This last Sunday I had the privilege of preaching for a church up in northeastern Missouri. I brought a message on Misplaced hope and expectation that I thought many out there might be experiencing today.
Right now in America, we are experiencing some uneasy times of product shortages, food scarcity, and exorbitant fuel prices, at least compared to what we have experienced in the past. Are we post COVID or is COVID still causing much anxiety? Where do we find assurance and true hope in the midst of trying times?
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
The dictionary today defines Hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”
Expectation: Hope is a word that is filled with expectancy. But what do we do when your expected outcome is not what happens? The heart is sick, we feel disappointment, and discontentment and that can even can turn that feeling of discontentment towards God and we become offended with him not giving us the thing with which we have put our expectations in.
Hope: “A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”
Recently, actually, just a little over a week ago we had three foster children in our home. They left our home on May 25th. Our family sitting right here today had planned on adopting them. They were a part of our family, and we “hoped” that they would become permanent parts of our family. That was not God’s plan: Hope deferred make the heart sick. My family is disappointed. My family is hurting, our hearts are sick.
Is there anyone reading this today that is in a situation in your life where you have had Hope, but yet did not see the expectation fulfilled? Is anyone reading this praying for the salvation of a loved one, only to watch them grow further from the Lord each day? Does anyone today have a loved one experiencing sickness you have hoped for God’s healing in their lives only to watch them continue to suffer in their illness? Those are some big things to have Hope in. What are some others? Financial needs? Job needs? Marriage struggles, Relational needs?
Do you feel Hopeless because of “Hope Deferred” today? I think if we are honest with ourselves we have ample opportunities to feel helpless in our lives and situations today.
Luke 7:16-23
Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
In this passage we find John the Baptist in prison. and his disciples are seeing Jesus perform many miracles, so they visit John in prison and tell him of all the things Jesus is doing. John is in PRISON. He is a captive. But this is John right, the forerunner of Jesus whom scripture declares That John is “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)
John has heard of Jesus’ teaching in the synagogues throughout the region from Isaiah 61 ““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 are bound;” Jesus has declared: ““Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”” (Luke 4:21)
Yet, John is in PRISON. John has had HOPE but it is right now Hope deferred.
John was a man on a mission: To be the forerunner of Jesus and prepare the hearts of the people to receive the coming Christ. John Baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and remain: the fulfillment of what God had told him he would see when the Messiah came. He hears the audible voice of God the Father declaring the sonship of Jesus.
John declared to all when he saw Jesus return from the wilderness full of the Spirit “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”
Yet: John is in prison.
And when he sends his disciples to ask this question “are you the one or do we look for another” he is saying “did I miss it when I saw the Dove descend?” Did I miss it when I heard the audible voice of God declaring this was His beloved Son? Did I miss it when I saw Him and declared “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?” Because I know He who comes, He comes to set the captives free. And I am in prison.
Hope deferred.
The disciples had hope in a Messiah who would come as a conquering King, Overthrow the Romans, and re-establish the Nation of Israel under His Leadership.
They were wrong. When Jesus spoke of His suffering death they didn’t get it.
“Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.”
When we get to the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas and the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus the disciples prepared for the battle, assuming this is the time Christ will rise up and overthrow the Romans: Peter draws his sword and strikes – cutting off the ear of Malchus. But Jesus doesn’t rise and fight, doesn’t overthrow the Roman empire, Doesn’t restore Israel. Instead, he goes to the cross and the disciples scatter.
They scatter and run and hide.
Surely they didn’t miss it with Jesus. Surely He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God as Peter declared based on his revelation from the Father in Matthew 16:
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 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.
Surely He is the one. Yet for the next 3 days, the Disciples cowered in fear for their lives asking these very pointed questions as they relived each day of the last 3 years they had spent with Jesus. How did we miss this? Even after Jesus Resurrection and spending the next 40 days teaching and restoring his disciples they still didn’t get it.
In Acts 1:6 we find the disciples asking: “Is it now Jesus? Will you now overthrow Rome and reestablish Israel? Will you now take the throne of David and be our King?”
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus answers them “It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in His own authority”
We struggle with this concept of God’s Sovereignty, especially when it seems contradictory to our expectations of certain things. John Piper helps us understand God’s sovereignty and providence by explaining it this way: God’s sovereignty is his right and power to do all that he decides to do. God’s providence is His wise and purposeful use of His sovereignty to accomplish His purposes.
At issue with us today is a similar one, without understanding God IS Sovereign, and God IS Providential. We place expectations on outcomes based on our wants without giving due place to God’s purposes.
Our wrong paradigm of Hope: “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” and the resulting heart sickness of that kind of hope deferred in our lives.
Those “certain things”, the things we want to have happen. For us even just recently it was that our family would grow through adoption, For John the Baptist it was that he would be set free from his captivity in the prison of Herod the Tetrarch, for the Disciples it was to see Rome overthrown and Israel restored and Jesus seated on the throne of David as conquering King.
Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter in His response to John the Baptist’s questions in Luke 7. There are three key things to note in Jesus response to the question of John the baptist:
- Jesus does not answer them directly and affirm that He is the Christ: not until Peter’s revelation from the Father is Jesus revealed as the Christ except as He was revealed by God to John the Baptist in John 1:33 “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” Peters Revelation does not happen until some time after John the Baptist is beheaded. This is important: When the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to you that revelation must be taken solely on Faith! Only faith apprehends salvation and it is only on the revelation of the Holy Spirit. The ONLY hope we have is anchored in this revelation from the Holy Spirit, That Christ has come to redeem us and set us free from a death sentence of eternal separation from God.
- Jesus answers by quoting Isaiah 35, NOT Isaiah 61 which is what John is looking for, he is looking for Jesus to affirm that he came to set the captives free because he is in captivity, in prison. Jesus understands his heart and that he is hoping for an expected desire based on his situation, not the sovereign plan of God. Jesus could have Answered with Isaiah 61 and would have been speaking the truth but it would have been misapplied by John because he was looking through a paradigm of misplaced hope.
- Jesus warns in the response from Luke 7: “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”” The Greek here for offended is σκανδαλίζω (skandalizō). and it means “to cause to stumble” Jesus says “don’t stumble over this John I know you’re in prison and have a hope in being set free but that’s misplaced hope” This is the same thing said of the religious leaders and Pharisees who rejected Christ messiahship. He was a stumbling block to them because they expected a messiah who would affirm their religious system and pursuit of the law when he came. They too had a hope, but just like our dictionary definition, it was an expectation of a certain desire they had. That’s misplaced hope and they rejected Christ and He became the stumbling block for them. Romans 9:31-33 “but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”” John stands here on the precipice of stumbling because he expects Jesus to come set him free from prison and Jesus has not done so. It is this hope that is the root of John sending the messengers to Jesus. Jesus is warning John, “oh John I know you expect me to come and release you from prison, don’t be offended because that is not why I am here, don’t stumble from the revelation my Father gave you because of your own unmet expectations.” That is the warning of Jesus to us today as well: Don’t stumble in your faith because you expected me to do something and you have not seen the fruition of that expectation!
So then what do we do with these unmet expectations?
Paul wrote in Romans 4:18 of Abraham:“who, contrary to hope, in hope believed”
Contrary is translated in other translations as “Against” in other words Abraham – against a natural hope, against a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen he “Hoped”
What is the difference between a natural hope and this hope that Abraham hoped with?
Trust. The difference between a natural hope, a feeling of expectation of a certain desire happening, and a Biblical hope is TRUST. Trust is “A Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” Biblical Hope places our TRUST in God for who He is, in His providential purposes, not Hope in the desired outcome.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.” Three times in Psalm 42 and 43 the psalmists declares to themselves “hope in God” Three times they declare to themselves don’t look at the appearance of things, don’t misplace your expectancy on the desired outcome you have. Hope in God! Place your hope today not in what you want to happen place your hope in the one who upholds everything by the word of His power! He is Alpha and Omega, He is the beginning and the end and He knows the end from the beginning and declares the things which are not yet done: Isaiah 46:10 “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’”
St. John of the Cross said this: “In all our necessities, trials, and afflictions, there is no better nor safer remedy than prayer, and hope that God will provide for us in His own way.” John of the Cross 1542-1591
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
“Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the sea would ebb out till there should be nothing left but a vast track of mud and sand? Who told you that the winter would proceed from frost to frost, from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest? Who told you this, I say? Don’t you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed to winter? Hope then! Hope you ever! For God fails you not.” Charles Spurgeon
I pray today you will set your eyes on Jesus in the midst of your trial and find hope, not in the expected end you have, but in the Hope Giver Jesus Christ. Place your hope in Him today, He will carry you through no matter the outcome.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
Thank you for the encouraging words of life. God bless you all abundantly . Peace and strength for the days ahead. Love and prayers