What Angers and Saddens God | Wrong Assumptions

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free e-books designed to help you grow in your faith. Ever been pulled over by a police officer? It's a nerve-wracking experience.

There are videos on social media of people being pulled over, obviously confused about why, and the cop walks up and gives them an ice cream cone, or some toys for the kids in the back seat. Sometimes our assumptions are all wrong. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how wrong the assumptions were about Jesus' mission as Messiah.

It's from his series in the Gospel of John. Question. What really ticks you off? Everybody has a boiling point. Everybody has something that really gets under their skin. I think when you're married to someone you know the buttons, right?

You know what buttons to push if you want a reaction. What makes you mad? What gets you really upset? I'll tell you for me personally when I'm hungry I get cranky. You know sometimes my wife will see me being a little irritable or a little short and she says, you know you just need to eat something and she'll throw a sandwich at me sometimes. Really hard.

No she won't do that. But you know if I don't have enough to eat or get something to eat I can get a little irritable. But there are things that tick me off.

So this is my opportunity to unload a little bit. Many of the things that personally irritate me have to do with driving. Not my driving. Everybody else's driving. Okay. Why is it that people get in the fast lane and go 40 miles per hour?

Why? And they stay there. They stay there. And they won't move if you get behind them. Flash their brights.

Doesn't matter. They stay there. And why is it that they're always driving a Prius? I'm just asking. It's just you know and then you drive up by them and you know every other thing where you pass someone and then you want to look at them. You don't know why but you want to give them the look through the window right. So you pull up next to them and you look and they won't look at you. And they're always leaning really far forward. Like the wheel. They're like this. Just the windshield's this close.

I don't know who are those people. But anyway why? Why is it that when you're waiting in the light you're three cars back. The light goes green. That the person in the front always takes their time. They're like oblivious. Like what does green mean?

Does this mean I should go? And now that brings me to my next subject. Cell phones. Why is the person at the front of the line when it goes green not going? Because they're looking at their cell phone.

Right. And why is it that people with cell phones set it to the loudest ring. The most obnoxious ring. And then they let it ring like six times before answering it very loudly. Why is that?

How about this? ATM lines. Why is it when I go to an ATM machine and I get behind someone that they wait until they get there to find their ATM card. I mean you're waiting three four minutes.

You have plenty of time. I'm not gonna say it's a guy or girl but you know you have plenty of time to look in your purse and get it out. But then you know you get there and it's like oh yeah that's right I need to find my card.

They're searching just going I can't believe why is this happening to me. Right. And then now let's talk about travel.

Travel. Why is it that I always get seated behind the person that feels they must fully recline for the entire flight. I'm telling you this happens to me every time. My wife and I will be sitting next to each other. Her person doesn't recline at all. Mine from the moment the plane takes off full recline. So I'm working on my laptop. So you're like like this the rest of the flight and I'm staring at the top of their head.

Why does this happen to me? I don't know. But these are things that can irritate us. In fact there is actually what they've described as an anger epidemic happening in America today. Lots of books about it.

Listen to some of these book titles. The angry man. The angry marriage.

Angry kids. Anger and conflict in the workplace. Angry all the time. Boy I'd hate to be married to someone reading that book right. Angry all the time.

How about this one. The angry Christian. You know experts tell us that people that are more prone to fits of anger actually have more heart attacks than those that aren't. A study of 256 volunteers determined that bad tempered people are two times more likely to have a heart attack. And anger can also make you say or do things you later regret. Right. One expert said quote the angrier we get the more stupid we become.

That is so true. This expert said when our emotional brain is in charge we see things in black and white and we're likely to make stupid and damaging decisions. You know what I'm talking about.

You get all worked up and you unload on someone and you feel so good and then three minutes later the adrenaline wears off and you think what have I just done. And think about that when you send emails by the way. You know you get upset. I'm gonna send an email. Here's what I say to you. Write whatever you want in that email. In fact go ahead and unload. Get it all in there. Just don't hit send. Just sleep on it. And the next morning you wake up and you think I was gonna send this to my boss. That's insane. But if you hit send.

Oh baby it's out there. And then you're googling how do I get an email back that I just sent. Answer.

You don't comma idiot. You let your emotional brain take charge. Right. So anger is generally perceived as something that is negative. And in many cases it is. But there are times when it's actually good to be angry. You might even be surprised to know that Jesus himself was angry. And we're gonna see that in the story before us. And that brings up the question what makes God angry. Not only will we see what makes God angry we'll see what makes God sad.

So that brings us to our text before us. John chapter 12. It's a description of the final week in the life and ministry of Christ. In Jesus' ministry there was a sense among everyone that something big was about to happen.

There was an air of expectancy and excitement. And Mary had already understood it. Remember we looked at how Jesus was in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. And she broke out that beautiful perfume that was worth 25 to 30 thousand dollars and poured it on the feet of Jesus and wiped it with her hair. Mary understood that Jesus had come to die. Mary saw something all the other apostles had missed. She saw that Jesus had been saying what he meant and he had been meaning what he said.

He was literally gonna be betrayed, nailed to a Roman cross and rise from the dead. That's what he had been talking about. And so she wanted to bring some tribute. Some way to show she loved him and appreciated him.

And so she brought the most valuable thing she owned which was that expensive perfume. So there was this excitement building in the air. And there was a perception that the kingdom of God was about to appear. In fact over on Luke 19 11 it says that during this time as Jesus was getting close to Jerusalem they thought the kingdom of God would appear. And here's what they were thinking because they misunderstood the role of Christ. They thought Messiah was coming to deliver Israel. In a sense it was true.

In another sense it wasn't. It was true that he was coming to deliver Israel from their sin. And to the point it's also true he was coming to deliver all of humanity from their sin. But he was not coming to be a militant Messiah. And he was not coming to overthrow the power of Rome which was occupying a Jerusalem and the nation of Israel at this particular time. Because the supreme issue for Jesus was not Rome's army but God's temple. Because that's where he was headed.

He was headed in this what we call the triumphal entry to go into the temple of God. And we must remember that's how God sees things. His primary interest in us right now is in his people. You know we talk about the need for a national revival in America and I think it's true.

We talk about how much we need a spiritual awakening. But of course when God gives us his prescription for the healing of a nation in 2 Chronicles 7.14 which was given originally and contextually to Israel but in principle it applies to any nation including the United States. And God says in 2 Chronicles 7.14 I think most of us know it. God speaking says of My people which are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways. Then God promises I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

That's what we need in America. We need our land to be healed. But basically God is saying if a nation wants revival and spiritual awakening it starts with the church. God did not say if the government will humble itself or if Hollywood would humble itself. He says no My people should humble themselves. So Jesus did not come as a military political economic or social Savior. He came to die for the sins of humanity.

At his second coming he'll right the wrongs in our world and there are many. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody what are you doing this weekend? I'd like to hang out with you at Harvest at Home. What is Harvest at Home? It is a time of worship and Bible study exclusively designed for people that are viewing in from all over the place so you can be a part of our extended congregation at Harvest at Home.

Join us this weekend Saturday and Sunday for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg continues now with his message called what angers and saddens God. So let's read about what happened. John chapter 12 starting in verse 12. The next day the news that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem swept the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches out and went down the road to meet him and they shouted praise God. Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hail to the king of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it fulfilling the prophecy that said don't be afraid people of Jerusalem.

Look your king is coming riding on a donkey's colt. His disciples didn't understand at the time this was a fulfillment of prophecy but after Jesus entered his glory they remembered what had happened and realized these things had been written about him. Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb raising him from the dead and they were telling others about it. This was the reason so many went out to meet him because they heard about that miraculous sign. Then the Pharisees verse 19 said to each other there's nothing we can do look everyone's gone after him.

So we'll stop right there. So the resurrection of Lazarus that was a really big deal and by the way this is a classic example of how a good testimony works. People see a man or a woman raised from the dead spiritually.

That's what's happened to us you see. When we become Christians the Bible says we pass from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and it's also true that we pass from death to life. We were dead in our sin and now we're alive through Christ and so we're doing our job as we ought to. We draw people to Jesus. A resurrected man was like a magnet to the people to come see the man who resurrected him and if you're living for Christ as you ought to people will come to you wanting to know your secret wanting to know what happened to you and then you can point them to Jesus. People have heard about Lazarus and they came to see him but eventually they saw Jesus.

But there was a gross misunderstanding here. As the people were laying out these palm branches they were missing the point. As they said they thought he was coming to establish his kingdom then and there thus they cried out the word Hosanna.

You know what the word Hosanna means? It means save now. So effectively they're saying save now Lord. Deliver us now. Overthrow Rome now.

Do it now. Now there's no question that Jesus was doing something very unusual and very deliberate. For a good part of his ministry you could say Jesus in effect flew under the radar a little bit. He would heal people and he would say tell no man. He would say things like my hour has not yet come. But now he's playing his hand if you will.

Now he's doing something very public. Very noticeable. Very significant. And this what he was doing riding into the city in a donkey was a message being sent to both Rome and to Israel. For the Romans they would know that when a Roman general would come back from a war that he had won he would ride back in a donkey.

And the people would welcome him with palm branches. So in a way he was saying I'm coming back to you now as a conqueror. And to the Jewish people it was a fulfillment of prophecy because the Jews according to Matthew 3-1 knew that the Messiah would come suddenly into the temple. And then Zechariah 9-9 says the king would come to them and he would be on the colt the full of an ass. And so they knew Messiah would come riding a donkey and would go into the temple. So the Jews said oh he's declaring himself as Messiah. And the Romans were saying oh he's declaring himself as a conqueror. So here he comes now because his hour had come. Out of this the fact that Jesus was a wanted man.

I don't know if there are posters around town. Wanted. Jesus. Revolutionary. That's what he was. He was a revolutionary in their perception.

So here he is with a price in his head and he comes forth publicly. But there was nothing they could do because God was preserving him in this moment. He did not come as a hopeless victim unaware of what was ahead.

He comes as a powerful victor marching bravely into battle. So the disciples they're stoked. They're excited. They're thinking finally everybody has seen how wonderful Jesus is.

We've known it all along but now everyone's becoming a part of this and they're crying out Hosanna. And now Jesus does something very unusual. He comes and he stops and he begins to weep. In Luke's version of the story Luke 19 41 we read that Jesus wept. So here's the crowd whipped into a frenzy and Jesus is weeping. The crowd is rejoicing but Jesus is crying. By the way this is the second time Jesus wept openly.

The other time was at the tomb of Lazarus. There we read Jesus wept. That's the shortest verse in the bible by the way. Jesus wept. So you if you're saying I can't memorize verses from the bible can you do that? Jesus wept.

Say that. Jesus wept. Now you know verse from the bible.

Good place to start. But why did Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus? Well he was weeping because of death itself.

It broke his heart. Lazarus was his friend. You're saying but wait a second he was going to raise him from the dead.

True. Maybe that's why he was weeping. Poor guy. I'm gonna drag him from heaven. I mean that would not be a good thing if you can even for a moment contemplate the glory of heaven. Imagine being dragged from heaven. It's sort of like dragging your child out of Disneyland. You know as far as they're concerned they're leaving the promised land. You know the the favorite time of a kid when they go to Disneyland is when they walk in. The favorite time of Disneyland for an adult is when they walk out. Is that true? Let's get out of here.

Oh I can't hardly wait to get out. But you know that's that's how Lazarus probably felt when Jesus said Lazarus come forth and he was called back to this earth. Again poor Lazarus. He had to die twice.

Like it's not bad enough did I once. He had to die twice. But anyway he's weeping at the tomb of Lazarus because death was never part of God's original plan. If we had not sinned in the garden we would have lived forever. If we had not sinned in the garden there would never be aging or sickness or cancer or all the horrible things that come our way in life.

But because of sin entering in through Adam and Eve we're all infected by it. So Jesus wept though he did raise him from the dead. But that's an interesting phrase that's used there for Jesus weeping at the tomb. He wept quietly. Here he wept audibly. In fact the Greek word used to describe his weeping as he's riding into the city signifies bitter anguish. He was openly weeping. He was sobbing. Have you ever seen that happen?

I have. And the people were dumbfounded. I wonder if the celebration stopped. They were singing and dancing and then all of a sudden Jesus is crying.

It's like Jesus what happened? Why are you so sad? You know why are you weeping like this? Why was he weeping?

Well we can only guess. But maybe it's because his ministry was almost over and time was short. And yet by and large he had been rejected. He healed their sick. He fed the hungry. He raised their dead.

He gave them the greatest messages ever heard in all of human history. He forgave their sins and now he is left mostly alone and rejected. He knew that one of his own would soon betray him Judas.

He knew another would deny him Peter. He knew Caiaphas and Pilate would conspire against him. And he knew that many of these people crying Hosanna would soon be crying crucify him.

And let his blood be upon us and upon our children. Not only that he knew their future and it wasn't pretty. Jesus being God being omniscient knowing all things knew that destruction was coming upon Jerusalem in 40 years.

Because we look back now historically and we know in 70 AD Titus and the Roman legions came into Jerusalem after a siege of 143 days and killed 600,000 Jews and took thousands captive. The Jewish historian Josephus talked about blood flowing through the streets of Jerusalem and the beloved temple was burned to the ground. So this broke his heart. It caused him to weep. It's sad. Pastor Greg Laurie has titled today's message What angers and saddens God.

It's part of a series called Life. Studies based in the Gospel of John and there's more to come from this study here on A New Beginning. You know Pastor Greg sometimes we'll hear from people who've moved to a new community and they want to be able to hear A New Beginning on the station in their new area and they'll write to tell us that. And we'd like to make that happen but it often takes financial resources to make those arrangements. So we hope our listeners will pray about making an investment today and we want to thank them with an important resource we're making available. Yeah that's right the reason we offer these quality resources is so we can just help you encourage you and bless you but also it's a way for you to support our ministry because as you can imagine it takes money to be on the radio and we want to continue to reach you in your area and go into new areas where we're not on yet. So we put that gift to work to reach more people with the teaching of the Word of God in the message of the Gospel.

Yeah that's right. So would you prayerfully consider partnering with us today? You can make that investment online and get details on the resource we'd like to send your way to thank you. It's a book called Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table written by Pastor Louie Giglio. He points out we're in the battle for our minds and our enemy is trying to push a narrative that will lead to defeat.

The subtitle is It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind and we'll send you this book to thank you for your investment and we won't be mentioning this much longer so contact us soon. Just go to harvest.org or drop us a note at a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800 821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. And then we want to pass along a prayer request. Pastor Greg and the team are headed to Boise Idaho soon for the Boise Harvest.

It's coming April 23rd and 24th. It'll be a huge outreach at the Extra Mile Arena where Pastor Greg will share important Gospel messages and he welcomes Jeremy Camp, Chris Tomlin, Andy Mineo, and Jordan Felice. So keep Pastor Greg in prayer and also keep this event in your prayers as well. And if you know someone who lives in Idaho let them know about this event.

Get details at boise.harvest.org. Well next time more from Pastor Greg's important message called What Angers and Sadens God. It's a look at Jesus' reaction to the money changers in the temple. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. Hey everybody thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner just go to harvest.org.