Exceeding Expectations: The Transformative Power of Jesus

you know what a blessing it is to be here and celebrate the risen king amen it's so good to be here with you and uh again my name is Zach i'm the pastor here and I'm so excited to celebrate our first Easter with you and to just make Jesus known today's all about Jesus i mean it's all about Jesus but today's all about Jesus and uh uh I'm glad you're here if you're a guest with us you're you're coming in at the tail end of a a three-week series we've been doing on expectations [00:31:00]

we all have expectations of how we think God should behave in our lives uh and how many of you know that God doesn't behave at all the way we think he should we're not his parent he's our parent right okay let's we're just getting some things out there so the first week just to kind of catch you up the first week we talked about unmet expectations and we talked about how uh in our lives when we have these unmet expectations things that maybe we haven't even verbalized before we get this this yucky feeling in us [00:31:37]

it's called cognitive dissonance when we believe it should be one way but it's a different way and we really struggle with that right uh especially uh in our relationships with people and spouses right you should be doing this thing you didn't do this thing and now I don't like it right and there's a there's a lot of things that happen with unmet expectations but we talked specifically about how Jesus did not meet the expectations of the Jewish people uh we know him as the Lord and Savior the Messiah the King of the world [00:32:02]

the people during his time the Jewish people were looking for one thing and he delivered a different thing they were looking for an earthly king to set them free but he delivered a spiritual king who will reign forever for all people and there's a a real great thing there for us but there's also a little bit of dissonance in our lives because sometimes we think Jesus should do one thing and he doesn't do it or he doesn't do it in our timing right or he uh says "No that's actually not the best thing for you i've got something better for you." [00:32:44]

unmet expectations stink but what we should do with them is we should have good communication and we should have good conversations about them and talk to the people involved instead of trying to shut them out of our lives which is what we do to Jesus right when when we feel like he's failed us we stop talking to him well you let me down ah no he didn't we just don't understand yet then last week we talked about meeting expectations now that's a good thing right when you meet expectations when you hit the mark [00:33:20]

one thing we struggle with as humanity is we struggle with this uh the the broad scope of time because again just like in unmet expectations we want things to happen in our way in our time and exactly how I've thought it up to be but how many of you know that's not how life works and so we struggle with that but we can understand that Jesus met all of the expectations we needed him to meet he is the Lord and King he is the Savior he really came and he fulfilled prophecies and he moves in our lives [00:34:00]

we just need some time and scope to see that and what we're blessed to do 2,000 years later is we see a lot of that size and scope of those 900 some prophecies fulfilled we see the size and scope of the impact that the gospel has over humanity over the globe during that time and Jesus meets our expectations well today we're going to end with exceeding expectations if meeting expectations is good in a job review or a report card exceeding expectations is even better right you want to get that little bit of a raise [00:34:34]

exceeding expectations is better why because you've gone above and beyond what was expected of you and it gives hope and it creates momentum and it brings joy and delight when you exceed expectations right as a as a kids pastor I understand this because sometimes a kid would come in and tell me like the memory verse from six months ago and I wouldn't even remember what the memory verse was from six months ago and you know I'd be like "Yes you did it great job." Uh but maybe it a really good arena for us to think about [00:35:02]

where it's good to exceed expectations is in our relationships with other people uh if you're if you're married right uh meeting expectations is the bare minimum of what we should strive for right we should probably strive to exceed expectations and uh I I don't generally brag on myself but if you would let me for just a moment my wife would tell you that I don't always exceed expectations i promise you that she's sitting right over here hi Jody i love you okay but I I do want to say I think I exceeded expectations the other day [00:35:38]

Jesus began to exceed expectations here's the thing if Jesus really is the king of the world why would he be born to a carpenter's family in a dark cave where they had nowhere to go that's not how a a a a real king would be born right not at all let's let's just read you guys know the story it's the Christmas story luke 1:es 26 through35 in the sixth month sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth a village in Galilee to a virgin named Mary she was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph [00:41:06]

gabriel appeared to her and said "Greetings favored woman the Lord is with you." Confused and disturbed Mary tried to think what the angel could mean don't be afraid Mary the angel told her for you have found favor with God you will conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus he will be very great and will be called the son of the most high the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David and he will reign over Israel forever and his kingdom will never end." Mary asked the angel "But how can this happen i'm a virgin." [00:41:47]

the angel replied "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you so the baby will be born." Oh so the baby to be born will be holy and he will be called the son of God talk about a lot of expectation right there but how did Jesus exceed expectation he was born to a virgin he was born to a a teenage girl who was unmarried and she was to give birth to the savior of the world talk about some pressure right talk about a lot of social tension around that talk about not the normal way for a king to arrive in the world [00:42:28]

and all the things we think about around Christmas time we can celebrate right now as Jesus exceeding expectations i don't know what other baby has been heralded by angels like this i don't know what other baby uh angels appeared to shepherds and they came and worshiped a baby in the stable i don't know what other baby wise men traveled from a great distance to come and visit and bring kingly gifts to i don't know what other baby had to escape his country to go to Egypt because the ca current king was trying to murder all the babies and then come back [00:43:10]

jesus exceeded all expectations even at his birth but how about this even as a child Jesus exceeded expectations this is the only story luke chapter 2 Jesus is a child this is the only story we get of Jesus uh not as a baby or a man this is he's 12 years old in this story now listen to what he does and when he was 12 so uh starting in verse 42 it says "When Jesus was 12 years old they his family attended their festival as normal after the celebration was done they started home to Nazareth but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem." [00:43:52]

Jesus what are you doing man it's time to go home and he's just hanging out in Jerusalem anyway sorry i've got a uh my son turned 13 yesterday so he was 12 so I picture my son just kind of wandering off and thankfully he doesn't do that too much but anyway moving on all right his parents didn't miss him at first because they assumed he was with other travelers but then when he didn't show up that evening probably for dinner because he's a 12-year-old boy right uh when he didn't show back up that evening they started looking for him among their friends and relatives [00:44:34]

and when they couldn't find him they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there three days later three days later they found him in church in the temple um today if you lose your child and they're missing for three days probably not going to be at a church right but that's where Jesus was he was at the temple and he wasn't just hanging out in the temple as a lost helpless child no he it says this it says he was sitting among the religious teachers listening to them and asking questions all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers [00:45:16]

12 years old he's blowing teachers minds he's exceeding all expectation of a of a Jewish child at that time his parents didn't know what to think son his mother said to him "What why have you done this to us your father and I have been frantic searching for you everywhere but why did you need to search?" Jesus said "Didn't you know I must be in my father's house?" But they didn't understand what he meant then he returned in Nazareth with them and was obedient to them and his mother stored all these things in her heart [00:45:58]

jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people even as a child the expectations were pretty high for Mary but he was blowing away those expectations they didn't even understand what he was doing that's how much he was blowing away their expectations they didn't understand why he needed to be in the temple but there he He's like "I got to be with my dad." And Joseph's probably over here like "I'm right here man." You know like but Jesus was right where he needed to be jesus exceeded all those expectations [00:46:40]

when Jesus grows up sometime later we start to see when Jesus begins his ministry as an adult and Jesus's earthly ministry exceeded all expectations as well starting with his first miracle if you're not familiar with this his first miracle blew people away because it was at a wedding jesus turned water into wine john chapter 10 or John 2:es 1-10 says this the next day they were at a wedding celebration in the village of Canaan Galilee jesus's mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration the wine supply ran out [00:47:22]

during the festivity so Jesus's mother told him "They have no more wine." "Dear woman that is not our problem," Jesus replied "uh by the way I don't know I I don't know that I'd suggest talking to your mother that way uh but I'm sure there was a cultural difference but today uh young men and young ladies and even us older ones don't talk to your mom that way anyway okay moving on all right jesus replied "My time has not yet come." But his mother told the servants "Do whatever he tells you to do." Standing nearby were six stone water jars used for ceremonial washing [00:48:04]

each could hold 20 to 30 gallons jesus told the servants "Fill those with water." When the jars had been filled he said "Now dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies." So the servants followed his instructions and when the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine not knowing where it came from though of course the servants knew he called the bridegroom over a host always serves the best wine first he said then when everyone has had a lot to drink he brings out the less expensive wine but you have kept the best until now [00:48:46]

to me this is an interesting story because uh it was really exceeding expectations and not just that but he was actually saving that family from embarrassment not only did they they uh have a lack of good wine they were completely out of wine which would have been a cultural embarrassment at the time to run out of wine for their party and Jesus not only provided wine for them but he provided the best wine for the party he was already going above and beyond because if you think about it logically what could he have done right [00:49:28]

like well here's some wine I've provided for you but he went beyond that and gave them the best wine of the night this is super cool this is stuff Jesus is doing so he's planting all of these seeds of meeting these expectations and now he's starting to say "I can do this but also look what else I can do i'm going beyond all of that." As he continues his ministry Jesus exceeded the expectations of outcasts and sinners and I put sinners in quotations uh because we're all sinners right i just want to clarify that if you're new here welcome to the club [00:50:10]

we're all sinners we're all broken what that means is that we've done things contrary to what God wants us to do and his will and who he is and we're separated from him uh but in this day and age and we still do it today to an extent some sinners were worse than other sinners if you were a tax collector you're right out you're a bad guy right if you were a Gentile you were right out if you were a Samaritan you were worse than that because you were a halfblood you were related to the Jewish people but you weren't fully Jewish and so therefore I shouldn't even converse with you [00:50:52]