Location
4952 Edwards Rd,
Taylors, SC 29687
Service Times
2 Identical Services: 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.
As you turn to Matthew 11, if you don’t have an outline and didn’t get one on the way in, feel free to hold your hand up and we’ll get you one because it will help. We’re doing an exercise at the end. Either use the one online or have one in front of you.
One of the most baffling examples of unfulfilled expectations in World War II was the German invasion of Russia. Joseph Stalin did not expect Hitler to invade.
On June 22, 1941, when Stalin’s sycophants — are you familiar with that word? That’s a good word to know, sycophants, those self-seeking flatterers that are always around tyrants. When Stalin’s sycophants had to wake him up early in the morning and let him know that German forces had crossed the Russian border and were driving back the Russian army, Stalin was stunned in disbelief. He became depressed. He did not see this coming. He actually said, “Hitler surely doesn’t know about it.”
He was assuming that maybe some rogue German generals were trying to provoke Russia into a war. Meanwhile, the Russian army was being decimated. About 80% of their force got wiped out near the beginning of the invasion. Laurence Rees in his book “Hitler and Stalin” explains,
“The fundamental reason why the Soviets faced calamity as the Germans attacked, was that the Red Army was sclerotic.”
Another really good word. Now when you think about sclerosis, the hardening of the arteries or some other body part … To become sclerotic is to become unresponsive, rigid. Why was the massive Red Army sclerotic or paralyzed, rigid, immobile? Two big reasons.
1. Stalin’s “grand delusion
One, what Simon Sebag Montefiore in his book on Stalin (excellent two-volume deal), calls Stalin’s “grand delusion.” Stalin’s “grand delusion” is reason number one. Well, what was his grand delusion? That Hitler would not attack.
2. Stalin’s purges
Second reason they were paralyzed was because of Stalin’s recent purges. Just a few years earlier, Stalin decided the best way to get ready for a big war is to wipe out your military commanders. It’s a brilliant strategy in his, what is often called, the great purge.
For example, in 1937, Stalin executed 3 out of 5 of his Marshals, 15 out of 16 of his Commanders, 60 out of 67 of his Corp Commanders, and 17 out of 17 of his Commissars. Not to mention millions of his people who were executed or exiled. Just when he needed these commanders most — and they were all loyal communist officers — just when he needed them most, he couldn’t find them because they were dead. He killed them.
Here’s the question I want us to wrestle with. How could one of the least trusting people in history — and if you’re not buying that, read a biography on Stalin — he executed most of his best friends. The dude had trust issues. How could one of the least trusting people in history trust one of the least trustworthy people in history, Hitler — who lied for a living, lied to his people, broke treaties — so much as to be blind to the largest invasion in history? And that’s not exaggeration. Literally up to that point, there had never been an invasion bigger than Hitler’s to Russia. Over three million soldiers on the border of Russia invaded. It’s hard to miss. Three million.
Churchill had sent Stalin 80 specific warnings, detailed warnings of the invasion. 80. Stalin’s own spies had told Stalin the date of the invasion. And his response, along with his sycophants, was to try to execute the spies. Once again, brilliant. One of Stalin’s trusted advisors called the spies’ information,
“the sowing of unrest”
The day before the invasion this advisor wrote,
“We have to reduce [those] secret agents… to the dust of concentration camps, as aids to international provocateurs wishing to bring us into conflict with Germany.”
When your spies come back with information of an imminent invasion, your response is, let’s kill the spies. Your own spies who are warning you.
Andrew Roberts in his excellent book, “Leadership in War” offers what I believe is the most reasonable explanation for Stalin’s unwillingness to face reality.
“Part of Stalin’s disastrous mismanagement of prewar Russian foreign policy, which allowed him completely to miss the buildup to Operation Barbarossa [that’s the German invasion] lay in his total faith in Marxism-Leninism.”
In what way did Stalin’s total faith in Marxism-Leninism set him up to miss the largest invasion in history? Here it is. Roberts goes on.
“Because his ideology declared wars between the capitalist powers to be endemic [that is common, to be expected] and something to be encouraged, he [Stalin] assumed that the pact [his pact with Hitler] would allow the Soviet Union to become what he called ‘the laughing third man in a fight,’ while the capitalist-imperialist powers destroyed each other.”
Stalin’s assumption, expectation, the picture in his head, was that all these capitalist countries are going to wipe each other out. And then communist Russia is going to swoop in and pick the bones clean after the wars. That’s the picture in his head. And that picture was so strong he couldn’t see three million soldiers on his border. He couldn’t see what everyone else on the planet could see by this point, Hitler’s true intentions.
Now the reason I raise and enjoy wrestling with these kinds of questions is because tyrants aren’t the only ones who paint pictures in their heads, right? We all do. And these pictures can be so vivid as to blind us to reality.
An expectation is a feeling or belief that something will or should happen. It’s a picture of the future. And the first half of Matthew 11 is all about expectations. Last week we looked at the first two sections. Today, Lord willing, we’ll look at the third.
1. Expectations of Jesus
But section one from last week, the expectations of Jesus. John the Baptist assumed that if Jesus were the Messiah, his coming, first coming, would include, yes, acts of mercy, but also immediate justice. Wipe out the bad guys. And when that didn’t happen, his expectations went unfulfilled. Jesus clarified that today is a day of mercy. Judgment is in the future.
2. Expectations of John
Number two, expectations of John in 7-15. The crowd wasn’t sure what to think of this camel-hair clad prophet who is eccentric and uncompromising. Jesus shockingly called him not only a prophet, but “more than a prophet.” And verse 11 said he’s the greatest.
Now what does that mean? By the greatest Jesus doesn’t mean John the Baptist was a better manager than Joseph in the Old Testament, or a better leader than Moses, or a more superior poet, or a military strategist than King David. No, that’s not it. He’s greater in the sense that his proximity to Jesus, the Messiah, made him greater. He was the most immediate, anticipatory prophet before Jesus. Yet, according to verse 11, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater.
Why? Well, think about it. We have a lot of new believers in our church family. The newest believer today probably knows more about Jesus’s life, death, burial, resurrection, second coming, than John knew, simply because John died before those events unfolded. Jesus is saying the least in the kingdom, the newest believer, the one who knows the littlest, is greater because, again, they have seen and experienced much more.
Before we consider this third section where we pick up from last week, let’s pray.
Thank you Father, that as we sit under your Word and your Spirit does heart surgery on us, we pray that you would make us know that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from your mouth.” We pray that you would humble us, and feed us, and empower us, change us, we pray, in Jesus’s name, amen.
3. Expectations of John and Jesus
Number three, expectations of John and Jesus in verses 16-19. Jesus essentially does three, and then possibly four things. He asks a question, he answers the question, he explains, and then he wraps it all up. Let’s walk through that.
First of all, the question, verse 16,
“But to what shall I compare this generation?”
A generation here is referring to those who are alive in Jesus’s day and/or those who think or act a certain way, a characteristic. In the next chapter, in chapter 12:39, Jesus will call the generation an “evil and adulterous generation.” He’s talking not just about a time period, but a characteristic. And so the word “generation” can refer to both or either.
“To what shall I compare this generation?”
The answer, verse 16, second half,
“It is like children [the generation is like children] sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,”
Jesus tells a short parable comparing this generation to children. Now often when Jesus is comparing someone to children, it is a positive example, typically. And we’re going to see that later, well, in two weeks. He compares believers to little children in a positive way. Here, he’s referring to children in a negative way. And I think the easiest way to understand the difference is to compare childlikeness with childishness.
Childlikeness with childishness
Childlikeness is good. It’s good to be humble, dependent in a healthy way, trusting, not bigoted.
Childishness is bad, foolish, immature, unreasonably gullible, petty, fussy, finicky. All of those are examples of childishness.
And this is what Jesus is talking about here. How do we know? Look at verse 17. Children are saying,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.”
One of the best ways to understand Jesus’s point today is to attend a finicky 3-year-old’s birthday party. Have you ever had that beautiful experience? One of our kids, about 3 or 4, had a really hard time at birthday parties. We actually had to ban big birthday parties for a period of time. We’re just going to have a tiny cake with a tiny gathering of just him for his birthday.
Because as new parents, you know, it’s a big deal. You want to make it really special. You pick a theme. It really has nothing to do with the kid. You pick a theme and you build on that theme, and the cake, you know, you work on for weeks, and hire a helicopter and clowns, and I’m sure you do all those fun things, bounce house. And about halfway through the day, there’s a meltdown. And you’re sending the birthday boy to his room on his birthday.
What’s going on there? Well, several things. One is sky-high expectations that are unattainable and an avalanche of emotions that is apparently unmanageable. The kid just can’t, won’t process all the flood of emotions.
And so something like that is happening here. Jesus is saying the kids are essentially saying you’re not playing by my rules. When I play a happy song, I expect you to dance. And when I sing a sad song, I expect you to mourn. My expectations set the agenda.
Now, what specifically is Jesus referring to? Look at the explanation.
This childish generation assumes John’s style is too strict. John the Baptist’s style is too strict. It’s too radical. Look at verse 18.
“For John came neither eating nor drinking,”
He doesn’t eat the food we eat. He doesn’t like the wine we drink. He eats free-range locusts and wild honey. He probably shops at Earth Fare. He’s too granola, crunchy. We can’t relate to this guy. We have to demonize him. And that’s exactly what they do. Look at verse 18, “He has a demon.” John’s style is too strict.
But this childish generation at the very same time also assumes Jesus’s style is too loose, too normal. If John is too separated, kind of like wide-eyed fundamentalists, Jesus is not separated enough. Verse 19,
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking,”
He has no standards. He’ll eat anything with anyone. Last week I was downtown, saw him eating with a Harris voter at Community Tap. The very next week I saw him in McDonald’s with a Trump voter. I can always tell what someone is like by who they eat with. Verse 19,
“Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
I don’t know which is which, but Jesus’s point is clear. Look at the conclusion. Verse 19,
“Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
That’s a confusing proverb. What does that mean? I find help in understanding what it means by understanding what it doesn’t mean. So if you flip it, wisdom is justified by your expectations. No. He’s saying the exact opposite of that. Regardless of style, (John’s quite remarkable, Jesus’s unremarkable style) here it is, wisdom is justified by her actions, not your expectations. Like Stalin. Our expectations of what wisdom should look like can actually blind us to what it is, and we become childish.
Signs of Childish Expectations
What are some signs, practically speaking, some signs of childish expectations? Here are a couple.
If I’m assuming that my expectations, the generation that I have lived in with all the assumptions that come along with the air I breathe, is the standard of who God is and what he should be doing, then I’m going to tend to ignore certain verses that don’t fit that. And by the way, we all have passages we don’t understand yet. I’m not talking about that.
But I’m going to intentionally ignore parts and intentionally elevate parts to fit Jesus into my cultural expectations. And if he doesn’t fit, you’re going to hear me say things like, “I can’t worship a God like that,” I might be a child in the marketplace. Or here’s another one.
Not every Sunday or every Bible reading time, but there should be times when we come in and hear God’s Word, or get alone with the Lord, by his Spirit in his Word, where our hearts are convicted, confronted, our expectations are being sanctified and transformed.
600 years before Jesus came, the children of Israel were in exile, and they were known in Ezekiel 33 for loving to hear God’s Word. They’re like, come on, let’s all gather together and hear Ezekiel preach. But in Ezekiel 33:32, God says,
“And behold, [Ezekiel] you are to them like one who sings lustful songs [one who sings love songs] with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.”
God is saying there’s a difference between kind of going through the motions, yeah, I go to church, I read my Bible. And what God is saying is, is it possible that some of us can actually put a filter on what we hear to filter out what doesn’t seem entertaining to me or interesting, keep what we feel is interesting or entertaining and chuck the rest?
What God is communicating through Ezekiel is that the people who are hearing you are like people who like Christian karaoke. They come to be entertained, not to be transformed. And so is it possible that we are like children in the marketplace when we can consistently hear God’s Word, filter out conviction, enjoy it as entertainment or interesting, but have no intention of being actually transformed enough to act on it.
Third one, and these are examples that we might be children in the marketplace, like Jesus is referring to.
Number three, I tend to talk more about the style of a worship service than the Savior we are worshiping.
Now, of course it’s fine to talk about style at times. We all have different stylistic preferences. Yet what Jesus might be warning us of in Matthew 11 is the tendency to be like children in the marketplace — finicky, picky, we can come into a church service, and leave, and talk about, why do we sing that song? And why don’t we have that instrument? John is too denim, and Jesus is too polo. And the service is too contemporary, or it’s too traditional. It’s too loud, too soft.
Again, I’m not saying there isn’t an appropriate time to have those conversations, but we might be acting like a child in the marketplace if our stylistic preferences are so prominent that we miss the Messiah. We can worship Jesus without Jesus. That’s scary. That might mean we are more interested in shaping God into our image than we are in being shaped into his.
And like the little kid at his birthday party, can’t enjoy the friends, can’t celebrate the kindness of his parents for having a birthday party because he’s in the corner whining about the fact that he didn’t want a SpongeBob, but he wanted a Batman cake.
Jesus is saying don’t miss me because of your stylistic expectations.
Number four, I hold onto hurts and ruminate on wrongs.
Now what does this have to do with expectations? Well, again, we all assume that life should unfold a particular way and pain and painful people generally aren’t in that picture. So when it comes and they come, and it and they will come (the pain and the painful people), we become like Stalin’s army — sclerotic, paralyzed. We’ve lost our mobility, the ability to respond appropriately.
And that might mean confronting. And that might mean repenting. And that might mean forgiving. And that might mean loving (it always does). But being responsive rather than brittle, bitter, stuck, I hold onto hurts and ruminate on wrongs.
One more. Number five, I complain a lot.
And this is implied by Jesus’s analogy of the children in the marketplace.
“We played and you didn’t dance. We sang and you didn’t mourn.”
The kids are whining, complaining, grumbling. In Philippians 2:14, Paul invites us into a different out of childishness, into childlikeness. He says in verse 14,
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God”
Not children in the marketplace, children of God.
“Without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation,”
This generation is crooked, it’s twisted. It will at times smash your expectations.
“among whom you shine as lights in the world,”
Gratefulness glows brightly in the darkness of our demanding world.
Gratefulness glows brightly in the darkness of our demanding world. You want to stand out as a follower of Jesus? Just simply be grateful. Don’t complain.
Okay, a lot to process. Let’s take some time to process this. You’ll notice at the end of your notes an expectation exercise. We worked on this this past Sunday and then I’ve heard many stories of you and life groups talking through this. Some of you may have what you began last week. If you don’t, start fresh.
1. I expected…
Three simple steps. I expected what? Pick an unfulfilled expectation. Some of our expectations are quite reasonable. We just might not know the timing of the Lord. Others might be quite unreasonable. We just can’t see that yet.
2. When this didn’t happen, I felt like…
But pick an unfulfilled expectation and then secondly, which by the way, it’s really important that we are able to name an expectation. But then secondly, when this expectation does not happen, I felt like what? God failed me. My friend betrayed me. And as we talked about last Sunday, this is huge to linger here for a moment, to learn how to lament unfulfilled expectations.
Lamenting is different from complaining. It’s different from ruminating. We’re doing what John did back in verse 3. We’re taking our unfulfilled expectations to Jesus. To be able to write out an unfulfilled expectation candidly. And then if you read the book of Psalms, you will see God is not opposed to our very candid laments. He wants us to bring them to him, not run around our neighborhoods complaining, but learning how to lament well to God.
3. But I believe God is calling me to…
And then what happens as the voices of our unfulfilled expectations are given to God in lament, our hearts begin to take on a receptive posture to be able to hear what God has to say to us. The noise, and the din of unfulfilled expectations, and all the inner chatter that can flow from that is quieted down so we might be able to begin hearing, “God, what are you saying?”
I know it’s different, but think about the reason Stalin couldn’t hear what his spies were saying was because of the cacophony of voices and the images in his own head of what he thought should happen. He couldn’t see what actually was happening.
And so as we lament well, our hearts begin to take on a posture of humility — not humiliation, humility — which is beautiful, a receptivity to God. What are you really up to? And our demanding childishness is replaced by a humble childlikeness.
As we’re going to see when we get to Matthew 18, this is actually the way into the kingdom. Nobody can enter the kingdom who doesn’t become like a child, not in childishness, but childlikeness. God, here are my expectations. I’m listening.
Let’s take a few minutes right now with your outline in front of you, or if you don’t have one, you just want to use this time to ask the Spirit to search your heart, to move in our hearts. We don’t want to be like the people in Ezekiel’s day who just come in, go out, did our deed. No, we want to hear what he’s saying to us.
Let’s take a few minutes, do that now. And then Lord willing, we’ll have a few minutes for some of you to share. Maybe some of you have been working on it all week or just now, but that could be hugely encouraging. Let’s take a few minutes to listen.
Father, thank you that you invite us to cast our cares on you because you do care for us, to be able to come to you with our shattered dreams, or maybe even our trivial disappointments, or possibly deep hurt, things we did not expect, ways in which our lives have unfolded that we did not plan.
And it at times can feel like you’re playing a trick on us. It can feel very hurtful. And you’re right now, Spirit, you’re inviting us to come, to actually write those things out and lament those things.
And thank you that you’re not intimidated by that. You’re not telling us just to hold that in. You want us to come to you to lament well and then to be able to hear. What are you saying? What does this mean? What does it mean to have my expectation in you, to make plans, and then to say something like, “Lord willing”? What does that mean for us to be a church family, not characterized by grumbling, but giving thanks?
And I thank you, Lord, that this church family is a grateful people. Grow us in that and use this time together. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
4952 Edwards Rd,
Taylors, SC 29687
2 Identical Services: 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.