunted down because they were followers of Jesus. And the Romans don't like Jesus.
[00:18:22] He's a problem for them.
[00:18:25] The temple leaders definitely don't like Jesus. He's a problem for them.
[00:18:30] So once you cut off the head, guess who you go after next?
[00:18:34] All of the followers.
[00:18:38] These women who went to the tomb, I want you to know, these women were amazing. They didn't care.
[00:18:43] They didn't care who saw them. There's two guards at the tomb, and they're going to identify these women. And the women didn't care because they wanted to go see the one they loved.
[00:18:53] So 161 starts off this way.
[00:18:56] When the Sabbath was passed.
[00:18:58] Mary Magdalene. Now that's important. You don't go see dead people on the Sabbath. You're not allowed to do that, Right? So they have to wait until the Sabbath is over.
[00:19:10] So when the Sabbath was passed. And by the way, they're probably just sitting home on pins and needles, waiting for the moment that they could go back and see where they laid Jesus. Because the whole thing was done very, very quickly. Very quickly. That's why they broke the legs.
[00:19:27] They broke the legs because they needed them to die. They needed all three of those Guys, both thieves and Jesus needed to be dead before the sun went down. Because you can't have, according to Jewish law, dead bodies hanging around on the Sabbath. And Sabbath begins when the sun goes down, not when it comes up.
[00:19:44] So they kneaded them off the cross, they break the legs, they get to Jesus, he's dead already. They don't break him. That's prophecy. Not one bone of his was broken.
[00:19:53] They take him down, they put him in the grave. Everything happened so fast.
[00:19:58] These women just wanted. They wanted the crowds to be gone. They wanted the screaming to stop.
[00:20:03] They wanted the violence to cease. And they just wanted to be with Jesus.
[00:20:09] But they have to wait until the Sabbath is over.
[00:20:14] So when the Sabbath was passed, and by the way, the minute the Sabbath is over is when the sun comes up. It's not 24 hour periods, it's sundown, sun up. So they go the minute the sun comes up, which was the third day.
[00:20:29] Mary, the mother of James and Salome, brought spices so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb number two. Their expectations guided their plans.
[00:20:42] They're convinced by what they physically see. They. They plan around those expectations. Jesus is dead. What are we going to do now? All right.
[00:20:52] Their physical reality, like when you're pregnant, causes you to start working in a way in the way that you expect.
[00:21:01] Number two, their expectations guided their plans.
[00:21:05] What do you do when you see loved one die? You want to go where they are.
[00:21:09] You want to honor the dead.
[00:21:13] You want to be as close to them as you can be. You want to put flowers around. You want to honor the person that they were. You want to weep and drink in the pain. That's what our physicalness in us needs, to be close to the ones we love.
[00:21:28] They paid for spices. This was an expensive thing. They invested in their expectations. And what were their expectations? To go see a dead guy, a dead friend, a dead loved one.
[00:21:41] It's not that they didn't trust or have faith. They had faith. I would say they had more faith than the other disciples because they were willing to be the first ones to the grave.
[00:21:52] The other disciples were hiding. Remember, they're in the upper room going, okay, what do we need to do next to save ourselves and our families?
[00:21:59] These women were risking their lives to show up like this.
[00:22:03] It's just that they had the wrong expectations.
[00:22:06] Their expectations were to go and weep and mourn and break and honor the dead.
[00:22:13] And they weren't Even thinking clearly. As you know, when you weep and you grieve, you don't think clearly. And they didn't either, because in the next verse, verse three, they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?
[00:22:28] And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. And it was, what church?
[00:22:34] I love Mark because he gives us details.
[00:22:40] This detail is given for us because they realize the limits of their own abilities.
[00:22:46] Expectations limit. Our expectations cause us to limit our own abilities.
[00:22:54] It's up on the screen. They say to one another, who's going to move the stone?
[00:23:00] Even together, these women couldn't have moved the stone. It was like at least a ton. There's no way they could have moved the stone. Plus, it had a seal by the Roman government. You don't mess with what the Romans do.
[00:23:12] And the two guards there, they're not going to let you touch that stone. They can't get into the body.
[00:23:19] Listen, you don't normally put a stone across a tomb. Did you know that? That's not what you normally do.
[00:23:25] But in this case, they did. And I've always wondered why they did.
[00:23:30] I think they were afraid of him coming out.
[00:23:34] They were helpless to deal with the situations that they had to deal with. It was very large. And I think Mark includes that because wrong expectations can paralyze us when God allows obstacles in our path that we don't plan for.
[00:23:48] Wrong expectations can paralyze us when God allows obstacles in our paths that we don't plan for. I think we got that on the screen, Callie. Wrong expectations can paralyze us when God allows us obstacles in our paths that we don't plan for. We don't give God room to change our expectations. And so our go to is one of three things. We are paralyzed by our fear. We are alarmed, or we are simply.
[00:24:14] We are simply guided to make bad decisions because we are full of fear.
[00:24:20] Look at verse five. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe. And they were alarmed.
[00:24:28] This word in the Greek is ekthambio, and it simply means an overwhelming jolt. I was driving in a rainstorm on Thursday. Did you get to see that rainstorm on Thursday?
[00:24:40] I was in the middle of that cell that came through, and there was lightning all around.
[00:24:46] Every alarm on my car started going off.
[00:24:49] It was a scary moment. I thought there was a tornado coming through as I was driving along there.
[00:24:55] And I was just like. I was hanging onto the wheel, trying to see I couldn't see two feet in front of my car. And I'm out on the highway driving while these cars are driving around, trying to find their lanes. It's an overwhelming emotion, emotional moment.
[00:25:09] I was alarmed, and I think Mark includes this. Because wrong expectations will cause us sometimes to be paralyzed in our fear. Wrong expectations may cause alarm when God works different than we had planned.
[00:25:25] We sometimes don't plan for what God does. And so when God changes our situations, it causes us sometimes paralyzing feelings. And sometimes it just causes be alarmed.
[00:25:37] Verse 6.
[00:25:39] So the angel says to them, don't be alarmed.
[00:25:42] You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.
[00:25:45] He has risen. He is not here.
[00:25:49] I love that. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he's going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. Do you get that?
[00:26:01] Like he told you this was going to happen?
[00:26:05] And they went out and they fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said, now, does this surprise you? And sorry, can we flip the slides? Sorry.
[00:26:18] Yeah. Eight. And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said, what church?
[00:26:28] Nothing to anyone.
[00:26:31] Does that surprise you?
[00:26:33] Why didn't they say anything to anyone? Because their expectations were to see a dead person. And their expectations were not met.
[00:26:40] Now, they were alarmed.
[00:26:42] They were driven by fear. They didn't know what was going on. God had done a 180 on them.
[00:26:49] They weren't expecting it, and they were afraid.
[00:26:52] Do you know what the word for afraid here is in the Greek?
[00:26:56] You'll like to hear this. It's phobos.
[00:26:58] Does that sound like anything that you've heard of before?
[00:27:01] Phobos.
[00:27:03] It's a phobia.
[00:27:05] It literally means they were. Do you have a phobia about anything? I have a phobia about closed spaces. I am reading nothing about Artemis 2. Not a thing about that spaceship. Forget that. Have you seen any of those pictures?
[00:27:18] It is like a small bathroom that they are taking to the moon and they are jammed in there tight together. I can't even look at that because I have a phobia of small spaces. You might have a phobia of snakes or tarantulas, spiders or something like that. Maybe you have a phobia. That's what this word is. They had phobia. They were trembling. They had an inability to move. And I think Mark includes this because he wants us to know. Wrong expectations can birth a heart of fear.
[00:27:50] When God allows events into our lives. We don't plan for.
[00:27:54] We don't know what's going on. And so instead of adapting and moving, we just stop.
[00:28:03] We are fearful.
[00:28:05] We're no longer in control.
[00:28:08] The body's gone.
[00:28:10] The tomb is empty. The guards are not there.
[00:28:14] The angel talked to us. The clothes are there. Where's Jesus now? Let's be honest. I don't want to cast blame because if I had been there this first Easter morning, I wouldn't have believed it either, would you?
[00:28:31] How many times have you seen a dead person get up and walk out of their tomb? Doesn't happen, right?
[00:28:37] Nobody expected the resurrection, but God doesn't work within our expectations.
[00:28:45] God will often disappoint your expectations in order to deepen your faith.
[00:28:52] Paul taps into this idea when he talks to Ephesians, to the Ephesians Church.
[00:28:59] The church at Ephesus in the New Testament was going through terrible persecution.
[00:29:04] They were being hunted down. They had symbols to show where their meetings were because they couldn't gather in a church like this.
[00:29:13] They would be all arrested and they would be taken by the government.
[00:29:17] So they had symbols like the fish symbol. You've seen the fish symbol. Or an anchor. Sometimes they had an anchor symbol.
[00:29:24] And those were symbols about where they would gather and what they were doing. They were being threatened by the Roman government and say they had to live out their faith, but in the middle of persecution. And they were. They were an amazing church. Paul writes to them and just brags on them. Ephesians, chapter one is full of Paul's bragging on them about their deep love and their faith that they have.
[00:29:47] They wanted to please God in the middle of their suffering.
[00:29:51] So Paul prays for them that their expectations of.
[00:29:56] Of their faith, their expectations of what God would do, would grow. Not fear because of what they saw, because of what they experienced with the Roman government, but faith would grow, that their expectations would be like something created by faith, not fear.
[00:30:13] And so he writes to them, and he.
[00:30:16] In the book of Ephesians, he's constantly praying for them. He says he prays that they would be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. He prays that Christ would dwell in their hearts richly. He prays that they would be rooted and grounded in love.
[00:30:30] And as he's praying for these things, he prays for things that are big, that are deep, that are beyond them. Because it is really hard to grow in your faith, apparently, when you're trying to fight for your lives, when you're hiding in the dark and Paul says, no, no, no. I want your faith to be extraordinary.
[00:30:52] I want your faith to be too big and too deep and too beyond anything that you could imagine.
[00:30:58] I want you to believe that God can grow and deepen you in your faith, even though your faith is being persecuted and you're watching your loved ones being dragged away.
[00:31:11] It's like he's stacking up request upon request.
[00:31:14] And the Ephesian people have to think at one point, is God really able to do that kind of work in my heart, when all I feel is fear about what might happen.
[00:31:28] Can God really work in this messed up world?
[00:31:32] And then he comes to one of my favorite verses in the book of Ephesians, chapter three. It's actually called a doxology.
[00:31:39] A doxology is like when Paul, when the writer all of a sudden stops writing and he just breaks off into praise like we do when we sing on Sunday morning. Sometimes a doxology is a study of the glory.
[00:31:57] It's a moment when you stop thinking and you start praising and it flows.
[00:32:06] And it's one of my favorite chapters in Scripture. It's one that my dad actually used to pray sometimes in our church. And I want to read it for you. Here's where it goes in Ephesians 3, verse 20.
[00:32:17] And I love it because it fits so well to what we're talking about this morning. Because you might be in a situation where you're thinking to yourself, craig, I have expectations about what's going to happen in my life, and they are realistic.
[00:32:29] You don't know what's happening in my life, but I do. And I got to tell you, I am building around those realistic expectations. And God is somehow talking to you through all of it and saying, don't build around physical reality. Expectations that you have. You have to believe deeper.
[00:32:48] You have to have a faith that I can work above and beyond anything that you think is possible.
[00:32:54] Don't plan around the devastation.
[00:32:57] Deepen your faith.
[00:33:00] And this is what he says. This is a doxology.
[00:33:03] Now, to him who is able to do.
[00:33:06] I gotta get you to read this for me. All right? Will you read this with me? Read this with me. All right.
[00:33:11] Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. You have just read a doxology.
[00:33:35] I love it because it starts out to him who is what church?
[00:33:41] Oh, you may not be able And I may not be able, and your situation may not be able, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about him who is able.
[00:33:55] He is able to to do far more abundantly than all that you could ask or even think.
[00:34:05] He is able to shock you and your expectations.
[00:34:11] He is able to do far, far more abundantly than all you could ask or think.
[00:34:19] How is that possible?
[00:34:21] According to the power at work where, Church?
[00:34:26] According to the power at work within us, you know how God is able to do far more above all that you could ask or think is because if you follow Christ as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit at work within you.
[00:34:42] And he is able to do far more abundantly, above all that you could ask or think. According to the power which is at work. It doesn't stop, it doesn't take a day off, it doesn't rest, and it never wakes up and goes, I didn't see that coming.
[00:34:59] This power at work within us is the power of the Holy Spirit. He takes up residence in us and he is able, through us, to do far, far more abundantly above anything that you could ask or think.
[00:35:15] This power is spoken of constantly in Scripture. Romans 8:11 says, the power the spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in where Church dwells in you. The power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The same power that rolled the stone away, the same power that brought Jesus back to life is the power at work within you. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, that power is unstoppable.
[00:35:50] Easter power didn't stay in the tomb. It moved into the believer, into the follower of Jesus Christ.
[00:35:58] But if you let this world dictate, this fallen world dictate your levels of expectations, you will always live with limited.
[00:36:11] Can I tell you one more time? If you allow this world to dictate your expectations, you live in a fallen world that does not believe in the power of God. If you let this world dictate your expectations, you will always live with limited faith. Jesus said, and we've talked about this in the near past. If you have the faith of a mustard seed church, what can you do? You can move mountains.
[00:36:43] You can. This is the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
[00:36:48] And here's another thing you can do. Verse 9.
[00:36:51] When he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
[00:36:58] She went and told those who had been with him as they. What did they do? Church. What were they doing?
[00:37:05] They mourned and wept. Their expectations was death.
[00:37:09] But when they heard that he was alive and he had seen by her, they rejoiced. They threw a party. They were so happy. True or false?
[00:37:19] Why false? They did not. What a believer. These were men of faith.
[00:37:25] They had heard Jesus say this three times at least that he was going to raise from the dead. These women see the tomb empty. They come.
[00:37:34] Tomb's empty. He's not there. John and Peter, they're gone. They've already gone to the tomb. The rest of these guys are going. Nah. Yeah. No. Wouldn't believe it.
[00:37:44] That sounds really, really odd.
[00:37:46] Yeah. Our expectations won't allow us to believe this kind of thing.
[00:37:51] Now, they trusted these women.
[00:37:53] These women were their friends.
[00:37:55] But their expectations began to build a reality for them they couldn't break free of.
[00:38:00] Verse 12. It gets worse.
[00:38:03] After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country. That's the two on the road to Emmaus. All right.
[00:38:12] And they went back seven miles. I want you to get this. I just did this at Bridgeway. Diane, you remember seven miles, right? These two guys walk with Jesus seven miles.
[00:38:24] And he's talking with them and he's sharing with them. And then he has dinner with them, and he hands them bread and they're going, wait, it's Jesus. It's Jesus. And then they run. They run the whole seven miles back. They get back to the disciples and it says, after these things, he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country. And they went back and they told the rest. But they did what church?
[00:38:46] They didn't believe them either. I mean, when you start to get, like something out of this, like everybody's coming with the same story. Tombs empty. I just saw Jesus. Just had lunch with them. No, don't believe. Don't believe. They wouldn't believe it. They would not believe it. Their expectations wouldn't allow them to. They had already begun to build a reality around their expectations. And their expectations was, jesus is dead. That part of our life is over. What do we do now? We gotta save ourselves.
[00:39:13] And it gets worse.
[00:39:16] Verse 14.
[00:39:17] Afterward, he appeared to the 11 themselves. Who are the 11? Who are the 11 disciples? Right. We're short one because. All right, so they appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table. And he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen. Church he appears to the 11, and they did not believe him.
[00:39:43] He's standing in front of them. Luke's gospel said that he had to go and eat in front of them so that they would believe he was not a ghost.
[00:39:53] It says in Luke 24:40. It's kind of funny. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Okay, you guys, come on now.
[00:40:00] Look. Holes. See, look. Light. Light shining through. Really cool. Check this out. Holes. All right, all right. You remember where they put the nails? All right? It's like kindergarten. Like nail holes. Me. This is me. All right? And then they're going, no, we don't believe you. Oh, for goodness sakes. Okay, do you have any food? Look what he says. And while he still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, give me something to eat. And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. First thing he eats when he comes back to life. And he took it and he ate it before them. Do you know why he did that? It's because they didn't believe him even when he's standing in front of them.
[00:40:36] Let that sink in.
[00:40:37] Nothing would convince them. Not the disciples, not the women, not even Jesus himself.
[00:40:45] Everyone expected the wrong expectations, and that defined their reality.
[00:40:52] Jesus was constantly dealing with these guys and changing their expectations. They don't have enough food. People go hungry. Oh, no. What are we going to do? We're helpless. Storm hits, Jesus comes walking on the water, right? Their attitude is, we're all going to die. You know, we're fearful. They can't cast out a demon. We talked about this. We're powerless. We might as well give up and go home. Jesus is dead. It's over. We're hopeless.
[00:41:16] Jesus is constantly going to them and changing their expectations because the resurrection is where it finally clicks.
[00:41:27] The resurrection is where it finally unlocks their faith and it changes them.
[00:41:36] Before they're fearful, hiding, confused, disbelieving. Afterwards, in Acts chapter two, they are bold, unshaken, expectant.
[00:41:43] These guys had a life change, and it happened because they saw the risen Savior.
[00:41:52] By the way, I think this is one of the greatest proofs of. Of the resurrection.
[00:41:57] Because these disciples were not who they were before the resurrection, they changed into different men after the resurrection.
[00:42:08] The ultimate miracle reset their expectations of what God could do. Church the ultimate miracle, the resurrection from the tomb reset their expectations of what God could do. So Acts 14:13 says that this These guys are preaching.
[00:42:25] They're standing in front of people that had every right to kill them.
[00:42:29] They don't care. They are bold. They are preaching the gospel in Acts 4:13.
[00:42:36] And it says this to us, church. And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated common men. And they were astonished.
[00:42:48] And they recognized that they had what church they had been with Jesus.
[00:42:55] That's not before the resurrection, that is after the resurrection.
[00:43:00] Something happened in the lives of these disciples so that it changed them. It changed their expectations, it changed their faith, it changed their plans, it changed their lives. Their expectations before Jesus was raised from the dead was, he's dead, it's all over. Just give up. Their expectations. Afterward were, come on, bring it on. I'm going to preach the gospel because I have been with the resurrected Lord. Prove me wrong.
[00:43:28] They've been with a dead guy and he's now alive. And these guys now are unstoppable.
[00:43:36] So Jesus says to them, last verse 15, Jesus said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the nations. Resurrection power will change your purpose. Your dreams will change. Your hopes will change. Your joy will change. Your expectations will change. You will live a different kind of life. Because you don't find comfort anymore in power.
[00:43:57] You don't find comfort anymore in money. You don't find comfort anymore in fame. You find comfort in following a suffering step. Savior.
[00:44:08] You don't chase power that makes you look impressive when you can sacrifice for somebody and serve someone else. You don't run after greatness in this life anymore.
[00:44:20] Because all you want to hear for your followers of Jesus, all you want to hear someday is well done, good and faithful servant. Your barns don't have to be bursting. Your heart has to be right with your Savior because you're going to see him again someday. It's your expectation.
[00:44:36] The resurrection doesn't just give you hope for the future. It rewrites how you expect to live life right now.
[00:44:43] In fact, the gospels, all of the disciples changed. No longer are they fearful. Now they turn the world upside down for the gospel. And I'm glad that they did. Because of them, we're here today.
[00:44:57] Their passion for the resurrected Christ caused them to establish churches, preach the gospel. And because of that, we are here this morning because of their transformed expectations, Easter morning, that we are here today.
[00:45:14] And by the way, history and tradition tells us that each one of these disciples went to their death preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It changed them. It changed them. And if we believe in a resurrected Lord. Our expectations in this life will change too.
[00:45:32] We no longer are captured by what has to be.
[00:45:37] Now we think about what God can do.
[00:45:45] So what?
[00:45:47] Change your expectations, not just your faith.
[00:45:50] Everyone. In this story that we read today, every one of them had faith. Every single one of them had faith.
[00:45:56] It's not that they didn't have faith. Disciples had faith. The women had faith. The guy that gave the tomb to Jesus had faith.
[00:46:04] Like he gave it to him as a gift. He didn't know he was loaning it to him. For three days he had faith.
[00:46:10] But not until the resurrection did they change their plans. So let me ask the Church. What limits your faith as to what God can do through you?
[00:46:21] Where has disappointment crept in so that you are no longer thinking? God is able to do far more? Above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works within us. Can I encourage you? Plan ahead with a faith in his ability, not your own.
[00:46:41] Plan ahead with a faith in his ability and not your own. Learn to adjust to what he can do. Think about what he can do through you, not what you can do. Proverbs 16:9. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Think about what God can do through you, not what you are limited by. Number two. Don't confuse God's silence with his absence.
[00:47:07] We all have expectations of what God should do that would make our lives make sense. And God constantly disrupts them. Our disappointment often comes from wrong assumptions, not from God's absence.
[00:47:23] We may deal with a situation in our lives that makes us think God's nowhere to be found, but he's right there walking with us the entire time.
[00:47:32] It's not because he hasn't acted yet.
[00:47:35] Just because he hasn't acted doesn't mean he's not working.
[00:47:40] The disciples gather in the upper room to worry, to fear, to fret. Jesus is gone. They're alone. And the whole time, Jesus was right on track, working out a plan, not losing step.
[00:47:53] God reminds us that he's always at work. He's always at work within us.
[00:47:57] Do you remember the last thing that he said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven? We call it the Great Commission. Here's what he said. Matthew 28:19. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. And this is exactly what the disciples did, Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And say this with me, if you wouldn't mind. Church, behold. I am with you always. To the end of the the age.
[00:48:24] He never leaves us. He never forsakes us. You may think he's absent, but his plan never, never has a hiccup.
[00:48:35] It never does.
[00:48:37] He's always at work.
[00:48:39] He's always with you.
[00:48:41] And number three, let God redefine what victory looks like for you.
[00:48:46] I would be remiss to leave this out. The question cross looked like defeat. The tomb looked like finality. But God was doing his greatest work in that act.
[00:48:56] His greatest victory. Listen. On the screen. They came to the tomb expecting death.
[00:49:04] And they walked right past the resurrection. And they missed the victory.
[00:49:09] Their expectations caused them to see something and expect something. Something that was not reality.
[00:49:18] God had to change their expectation. And they almost missed the victory. Now, don't be too hard on them. If we had been there Easter morning, we wouldn't have believed it either. But that's the point.
[00:49:27] God doesn't work within our expectations. He works in spite of them and he works beyond them.
[00:49:34] Preconceived expectations are often the lens that blinds us to what God is actually doing in our lives. Listen to this. Isaiah 55, verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Church.
[00:49:48] Insert the word expectations.
[00:49:51] For my expectations are not your expectations, and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, I and my thoughts than your thoughts. So, Church, relax and adjust your expectations.
[00:50:10] Just relax.
[00:50:12] These two guys on the road to Emmaus, we only have the name of one of them. Cleopas. The other guy. Don't know who that was.
[00:50:20] They're walking along on the road to Emmaus.
[00:50:23] They're broken, they're sad, and Jesus shows up. And don't tell me Jesus doesn't have a sense of humor because Jesus shows up and what?
[00:50:32] He does not introduce himself to them. They don't recognize him. Somehow he cloaked himself and they weren't able to recognize who he was. But they were sad.
[00:50:43] And the Bible tells us they were broken.
[00:50:46] And Jesus walks with them. And as he walks with them, he takes them through. Theology 101 takes them through. And it says that he told them how all the Old Testament talked about him.
[00:50:58] Now get this. How narcissistic is Jesus? He thinks the entire Bible is about him.
[00:51:05] And he's right.
[00:51:07] And they missed it.
[00:51:09] And as they're walking with Jesus and he goes, look at Passover all talks about me. Look at, look at, look at how a suffering savior was talked about in the book Of Isaiah. Like a lamb before the slaughter, he was led. And so he opened not his mouth. That was me. That was me. I didn't say a thing. You remember? That was a suffering Savior. Look at the blood. The blood on the doors and the blood on the. On the side post. Look at that. See the cross? Do you see it there? And he opened their eyes to all of these things that they had been doing, the feasts that they had been doing and the things that they had studied. And he opened their eyes to it. And they're going, wow. And now they're not sorrowful anymore. Now they're rejoicing. And they say, okay, before we didn't want to eat, but now we want to eat. Come and eat with us. So they invite Jesus in and he sits with them. And the Bible says he broke bread with them and then their eyes were opened. I don't know. I don't know what happened. I like to think he handed them a loaf and they saw a hole in his hand. I don't know.
[00:52:02] I don't know.
[00:52:03] But I know this. When he handed them the bread, their eyes were opened and he was gone. And they ran back and they told the disciples, and the disciples are gone. No, our expectations don't allow us to. To believe what you're saying is true.
[00:52:19] These guys, their hearts heal as they walk.
[00:52:25] They find comfort. Listen, their expectations was that they left Jesus behind in the grave.
[00:52:32] They thought they were walking away from Jesus.
[00:52:35] All the while they were walking with him.
[00:52:40] So I don't know what situation you might be in today.
[00:52:43] You might feel like you're waiting at a gate for a plane that never seems to leave.
[00:52:48] I didn't miss my flight because I wasn't there.
[00:52:51] I missed it because I was at the wrong gate with the wrong expectations.
[00:52:56] God may have another gate for you to go through.
[00:53:00] And I wonder if we do the same thing in life, like go through a storm and we scream to God, don't you care when the whole time Jesus is strolling out on the water just asking us to join him?
[00:53:12] This storm will make you deep in your faith. The storm is exactly what you need. Stop yelling at me. Start joining me. Walk with me.
[00:53:20] Like feeding 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.
[00:53:24] God, it's not enough.
[00:53:27] How are you going to provide?
[00:53:29] And Jesus is ready to multiply anything you give to him. More than you can possibly imagined.
[00:53:35] Like watching your Savior die.
[00:53:37] God, don't you follow through? Where's all the promises of eternal glory and freedom and all these things that you talked about Jesus is all the while ready to blow your mind in ways you've never imagined, never thought.
[00:53:54] Usually his power shown in the middle of our broken expectations. You found that out right now yet? Yes.
[00:54:01] So don't settle for regular expectations.
[00:54:04] Invite Jesus in.
[00:54:06] If you don't know Christ as your savior, invite him in, ask him to come and readjust your expectations. So you don't plan for what you expect, but you hope and you start planning for what he expects, and you start thinking bigger and you start thinking greater, and you start thinking more sacrificial and you start thinking more like Jesus.
[00:54:27] You may have walked in today expecting something small, but the same God who raised Jesus from the dead is still rewriting outcomes.
[00:54:35] And Easter.
[00:54:37] Easter is our proof.
[00:54:42] Father, I come to you this morning on behalf of our church.
[00:54:49] I'm aware that there are some here this morning that don't know you as our Savior, Father. Maybe they're hearing this Gospel message for the very first time. They need to be saved.
[00:54:59] They need to accept you as their Savior. They need to stop trying to do all of this on their own and start figuring out how they can live a life that pleases you.
[00:55:07] So you make more of their lives than they ever thought and they ever imagined.
[00:55:12] So I pray for them this morning.
[00:55:15] I pray for those that are here that know you're as their savior, and they're just.
[00:55:19] They just feel like they've been waiting at the wrong gate for a long time. All of these people in the story had faith. They just had all the wrong expectations.
[00:55:27] So, Father, if there's any believers, followers of yours here this morning that have the wrong expectations, adjust it.
[00:55:33] Help us to reevaluate. Help us to figure out that doing what you want us to do is better than what we want to do. And sometimes it's going to hurt. But you're with us the entire time, so be with those folks this morning. And maybe there's somebody here this morning, Father, that's just beaten down, crushed, disappointed by expectations that never seem to come through.
[00:55:59] Convince them, Father, that your ways are better and they need to surrender their expectations to your expectations.
[00:56:12] Actually, this morning, if you're here this morning, you're thinking to yourself, yeah, Craig, I'm one of those three. I know Christ is my savior and I got to have a relationship with him. I want to give you an opportunity. We're talking about a risen Lord. This is the difference between Christianity and every other religion on the planet. We serve a risen Savior. Nobody else does. Nobody.
[00:56:31] If you would like to give your life to him this morning. I'm just going to give you an opportunity.
[00:56:35] I don't know who brought you. I don't know why you're here, but God has spoken to you this morning and you've heard something different and you need to respond. If that's you this morning, would you raise your hand? I want to pray for you as I close out the service. Is there anybody like that? Okay, I see those hands. Yep. Is there anybody else?
[00:56:55] You're here this morning and you're thinking to yourself, no, I'm a believer, but my expectations have caused me nothing but sorrow, distress, anger.
[00:57:06] In fact, I'm pretty much ruled by fear because nothing I do seems to be working out. I am constantly at the wrong gate, and I need to get recalibrated to what God wants in my life. I need to surrender and I need to find out what his expectations are and surrender my expectations. You know what that's like for you.
[00:57:27] You know what you're going through. And if that. If that is you this morning, I want to pray a closing prayer for you, too. Is there anyone like that this morning? You just need prayer to readjust your expectations. Yep, I see them. I see those hands. Yep, yep, I see it. Those are hard hands to rise.
[00:57:43] Because you gotta admit, you've been doing things wrong for a while. I get it. I feel for you. Is there anyone else like that? Yep, I see them. I see them. A lot of hands. I see them. I see him. I see you. Okay, this prayer is for you, Father, this morning. Thank you for the response. Thank you for the way your spirit works. Thank you for this message of a risen Savior, and thank you for the way it has landed on hearts. For those that have yet to accept you as their savior, Father, may they surrender their lives for the very first time, accept you as their Savior, and begin a new life with you with higher expectations than they ever thought possible. With a new dream of pleasing you instead of themselves.
[00:58:21] With an anticipation that you can do above and beyond anything they could do in themselves. And Father, that risen power that rose Jesus from the dead is at work within them. Would you give them life for the very first time today?
[00:58:37] For those that are here this morning, Father, that they feel like they've been waiting at the wrong gate. They feel like life spinning out of control.
[00:58:46] I pray for them this morning, Father, that you would give them an assurance that you have them right where you need them to be.
[00:58:51] And with a heart of surrender, you can make a heart of incredible strength.
[00:58:56] So, Father, as they have had the courage to raise their hand this morning. May you fill their lives and fill their hearts with a new desire to do what you would have in their lives for what you at your expos expectations are for them. Replace all their dreams with what you dreamed for them, and may they have a new beginning here this morning, starting this Easter 2026.
[00:59:22] Now, unto him who is able to do church far more abundantly than all we could ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever and ever. Amen.
[00:59:42] Church I'm going to ask you to stay seated just for a moment as I.
