If you would, open your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 24. Last week we talked about how the Bible is a book for broken people and how the Bible is a very difficult book to read if you're very self-satisfied and you're not broken, you're not seeking, you're not needing something from God. The Bible is actually kind of a boring book. It's written for broken people.
A few years ago I saw an old episode of Top Gear, the car show that was on BBC for quite some time. And they set up these elaborate, expensive comedy bits on that show. I love it. And one of those elaborate bits was that they would rent or find or buy high-performance supercars— Ferrari, Lamborghini, I think a Porsche 911 GT or something like that. And they would go to a great road in America that they identified on Google Earth. So they looked all over Google Earth and found this particular stretch of road that was super twisty and turny. And they flew over to the United States. And they got these supercars. And they went to this road. And the whole bit was that that road had a posted speed limit of 35 miles an hour. So the whole bit is them driving Ferraris 35 miles an hour. Around these twists and turns. If you— that didn't land as well as I thought. That was funny to me. But there is a way, there's a way in which we can shrink life down by disobeying God's Word, in fact. We can shrink life down to such a controllable, limited thing that the Bible becomes this high-performance machine on a low miles-per-hour road. It becomes this wonderful thing that's meant to help us live this abundant life in Christ. But if we've been disobedient to it, if we've really pursued comfort, convenience, and control, then the Bible really becomes this supercar stuck on a very boring, limited road.
We don't see that problem with the disciples in Luke 24. I don't think they've ever had a boring life as soon as they decided to follow Jesus. But they may have had this sense of inevitable wellness. This sense of— think of it this way, a week before the cross or so, they're making seating charts for the new kingdom, right? They're planning how the royal court is going to be set. You heard the term made men. These guys were beginning to act and feel like made men, like we're going to be okay. And in that moment when you feel that way, The Bible's not really that helpful. But now they don't feel that way anymore because Jesus has been crucified and they are left feeling two of the emotions we do our very best in life to avoid, which I think is a terrible idea, but we do it. And that is they're experiencing— I don't know if they're emotions, attitudes, states— they're experiencing disappointment and they're experiencing doubt.
We do a lot to avoid feeling those two things, by the way. We do a lot of damage trying to avoid feeling those two things. But, but those are really the two things that these guys are walking through, through Luke 24. And Luke uniquely keeps us in this chapter for quite some time so that we really do experience this after cross, before the realization of the resurrection. We experience this sustained period at the end of Luke of disappointment, and doubt. At the beginning of Luke 24, well, kind of the midpoint, around verse 13 or so, the men, there's a couple of men, they're walking to Emmaus and they see a stranger join them. A stranger joins them, it's of course Jesus. They don't realize it's Jesus. Jesus says, "What are you talking about?" They say, "Well, haven't you heard? There was this man, Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in word and in deed." There was a double cross, a political conspiracy, the chief priests conspired with the Romans, and now He's dead. And then in verse 21 they say, "But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels." 'Who said that he was alive? Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.' So do you see the disappointment there? We had hoped— that's going to be the key sentence of our sermon today— we'd hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.
Now if you go a little bit further down into the next moment that Jesus reveals himself to the disciples, verse 36, you'll see doubt. We just saw disappointment, now you'll see doubt. As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace to you!" But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why did doubt arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that is I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have 'flesh and bones as you see that I have.' And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, 'Have you anything to eat?' And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. So there's the doubt. So we're going to talk about doubts next week. This week, disappointments. Next week's doubt.
I was reading in my, in my own Bible time this week in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is a man who repeatedly feels disappointed in God. He repeatedly feels as if God has let him down. There's a moment in Jeremiah 15:18 where he actually complains to God, "Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?" What he's saying here is, I built my life around you the way that a homesteader would build his life next to a creek. I built my house, I built my life on you thinking you were this river of sustaining help, and now it feels as if the creek has gone dry. Now it feels as if I perhaps built my house, built my life next to a stream that's only wet a few days of the year. I feel as if you've been to me a deceitful stream.
6 · Steps out of exposition to directly address the congregation's experience with disappointment—both those in acute crisis and those carrying unresolved disappointments that subtly shape their view of God
You know, I don't know how many of you would label yourselves in this moment as being in acute disappointment mode, right? There's always a few people in any congregation who are genuinely disappointed with God in this moment. It's a deep thing. It's an acute thing. It's a very real thing. And friends, unfortunately, as it comes to any kind of suffering, we're all standing in line waiting for the next time we will be disappointed in God, we will feel disappointed in God. So even if you don't feel that today, you will. You need to know how to deal with disappointment. I also am aware as I prayed this week that there are disappointments that I've had that have informed the way I view God that have been working in my life for years that I don't necessarily see. Big acute things, not, not massive infections of disappointment, just little moments here and there where I thought God wanted this and I bought into that, I built into that, and I found that God didn't do what I thought he would do. And if I haven't resolved those well, if I haven't learned the lessons that God was teaching me from those, then maybe this sermon could be helpful in that sense as well for you.
7 · Announces the gospel first by establishing disappointment as temporary—no Christian remains disappointed forever because disappointment is a fog that lifts, not a permanent reality
So let's go first to the end. Let's go first to the way this all works out. A couple weeks ago, I was in my office and I heard a bunch of laughter in this room on a Sunday morning. And this was probably 8:30 AM or so. I hear my wife laughing, I hear a bunch of other people laughing. And the two Joshes, Luffman and Dowdy, had found my glasses sitting up here. And they decided to do Chris preaching invitations while I was in my office and couldn't defend myself. So my wife immediately ran back, thinking it was so hilarious, immediately ran back and told me about it. And apparently one of them, I don't know which one, you guys should not let me know, by the way, hide in the pack, you know. One of them put my glasses on and said, "Hi, my name's Chris. I'm going to preach now. I'm going to start by saying something profound, and then I'm going to make you feel bad, and then I'm going to tell you the gospel." And they got my shtick. I've got to go to another church now. That happened way too soon. That is pretty much how my messages flow. I'd never thought about that, but they're not wrong. Well, today I'm going to flip the script and tell you the good news first, and that is simply this: the end of the disappointed Christian. Disappointment is not an eternal state in which Christians will dwell. Disappointment is a temporary state. We see that in our text. These guys are living the fast-forward version of what most of us are going to experience. They have to deal with disappointment for 3 days, right? That's nothing for some of you. There is unfortunately no maximum sentence for the period of time in which you will be disappointed in God, except that I would tell you it will not last forever. No one, no one is disappointed in God forever. Disappointment in God is a temporary state. I don't even think— we'll get into semantics in a minute— I don't even think it's a real state, and I'll explain that in a minute. But disappointment transitions, it moves away. We get over it.
8 · Establishes that Christ is present with believers in disappointment even when they cannot perceive Him, and that God's love for them in Christ will ultimately overcome their disappointment with Him
The truth is, is that you're disappointed in God right now, but he's walking with you right now. If you're in this acute stage of disappointment, like these disciples were, you're in this moment where, you know, gosh, I'm so disappointed in God. And you know what? God's right there with you. Jesus is there. They don't recognize Jesus. They don't see him, but he's there. Likewise, in this particular moment of acute disappointment, you can't see him. And good thing that doesn't make him not there, right? Good thing your lack of perception doesn't actually affect his promises. He is present even when you don't see him. And the simple truth is, is that the gospel will win out. So if you're in acute disappointment phase, I want you to hear this most clearly: if you are in Christ, you will not stay disappointed with God because in Christ God is not disappointed with you. The weight of God's vision for you, the weight of God's love for you wins out. The cheer that God has toward you in Christ will eventually cheer your soul as well.
9 · Uses personal childhood experience of parental love overcoming his stubborn mood to illustrate how God's love will eventually overcome believers' disappointment
When I was a kid and I was in one of my morose, disappointed, angry moods, sometimes it was just the infectious love and cheer of my parents that eventually won the day. And there were these moments where I would just really want to stay upset. I would really want to stay in this aggrieved state. But my parents' love, their cheer, their affection won the day. That's the promise of the gospel, that the way that God sees us will win the day and we will one day see Him as He sees us.
10 · Develops the gravitational metaphor: God's love is the massive center pulling everything toward itself, which means His affection will inevitably overcome our disappointment and we will eventually see Him as He sees us
Think about it this way, His love for you is so strong that eventually you have no choice but to feel love for Him. His patience with you is so vast that eventually you'll learn to patiently wait for Him. His graciousness toward you in Christ is so great that eventually you will learn to give Him the benefit of the doubt. And of course, all of this in a strict justice sense is completely upside down, right? Like, what do you have to complain about compared to what God has to complain about? But the point is, God's affection for you will win the day. If you are in Christ, God's affection for you is, is the mass that is attracting everything to it. Everything in your life is being attracted to God's love. Everything. Because God's mass, the gravitational pull of God's love for you in Christ, is so immense that it will eventually have its way with you. You. So disappointment is a temporary state because God's love for you, His patience with you, His graciousness toward you will eventually become how you feel toward God. Those who stay, those who are disappointed in God will not stay there forever. The fog of disappointment, that's exactly what it is, I don't even think it's a real thing, the fog of disappointment will lift. As much as you want to stay in it, as much as you are honestly being self-indulgent in it, the fog will lift because the sun's rising. And you will eventually have a smile on your face again because that's what God has on His face toward you in Christ. The gospel wins. So Josh's "take that" flipped it all the way around. That's the outcome. There is no such thing as doubt and disappointment in heaven. You will eventually learn to see God the way that He sees you in Christ.
11 · Establishes the origin of disappointment: we create idols that look like God from a distance (Monets), and combined with our human smallness before God's bigness, we often think we're hoping in God when we're actually hoping in a counterfeit
Let's talk about the origin of the disappointed Christian. How do we get there? How do we become disappointed in God? Well, some translations of Isaiah 49:23 say that those who hope in God will not be disappointed. I don't know if that's a great translation. The ESV says those who hope in God will not be put to shame, probably better. But let's just roll with it for a minute. Those who hope in God will not be disappointed. I don't think that's an untrue statement. Those who hope in God will not be disappointed. Here's the problem. There are going to be plenty of times in your life and my life when you thought you were hoping in God and you were not. That's the origin of disappointment. I don't think Isaiah 49:23 saying it the way, those who hope in God will not be disappointed, is wrong. I think that's true. When we hope in God, we're not disappointed. The problem is there are plenty of times in our life when we think we're hoping in God only to find out later that we were not. And this shows up when God doesn't do what we expected Him to do. There are two problems related to this idea of the origin of disappointment. And the one is we create idols that look a lot like God so that in the general course of daily life our fake god and the real God are very easily confused. We had this term back in high school, the Monet, someone who was attractive from a distance, but when you got up close, it was kind of a mess. Our idols are Monets. Like from a distance, they look legit. They look like God. This is what's happening. We're going to talk about this in detail in a moment, but they're carrying around a false view of God. They've got an idol. One of the origins of disappointment with God is that we think we're hoping in God and we're not. We think we're worshiping God and we're not. But there's some value, and we do this all the time, there's some value in asking periodically, am I hoping in God or in a God substitute, in a counterfeit God? But honestly, sometimes it is really impossible to see the difference between your good plan and the one God has. And that's why the origin of disappointment is partly idolatry, but the other problem is just humanity. You know, I think we rightly think idolatry is this huge problem. It is. But you know, the bigger problem is just God's big and we're small. So we've got these two things working together. Our tendency to produce idols works alongside our tendency to just be human beings who are small and God is big. They projected, these people projected their aspirations on God. They projected their perceived needs on God. And most of the time, there were no consequences to that illusion. Most of the time, from the Monet, from the distance, it worked out okay. But now it wasn't going to work out okay. Their false god had crumbled before their eyes. Now they didn't know, even now they didn't know that they'd been worshiping a false god. But they're feeling the pain that comes from putting your hope in little g god, not big G God. I think it's absolutely true, those who hope in God will not be disappointed. I just think it's really hard for us, both as sinners and as human beings, to know when we are actually hoping in God.
12 · Uses Jesus' parable of the two builders to establish that storms are necessary to reveal when we've built on false foundations—crises expose when our supposedly biblical faith was actually built on a counterfeit Jesus
Jesus says that there's these two kinds of people in life, the person who builds his life on Jesus's words and the person who doesn't. And the storms come for both. And then the one who's built his life on Jesus' words, like, stuff remains. The one who hasn't built his life on Jesus' words, stuff doesn't remain. Well, gosh, I mean, how many times have I needed a storm in my life to tell me that I hadn't been building on His words? I need those storms. I need those moments, those crises like the cross was for these disciples to show me, hey, you haven't been hoping in God. You thought you were, but you haven't been. The point is, is that these two things working together, the fact that God is big and we are small and sometimes he goes left when we think he's going to go right, and the fact that we often place our ambitions, our presuppositions, and so on, and we construct something that kind of looks from a distance like Jesus, but it ain't. Sort of like those dummies you put in your car if you want to drive in the HOV lanes. You know, like, well, from a distance that looks like a person. Up close, it's not a person. And from a distance, without crisis, without suffering, without conflict, our versions of Jesus look pretty legit. But then the cross happens. The crisis comes. And we see, because we are humans, because we are sinners, that our— the thing we thought was God wasn't God.
13 · Pivots from the origin of disappointment to the itinerary through disappointment, emphasizing the Emmaus road as a transitory phase with certain ultimate resolution
So that's kind of how we get there. Let's talk about kind of what we do once we are here. Think of it this way. I love the imagery of Emmaus because they're on the road. This is a transitory phase, and I want you to hear that. Whether you want it or not, God's love is going to win. He's going to win you over. His cheer is going to win you over. His wisdom, His fatherly kindness is going to win you over. So now we just really want to ask, how do we act on the way.
14 · Establishes the necessary transition from blaming God (disappointment) to recognizing one's own misorientation (disorientation), which shifts ownership and introduces humility into the process
I think what really has to happen is a transition slowly from disappointment to disorientation. Because disorientation puts the ownership on me, right? God, you have disappointed me. God, you've disappointed me. God, you've disappointed me. Well, at some point, through his kindness, through the gospel, he begins to show us that it really wasn't God who disappointed us, it was us who were disoriented. And that's still a painful place to be, by the way. But there's a slow moving out of disappointment into disorientation, and eventually we say, "Well, you know, I just got my north and my south confused." Problem is, when you get lost, you can really get lost. You can really make a doozy out of a situation when you're lost. I was terrible at getting lost as a kid. I have stories. I once rode my bicycle around the city of Quincy, Illinois for a whole day trying to find my parents. I was probably 6 at the time. Never been in this city before in my life. There were times when I was in the Boy Scouts and I would just get entirely lost. I don't know, I must just be terrible at reading compasses. I have a really good natural sense of direction, which maybe that's part of the problem as well, I guess. But I'm just terrible at this. As we transition out of, "God, you've disappointed me," into, "God, I've become disoriented," who's bearing the weight of the problem now? Where's the humility starting to show up, right? And that's what we see begin to happen in these folks' lives. That's what's going to happen in your life when you're disappointed if you're in Christ.
15 · Uses Abraham and Sarah's manufacturing of Ishmael to illustrate how disappointment can lead to self-generated solutions that create genuine, long-lasting pain—a warning about the dangers of disorientation
There will be this transition. How do we, in the meantime, make sure we don't really get messed up? There are many cases in the Bible where someone has been disappointed with God over something small and really just came down to a delay. And then in that disappointment with God, they've created through their own choices genuine, deep, profound, long-lasting disappointment. Here's an example: Abraham and Sarah. Right? God had made a promise to them, and that promise didn't look like it was coming true. There's this disorientation phase, right? But then slowly they pick up responsibility, and they begin to create a counterfeit way of getting what they think they need. And they create in that space genuine, long-lasting pain and consequences by manufacturing a counterfeit solution. So there's just this basic idea of, well, we got to be really careful when we're disoriented because we can make a mess of things quite quickly.
16 · Establishes the primary itinerary item for disappointed Christians: check your definitions of three key words in verse 21—'we' (identity problem), 'He' (theology problem), and 'redeem' (priority problem)
Thankfully, in this text, we see a lot of positive things. We see Jesus coming quickly. We see Him speaking to them quickly, we see Him revealing Himself quickly, we see them doing a lot of positive things. And so I really want to spend most of this time talking about the itinerary for the disappointed Christian. We talked about the outcome, the ending for the disappointed Christian. We talked about the origin of the disappointed Christian. Let's talk about the itinerary. What kind of stuff should we be doing and thinking when we're in these stages of disappointment? Well, we're going to stick most in verse 21. So look, if you don't have your Bibles open to verse 21, Luke chapter 24, do that. If you have a pen, you might want to do some circling and underlining on that verse. Specifically, the phrase we're going to look at is, "We had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel." We had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. The biggest thing on your itinerary as a disappointed Christian is to reframe your definitions. Check your definitions. When you're disappointed in God, check your definitions. I want you to see 3 words in this short phrase that are improperly defined. The first one: "we." They didn't really know who "they" were. "We had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel." "We." They didn't know who "we" was. They didn't know who Israel was. They had a problem there. He. They didn't really know who He was. They didn't really know who Jesus was. And redeem. They did not actually have the right definition of the word redeem. So all of this confusion, whether you call it disappointment or disorientation, is rooted in this common problem that humans have had from day one, and that is to redefine God's words to mean what we want them to mean. And it happens so subtly that we don't even realize we're doing it. And what makes it worse is we're using Bible words, so we think we're Bible people because we use Bible words. But subtly over time, or perhaps just because you're a new Christian, your definition of basic Bible words is not the biblical definition of those words. So we— they had that wrong. They had an identity problem. He. They had that wrong. They had a theology problem. And redemption. They had a priority problem. They had an identity problem, they had a theology problem, and they had a priority problem. Their definition of those three words was really fueling their disappointment. It was really keeping them from becoming properly oriented with God again. It's really why they were disappointed. This is sort of the behind the scenes. This is what idolatry and humanness look like in the practical. So your first itinerary for being a disappointed Christian is to check your definitions. And this involves deep humility because you think you know who God is. And you think you know who you are. And you think you know what redemption is. And deep humility to say, I need to go back and I need to check because I think my definitions have wandered off course in subtle ways. You never had a theological council where you decided, you met with yourself and decided you would redefine these terms. There's never a moment when you signed a paper saying, "My new definition of redemption is..." Over time, in our smallness and in our sin, the definition of these things begins to drift. And disappointment crisis is God's way of saying to us, I want you to know who you are. I want you to know who I am. I want you to know my priorities for your life. And so in order to do that, let's go ahead and go back and redefine these things. Let's go ahead and understand exactly what these things are.
17 · Briefly addresses the identity problem ('we'), tracing it to the garden where humans assumed the right to redefine God's Word, and pointing to Job as a major biblical example of identity confusion fueling disappointment
Well, I'm not going to talk a lot about identity this morning. I just don't have the time to do it. But if you've been reading your Bible for some time, you will pick up on this idea over and over again that one of the basic reasons people missed God is they didn't understand who they were. They didn't understand who they were in the story. They didn't understand their role. Obviously, the most glaring example of this is right at the beginning again in the garden when there's this assumption that they have the right, Adam and Eve have the right, have the place to redefine God's Word, right? The most glaring example of identity confusion is when we think we're God. Now, that sounds extremely terrible. Like, who would do that? Every person in this room does that. And again, there are no flags that go up to tell you you've done this. This is just how we work. This is what a human being is. Last week we talked about Isaiah. All like sheep have gone astray, each have turned to his own way. This is just a part of being a sinful human being. We drift in our understanding of who we are. Disappointment with God and getting over disappointment with God is directly tied to identity. One of the most famous, largest examples of disappointment with God is the book of Job. And at the end, as God's bringing resolution to the book of Job, what is He saying? He's saying, "Who do you think you are, Job? Who are you, Job? Who do you think you are?" believe that you are. So there's an identity problem. You need to go back to God's Word and sort out that issue. Who are you? They didn't understand in this story. They didn't understand who they were.
18 · Establishes that a high view of God is never high enough—using Nicodemus and Job to show that even faithful believers' understanding of God is inadequate until crisis forces deeper revelation
But they also had a theology problem, and this is the one I think is really tricky and obviously probably the most important. And here's the reason why it's tricky. This is what they say about Jesus. This is Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet Mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Well, that sounds like a really high view of Jesus, doesn't it? It sounds like they have a high view of Jesus. This is key, please make a note of this in some way. Your high view of God is never high enough. Never have confidence in the highness of your view of God. So Nicodemus in John 3, comes to Jesus and says, "We know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one that's not from God could do the works that you've done." And Jesus essentially is very rude in a way to him and says, "You don't see anything. You are confused. You think because you are ascribing highness to me that you actually see me, which is not true at all." A high view of Jesus does not equal a right view of Jesus. They are confused because they don't know who Jesus is. It's simple. It's basic. It's square one. The problem is that it's so basic you ignore this likelihood that over time you have a high view of Jesus compared to other people. Again, another indication something might not be right because you're saying, "Well, my view of God's higher than the folks down the street, so I should be okay, right?" But this high view of Jesus is actually their problem. Their high view of Jesus is not high enough. And time and time again we see in Scripture this be a massive problem. My goodness, if Job didn't think that his high view of God was high enough, we would have like a 3-chapter book of Job and it would be so much easier to read. If Job didn't think his high view of God was high enough, well, we'd be in chapter 38 before you knew it. Listen to what Job says in chapter 42 when Job finally realizes that his high view of God was not high enough and his low view of self was not low enough. Verse 1 of Job 42, "Then Job answered the Lord and said, 'I know that You can do all things, that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me." for me, which I did not know. Hear now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You will instruct me. I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and in ashes. Do you see how Job's view of self and Job's supposedly high view of God are coming back into focus. And he says, "I heard of you." Job hadn't just heard of God, Job knew God. Job was a worshiper of God. But his new understanding of God, his new vision of God, made his old vision of God look like it was just based on rumors and secondhand stories. He says, "Now I see you. Now my high view of God is higher."
19 · Addresses the third definitional problem (redemption/priorities), arguing that believers load Bible words with their own ambitions, reordering God's redemptive priorities to put physical/temporal needs first rather than His glory first
So that's usually, if we're really asking what's going on, you can see these strands beginning to come together. What's going on with disappointment? It's usually because I have a wrong view of myself, I have a wrong view of God. And then there's also this third thing. In Luke 24:21, "We thought that he would be the one to redeem Israel." This is key. We have got to be so careful when using Bible words because they are so good at cloaking our ambitions. They're so good at cloaking our idolatry and our selfish ambitions. What does God mean by redeem? What do we mean by redeem? What do we mean when we say blessed? What does God mean when he says blessed? What do we mean when we say good? What does God mean when he says good? We are so good at loading all of our selfish ambitions into these Bible words. And then the crisis comes, and that word doesn't hold what we thought it held. And for them, the word is redeemed. That's a great sounding word. It's a great sounding word. It just didn't mean what they thought it meant, at least on the timeline that they thought it would come. And I think that's why I chose to say that this word has to do with a priority problem. A priority problem. God's number one priority is what? His own glory. If you don't have that and believe that and embrace that and learn and seek to love that— I don't know anybody in this room that's just 100% on board with that, but that's where we should be. We should see that God's number one priority in all things is to glorify Himself. But if we don't begin to understand that the basic error of our humanity depends on seeing all that God will redeem and reshuffling the deck so that he redeems the stuff we want redeemed first, then we really aren't going to be mature Christians. This is the basic error of all the kind of isms we see out there, right? So we talk about the prosperity gospel. What's the error of the prosperity gospel? The basic claim of the prosperity gospel is God wants you to be rich. That's not wrong. There will be no poor Christians in eternity. God wants you to be well. He wants to heal you. That's not wrong. There will be no sick Christians in eternity. What's happening is that we're reshuffling God's to-do list according to our own selfish ambitions. And we're saying, no, Your will, what redemption looks like for me in my life is healing now. That's what redemption looks like. So that when God doesn't heal now, we say God hasn't redeemed. No, God's going to redeem it all. You are going to be a fully redeemed, happier than you can believe person in eternity if you're in Christ. Everything in your life will be redeemed. There will be no doubt, there will be no disappointment, there will be no disease. It's all on the list, and God will check everything off the list. Your list and God's list look a lot alike. But the order, the priorities, the way He delays the fulfillment of certain things for the accomplishment of other things, that's what's different. And so not only did they see themselves wrongly and they saw God wrongly, but they also had reordered God's priority list of redemption. So that the word redemption for them meant, well, it meant a political thing, right? It meant a material thing. Usually, friends, when we are reordering God's list of redemption, when we're reordering the priority list, we put the physical stuff first, don't we? We do, because to us that's very pressing, that's extremely important, that also empowers us to continue to live with false definitions of who we are.
20 · Applies the definitional solution: disappointed believers must put down their false Bibles (emotions, grievances, logic) and pick up God's Word to redefine identity, theology, and priorities through the Holy Spirit
So they have to rearrange all of this. In order to do this, we talked 2 sermons about the Word of God. In order for these people to move back into these proper definitions, they've got to do what? They've got to pick up God's Word. And that's why we talked about God's Word for 2 weeks before we talked about disappointment. It's because the way that you redefine your definitions and you get back on track with God's definitions is you pick up his word. And through the Holy Spirit, through the risen word that we saw for the last 2 weeks, we can begin to redefine and get back on track with God's definitions for who he is, for who we are, and for what we're really honestly supposed to expect, what his priorities for our life are. But in order to pick up the Bible, that means you're going to have to put down your Bible, your Bible of emotions, your Bible of self-pity, your Bible of grievances, even your Bible of logic, your Bible of God must obey my standards of reason. In order to pick up the Word of God and let the Word of God redefine these things for you, you must put down your fake Bible. Friends, right now if you're in acute disappointment mode, you're reading from the wrong Bible. You're reading from your sense of how things ought to be. You're reading from your set of expectations. And you've got to set that down and pick up His Word. Again, you may feel like this is so beneath where you are, where you think you are. But friends, this is what crisis is. This is what disappointment does. It drives us back to our definitions. And that's where we must go.
21 · First practical instruction: don't pit hurts against hopes as a zero-sum game—God typically uses painful disappointments to expand hope rather than end it, as with the disciples whose political hope was too small for what God intended
So that's the number one thing on the itinerary for a disappointed Christian. Check your definitions. They're not right. They may sound right, they might have the right labels, they're not right. Let's talk about what that looks like practically speaking. First thing I would say is this: don't pit your hurts against your hopes. Don't pit your hurts against your hopes. Don't make Don't make God's work in your life a zero-sum game where you can only have what you hope for or the hurts that he's provided. Understand that God has a way of bringing a massive better version of our hopes through our hurts. That's exactly the rhythm of what the gospel is. That's the rhythm of those who humble themselves before the Lord will be exalted, right? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will lifts you up. We think that this terrible development means the end of this or that hope. Now this is proverbial, this is predictive, this isn't prescriptive. But the truth is painful disappointments, as you look through the Scripture, painful disappointments are usually more about expanding your hope than ending it. Painful disappointments are usually more about expanding your hope than ending it. Whatever big thing you've been hoping in might be great, but if God is saying no, then what's probably happening is that the thing you've been hoping in is too small, and he is going to expand that. We see that with these guys. They are hoping in the redemption of Israel, and God's saying, oh my goodness, that's just far too weak. It's just— that's all— that's too small. That's too small. I want to do something much bigger than that. They're hoping for a mostly political redemption. Again, this goes back to identity too. If you really knew yourself, you'd know that your most pressing need is not a political situation. If you really knew yourself, you'd know that your most pressing need is not health. If you really knew yourself, you'd know that the most pressing need of your life, the number one priority that you would agree on with God, is that he would keep you out of these fogs. And these funks, and He would conform you more and more to the image of Jesus.
22 · Second practical instruction: don't ignore other believers' stories or isolate yourself—remain in fellowship where Christ appears as believers help each other return to proper definitions through mutual encouragement
So don't pit your hopes against your hurts. Don't ignore your siblings' stories. Verse 22, don't ignore your siblings' stories. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early that morning 'When they did not find the body, they came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels who said to them that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but they did not see Him.' Now don't ignore your siblings' stories. In the moment of disappointment, don't ignore your siblings' stories. I one time was eating Frozen fruit with my family at the table when I was a kid. And I got a big old ball of honeydew lodged right in the windpipe. And my first instinct, I was embarrassed, you know, I couldn't breathe and I was like scared and sweating. My first instinct was to leave. So I got up and I went downstairs by myself. Right? And thankfully my dad followed me downstairs, gave me the old rib-breaking Heimlich and shot that melon ball 10 feet across the other room. There's this terrible tendency. Again, we're getting to that question of, how do I not give me something really to be disappointed in? How do I not screw up this moment of being lost and make it way worse? Don't discount your sibling's stories. Don't separate from the herd. Don't look at other people's testimonies and say, "Eh, maybe." One of the things God's doing in your life that you don't see right now is He's giving you a testimony to bless others. And one of the things that you must do in order to have that long-term, one of the things you must do in order to get your definitions right, is you must not ignore your sibling stories. If people come to you and they love you and they're saying, "Hey, God redeemed me," don't say, "Well, that's you," or, "Well, I guess we'll see." That is not why those people are in your life. They are not in your life to be discounted, to be ignored. What we see in this case in a very— oh gosh, the word escapes me— but in a very kind of poetic way, an allegorical way I guess you could say— that's a bad word— is that as you continue to talk it over with your brothers and sisters, Christ will appear. This is the place where we start the fire. This is the place where we redefine our definitions. We don't run back and hide. We don't isolate ourselves. We continue to talk it over. You know, Ephesians 4:25 says, "Let's lay aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." 1 Thessalonians 4:18 says, "Comfort one another." 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says that we're here to encourage one another. Romans Romans 12:10 says that we're supposed to be devoted to one another. Our disappointments, our disorientations, and we have brothers and sisters all the way around us that have been where we are. They might not have the exact brand of pain that you have. That is truly irrelevant. And again, it's placing you in the wrong place in this equation. They might not have the right brand of suffering. They might not have gone through the exact same thing. It might have been worse. It might have been less. What they had to do, what everyone has to do in order to get over being disappointed with God is redefine, go back to the Bible and get the right definitions of who I am, who God is, and of what redemption looks like. And they can help you relocate these very important issues. And as you do that, as is always the case when you commit to walking with some brothers and sisters over the long haul, As you commit to biblical fellowship, Christ will appear. They were walking and discussing together. Jesus himself drew near and went with them. They didn't recognize Jesus in the fellowship to begin with. Eventually they did.
23 · Third practical instruction: do the good you know to do—hold to what you've already obtained, as the disciples did by showing hospitality despite their disappointment
So in addition to redefine— going back and getting the right definitions, don't ignore your sibling's stories. The other thing I'd just say is do the good in this moment of acute disappointment. Do the good you know to do. Look at verse 28. He said to them, O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe! All the prophets have spoken. He goes through, he lists the Scriptures, and then he acted as if he was going farther. And they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it's toward the evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. We talked a few weeks ago about holding true to what you've already obtained. In these moments of acute disappointment, one of the things you can do is just do the good you know you're supposed to do. I love how I see these disciples caring about a stranger, welcoming a stranger, hanging in there after he called them foolish, sharing with this stranger, well, this is what's going on. And I love how at the end they're concerned for him. They don't know who this guy is. They've got their own troubles. They've got their own worries. They're in a deep moment of disappointment. I love how they just hang in there and they say, you know, obviously you're quite clueless. You didn't know what just happened in Jerusalem. You shouldn't be on the road alone at night. Come in and be with us. Don't abandon what you've already obtained when you're disappointed. There's some good things you know that you're supposed to be about. You've been doing them well for quite some time. Hold true to what you've already obtained. Do the good you know to do.
24 · Establishes that Christ is actively serving disappointed believers even when unrecognized—He is present, sustaining, loving, and far less demanding than we are of Him
And finally, it's just simple as this. Verse 30, they go together into the place and he takes bread and he serves them. And it's in this moment of service that they recognize him. Remember what I said about the outcome, where this all heads. You're not gonna stay in this place because Jesus isn't here, and you're gonna be where Jesus is. You're not gonna stay in disappointment because Jesus isn't disappointed, and you're gonna wind up where Jesus is. What you do most of all, above everything else, is understand that while you're in this phase, he is actually with you and he is actually serving you. You think he's obscured, he isn't. You think he's unfair, he isn't. You don't realize it, but he is sustaining you right now in all of this. He will love you. He will be with you tonight when you go to bed. He will watch over you while you sleep, as he has every night of your entire life. He is far less demanding of you than you are of him right now. He is far less exacting on you than you are of him. Jesus will be there. Let Jesus serve you. He will bring you out of this fog of disappointment.
25 · Concludes by connecting Christ's obedience in Gethsemane to His saving work in believers' disappointment—His obedience is what sustains and rescues believers from every fog, including disappointment
A few days before this walk to Emmaus, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He cried out to God 3 times in anguish, "Lord, if there's any way for this cup to pass, please let it pass." And in anguish and blood sweat, He hears repeatedly the silence of the Father saying, "There is no other way. This is what you must do for Me, and this is what you must do for those who will walk through the fog of disappointment in the future. You must obey. And so what is sustaining you in your season of disappointment is not your ability to stay above water, but the obedience of Jesus Christ in that moment, in that night, and on that cross. That's what will sustain you, and that's what will pull you out every time of disappointment, of doubt, of sin, of skepticism, of cynicism, of complacency, He will pull you out every time. That's what He died to do. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that doesn't mean only to save us from hell. He is our Savior when we are reeling from disappointment.
26 · Closing prayer rehearsing the sermon's core themes: God's insistence on sanctification, His presence with us on the road, and the certainty that every life in Christ will be fully redeemed and united with Him
Let's pray. I'm so thankful, dear Lord, that you have the victory in all things. And I'm so thankful that in the various ways that I sin against you, as I subtly begin to worship a god that looks enough like you to fool me, or maybe to keep me from thinking too hard about it, I'm so thankful that you are insisting on my sanctification. You're insisting that I really know who you are. You're insisting that I really agree with your priorities. You're insisting that I experience your redemption in your time, that I acknowledge who I am and what I need, and that I learn to find my identity over and over again in you. You're insisting time and time again that we go back to the basics and we look at who you are in your word. And I'm so thankful that this isn't some kind of situation where You're so distant and You're looking down and saying, "Figure it out, figure it out, figure it out." You are walking with us on this road, Lord. You are with us whether we recognize You or not. You are with us. And one day we will recognize You as You are. One day these tendencies toward idolatry, This incapacity to understand your wisdom, that will all pass away. We will live in certainty and truth and glory. Lord, for now, we trust in you, we trust in your cross and what you've done on behalf of those whom you've saved. God, may we leave this place confident in the long-term trajectory of every life in Christ. Every life in Christ that has been saved by Christ will be united with Christ, sanctified in the image of Christ, and will stand with Christ forever. We pray these things in the name of our Savior from all things, Jesus Christ. Amen.