When Disappointment Strikes

SERMON: 2014-03-02--ac14122--when-disappointment-strikes SOURCE DURATION: 00:36:51.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: All candidates form a cohesive closing segment of the sermon, consisting of theological exposition and pastoral application (rhetorical questions). Since there is no clear transition to non-sermon material (music/announcement), the final candidate must be selected as the end of the sermon content. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- One of the very curious features of the story that we have just read together here in Acts Chapter 14 is the way in which the same crowd that could barely be restrained from sacrificing to Paul and Barnabas turns against them on a dime to the point where they stone Paul, drag him out of the city and leave him for dead. I think you'll agree with me that's quite the astonishing turn of events. And I wonder this morning if you can think of another New Testament story where something very similar to that happens, a place where the crowds are jubilant one moment and they're filled with anger the next. Does anybody want to wager a guess? I hear. Palm Sunday is the story that I'm thinking of. You will recall how Jesus comes into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the crowd is euphoric because finally their dreams are coming to fulfillment, they think, and they shouted out Hosanna to the son of David, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And yet within the space of days, many I'm assuming of that same crowd stand before Pontius Pilate and they're shouting at the top of their voices, "Crucify him, crucify him." How is it possible that a given people can be so euphoric with praise one moment and so bitterly angry to the point of killing the next? Now, interestingly enough, in both stories, the immediate cause is identical, is it not? In both stories, the immediate cause is the activities of the religious leaders. In the Palm Sunday story, it's the religious leaders who are mixing in with the crowd, encouraging them to choose Barabbas over Jesus and encouraging them to cry out for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. And here in the story before us, in Lystra, same kind of thing happens. We have Jewish religious leaders coming down from Iconium and Antioch, places where Paul had preached earlier, where he had been chased out because they were resistant to the gospel that he was preaching. They weren't content to just get him out of those cities. They heard about what was going on in Lystra and they wanted to get rid of him there as well. And so the Bible says they came over to Lystra and the word is they won over the crowd. Interesting, isn't it? Bible leaves unanswered the question though, what is it about their presentation in both instances that is so persuasive that the crowd turns on a dime? First against Jesus, now against Paul and Barnabas. You know advertising companies spend huge amounts of money trying to get people to buy their products, hoping that at least incrementally they can change the tastes and the preferences of the public, isn't that true? Here at the drop of a hat, you've got a crowd turning against Jesus and you've got a crowd turning against the apostle Paul and the apostle Barnabas. Why is the question? And I would venture that the answer in one word is the word disappointment. Disappointment among the crowds that their high hopes were being dashed. As you recall in Palm Sunday, the crowd was expecting Jesus to take up the reign of Israel, get rid of the Romans and usher in the golden age which had been promised by the prophets long ago. And here in Acts chapter 14, the expectation of the crowd is that finally the gods have come down to them in human form. They have demonstrated their power in the healing of this man who was crippled from birth and they are fully expecting the fulfillment of their own golden age. And when in both cases, neither Jesus nor Paul and Barnabas deliver on their expectations, the result is disappointment. And because the Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick, disappointment yields to anger and yields to murder. And there's a principle there that I think we would do well to understand and understand well and that is this, wrong expectations lead to disappointment and disappointment almost inevitably leads to anger and to rage. Wrong expectations lead to disappointment and disappointment will almost always give way to rage. And the degree of that anger and the degree of that rage will be almost directly proportional to the degree of disappointment. Look at your own life. Look at places where you expected certain things from a friend or a family member or a spouse and you had your heart wide open and then they disappointed you. You were going to go out for dinner and your husband gets called into work. You expected a gift on your birthday or on your anniversary and he forgot all about it. And on and on the story goes. The greater the expectation, the greater the more open is our hearts, the greater power it has to disappoint us. I remember in the early years of our marriage, Mondays were difficult days for us because at the time in our first charge we had three little kids. I preached three times a Sunday in two different places, half an hour apart. We were on the go from early morning to late at night. Didn't know any better, that's what we did. And come Monday, Michelle and I would have very different expectations. I wanted to disappear into my man cave and find some replenishing and some hobbies and some activities that I found very helpful and very useful. She thought it was about time that I paid some attention to her, can you imagine that? And help her with the kids. And it took us a long time to try to sort that one out and come to a measure of equilibrium. Because you see, the greater our expectations, now she has just stopped expecting anything and we got along much better, only kidding. Don't go away quoting me here, could ruin my reputation and that would not be a good thing. But you understand what I'm saying, the more open is our heart, the more disappointed we are and the more disappointed we are, the greater is our anger. And anger can become particularly murderous because we don't know what to do with the feelings in that place. It has been my experience over the years that when we hit that spot of disappointment or pain, the pain can become so intense depending on who we are and how we're structured internally, the pain can become so intense that every good thing that other person has ever done gets to be forgotten. Have you ever noticed that? I mean look at Jesus, he spent his whole life, ministry, healing and restoring and giving himself to people, yet on that one Palm Sunday when he doesn't live up to their expectations, they're ready to nail him to the cross. And Paul and Barnabas, they've demonstrated the power of God, they've healed this man, they've got a message to proclaim and yet the crowd turns on a dime because he's not fitting into their particular expectations and what that illustrates is that that idolatry is profoundly destructive because whenever we expect something from others that only God can give us, we set ourselves up for failure. And so you find in the world a very common principle that on the one hand we elevate people that we look to through whom we live our lives vicariously. Think of all the promises that politicians make, think of all the promises that sports, the adulation that sports heroes receive from the public and other significant figures. And we put them on a huge pedestal way up there until we discover they have clay feet just like all the rest of us and then the public in many instances turns against them with a vengeance and they can't throw them away far enough. Have you ever noticed how that happens? I was thinking about this past weekend in reference to Lance Armstrong, a lot of you will remember that Lance Armstrong was the hero of the cycling sport for a good many years. He won seven consecutive world titles at the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005 and it was all the more significant because in 1996 he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, that cancer had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain before he underwent treatment, they gave him a 40% chance of survival. He came through the treatment, he came through the operation, he went back to cycling and he won that Tour de France on numerous occasions and you recall the story of how by 2012 the evidence gathered against him had mounted up so high that he in fact had been using enhancing drugs though he denied it and lied about it and ultimately was found out and if you look up his name on the internet under falling from grace then you see how far away people have thrown him, how disillusioned they are by the lies that he perpetrated and how his image was tarnished by his failure. You may recall that he formed a cancer fundraising organization called Livestrong and he had to distanciate himself from that organization because they knew that he had become a liability in terms of their fundraising endeavors and that organization is way down now because of what he had done. See hope deferred makes the heart sick and none of us is ever immune to having our hopes way up there having them dashed and then living with the pain of disappointment and I have noticed over the years you can have some of your most genteel, kind, wonderful people find them in a place of disappointment and the pain is so great that murder happens at the drop of a hat. Isn't that true? Anybody here ever experience that? Or in your own life I'm sure but I'm sure you've seen it in your spouse or your friends or your neighbor down the road. How do we handle such disappointment? Well some people handle it, just let that slide go for a moment. Some people handle it by closing off their hearts. You know the saying, burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me and there are a lot of people who don't ever allow anybody into their heart and they don't ever allow themselves to need anybody because if you don't hope you don't ever get disappointed isn't that true? I remember a man in this congregation a number of years ago confided in me that he had really been close to a previous pastor and that relationship had gone sour and when he talked to me about it with evident pain in his eyes and in his voice he said that he was never ever going to allow himself to get that close to another person let alone a preacher in the future. And sometimes building those kind of walls is necessary to maintain our emotional and our psychological security but as you've often heard me say, listen to this carefully, the walls we build to keep ourselves safe are also the walls that become our prison and to the degree to which we shut ourselves off from other people for fear of hurt to that degree we become lonely, cynical, often bitter people and as I was thinking about that this past week the Simon and Garfunkel song from the 60s came to mind, I am a rock, anybody here old enough to remember that? I think all good music ended after the mid 60s just for the record but that's probably just my age. But the song goes like this, a winter's day in a deep and dark December I am alone, gazing from my window to the streets below on a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow, I am a rock, I am an island, I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty that none can penetrate, I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain, isn't that the truth? It's laughter and it's loving, I disdain, I am a rock, I am an island. And then he goes on, I have my books and my poetry to protect me, I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room safe within my womb, I touch no one and no one touches me, I am a rock, I am an island and a rock feels no pain and an island never cries. The world is filled with people who are disappointed in life, disappointed in other people and whose reaction has been to close off their heart and to live a lonely existence like a rock and an island. We can hurt you but it's a desperately lonely place to be. So how do we get around that? How do we avoid falling into that kind of place where we withdraw from the rest of the world because life is too painful and it's filled with disappointment? Let me give you in the time that remains three biblical principles that I believe we need to understand not only but practice. Number one, only God, only God can be the ultimate source of life, only God can be the ultimate source of life and every substitute we lead on will ultimately prove worthless. Listen again to how Paul put it earlier in his message to these folks at Lystra. He says we're bringing you good news telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. In the past he let all nations go their own way and he has not left himself without testimony. He has shown kindness to you by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. Notice again the contrast. God he says is a living God as opposed to your worthless idols. What does it mean that God is a living God? Well first of all it means he's God and a true God is eternally self-existent and the biblical picture of God is that he has always been there because he's always been there. Everything that exists comes from him and needs to serve him and honor him. God is a living God, he is a person who wants to be in relationship with us. He goes on to say that God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven, crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. The living God stands in contrast to worthless idols. We talked about that briefly last week, the worthless idols are always looking more from you than what you can deliver and it's all about them. The true God of scripture has made us, has redeemed us, has demonstrated his kindness in the gift of his son and he wants relationship with us. And he is the overflowing fountain of every good and perfect gift. And so the teaching of scripture is that at the end of the day God wants us to trust him, to look to him and to find our security in him and not in other beings or gods or people. And the human tendency of course is always to commit idolatry. It's to find my life in my spouse, it's to find my life in my work, it's to find my life in my pleasure, it's to find my life in my hobbies, it's to find my life in all of the activities that I engage in. They take an enormous amount of time and energy so much so that very often we're incapable of worshipping the Lord our God because he is somewhere down the line in terms of our priorities. Everybody who puts their hope in a false God ultimately will be seriously disappointed. So that's one thing to understand and to remember. The first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. You can't have anybody that takes priority over your allegiance for me. That's foundational to understanding biblical reality. But there's a second principle and this is going to sound like I'm contradicting everything that I have said so far. But if you can get this in proper balance, you'll understand how life works in a way that is truly a building and that is this. Most of God's blessings are mediated, imparted, given through a third party. Let me say it again. Most of God's blessings will come to you in your life through a third party. Sometimes those are angels, most commonly those are people. It's true, of course, that there are moments when God, without any third party in between, pours out his grace upon our lives and meets us powerfully. There are examples of that in scripture. The book of Isaiah is actually a good indication of how that works. When Isaiah says in Isaiah 59, 15 and 16, "Truth is nowhere to be found. Whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. So his own arm worked salvation for him and his own righteousness sustained him." Notice what's happening there. God says there's a problem in the world. There's a lot of injustice. He's looking around for somebody to do something about that injustice. He can't find anybody, so he himself takes the initiative. God himself takes the initiative. But notice that he only takes the initiative after he cannot find somebody through whom he can work. And I'm willing to bet this morning that if you look at your own life and you look at the blessings that God has brought into your life, it has almost always, I'm not saying always, almost always come to you through somebody else. You're sick, and yes, you pray for healing, but at the end of the day, the chances are pretty good. You've gone to the doctor and he's given you medicine, and God has used the doctor and the medicine to make you better. Is that not true? You're in a financial pickle, and yes, if you're a Christian, you pray, "God, have mercy upon me, understand me," but I bet you there's nobody here that has ever seen dollar bills rain down from heaven directly from the treasury of God. Chances are you got a check in the mail. Chances are you asked somebody for help. Chances are somebody came to your rescue, and you got bailed out. Isn't that true? You lose your job. You say, "God, help me." Now, you knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody, and God used means to accomplish his purposes. If you look at Scripture, you will discover that many of the mighty acts of God are carried out through the instrumentality of people. How did God deliver Israel from Egypt? He used Moses. How did Israel get brought into the promised land? He used Joshua. How did Israel fulfill the promises to become a mighty nation? God used David, and to a lesser degree, Solomon. When the people strayed, how did God bring them back to himself? He raised up the prophets. New Testament, the same thing. How did God prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah? He raised up a John the Baptist. How did Jesus save us from our sins? He sent his Son in human form. When the gospel had to be preached to the ends of the earth, how did God go about doing it? He could have used his angels. They probably would have done a much better job. Transportation costs would have been a lot less, you know, and they could have just flown out of there when people started throwing rocks. No, he sends his apostles. And here in Lystra, how did this crippled man get healed? Because Paul spoke the word of God in faith and raised him up. God's blessings are almost always mediated very often through other people. Why do I make a point of that this morning? Because there's something about Christians that makes us very hesitant to be needy. And we think it is less than spiritual if we need other people, isn't that true? How many times haven't you heard somebody say, "Well, you know, you should just trust in the Lord. People are going to let you down, so don't ever hope or expect anything from people because it's all about you and God," as if the measure of spirituality is just you and God and not you and the people around you. That sounds incredibly spiritual. And yes, there is a place, if we live with idolatry in our hearts, there is a place where God will wean us away from people so that we put our trust in him and in him alone. But think of how a child grows up. A child begins with great dependency on the parent. A child, as the child grows up, becomes independent. You've got the miserable teenage years that people often talk about, where all of a sudden the old man and the old lady know diddly-squat. But then, you know, as the child becomes an adult, it's amazing how much his parents learn in the five years between 16 and 21. I mean, they just have become brilliant. And you develop an interdependent relationship. Let me make this very clear. God has never intended for you, for me, to be a rock or to be an island, to live in isolation from the rest of the world. He has built community so that in the context of community, we can not only learn to trust God, but we can receive the gifts that God gives us through other people. And don't ever think that you will get to a point where it's just you and God and you won't need anybody else. That is not the mark of super spirituality. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, what did he do? Takes Peter, James, and John with him, says, "I am in deep anguish. Pray with me." He needed the support of his closest friends. And if Jesus needs it, you can bet your bottom dollar, you and I, while I always say we should never try to be holier than God and we should never try to be holier than Jesus, let's just appreciate what God gives us through other people. But the danger is that we mistake the bucket for the fountain, and our job is not to confuse the two. Do you understand what I mean by that? If the fountain is God and God himself, and the bucket is the agent through which God sends his blessing, then the temptation is always to confuse the bucket and the fountain. That is to say, instead of looking to God for the blessings, we end up looking to the means that God uses to bring the blessings into our lives, and then we commit spiritual idolatry. And idolatry in Scripture is making somebody else the ultimate source of our life rather than God himself. And that's where we go wrong, because the moment we do that, that other person becomes the God in our lives, and we end up serving that God. And if the boss is the source of my income rather than the means through which God brings the income into my life, then when my boss wants me to do something that is not right, I will bow to his wishes because he's become my God, isn't that true? And if I live for my spouse and want his or her approval above all else, rather than recognizing that this is a person God has brought into my life, but my priority in terms of service belongs to God and to God alone, then he or she becomes my God. And how many men and women don't you know over the years that have lost the path of faith because they've been more worried about pleasing their husband or their wife than pleasing God Almighty himself, isn't that true? Are you there? And friends, one of the most wonderful gifts that God gives us in life is friendship, people who know us and love us and who invest in our experience and in our well-being. But it's a hop, skip, and a jump between accepting friends as the agency through which God blesses me and for which I can give thanks to God, and the friends take the place of God in my life. As you see, if my friends become the ultimate source of my life as opposed to the penultimate source of my life, then I must please them at all costs. And how many people don't you know over the years who have put their loyalty for their friendship over their loyalty to God and they have wiped out spiritually because they lived in spiritual adultery, they became idolatrous because their approval of their friends became more important than the approval of God. Let me say it again, it's one thing to accept graciously the people God brings into our lives as the vehicle of His grace, as long as we don't confuse them with the ultimate source who is God Himself. And if we ever have to choose between loyalty to family, loyalty to friends, or loyalty to whatever other gods we create, we must always place God first because at the end of the day, every idol, sooner or later, will let us down and will be more interested in their own well-being rather than in our well-being. The prophet Isaiah, put it this way, "Those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame." And Jeremiah, tremendous verse, "My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." And here's the question that I want to leave with you this morning. Who or what in your life serves as your God? What idols occupy most of your time, most of your energy, most of your thought? What are the places where you and I forsake the fountain of living water and have hewn [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:36:46.700; remove through 00:36:51.000] out cisterns for ourself that ultimately can hold no water? [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:36:51.000; resume after this marked segment]