Good Friday will always be one of the most significant dates in the Christian calendar. The day when Christ sacrificed Himself, once for all, for our sins is probably the event which brings us to our knees in awe and thanksgiving more than any other day.

The song ‘The Cross Stands’ captures this history-making moment well:

“Beyond this lifetime
Beyond this darkness, there’s light.
Your light is shining:
So, people, open your eyes.

Christ has overcome.
It is finished; He has won.
Christ has overcome.
We’re standing strong.” (‘The Cross Stands’, Tim Hughes, Nick Herbert, Ben Cantelon, Matt Redman)
‘The Cross Stands’, Tim Hughes, Nick Herbert, Ben Cantelon, Matt Redman

When we were in Paris last year, we stayed near the Tour Montparnasse, which at 210m is one of the tallest buildings in the city and offers great views over the capital of France:

The Eiffel Tower is probably Paris’s most famous landmarks, 324m tall:

The CN tower in Toronto is 533m high:

Currently, the Tokyo Skytree, at 634m, is the tallest tower in the world:

Obviously, the cross of Christ does not literally ‘tower over it all’ in the way these towers stand out from their skylines. But in importance, in significance, in the fact that this is the only way by which we can be saved, the cross does indeed stand above it all, tower over it all, and our hearts are glad.

Garry spoke on ‘Great Expectations’ last night, looking at Palm Sunday from the angle of how God sometimes seems a disappointment. Matthew 21:1-11 and John 12:12-15 tell us the story of Palm Sunday, how the Jews welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, seeing in Him all their expectations of what Messiah would be like and would do.

The Jews expected the Messiah – the long-awaited Anointed One of God – to come to Israel, defeat the Romans and establish the kingdom of God on earth. The disciples had absorbed this expectation (see Luke 24:19-20, Acts 1:6) and believed that Jesus was even now, on the donkey itself, fulfilling prophecy. Expectations were high.

Jesus had repeatedly taught that He would not do things the way they expected Him to. Matt 16:21, Matt 17:10-12, Matt 20:17-19 all speak of His impending death, but at this time, no one understood that God’s kingdom would be ushered in through sacrifice and atonement. Within days, all the disciples’ expectations were crushed as they witnessed the arrest and crucifixion of the One in whom they had placed their hopes.

The psalms repeatedly speak to us of people’s disappointment with God (see Ps 22:1-2, Ps 42:9-10, Ps 44, Ps 74, Ps 88). We often feel forsaken or forgotten by God. Plans rarely seem to work out the way we expected them to (look at the lives of Joseph and David and see how they had to persevere and endure through great trials before they saw the fulfilment of the promises of God.)

What’s the source of our disappointment?
1) Often, we misinterpret the promises of God. He speaks to us and we think we understand, but His words are filtered through our own expectations and understanding, leading to confusion and misunderstanding.
2) Our theology can be wrong, as the disciples’ was.
3) We expect God to work within our timescales and fail to understand His timing.

How do we react to disappointment?
1) We can turn away from God, believing that God has let us down and not been faithful. Disheartened and dejected, we can lose faith and become hard-hearted towards God.
2) We can bury our disappointments, fencing them off because we are frightened of working through the pain of difficult questions. Pain is never pleasant and so we hide our disappointments away, unaware that they are still corroding our lives and festering within. The result is that our lives lack congruence: we are like the supermarket trolley with wheels that don’t want to pull in the same direction!
3) We can take our disappointment to God (as the Psalmists did). He is big enough to take all our questions (though He may not answer them all and often asks as many questions of us as we do of Him!) That way, we allow Him to work in our disappointment and to change us.

How do we handle disappointment?
We need to know what we believe before we hit problems! We need to have a secure understanding of who God is so that when troubles come, we can stand on His promises and His character. 2 Cor 1:20 reminds us that no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 10:23 reminds us that ‘He who promised is faithful’. The bottom line is that God is faithful and will keep His promises. At the right time and in the right way, God will deliver. Hebrews 6:10-12 reminds us that what we hope for will be fully realised. God places Himself as our guarantee and will not let us down.

Mark spoke from Hebrews 12:1-2 this morning, the second in a trilogy of sermons from Hebrews (the first looked at Hebrews 2, ‘But we see Jesus’). In these verses we read about the joy set before Jesus and the need for endurance.

Things we have to endure are often not the enjoyable things in life: we don’t talk about ‘enduring’ a lovely meal or ‘enduring’ a great night out. The most painful part of Jesus’s life produced the most fruit and joy, however. He endured the cross, shame and humiliation because He saw the ultimate joy which would come from it.

Just as joy was set before Jesus, we have to run the race marked out for us with perseverance. The word ‘perseverance’ in verse 1 is from the same root as ‘endure’ in verse 2; the plan marked out for us by God has the same elements as the plan marked out for Jesus. Endurance produces joy.

James 1:2 reminds us that we should count it as pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds. Psalm 30:4-5 reminds us that weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. There are cycles in life (see Ecclesiastes 3) – times of weeping and times of rejoicing, seasons for joy and for suffering. Psalm 16:11 reminds us that “You have made known to me the path of life; You wil fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”

As God shows us the path of life, there wil be joy – even in suffering, for we know that God works all things together for good. Isaiah 61:1-3 reminds us of the divine exchanges that are offered to us: beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness for mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, righteousness for unrighteousness. God conducts the whole universe to bring us joy.

Romans 15:13 gives us one of Paul’s prayers: “May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The Amplified version says “May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.” The ultimate end to this great plan God has for us is joy. We may be in a season of suffering right now or we may be going through great joy, but whatever our season, we can know that there is joy ahead, for God has promised us long-term joy!

My boss -a faith-filled optimist who is the Tigger to my Eeyore as far as personality is concerned – is fond of saying “Change is here to stay.” He views change as inevitable and with the same enthusiasm and anticipation that a child awaits Christmas, whereas I tend to view change with wide-eyed terror, since it means moving out of my comfort zone and leaving behind all that is comfortable and familiar.

Change is indeed inevitable, however, so I have to learn to adapt. I am currently re-reading Eugene Peterson’s commentary on the life of David, ‘Leap Over A Wall’. I’ve reached the part where finally (after 132 pages and 37 years for David) David is king over all Israel. Change, therefore, was inevitable for him: he was no longer on the run, hiding from Saul, in fear for his life; he was no longer just king over Judah, a fragmented kingdom. The prophecies are about to be fulfilled!

Eugene Peterson comments that ‘change can also be a catalyst for growth. It can stimulate developing, deepening, lengthening, enlarging – our lives becoming more, not less.’ (‘Leap Over A Wall’, P 135) He talks about how David took Jerusalem and made it a strategic centre (effectively, the capital) when beforehand it had been a Jebusite town of no importance.

2 Samuel 5:10 says “And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.” Eugene Peterson, in the Message translation of this, says, “David proceeded with a longer stride, a larger embrace since the GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies was with him.”

He goes on to say, “He lengthened his stride. He did the unexpected when he took Jersualem… He enlarged his embrace. He included more and more people under his rule and in his love. He gathered all God’s children, not just those who had been on his side, helping him out through the difficult years… Maturity translated into generosity, into reaching out to make peace with the northern tribes. David didn’t use his newly acquired strength and authority to destroy or denigrate others. He gathered and integrated and led.”

The thing that struck me most about this chapter, however, was when Eugene Peterson contrasted change with growth. Our culture greedily wants change for the sake of something new, throwing away the old and hankering after novelty. He says, “God’s way is growth, not change. Organic is a key image. Nothing from our past is thrown out with the garbage. It’s all composted and assimilated into a growing life.”

Change is inevitable; growth is not. Growth is what we do with change – or perhaps, more importantly, what we allow God to do with the changes in our lives.

Fear. What do you think when you hear that word?

The noun ‘fear’ is defined as ‘an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.’ The verb ‘to fear’ is defined as ‘to be afraid of (someone or something)perceived as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening.’ Few of us like feeling fear, even if at times we can see that fear can be beneficial (not to be afraid of a hot fire, for example, could lead us to injure ourselves.)

Over and over again in the Bible, God tells us not to be afraid (Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 27:1, Matt 10:28-31, Matt 17:7, Mark 5:36, Luke 12:7, John 6:20, 1 John 4:18). Yet so often, particularly when faced with difficult circumstances or fresh challenges, we do feel afraid.

I read a blog recently which talked about ‘The Fear’. The capital letters made me smile, for indeed, fear often seems bigger than the mere word or dictionary definition. It does feel like a capital-letter-kind-of-thing! The writer (Tom Bennett) talked about how many jobs ‘will magnify your fears of inadequacy like an echo in a Swiss valley. You never stop doubting yourself. The fear is only contained, never conquered.’ That seemed a refreshingly honest and very true comment to me.

Although writing in the context of teaching, I think his words are so relevant to life that they are worth repeating:

“Set free, the Fear conquers us; every failure at school looms as tall as Jack’s beanstalk; it haunts us in the dark; it nags us awake when we should be resting, and nips us when we should be thinking of anything else. The Fear is jealous, and needy.

Some might even call that the definition of success.” (Tom Bennett)
Dealing with ‘The Fear’, Tom Bennett

Jesus knew the devastating power of fear. He knew how it can cripple us, paralyse us, leave us curled up in a ball in the corner of a room sobbing or how it can act like invisible chains, binding us to false gods, false masters. He knew how it robs us of self-worth and self-belief; how it makes us self-centred, selfish, narrow-minded, squinty-eyed people with no room to love anyone else because we are so self-absorbed. He also knew that His love has the power to break through all our fear, how perfect love can drive out fear.

I am not sure that we ever truly do tame this beast called fear. I do believe, however, that the beast cowers before Almighty God and that there is no place for two gods! I think the choice is given to us by God: will we allow Him to be God or will we believe the lies of this false god? As the song ‘Ready for You’ says: “We decide to leave our fears behind for liberty.” Or as Jeremy Camp sings, “With fearless faith I won’t be moved/ Unshakeable inside Your truth.” (‘Reckless’)

Truth sets us free. Fears have to be faced and often, we can’t conquer them on our own, no matter how many self-help books we read or positive thinking seminars we attend. But we have the ‘God of Angel Armies’ as our friend. We have Almighty God on our side. We have a Guardian, Protector, Guide, Best Friend and Fortress to protect us. We are not alone in this struggle with fear. It doesn’t have to have the capital letter or last word in our lives. Only God has that right.

Once again, I’ve found a song that captures where I am – ‘standing on the edge of something new‘, with hearts open wide, longing for God to move us ‘further than we’ve ever been before’ – and I hope it reflects the heart of what God is doing in our church at this season:

“Here we are, standing on the edge of something new
Lead us on, further than we’ve ever been before
With hands held high, be glorified,
Our hearts now cry

Where You are, freedom reigns
For Christ has set us free.
We decide to leave our fears behind for liberty.
With hands held high, be glorified,
Our hearts now cry.” (‘Ready for You’, Luke Hellebronth & Nick Herbert & Ben Cantelon)

‘Ready for You’, Luke Hellebronth & Nick Herbert & Ben Cantelon
explanation of and teaching video of the song