The Gap (Part 1)

Thank you very much, brethren, for your participation in the worship service and in the opportunity that we have to praise our great God and His name. It is an incredible thing that God has called us to, an incredible opportunity that He has provided us in our lives and a chance for us to be a part of something really truly special. So, we're going to talk just a little bit today about expectation. We're going to talk a little bit today about the gap that lies in between expectation and our reality at times. I want to do that today, and I want to begin by looking at a story. Some of you saw this. I posted it on my Facebook page this past week. But 50 years ago, last week, on the 12th of November, 1970, the state of Oregon encountered a challenging problem lying dead on the beach outside of Florence, Oregon. That problem, in particular, manifested itself as a 45-ton long—or a 45-ton—that's a big whale—45-foot-long, 8-ton whale that had washed ashore high up on the sand. With the tides the way they were, it had no intentions whatsoever of heading back out to sea. By the time it had washed ashore, the whale had been dead for quite some time. By the time it had gotten to the point on the beach in Florence, the smell was pretty significant. It had attracted a number of birds and other scavengers, as well as a number of curious locals and tourists who, despite their curiosity, maintained a decent perimeter as a result of the smell. Now, it had been a really long time since anything like this had happened in Oregon. It had been a very long time. In fact, as they were talking about, what do we do about this, most folks really didn't have a great idea as to what the best method would be to take care of this particular problem. They concluded that burying it really wasn't feasible because the thing was huge, and it would likely be quickly uncovered if they did. They said they couldn't cut it up and bury it because no one was really willing to get that close to it because of the smell to actually cut it up and bury the pieces. It was too big to leave there and let the scavengers break it down. It would have taken forever and been an eyesore the entire time. The whale was too far decomposed to drag it back out to sea, so the available options, as you can imagine, are starting to dwindle pretty quickly. There was a gentleman by the name of George Thornton who worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation who was tasked with heading up this particular project.

He decided, and his team decided, that the best scenario was to plant a half-ton, 1,000 pounds of dynamite, on the leeward side of the whale. The goal being that the explosion, the impending explosion, would disintegrate the whale and it would disintegrate it in the direction of the ocean.

The idea being that most of the charge was on the leeward side, that would blow it up and send it towards the ocean where they felt that at that point it would atomize the whale. It would be little tiny pieces so that the scavengers, the crabs, the birds, etc. would ultimately be able to take care of the pieces of the carcass that happened to remain.

He did say in the interview, as Paul Lindman, the journalist who was involved with it, interviewed him. He did say, we really don't know exactly how much dynamite it's going to take. We're really not sure. So we're going to start with 1,000 pounds. He said, if we have to, we can set another charge or whatever. But again, the expectation of the situation was that the explosion would disintegrate the whale, absolutely atomize it, and then all the little scavengers and crabs and birds and whatever would take care of the carcass.

So they went ahead and set the charges. They moved the bystanders back a quarter mile. About a quarter mile away, there were these large crowds of people that had gathered to watch the ultimate show. Now, expectations are kind of funny. I think most everyone has a certain vision in their heads of how a given situation is going to turn out. You can kind of see the end result. You can maybe see it happening step by step according to plan and the way that you planned it.

Thankfully, as a result of experience or training, we often have the chance to actually see that expectation fulfilled. In other words, it actually goes according to plan. But occasionally, usually as a result of factors that are outside of our control or perhaps carelessness on our part or a lack of proper planning, things don't always go to plan. And we receive a very vastly different result than what we expected. When the highway department pressed the plunger down on the detonator and the TNT caught, the entire area around the whale was engulfed in a massive explosion.

For those that have not seen the video of this, you owe it to yourself to at least watch this video at some point in time. I used to show it. It was a yearly celebration in my classroom at school. But when they put the plunger down on that detonator and that TNT caught hold, that entire area around that whale was engulfed in a massive explosion.

There were sand and gases that expanded, that emanated from the blast site, and you couldn't see much of anything at first. But as the gases began to dissipate and the sand kind of cleared and settled out, the ultimate reality of the situation came to bear very quickly. The cheers and the shouts of enthusiasm on the dunes by the people that were watching were soon replaced by people screaming and running for their lives away from the blast site as these massive chunks of dead whale began to thud down from the sky on the dunes around them.

Some of the pieces traveled further than a quarter mile, some of them weighed in excess of 200 pounds, and at least one of the large chunks of whale landed on a car, smashing in the entire passenger compartment, as well as hitting and kind of crushing and doing damage to other structures.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but as journalist Paul Lindemann pointed out, the portion of the carcass that was in fact atomized rained down on the spectators, covering everyone gathered in small particles of dead whale. Which you can imagine was likely not very comfortable and particularly pungent. When the dust settled, and the sand settled, and the explosion kind of settled, and everybody took stock of what had just happened and had a chance to realize that they were okay and that ultimately no one was hurt, they looked at the area and there was a significantly large chunk of the whale that actually never left the blast site.

That remaining chunk had to be buried there on the beach, and somewhat ironically, the birds and the crabs and all the scavengers that were supposed to take care of the carcass were gone, being run off by the noise and the chaos of the explosion and the ultimate smell of what remained.

You know, reality in that particular circumstance was far different than expectations. And when it's not us, when you're not sitting in the hot seat like George Thornton is, we can take a look at the gap between expectations and reality and at times it can be humorous. Some of you are probably familiar with Pinterest. Pinterest is a place where people can share the incredible projects that they've done, whether it's crafts or baking, decor, cooking, things like that. And ultimately, people can see those things and they can be inspired to do it themselves. Sometimes it goes remarkably well. Very successful in replicating it. It goes according to plan. Everything goes well. Other times, well, not so much. I'm going to show you just a couple of examples here. Some of you have probably seen these before. They're funny. They're humorous. But it shows the idea here between the concept of what the expectation is and the reality. So here we have a nice cat cake that somebody had put together. And this was what they saw in Pinterest. They were inspired to do. This is what they created. It's not quite what they probably expected to create in the least bit. It actually is quite frightening when you really look at it. Sometimes it's artistic things. It's this beautiful melted crayon picture, which apparently you just take the crayons and sit them out in the sun and it makes this beautiful thing. This individual posted their attempt. It could use some work, as you might have noticed. It's not quite what they had intended. The reality did not meet expectations. You know, you've seen... Here's another cake example. There's a lot of cake examples in here. I think people think their baking skills may be better than they really are.

Here's a beautiful little lamb cake. Here's the scared wet cat that is the result of the attempted lamb cake. Again, expectation did not meet reality. We've all seen these beautiful pictures of children, these beautiful pictures that people take of their newborn babies.

Parents, those of you that have tried to actually take pictures of your newborn babies, often realize that at times it doesn't quite turn out like you might have expected it to turn out. In this case, thankfully the baby's not crying, but it just doesn't have the same... I don't know. What do you say? How do you say it? There's another example of an infant picture here. A baby in a bowl of gumballs. A beautiful little picture. Sure, something that would be great on the mantle. This one not so much. That baby's had enough of the bowl of gumballs and has absolutely no interest in continuing to remain in it. This beautiful omelet, the sleeping bear made of rice and little cut-up pieces of cheese, and this beautiful omelet ultimately looked like this when the individual attempted it. I don't remember seeing the broccoli as part of the recipe, but there was the attempt. It didn't quite turn out very much like the other piece. So we have expectations and we have reality. Here's another few examples, and this is the last that we'll mention. As you can see, they didn't quite get the essence of it that they had intended to make. There was an expectation, and then there was reality. The reality is, I think at times when you consider expectations in reality, when it's something trivial or something that doesn't ultimately impact us personally, it can be humorous. It can provide us with a good laugh, such as the exploding whale or the Pinterest fails.

When it's something more serious, or that gap between expectation and reality affects our life, or it affects the plans that we have for life, or impacts people that we love more drastically, often that gap between expectation and reality can breed disappointment. It can breed anger, it can breed frustration and discontent. In many ways, it's in this gap between our expectations and our reality that pain and discontent resides. As I brought out in this past week's Pastors Corner, 2020 has been a year in which expectation has not met reality. Many of us began the year with plans, things that we desired to achieve. Maybe we saw in our heads this step-by-step vision of where we desired to find ourselves come November and December of this year to kind of set the stage for where we wanted to go in 2021. Often when we plan, we don't always just plan for a short-term situation. We plan long-term. There were a number of individuals who had weddings planned between March and now of this year, and their weddings had to be changed significantly. That's a big deal. That's a big deal in people's lives. Some business owners owned businesses that they no longer own. They went out of business. Because this absolutely stopped them in their tracks. People had ideas and plans of where they wanted to go in 2020 and 2021, and then reality hit. And as a result of events that were out of our control, chances are very good that at some point in time this year, your reality measured far short of your expectations. In fact, it's entirely possible that that resulted in a great deal of stress in your life. When there is a gap between our expectations and reality, we have natural responses that are emotional. Things like disappointment. Things like anger. Things like sadness, depression, anxiety that can occur when our brain kind of readjusts to reality after discovering that in many ways things were not the way that we thought they were. Again, we mentioned anger. It can result as if we feel that there's something that's getting in the way or preventing us from being able to meet those expectations. We can feel sadness and depression if we feel that those expectations are a lost opportunity that we will never get back. Again, as we adjust to this reality and realize that's a moment that passed. That's something that's in the past that I have no way of getting back to.

We can experience uncertainty, anxiety if we're struggling to meet the expectations of others, or at times we can feel shame if we feel that we've failed to live up to the expectations that we've set upon ourselves. Again, the expectation is here, the reality is here, and in this gap between these two is where these negative emotions lie. Let me give you a couple of examples, because I want to make sure this makes sense before we jump in here today. If you're a sports fan, there's a very good chance that you likely have a favorite team. Maybe you're a Seahawks fan, maybe you're a Trailblazers fan, and generally, most of the time, I think our expectation is that our team is going to win. When they start to get behind and we start to have a slightly different perception of reality that, wait a minute, they're not coming back from this, what do we start to feel?

Well, we start to feel disappointment, maybe we start to feel sadness, because now that reality doesn't match our initial expectation. There's a gap there. Now, if you don't really care one way or the other, you don't have the same level of expectation. Your expectations are down here, the reality is up here, you don't care. You'll note, maybe, that you don't necessarily feel the same level of disappointment as someone else, because you don't care as much. You don't really have an expectation either way. That's the beauty of being a Mariners fan. They're never going to win. And so, there's no... if you're going to lose, you're really not affected in the long run. Let's say in your marriage, if you're criticized by your spouse. For most relationships, I think we have an expectation that your spouse thinks you're pretty swell. And I'm... certainly there's times where relationships suffer and a person doesn't necessarily have that expectation as a result of various things. But if your expectation is, up here, is that your spouse thinks you're pretty awesome, but then criticizes you for whatever reason, your reality may be as different now than your expectation. And depending on the degree of the gap, it can also depend on the amount, or the... I guess the... the amplitude, so to speak, of the... or magnitude of the response.

But you can experience a negative emotional response to that criticism, because the reality of the situation has you now experiencing something different than what you expected. I always use this example, because it's one I think everybody can relate to, but being cut off in traffic. Most people expect, and I think have a reasonable expectation, that others are going to treat them with courtesy and with respect. We know that's changing rapidly in society, unfortunately. But when we're cut off in traffic, now suddenly that reality is different. That person has not treated us with courtesy and respect. And we begin to tell ourselves a story about the other person in the car that cut us off. They think they're more important than I do. They think that... that... that my life is not... you know, they cut really close in front of me. I had to jam my brakes on. I could have been in an accident.

They think that they're more important than me. They think that my life doesn't matter. They think that... whatever it might be. But that causes us to experience now a reality that's different than the expectation of courtesy and respect. And we experience as a result a number of emotions. Sometimes anger, sometimes frustration. And again, the magnitude of that depends on a variety of things.

And these responses, when the gap is present between our expectations and our reality, our responses can take a variety of different forms. And some people that deal with anger as a challenge, their response may come from a lot of different things in the form of anger. For those that suffer from depression, it may come in the form of sadness and depression. For those that suffer from anxiety, it may come in an anxiety response.

But in that gap between expectation and reality exists pain and our negative emotional response. The title of the message today is The Gap, not the store where you can buy cheap clothing. Maybe it's not that cheap. I've never shopped at The Gap. But the title of the message today is The Gap. And what I'd like to do in this message is we're going to take a look at the cause and the examples in this first message. In next week's message, we're going to examine the solution.

As I got going on this, it turns out there's a whole lot more here than what was available for an existing single message. We're going to make this a two-parter. We're looking at the examples and the cause ultimately in the first message. And then in next week's message, what we'll try to do is examine the solution to these things and the applicability in our lives today. Let's go ahead and start by turning over to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13 and verse 12. And we'll go ahead and turn over to the collection here of the Wisdom of Solomon. Proverbs 13 and verse 12.

We know that Solomon penned these particular proverbs during his lifetime. And ultimately, they're not necessarily all original. There are some that have overlap with kind of common Near East proverbs. I mean, it could be that Solomon was the source of those and then it ended up getting out. But it is amazing to me when you consider the collection of all of these proverbs. When you go through them today, they're as meaningful today as they were to the individuals who were reading at that.

These proverbs that Solomon recorded and Solomon put in this particular collection of wisdom, they're timeless. They are truly timeless. You know, you can be reading through these things today and they can speak to you just as they would have spoken to somebody during the time of Solomon. You know, or during the time of Israel. You know, it's incredible how these are truly timeless. Proverbs 13 and verse 12. We're going to go ahead and read. Proverbs 13 and verse 12. Reads as follows. It says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. So hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. The word that's translated hope in this particular passage is toholet. Toholet, which can be translated as hope. It can be translated as expectation. It can be translated as waiting on something. Now, if we consider hope and expectation to be similar in that we are expecting a certain outcome, and we're waiting on that outcome, expectations that are drawn out and not met make the heart sick. It causes disappointment. It causes frustration. It causes anger. But Solomon continues. He says, when the desire, what we hoped for, what we expected is realized, it's a tree of life.

It's something that revives us. It's something that invigorates us. It's something that stays us, supports us, and strengthens us. I think we recognize there are times in which expectations and hopes that we have are completely outside of our control. You know, we have expectations, we have hopes, and sometimes the meeting of those things are outside of our control.

How do we deal with those situations? How do we deal with those scenarios? How can we ensure that we can manage our expectations without giving up on our dreams? Again, I'd like to look at this concept today. This first message will focus on the concept and the examples. The next message will take a look at how we go about this process. So I'd like to spend the rest of the time we have today taking a look at three examples from Scripture of individuals who dealt with this gap of unmet expectations and see what lessons we can learn from their example. The first of these individuals is John the Baptist.

Now, we're going to go ahead and turn over to John 1. John 1, if you want to begin turning there, you can. You know, we know the story of John the Baptist. We're familiar with the role that he played in the coming of Jesus Christ. We're familiar with his birth. We're familiar with the miraculous conception that occurred in Zechariah and Elizabeth and the incredible circumstances that surrounded his conception as well as ultimately his birth.

Now, John was selected and he was set apart by God in a very spectacular way. As he grew and as he developed, he took on the role of kind of your archetypal prophet. You know, he's out wearing camel skins. He's out eating locusts and honey in the wilderness. You know, he's living in caves. He's living in the wilderness. And ultimately, he would come into society and bring this message and this burden of prophecy that he had been provided to the people of Israel early in Christ's ministry.

Now, Christ himself states and John himself states that he was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, to prepare the way for Jesus Christ's coming. John preached a message of repentance. He preached a message of baptism and he baptized many in the Jordan River near Qumran. And as you might imagine, this naturally caught the attention of the priests and the Levites at that time. You know, here's this guy. He's come out of the wilderness. He's wearing typical prophet clothing.

He was wearing camel skin and all these just standard prophet wear...it's like you're a prophet and here's your standard uniform, right? Camel hair and locusts and honey and living in the wilderness. But he would come into civilization, quote-unquote, and he would preach this message. People would hear it and they would come and be baptized. And there was multitudes gathered around him at the time that he would be doing this. And John 1...we'll go ahead and pick up the story in verse 19 of John 1.

John 1 and verse 19 says, Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? So he caught the attention of the priests and the Levites and they sent priests and... or caught the attention of the Pharisees as well, and they sent priests and Levites to come and ask him who he was. They wanted to know who do you claim to be? Well, he says he confessed and he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. So they wanted to know, are you the Messiah?

He said, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the Messiah. Well, are you Elijah? He says, I'm not Elijah. Now, interestingly, Christ states that he is. But there's more story there. And if we go into it today, it's going to end up taking too long to dig into. But he says, are you Elijah? He says, I'm not. He says, are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Verse 22, then they said to him, who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us?

What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. And that's a quote from Isaiah 40 and verse 3.

He says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Verse 24, now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ, nor Elijah or the prophet? Verse 26, he goes on to explain, he says, I baptize with water. But there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he coming after me, as preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethabra, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing, an area known as Bethany, essentially. But the chief priests and the Levites came at the urging of the Pharisees to ask of John whether he was the Messiah. Now again, we've mentioned this before. The Jews at that time were waiting and looking and expecting the coming of Messiah. Herod had purged the infants of the area of Judea a couple decades earlier. The events of what we would refer to, I guess, colloquially as the Nativity, you know, Christ's birth, had occurred, not with all the Christmas trappings, but the origins of Christ's birth that occurred a couple of decades earlier. We know that there's more zealous Jews when they came back from Babylon. It settled in the north of Israel and Galilee because they were looking and waiting for the coming of Messiah, who was prophesied, to come from there.

Timing was right when John began his ministry, so they knew, okay, here's, you know, that we're in the right time frame here, as well as there were a number of others that had led up to that point making the claim that they were the Messiah. They'd led rebellions against the Romans, which resulted in brutal, brutal Roman crackdowns and reprisals. You know, whole city Sephora, for example, getting wiped out in the early first century. You know, John informs them, look, I'm the one that's preparing the way for his coming. I'm not him.

Now we know after this, the events of the Gospel accounts take place. Jesus comes, he's baptized by John, and then ultimately Christ goes on about his ministry. Well, a short time later, Herod married his half-brother, Philip's, wife, Herodias. Now there's a whole bunch of messed up stuff going on in this family tree. Herodias actually was a half-uncle to Philip and a half-uncle, or I'm sorry, was a half-aunt. Wait, niece? I'm my own grandpa here, is what we're talking about. But Herod was a half-uncle. Herod Antipas was a half-uncle of Herodias, as was his brother Philip, was a half-uncle of Herodias. There's some debate as to whether or not she was actually divorced at the point when Herod married her, whether she had just left Philip or whether she was actually divorced. Herod had also been divorced, but because he was technically her half-uncle and previously she was wife to his brother Philip, John the Baptist was very outspoken against the legality of this marriage. So John was very outspoken against the legality of this marriage between Herod Antipas and Herodias. And so Herod had him arrested, had him imprisoned in his fortress palace at Macaris. Kind of a brief aside for those that are interested, there's a really interesting article on Macaris in this latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. They're actually working on excavating and reconstructing bits and pieces of the location. Again, you can probably find the information online, but the palace itself was incredible. The palace was incredible. In fact, since I have the beauty of the Internet, here's a couple of photos from Macaris. Generally, the location of Macaris is up on this hill. It was very similar to Masada in this regard. It is up on this hillside, and you can see for miles around it. But as you look at the little bit closer picture here on the left, you can see a lot of details here that are present. Now that's led people to go through the old historical things and figure out what did this exactly look like at that point in time. This is the thought process as to what ultimately was present at Macaris. This is the prison fortress, palace fortress, I should say, in which John was kept until his death. You can see that it was incredibly fortified. In fact, a couple of different historians actually say that it was second only to Jerusalem in its fortifications. It provided Herod with safety and security. When it came to John, Herod was largely content with keeping John imprisoned. He didn't seem too keen on having him killed. We see in Mark 6 that he recognized John was a holy and a just man. The passage in Mark 6 also seems to indicate that Herod actually enjoyed listening and talking with him, despite John likely pointing out where Herod was falling short. Matthew 14 indicates that he actually did want to kill him, but that he was afraid of the multitudes, because the multitudes counted John as a prophet.

It's hard to know for sure exactly where Herod was with regards to it, but we do know for an absolute fact that Herodias wanted John dead. Herodias wanted John dead because of the things that he was saying about their marriage. Now, can you imagine for a moment the friction in the marriage between Herod and Herodias, as Herodias is pushing her husband to kill John and he keeps being reluctant, and isn't pushing forward to have him killed.

There's, I'm sure, a great deal of friction in the marriage between the two of them, as they're kind of working their way around that. Let's go ahead and turn to Matthew 11. That gives us a little bit of backdrop and context on the story of John, Matthew 11, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in, ultimately, verse 2. But you can be turning to Matthew 11. We're going to, again, build a little bit more background here before we jump in. Matthew 11, we see that, by and large, as we're turning here, the Jewish understanding of the Messiah at this time was based largely on the prophecies of Isaiah.

And we know there's messianic prophecies throughout Scripture, but a lot of it is located in the book of Isaiah. And there was a belief among those that were Jews at the time that the coming Messiah was to be a king, that the coming Messiah was going to restore the kingdom of Israel, it was going to throw off the shackles of Roman oppressors, it was going to deliver the people from the rule of the Romans.

And we can see this attitude and this thought process. We'll see it later when we talk about Peter. But John, in many ways, had preached this coming of Messiah. This coming of Messiah. And as, again, as time has gone on, a number of decades, men had risen up, they'd gained a following, they'd moved against the Romans, were defeated, you know, whole towns were sacked, you know, whole towns worth of men were crucified as a result, and the Romans would crack down and just trash the town and those that were involved in the process.

Many of these men, people believed at that time, were the Messiah, and so they thought, it's time, let's get on this, let's do it, let's jump in, let's go. And in fact, it's interesting, in Acts 5, when you look at Gamaliel, and the advice that he gives with regards to the men that are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, Gamaliel almost seems to acknowledge his previous pattern.

He says, look, let it be. You know, let it be. If it's of men, like all of the previous attempts before, it will fail. But if it's of God, there will be no one who can stand against it. You know, Gamaliel acknowledged this idea that there had been people who had up and come and had these situations before and ultimately had been overthrown and had been suppressed.

But his point is, if this is really the Messiah, there's no stopping it. There is no stopping it. So John preaches coming a Messiah. He preached a coming of Messiah in power and in righteousness and justice. And so, after he's arrested and he's housed here at Maccarrus, he's hearing about all these works of Christ. He's hearing about all these things, all these miracles and these teachings and all the things that Christ was doing throughout Judea. But in hearing these things, again, with the image and the picture of Messiah in his mind, John, apparently, from what we can see in Scripture, began to have some doubts.

He sent a message to Christ via two of his disciples. Again, in Matthew 11, we'll pick it up in verse 2. But he sends his message to Christ via two of his disciples as to whether or not Christ was the Messiah that John had preached about or whether they should look for someone else. Matthew 11 in verse 2 says, And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, referencing Christ, Are you the coming one? Are you the Messiah? Or do we look for another? Is it you or not?

There appears to, at least based on what we see recorded here, that there is a degree of doubt, perhaps, that has entered John's mind as he was imprisoned in Macaras. Are you him? Or should we keep looking? Is it time yet? Is it time to liberate the Jewish people and overthrow the Romans and their puppet government? We see a common theme among John's messages when you look through John. He talks about fire in connection with Messiah.

Maybe John's thinking, where's the fire? Where's the fire in this?

Christ's response to John in verses 4-6 comes from a combination of three Messianic passages in Isaiah. And I think it's as important for what it doesn't say than what it does say.

Matthew 11 in verse 4, Christ responds and says, Jesus answered and said to them, to the two disciples, to go and take John this message. You have to keep in mind, John's disciples, incredibly well versed in Scripture. These guys would have had Scripture memorized. They would have known the references that he was making here. He's just quoting from Bits and Pieces of the Book of Isaiah. They would have put it together and made the connections. Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and you see. Go tell him what I've done. He says, The blind see in the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

He tells John's disciples to go back to John and tell him of the things that you have heard and that you have seen. Tell him of the miracles. Tell him of the dead that have been raised. The lepers that have been cleansed. The blind and the deaf that hear. The lame that walk. All of these things, again, that were prophesied of the coming Messiah. Go and tell him that the poor have had the gospel preached to them. Now, all these things come from a couple of passages in Isaiah. We won't turn there. I'll mention them and you can jot them down. Isaiah 29 and verse 18 is one of them. It says, In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. So again, reference to the eyes of the blind seeing the ears of the deaf hearing. Also comes from Isaiah 35 verses 4-6. So say to those who are fearful hearted, Be strong and do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer in the tongue of the dumb, saying. Again, we see this healing that Jesus Christ brought. Isaiah 61 and verse 1 is another one. He says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

But it's interesting that when Christ sends John's disciples back to Him, He doesn't include the rest of Isaiah 61 and verse 1. Again, the disciples would have known that He didn't finish it. That He only quoted the first half. They would have been able to put two and two together that a portion was left out. What did Christ leave out? He left out the last section of Isaiah 61 verse 1, which states, reading it in its entirety. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who were bound. It wasn't part of the plan yet. Jesus sent a very subtle message to John that John was not going to leave Macaris. That he was the Messiah, yes. That much of the healing and the miracles had come, but that the fulfillment of the kingdom of God, what was expected by the Jewish people of their Messiah, was not yet to be fulfilled.

That was not part of the plan yet. He finishes in Matthew 11 verse 6. He says, Blessed is he who is not offended because of me. I think that was a very pointed message to John. In that who does not stumble as a result of this understanding that now is not the time? That you will die in this prison. In doing that, I think Christ is sending a message to John that is telling John to stay the course.

To not get discouraged. You know, when our reality doesn't meet our expectation, there exists a gap. And it's in this gap where pain resides. John could have become angry, he could have become disillusioned, he could have been upset and questioned God.

You know, you send this guy. This isn't the guy. To a degree, it requires an acceptance of the situation that he found himself in. And it requires a complete trust in God to work out his purposes, come what may. Whatever the results are. You know, when you're imprisoned like that, it takes an incredible degree of faith. And at times, faith and trust in God can fill that gap. It can take the space between reality and expectation. Sadly, John's story ends with his death after Herod granted a birthday wish to Herod's daughter, Salome. It was Herod's birthday, he's granting wishes as a result of that.

But Salome danced for him, and he said he would grant anything she asked up to half of his kingdom. Conspiring with her mother, you know, Salome knew what Herodias wanted. She requested the head of John the Baptist and Herod had sworn to uphold it and what she wished she got. John's disciples collected his body and entombed it. And John the Baptist died without receiving the expectation. Turn over to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 records an allusion to John and an allusion to many of the prophets throughout time, speaking kind of contextually of the faith as we go through the end part of Hebrews 11 here, the faith of these individuals to have overcome so much.

It talks about the faith that caused the walls of Jericho to fall, the faith of Rahab, it talks about the faith of Gideon and Barak and of Samson, the faith of David and Samuel, of the prophets who, through their faith, subdued kingdoms, who obtained promises who out of weakness became strong. And then we pick it up in verse 35 of Hebrews 11. Verse 35 of Hebrews 11 says, As women received their dead, raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trials of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn into, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. Notice verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy. God had their back. They wandered in deserts, they wandered in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And it says, verse 39, And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

The prophets of God, of which John was one, they wandered around in sheepskins, camel hair, goatskins, they were destitute, they were tormented, they were slaughtered by the thousands over the years. And they didn't receive the promise. Not yet. The expectation was not yet fulfilled in their lifetime.

Reality, their reality, did not live up to the expectation and the hope that they had. But, brethren, their faith and their trust in God filled that gap. Now, not perfectly, at times, they were human. You know, at times, if we're looking at the text, we see them falter. There's times where we see them falter. I think this is one of those times in John the Baptist's life as he's locked up in Macaris. And he's questioning, is this what I expected?

Is this what I expected? But they had something better that had been provided for them. And, frankly, brethren, for us, those of faith through time, that they shouldn't be made perfect apart from us. Now, despite the fact that these expectations weren't realized in this life, the writer of Hebrews states that there is a time coming in which they will be.

Where reality and expectation will align, or, I guess, if we're being honest with ourselves, where the expectation will pale in comparison to the reality. Where the reality will absolutely blow away our wildest expectations. Not worthy of comparison, as Paul discusses in Romans. The message of Hebrews 11 is to remain strong and to remain faithful in spite of that gap, not to let up. Let's take a look at another example. Let's go to 1 Kings.

In the book of 1 Kings, we're introduced to Elijah. Elijah arrives on the scene in the middle of King Ahab's reign in Israel. He's already on the throne when Elijah arrives. Ahab and Jezebel have done great evil in the sight of God. They've enabled Baal worship and idolatry to the northern tribes.

In fact, this wasn't something that Ahab originated. Obviously, the sins of Jeroboam were present prior to this. It is recorded that Ahab had provoked God to wrath more than any of the previous kings of Israel. Elijah comes on the scene. He informs Ahab that there would be this terrible drought as a result of the sins of Ahab and of Jezebel and of the nation.

Elijah leaves the area after that towards the brook carat where God miraculously feeds and cares for Elijah. He takes care of him with ravens who brought him meat and bread. The brook provided him with water. Elijah witnessed this incredible miracle of God caring for him in the wilderness.

He goes and he is instructed to go and meet with a widow. He goes and he meets with a widow. He sees another incredible miracle. He sees a jar of oil and a vial of oil and a jar of flour that never runs out. I shouldn't say never runs out.

It was said that it would run out when it would carry through until the rains began again. But that it would provide enough for her and her son as well as Elijah. Elijah experienced a miracle of her son being raised from the dead. God gave life back to her son at the word of Elijah's prayer to him.

Now, keep in mind, this is the backdrop of the first three years of this process. Elijah is brought on the scene, sees these incredible miracles, sees these incredible things. But three years into the drought, God sent Elijah to Ahab. So we're three years in now. At this point in time, the famine was severe. During this time as well, Jezebel had purged the prophets of God. She had ordered them killed. Obadiah, who is kind of an assistant in the kingdom at this time, had managed to hide a hundred of the prophets in two different caves, fifty and one-fifty, and the other feeding and caring for them to the best of his ability.

But Jezebel had purged the prophets of God. Things were dire in Israel for the people of God at this time.

Ahab and Obadiah, they go out into the land to seek out water and forage for the animals in hopes they can keep their livestock alive. One goes one way, one goes the other. Elijah kind of pops out of the bushes to Obadiah and says, Hey! Obadiah recognizes him. He knows who he is. He says, Go tell Ahab that I'm here. Well, Obadiah stops for a minute and says, Hey, listen, do you realize in doing so, you're signing my death warrant? If I go to Ahab and I tell you that he's here, or that I tell him that you're here, he'll have me killed. Because Ahab, in the meantime, looking for Elijah has sent people to every nation around them to hunt for and kill Elijah. They wouldn't leave the nations until the nation swore an oath that Elijah wasn't there. Ahab was serious about seeing Elijah dead. He wanted him dead. Under no circumstances. So did Jezebel, obviously. And it could be that Jezebel's influencing Ahab a bit on this as well. But Obadiah follows Elijah's instructions. Ahab comes to meet with Elijah. Imagine that meeting, if you could be a fly on the wall. 1 Kings 18, verse 17. We'll go ahead and pick up the passage here. 1 Kings 18, verse 17. Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel? Ahab had this idea that all of this was Elijah's fault. That if Elijah would not have just come in and said there's going to be a drought, that everything would be fine. So he's pushing off the blame onto Elijah completely. Elijah answered, verse 18. I have not troubled Israel, but you and your Father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the balls. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table. So Elijah sets up a showdown here, sets up an opportunity for God to have a chance to show his power, in contrast to the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah. Again, these prophets of Asherah and Baal have, you know, they're close to Jezebel. They eat at her table. She provides for them. But we have the stage now set for a showdown. You know, this is like the old West movies, you know, high noon, everybody meet. You know, it's, you know, this one gunslinger, so to speak, Elijah, against the whole group. Of course, Elijah's got God on his side. Verse 20 says, So Ahab sent for the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. But the people, notice, were completely disengaged at this point. They answered him, not a word. Notice their disengagement. They didn't even respond. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore, let them give us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God. So all the people answered and said, it's well spoken. So Elijah sets this whole thing up. He sets the showdown up. And the idea being that which God ends up responding is truly God.

Verse 25, Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for you are many, and call on the name of your God, and put no fire under it. So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal from morning until Eve or until noon, saying, Oh, Baal, hear us. But there was no voice. No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar. They changed their process here. They leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was at noon. One of the things that's kind of fun with Elijah is he's a little sarcastic at times.

So it was at noon, after them going from morning until noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry loud! For he is a God. Either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he's on a journey, or perhaps he's sleeping and must be awakened. The word that's used there to state busy is kind of implying that perhaps he's using the restroom, that he's otherwise occupied. And so he's kind of digging at them a little bit here as they're going through this process. Verse 28, So then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. So he called everyone over to him. All the people come near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. So he took the time to replace the stones and build the altar back up. He took the twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, in verse 31, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. Verse 32, He put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and then said, Fill four water pots with water. So he's not even going to keep to these original terms. He is going to make it abundantly clear to those that are gathered that there is no other option but God igniting this thing. He soaks the wood. He says, Do it again. And he says, Do it again. So three times they soaked the wood. They dumped water all over this sacrifice. The water ran down around the altar. He filled the trench with water. And so it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet, in verse 36, came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. He prays, Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to you again.

Now put yourself in Elijah's shoes for a minute. He concludes his prayer, and boom, boom, down from the sky comes this huge fire of God. The fire of the Lord fell. It consumed the burnt sacrifice. It consumed the wood, the stones, the dust. It licked up all the water and evaporated the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. And so Elijah says, Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. And so they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook, Kishon, and executed them there. Again, put yourself in Elijah's shoes for a minute. God has selected you for this incredible path. You have, in your mind, in some ways, that you are the lone man standing for God in a nation that is completely descended into darkness. You have seen miracles wrought by God's hand. You've seen the miracle of the drought that stopped at your word. That's what pressure on Ahab. You've seen the miracle of the oil and the flower. You've seen the miracle of the raising of the woman's son. God is clearly working with you, and then this happens. God answers in this mighty fashion, and these people, who were previously kind of blasé with regards to God and wouldn't even answer the question, fell on their faces and shouted that He was God.

If you're Elijah, you're finally seeing the tide turn. There's momentum. It's not just you anymore. The people see it, too, now. They follow the order to seize the prophets of Baal. Elijah slays him. It's finally happening. All these challenges that you've experienced over the last few years of your life warrant for nothing. And so your expectation now is that your nation will rise up and will put out Ahab and Jezebel and turn in repentance to God.

But the reality was that Jezebel still has a very strong hold, and people who are very loyal to her. The drought comes to an end, and after Jezebel threatens to end Elijah's life, like she had the rest of the prophets, he flees into the wilderness of Bathsheba. Elijah's expectations didn't meet reality. He's coming off of this incredible high, God working with him in such a powerful way, such that the momentum has shifted.

And now Ahab and Jezebel were on the defensive. He thought the people had seized the prophets, they put them to death, the pieces are starting to come into place. But Ahab and Jezebel still had power. They'd not yet been overthrown, and she'd threatened his life. We go to 1 Kings 19 and verse 4. It says, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die. He said, It is enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's. He admits, to a certain degree, it didn't work. There was no change. My vision of what was going to happen up here was that the nation was going to turn, they were going to repent. My expectation was that this is where the tide turns.

But it didn't pan out.

And so, as he lays there under the broom tree, he says, God, take my life.

Please kill me.

Now, we see that God ministered to him. He slept. He ate. He slept some more. You know, God's building up his strength for this journey to Horeb, where God came to him and asked a question of Elijah. Let's go down to verse 10. Verse 10 of 1 Kings 19.

I'm sorry, verse 9 of 1 Kings 19.

Okay, verse 8.

Verse 8, ultimately.

Elijah tells God, I've poured everything I have into this. He says, I love you. God, I am zealous for your way. I'm upset. I'm angry. I'm frustrated with my countrymen. I'm frustrated with their sins. But it's just me. It's not enough.

So God has him go and stand in the entrance to the cave.

And God provides a bit of a demonstration of his power. He breaks the rocks and pieces with the wind. He follows out with an earthquake and follows out with fire. But Elijah observes that God wasn't in any of these things. He was instead in a very simple, very small, very quiet, delicate whispering voice, who once again asks Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah.

He repeats his response, and God tells him to go to Syria, and anoint Hazael as king. He tells him to return to Israel and anoint Jehu as king, and to select Elisha as his successor. God basically outlines to Elijah here that he has a plan that is in motion. He has a plan that's in motion. And Elijah is but one part of it. He says that those that aren't killed by Hazael will be killed by Jehu. Those that are not killed by Jehu will be killed by Elisha and Elijah. He says it's not just you.

There are 7,000 more like you who are zealous for me, who love me, who have not bowed down to Baal, and who have not kissed these idols. You know, we look at Elijah. Elijah is one of the greatest prophets of God that's ever lived.

He's one half of the archetype of the witnesses that will come on to the world scene in the end times. He's a forerunner of Messiah, identified by Christ as John the Baptist. Again, he would be a, John the Baptist would be a type of Elijah. When they asked him whether he was Elijah, they may have literally meant Elijah proper in that had come out of the whirlwind, and here he was again. But he says there's another Elijah at the end that precedes Christ's second coming. But Elijah had discrepancies between his expectations of what God was doing and reality. And that gap between those two resulted in pain. We might argue it resulted in depression. It resulted in him desiring for God to take his life.

God, in his infinite wisdom, recognized Elijah, you just need to eat. You need to eat. You need to sleep.

But he comforted and he ministered to Elijah in that pain. He reassured him and he nourished him.

And God revealed to Elijah part of his plan to help him understand what he was doing, to help illustrate that it wasn't a law's cause.

That there's plans in motion of which you are a part, but Elijah, you won't see the complete fulfillment of it. You're not the only player on the field.

As the story continues, Ahab dies in battle with Ben-Haddad of Syria. Elijah takes Elijah's place after Elijah's taken up in the whirlwind.

And Elijah ultimately fulfills two of the instructions that were given to Elijah.

Hazeel is to become king, and Jehu is anointed king over Joram.

Jezebel, we know, is finally killed after Jehu comes to take the city and she is thrown from the tower to her death. And so there were these bigger plans and pieces that were in motion.

And Elijah just didn't see the big picture. He didn't know. He didn't have it revealed to him entirely at that time because he was given his mission. He was given his piece. But Elijah had this expectation in his head that was very different from reality. And when that gap arrived, it was a very challenging situation for him as Jezebel had threatened his life and he was off in the wilderness again. Here we are again, right?

Finally, let's take a look at the example of Peter. Let's take a look at the example of Peter. There's a fascinating account that's recorded in Matthew 16. Let's go ahead and go over to Matthew 16 if you want to start turning there.

Matthew 16, I want to build the backdrop just a little bit here because in the early part of Matthew 16, Christ and the disciples are recorded as being in the region of Magdala. Now I'm going to pop a map up here so that Magdala, you can kind of see generally where that's at. Just a second, sorry. So Magdala, if you've got your screen in front of you, you can see that. For those that are on the phone, hook up my apologies, but you're not going to be able to see some of the images today on the slideshow.

But Magdala is located, if you look at the east, western, west, never eat soggy waffles west. If you look at the western side of the Sea of Galilee, where that little road in between Corazin and Tiberius, where that little road cuts off to the left, that's Magdala. That's essentially the region of Magdala right there. That's the location where Mary Magdalene was from. She was Mary of Magdala. So that was her general area of growing up there in Galilee. But the early part of Matthew 16 takes place in and around Magdala. The latter section of Matthew 16, at least the part we're going to take a look at, takes a place in a location known as Caesarea Philippi.

Now, if you look at the top of the map, very top of the map, you can see Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is right in the kind of foothills down at the very base of Mount Hermon. It is an area that is, honestly, it's probably 30-35 miles from Magdala. And it's interesting, in Matthew 16, there is no other mention of Caesarea Philippi in the Gospels that Christ and His disciples traveled there. There's no other real reason that Christ appears to have gone there except to travel 30-35 miles by foot to ask His disciples a question.

Now, Caesarea Philippi is an area of major pagan activity. We see, again, in Scripture, He had not traveled there before. He really didn't travel there again. It's an area of major, major pagan activity. In fact, the town is nestled at the base, again, of Mount Hermon. It had a spring. It had an extensive cave system, which at this time was dedicated, at the time of Christ, was dedicated to the God Pan.

Now, some of you are familiar with Pan. The God Pan was this half-goat, half-man God who was worshipped for His virility. In the picture on the right is the Temple of Pan. On the left side of the Temple of Pan is this opening into this huge cave. You can see it in the left picture.

That's kind of today. That's the picture of the area now. That was known as the Gates of Hell. It was a location where it was believed to be an entrance to the underworld. There was all kinds of Greek paganism and Roman paganism that was going on in this particular area. Pan, again, worshipped for his virility. I won't get into the grisly details, but there were absolutely horrendous forms of worship that took place in Caesarea Philippi.

It was a horrific area. Not just the Greeks and the Romans had worshipped here. The Canaanites actually worshipped a god named Baal Gad in this area during the time of Joshua's conquest as well. Gad was the god of fortune in Canaan. This area has had pagan and false worship and idolatry going back millennia. But it begs an interesting question. Why did Christ and his disciples walk more than 30 miles to Caesarea Philippi for Christ to ask his disciples a question?

He could ask that question anywhere. We know that everything Christ does has meaning. We know that he was then bringing them to this area for a very specific reason. Again, this cave that you can see over here on your screen on the left side, that big open cave with the people in front of it, that was at that time referred to as the Gates of Hell.

Again, it was believed by the Greeks and Romans to be an entrance to the underworld. So let's go ahead and pick the story up in Matthew 16 and verse 13. Matthew 16 and verse 13. I told you to turn there, and then I did not turn there. Bad form, Ben. Matthew 16 and verse 13. There we go. Matthew 16 and verse 13 says, Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter. Peter always very outspoken, you know, and kind of brash and a little bit brazen, maybe. He pipes up and he says, You are the Christ. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. So Peter, flat out, throws it out.

Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. So Christ takes the opportunity in Caesarea Philippi to ask his disciples who they believed that he was. And again, they reply. Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah. But Christ drills deeper and says, No, who do you say that I am? And Peter acknowledges that he is the Messiah. He is the Son of the living God. In other words, Peter says, and Christ acknowledges, he says, You are the Messiah that we have been waiting for. Now, he didn't go on and explain what Peter's individual expectations of that Messiah were, but Peter's expectations of the Messiah were similar to the Jews at the time. You are the one that will lead us against the Romans and the one who will bring us victory. Now, Christ blesses Peter for that response. He says, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this, but my Father, who is in heaven. So what just happened? Jesus Christ acknowledged in the affirmative to Peter that he is absolutely the Messiah. Now, this wasn't the first time that that's happened. You know, you go through, he listed the miracles as a proof to those that were there for John's disciples. He told the Samaritan woman, in not so many words, there were plenty of times when the disciples were present and the fact that Christ was Messiah was acknowledged. But Christ answers in the affirmative with all of his disciples present, and then in the subsequent passages, verse 20, he says, Don't tell anyone! He says, Don't tell anyone! Now, we talked about this in a previous message. There were some in Israel who wanted to put a crown on Jesus Christ's head and put him in front of the army and turn against the Romans right then at that time, the zealots. At that time, we're all over. This is a possibility. And Christ spends a good portion of his ministry avoiding locations where they could potentially do that. And at times, adjusted his path of travel to ensure that he's not going through areas that may end up in that result. But verses 18 to 20 explain the reason for Christ bringing them all the way to Caesarea Philippi. It's likely that these words are spoken standing before the gates of hell, standing before this cave. And he's making the point to his disciples that everything that this pagan system stands for will not prevail against his ecclesia.

Those who he has chosen, those whom he has assembled. We see it in Scripture. The word says church in verses 19. He says, and I'll give you the... or I'm sorry, it is 18. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church in the gates of Hades, where the gates of hell, referencing potentially this area, shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. But he says to his disciples, do not tell anyone. But he says that his ecclesia, those whom he has called out, the assembly of believers, those who follow him, will overcome this pagan system. That the gates of hell, the underworld, the pagan things, these filthy Romans, will not prevail against it. You can imagine the disciples hearing this are getting pretty excited. Christ has acknowledged he is the Messiah. He has acknowledged the debauchery of this Roman system. He said he is going to build this assembly. He is going to gather these people to him. Those he chooses, and the gates of hell, these filthy Romans, will not prevail against what is coming. Peter and the disciples are probably getting pretty fired up here. Finally, it is time, it is time, to overthrow the Romans, their pagan worship, and retake Israel. Verse 21. Verse 21. From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. You got all this excitement! You got all this buildup, and now the legs are taken right out from underneath you. Wait. What? Go to Jerusalem.

Suffer these horrible things at the hands of the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed? Peter says, NO! This is not how the story ends! This is not how it goes! You can't go to Jerusalem, and suffer at the hands of the elders, and be killed. No! You lead the army, and we overthrow the Romans. That's how the story goes. Peter had expectations in his head. Verse 22, I'll show you just how strongly held those expectations were. Verse 22.

Christ turns to Peter, verse 23, and says, For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. Now, you can imagine, this probably likely got Peter's attention. Christ called him Satan, said, Get behind me. Called him an adversary. Tells Peter, at this point in time, Peter, you're not thinking straight. You're not thinking straight. That lack of focus has got you saying things that you shouldn't be saying. You are so focused, Peter, on the things of men that you have lost sight of the things of God. Christ tells Peter, Look, Peter, there's a much bigger plan going on here. It transcends your expectations. You know, Peter, you think that my overthrowing of the Romans is the endgame. That's not the endgame. It's an overthrow of the entire system. It's the end of everything that Caesarea Philippi, everything that this area surrounding us represents. It's the end of pagan worship. It's the end of the Babylonian system. It's the conquering of hell and the grave. It's the conquering of death. It's eternity in the kingdom of God. He says, Peter, Romans, they're small potatoes. He says, Get your mind off the things of men and get your mind on the things of God, Peter. Peter's expectations were different than Christ's reality and the reality of God's plan. His reaction to the gap between those two expectations, you know, between the expectation and reality, his reaction was one of anger. It was one of frustration. It was one of disbelief. And Peter had the audacity to pull the Son of God aside and rebuke him. Let that sink in for a minute. Peter just acknowledged that Christ was the Son of God, that he was the Christ. He was the Messiah. Jesus affirmed it. Jesus said, You're right. You're absolutely right. Fast forward a few moments, and suddenly now Peter thinks that his own personal expectations of what God is supposed to do outweigh the literal will of God. Brethren, do we find ourselves in the place that Peter found himself in life? Believing that somehow God operates in accordance with our personal expectations, then when reality hits differently, we react negatively. We get frustrated. We get angry. We get disappointed. We get depressed. As Job said, are we not to accept or are we to accept the good and not the bad? When these things that are outside of our expectations happen, we find ourselves telling God, Nope, sorry God, this is not how the story goes. No, this person recovers. That's not how the story goes. This person makes it. Nope, that job? I don't lose that job. Nope, no sir, that's not how this story goes. How often do we find ourselves trying to dictate the terms? Or allowing our own physical expectations to be what we focus on and what we look for? And when that reality doesn't match, allowing those negative emotions to destroy us, as we dwell on them and as we deal with them. You know, the beauty of Peter's story is that he did learn. He did grow. God's Spirit helped him to make sense of what he experienced, and through the process of Peter's conversion, he records many of these lessons for us. You know, of the three men that we examine today, he's the only one to have lived to see the First Coming of Messiah in its entirety. You know, obviously Elijah and John the Baptist were dead when that occurred. And thankfully, Peter, we have two books preserved for us that record his thoughts and his instructions regarding these things.

What happens when our expectations don't line up with reality? Or reality is different, I should say, maybe, than our expectations? How do we react?

How do we understand the things that occur in life around us in the context of God and of his plans, kind of bringing us to this point of acceptance, faith, and trust, maybe gratitude for the things that we ultimately experience?

Do we feel that our expectations kind of build God into this box? We're forming him after our physical expectations when, in many cases, God has an entirely different thing planned for us. But we could be holding on to those expectations that we have in our minds so hard that we refuse to look at anything else.

So how do we deal with this? How do we address this idea of the gap between our expectations and, ultimately, the reality that we experience? Well, we're going to dig more into that in the next message. We'll explore these concepts more fully and discuss a little bit more of Peter's life in Part 2. Appreciate you all being here with us. I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath, and we will have opportunity here to praise God in song once more. So if you would all take up your hymnals, please.