Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good Morning Village Church. Good morning. If I haven't met you yet, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church, and, uh, we're in a series called Red Line. And, uh, I'll explain that in a moment, but my, my kids and I have been watching all of these clue, like detective movies, and we are trying to watch every single one we can get our hands on. I, I'm sort of obsessed with saying Cuba role, the name of the detective in the Orient Express. I think I totally botched it. There is a French woman who attends our church, and I want to apologize now for completely butchering his name or Ben wa Blanc, you know, and, uh, you guys, you probably have your favorite, um, detective. But what I love is I love watching these geniuses walk into utter chaos and to watch them make sense of the chaos.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 It's so satisfying and it's a, it's a reminder that like in life, very few things actually make sense in the moment. And I'm reminded that there is a God who understands and knows all and can make sense of anything. Personally, I hate not knowing anybody else in the room. I, if I'm being really blunt at times, my heart, I demand answers. And sometimes when I don't get the answers, it's easy for me to say, I need some space. You owe me a why. So do you guys remember the show? Unsolved Mysteries Hate that show <laugh>, it always ended the same way. They never solved the mystery, but there is a murder in a neighborhood like yours just waiting to come. I don't, like, I always left with like, oh, great. The worst human beings are in the are, are like all around us, in our neighbors and will never, ever figure it out.
Speaker 1 00:02:05 Well, there there's a phrase that if you've heard me preach long enough or if I have counseled you, you have probably heard this phrase come out of my mouth. And this is the, the thing that I say when you're looking at a circumstance and it just doesn't make any sense, here it is, there's always a piece of information that if you had, it would actually make sense of everything. If you ever just looked at a circumstance and you're like, oh, this is so illogical, and then sometime in the future this new piece of information came out and all of a sudden everything made perfect sense. And, and, and here's the deal. In every one of our confusing circumstances, God has that piece of information and he doesn't give it to us. And it drives me nuts. Consider Job. This is a, a great example. If you read the Book of Job, you know it's happening to him.
Speaker 1 00:03:03 This guy loses everything. I mean, his life is an absolute mess. And there's like one missing piece of the puzzle in his brain, which is, why is this happening to me? And the entire book is him kind of wrestling with his friends and with God about why is this happening? And all God had to do was give him the missing piece of information. Um, uh, actually Joe, but the reason we did this is so that I could make a mockery of Satan, show all of the followers of God for millennial history after this moment, my providence and sovereignty. And so that you could be a hero and a model for people who suffer from now until my coming back again to judge the living of the dead. Like if only Job would've known that, don't you feel like it maybe would've helped him? Like, I don't know, get through it.
Speaker 1 00:03:47 And even at the end of the book, him and him and God have a conversation and it drives me nuts. He's, he wants to know why. And God's like, who are you? If I want you to know, I'll tell you, you've asked, I haven't responded. And you even get to the end of the book. And here's what it seems. It seems like this guy dies never understanding all of the catastrophes that happened in his life. There's always a piece of information that if you had it, it would make sense of everything. And of all the unanswered questions in the universe, what I have found are the most difficult for Christians. They fall into two categories. And we call these the why and the will questions. God, why did you let this happen to me? God, what is your will for me? And I, I want to be really clear.
Speaker 1 00:04:44 God knows exactly why he allowed, ordained or permitted. God has the answer. Now, whether he chooses to give that answer, that's his prerogative. My experience with the Lord is that he often waits for a while and inevitably begins to make sense of things. But it takes a long time. It usually makes sense after prayer counsel. And when the series of events are over, how irritating is that? God, what is your will for me? I've also learned about the Lord that he rarely ever gives me anything more than one step ahead like God, I wanna know the next five years. And he's like, here's just the next thing I want you to do. Just do that thing. Yeah. But what happens after that? I'll, I'll tell you when, when you get there and, and the why and the will questions drive Christians crazy. And when God doesn't give you the wire, the will, we have one of two options in responding and one which is the path of least resistance is distrust.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 And distrust starts very simply. It starts with blame. You'll hear this come outta your mouth when you're praying. Maybe you're talking to other people about it. God, if only you would have not or stopped or done or done things differently, you begin to look at God and blame him like it's his fault. Then it moves. When it gets a little bit darker, the distrust grows. It moves into accusations. You did this to me. You didn't just let this happen. You did this to me. And you know your distrust when you don't know the why or the wills that it's worse when you start working in conspiratorial assumptions. I know you're up to no good. There are people who walk away from the Lord because they don't believe He is for them, because they actually do not trust his heart and they begin to put this framework of God together that he is cold, he doesn't care, he's abandoned you.
Speaker 1 00:06:49 And they begin to del develop these really conspiratorial frameworks that aren't accurate at all. I think there's a better option, by the way. I think the better option is trust. And here's, here's kind of how you know that you're on the pathway of trust. When you don't have the why and you don't have the will, you give God the benefit of the doubt. This is hard to give someone. The benefit of the doubt requires trust. Uh, I'll give you a definition that I think really helps us in this context. It's to have a disposition of trust and tenderness to God as we wait for his why and his will Trust is, is is the decision I'm, I'm going to, I'm gonna continue to choose to lean into you and tenderness, I think describes sort of the attitude. I'm not gonna harden my heart to you, but I'm gonna stay tender to you even though I don't know why this thing happened or what you are up to or how this is all gonna pan out.
Speaker 1 00:07:54 I'm gonna continue to follow Jesus and I'm gonna continue to have a tender heart to you. I cannot tell you how many of my sermons are mostly about encouraging us to have a tender heart to God when we don't understand what he is up to. First Corinthians 13, seven says this, love believes our bears all things. And then it says this, it believes all things. This is literally trusts that if you're gonna be in a loving relationship with God, there is gonna be a, a disposition of your heart that you are tender and trusting to him when the things around you are not making sense. Now, um, open, uh, your bibles with me to, uh, John chapter 13. And as we go there, I wanna set this chapter up with you. The series again is called Red line and a Red Line. Um, for definition it's your personal boundary beyond which you have decided not to pass.
Speaker 1 00:08:51 It's the fastest, furthest or highest point of degree considered safe. And we've talked about what, what is beyond the red line because we're gonna get up to this point where we're like, yeah, I'm not going here any further. Now some of you're wondering if I'm gonna have more, um, pictures about heights that I'm petrified of. No, we're done with the heights discussion. I almost threw up last time just looking at some of those. But what lies on the, on the other side of a red line, unacceptable danger and risk in discomfort or loss or death. So this morning we're gonna, we're actually gonna focus on the disciples. We're gonna focus on their red line and what held them back from actually following Jesus. And so here's what happens in John 13. In one short day, these disciples are gonna be asked to cross their red line.
Speaker 1 00:09:36 Now what have to understand about John 13 is John really 12 all the way to the end of the book, all take place in the last week of Jesus' life. In fact, John 13 to the end of the book, all take place in the last two days of Jesus's life. And so here's what's gonna happen within the next 24 or less hours, these disciples are gonna be asked to publicly affiliate with Jesus as he has tried slandered and publicly murdered. And they're gonna have to figure out in the next 24 hours, they have no idea this is coming. They should, but they don't. And they're gonna have to really figure out, will I follow Jesus and stand with him even if standing with him means they might kill me too. That's a big deal. Now, as you keep your bibles open to John 13, I wanna set some more context.
Speaker 1 00:10:36 I don't want you to read this on the screen from Mark chapter 8 31. It says this, and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priest and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again was Jesus crystal clear what was gonna happen the week of Passover this year? The answer is yes. And if you gave the disciples a quiz, what does Jesus think is gonna happen this week? Would they have passed the quiz? Yes. Their issue is not cognitive in nature. They refused to accept this plan. They didn't like it, it did not make any sense to them. It seemed irrational. And God, if you don't make sense, it must be your problem because last time I checked, you should be consulting with me because my ideas are really good.
Speaker 1 00:11:26 No, that's not actually the way it works. Look at verse 32 says, he said this plainly. And then Peter took him aside the audacity of this child to take Jesus aside and rebuke his rabbi. This is a really big deal. He is not having this. And I want you to get it. Peter understands cognitively exactly what Jesus is saying is gonna happen. And Peter does not trust him in his heart either, that he knows what will happen or that Jesus knows what is best. Jesus, your plan is dumb and you need to listen to me cuz we have a better plan. It's time that you finally bent the ear to me for once.
Speaker 1 00:12:19 And and and there's a, there's a question implied when Jesus talks about they're gonna betray me, they're gonna try me, they're gonna kill me. I'm gonna rise again. And here's the question that I, I'm guessing they're talking amongst themselves. Okay, if this happens, will we go with him? Will we identify with him? And you guys already know this by now, only one of the 12 stood with Jesus at the crucifixion. And that was John who wrote this book. And what John 13 is gonna begin to address to us is, is one of the many reasons why. Because they didn't understand. And for some reason these guys required understanding and their questions answered in order to follow Jesus. And then this is gonna force us to ask a question. I'll kind of let it pondering your brain at the beginning here. Do you require Jesus to make sense for you to follow him?
Speaker 1 00:13:23 Do you require your questions to be answered before you will follow him? And I'm gonna be honest, there's a lot of people who won't follow Jesus because of fear, but there's a whole lot of people who won't follow Jesus because they require him to make sense, because they have a list of questions. I will not follow you until you answer these, then I will follow you. But what if he never does our job right? John? 13, this will be a little bit different. We're gonna fly over the chapter. You're gonna notice in John 13 there's a lot happening, but we're gonna focus on the disciples and their confusion. They left John 12 very confused and they're gonna leave John 13 even more confused. We're looking, we'll start in John 13 verse six. Jesus came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?
Speaker 1 00:14:20 He's confused. Jesus answered him What I am doing, you do not understand. Now this word understand it comes up all the time. He said, you don't get this. I understand that you dance is a door nail. You're pretty prideful. You're already rebuking me for going for the whole plan. I get it. You don't understand this. But Peter said to him, Lord, you shall never wash my feet. Does does Peter understand anything right now? No. Jesus answered him. If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Does Peter have a clue what Jesus is talking about? Nothing. And and, and if you're reading the book of John carefully, this is what should bother you. Peter should have no reason for not understanding Jesus. But here's the deal. Peter has a thing in his brain. Jesus, it can't be that. It can't be that you don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 00:15:20 Jesus, you, it can't be this. And so even though Jesus says it over and over and over and over and over again, Peter refuses to accept it. And and I get this like they have zero category for a resurrection, let alone the Messiah being killed. But I, if I was gonna give anybody the benefit of the doubt that they were gonna be raised from the dead, wouldn't it be the guy who just raised Lazarus from the dead? Anybody? Verse 12 in John 13, when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? Do you see this question that keeps coming up? And what is the answer? They have no idea. This number one is not normal behavior for a normal rabbi, but last time we checked is Jesus a normal rabbi?
Speaker 1 00:16:14 We're gonna go with definitely not. And the disciples are regularly put in positions where they have to trust in Jesus, even though they have no idea why he's doing what he's doing. And somehow is the Book of John unfolds, they're gonna be asked to trust him and to stand with him while he is being publicly murdered and to affiliate with them when they have zero categories for how this could possibly turn out for good. Look at verse 28 in John 13, um, in verse 27, uh, ju Judas is literally in this verse possessed by Satan himself in front of everybody. And nobody seems to have like a clue. I i just in my brain, I think if like you were possessed by the devil himself in my presence, I feel like my discernment radars would go off. Maybe that's a perk of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:17:12 I don't know. Verse 28, it says this. Now no one at the table knew why he said this to them. What did he say? He said to, he said to Jesus, Judas, what you are going to do, do it quickly. The most evil spirit in existence and the most righteous person ever are playing a life and death game of 4D chess in front of all of these disciples. And they are dumb as rocks and they cannot see at all what's going on. It's just flying right over their heads. Should they have been confused? No. He already told them they're gonna betray me. They're going to kill me guys. Passover is tomorrow. I've already told you the plan. And they have no categories. Now going on to verse 36, and I'm trying to show you this pattern, and this is just John 13, I mean this carries on in the book of John, their utter confusion.
Speaker 1 00:18:05 Verse 36, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? What has he already told them? I'm going to die <laugh>. Jesus answered him where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterwards. Peter said to him, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. I will cross the red line. If I am asked to publicly affiliate with you, I will die. I will literally tell everybody I follow Jesus of Nazareth. I don't care what the cost is. Jesus answer. Verse 38, will you late on your life for me? Peter, truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow to you have denied me three times. And here's the deal, like in Peter's intentions, they're really great. But at the end of the day, until Peter could make sense of things, Peter had no intention of following.
Speaker 1 00:19:06 Peter required his questions to be answered before he would actually cross the red line. And it's irritating to watch. Now I want to, I want to answer a question that, um, might be looming. Why will 11 of these 12 men fail to stand and affiliate publicly with Jesus in less than 24 hours? And at the end of the day, it's really hard to trust when you don't understand anything that's going on. Nothing made sense to them. Nothing fit into their biblical categories, their theological categories, their relational categories. They could not make sense of anything. And there's something that happens in the human heart when things don't make sense. It's really easy for us to pull away from the Lord. Let me lemme explain to you what actually didn't make sense. So you, you know this, if you've read a little bit of the Bible, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah and the Old Testament, the prophets have a lot to say about the Messiah.
Speaker 1 00:20:13 He's going to come and he's going to rule over all of not just Israel, but the entire world. He's gonna take the enemies of Israel, put them under his feet. He's gonna usher in global and eternal security and peace. There's clearly something supernatural about this character because the kingdom that he leads is gonna happen forever and ever and ever and ever. And all of those things are true about Jesus, who is the Messiah. But there is another character in the Old Testament and he was called the suffering servant. And the, and in the Jewish brain, these are two separate characters. So now you have the suffering servant. And the suffering servant is gonna be betrayed. He's going to die and there's gonna be a lot of things that happened to him. And so here's what's been really interesting in Jesus' ministry. Jesus has been trying to tell them, I am the suffering servant and I am the Messiah. And in their brain, here's what they're saying. That's two different people. How can, how can you be one person but two different people? And he's like, dummies, it's the same person. No, he didn't actually say that word. That's just mine. So getting kids listening, you silly. You silly boys. <laugh>, can't you understand <laugh>?
Speaker 1 00:21:30 It's not two people, it's the same person. No, that's ridiculous. Jesus. If he's dead, then how can he reign forever?
Speaker 1 00:21:48 Do you remember Lazarus? What happened to him? That doesn't make any sense. If you're dead, how can you raise yourself from the dead? Holy moly, this theological conundrum, they couldn't overcome it even though Jesus literally gave them the answer. I'm gonna be betrayed like the suffering servant. I am going to die and I am going to rise again. Then I will take on the other messianic duties. And the kingdom of heaven will come to the earth. And then you fill in the blank. They could not put it together for the life of them. It made no sense. And rather than trusting Jesus was smarter than them, they bailed, they bailed to the point that when they found him raised from the dead, what were they shocked? Really? For real. And at at the end when they see the resurrection, the resurrection, Jesus, they, they go, oh, we should have trusted you the whole time.
Speaker 1 00:23:10 And Jesus, I imagine would've said correct, you should have. Do you see, do you see the, the problem here? God has a habit of withholding information. In fact, the New Testament calls this the mysteries that were hidden, um, not just from the prophets but from the spiritual domain and rulers, that there were actually things in the global plan of God that he did not reveal until the apostles revealed them. Why? Well, one of the reasons that First Corinthians chapter two says is so that, that they would actually follow through and kill Jesus. Put yourself in Satan's shoes just for a moment if you would. Do you think that if Satan knew the death of Jesus Christ was gonna result in his eternal destruction, do you think he still would've gone through with it? Here's the deal. Had anybody ever before the death of Christ, ever experienced the death of God?
Speaker 1 00:24:07 Nobody had any category of what was gonna happen except for God himself. What was gonna happen with the death of God was one of the mysteries hidden for ages to come. And I, and I imagine Satan and his hubris and ridiculous. It's like, well, if you killed Don God, he's dead right? If you killed Jesus, he's dead. Now I gotta deal with the Father in the spirit. But still, he had no idea what was gonna happen. And part of this was the mystery. And here's the deal. Sometimes God doesn't tell you the why or even the will on purpose. And that my friends is the Christian life 98% of the time. And, and, and we're left with huge questions when I don't know why and I don't know what, will I abandon Jesus or will I still stand with him no matter what the cost?
Speaker 1 00:25:00 I don't know when I cross the red line what danger lies on the other side of this. But I, but I do know that my body and my soul and my eternity are safer in the hands of Jesus than they are in my own hands. And this, this brings us to two simple. So whats, sometimes God doesn't tell us his why or his will on purpose. Let me surmise a few reasons why God might not do this. Number one, maybe because we can't carry it. There are some things that are too difficult that are coming down the road that if we knew it now would probably cause much anxiety. And so maybe there's something about the why or the will that honestly we're not prepared for yet. Moms and dads, are there things that you don't tell your kids because they're not prepared to carry the emotional spiritual weight of it? For sure it's actually an act of love and good parenting. Maybe because like Peter, we might actually seek to sabotage God's will because in our hubris, that's ridiculous. Why would you do that? If you just do it this way? It's gonna be much better. God consult with me more often. I have a pretty low fee
Speaker 3 00:26:21 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:26:23 Maybe because he's testing your faith to see what he can entrust you with in the future. I have known this to be a regular practice of the Lord. Maybe he is growing your faith, your confidence in him, your trust in him. Maybe he's building the muscle because in the next 2, 3, 6, 12 months, he's gonna be asking you to carry something and he needs to work you out to prepare you for it. Maybe it's all the above. At the end of the day, I know that one of the most pleasing things to the Lord in scripture is trust. It's faith, it's belief, all the same word in Greek. It is a disposition of our heart to follow him and to give him the benefit of the doubt that that is one of the most precious things in the sight of God that pleases him. And so what does God want to develop in us?
Speaker 1 00:27:24 Trust faith, confidence. You don't develop trust by telling you everything. You develop trust by not telling everything and then showing them how it is actually for good. It's very different. If he told us Ev everything, our trust in him wouldn't grow. We would just become entitled. Brats is that keep telling me, keep telling me I require information to move on. And if you don't give it, I won't. And and the second. So what if you can't see a theme here? It's a very simple message. And this is what I think if the disciples could, could actually stand before you now they would say trust him. Just trust him. I know it doesn't make sense. I know there's a lot of things in front of you. I know that all how all this is gonna pan out can feel very confusing. I need you to trust him and keep your heart tender toward the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:28:15 By the time you get to the end of chapter 13, every one of these disciples is even more confused. Uh, look at John 14 verse one. And Jesus gives them this antidote. He says, let not your hearts be troubled. Why are they troubled? They're upset. They do not understand what's happening. They don't understand where he is going. They're afraid that this ridiculous plan of being rejected and killed and being raised from the dead is actually gonna be put in motion. They don't actually believe he's gonna be raised from the dead. So they think it's a bad idea. They don't. They're like, what is going on right now? They're not okay. And he says, believe in God, believe also in me. Trust me. That's what belief means. Belief is not just a mental ascent to a truth. It is a heart disposition. Calm your hearts down. Lean into me. Believe me from your heart, this is gonna be fine. I know what I'm doing. Stick with me. Stay near to me. Be proud of me. Don't deny me before men. Cuz if you deny me before men, my father will deny you. Stick with me. Aren't you so glad for second chances through the blood of Christ? I won't ask you to raise your hand. So please don't any of you ever denied Jesus? Have you ever maybe not been proud of him publicly? Anybody good? Again, rhetorical meaning don't raise your hand.
Speaker 1 00:29:45 I am confident the majority of the time God will not tell you the why or the will. It's interesting when I think about I did not plan this part. So this to be a little off the cuff. When I think about Matt moving pastor Matt going to Upper Peninsula Bible camp, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. How many students are having a hard time understanding God? Why would you do that to me? Lord, what's your will in that? And moms and dads like I like, I mean, gosh, I'm gonna cry again. Just like I really wanted Matt to be my kids' youth pastor until they graduated. You know, like I really wanted that. That's my will by the way. My will stinks, but I have to pull back and, and parents have to pull back and friends have to pull back. And kids and students need to pull back and say, well, Jesus taught us that we may not like everything but not your will done.
Speaker 1 00:30:40 But mine, number one and number two, I'm not going to harden my heart because I don't like it. Do do you see the struggle with Peter? Peter loves Jesus and the idea that Jesus could be killed, that's ridiculous to him. And we have the same thing. The the idea that God would take someone we love and bring them someone else. The idea that God would allow somebody we love. Think about friends and family who have passed away or friends and family that have moved away. And, and like God's will is hard at times. And, and I think one of the things, the disciples that they could get up, they would just look at all of you and say, I get it. The why's will come eventually, usually not right away the will of God. We know the next right thing. Trust him. Keep your heart tender and soft to him.
Speaker 1 00:31:32 He deserves your trust. And then like the disciples, when they saw the resurrected Jesus, they're gonna go, oh, I should have trusted you the whole time cuz you're a genius. And so I wanna, I wanna take a moment. We're gonna celebrate communion here and uh, in, in, in a second. But, um, if you are a believer in Jesus and you have failed to trust God, maybe your heart's disposition has been bitterness, blame accusations, name calling. I, I think this is a great opportunity to repent of that and to apologize to the Lord and say, I am so sorry. A and I have a hunch that if you've been in that position, you already know the next right thing to do. The Holy Spirit has probably already told you, you need to go talk to this person or make that decision or make this thing right.
Speaker 1 00:32:23 Apologize to him and resolve to follow him no matter where he asks you to go. And one of the reasons we partake of communion, by the way, is not because we're good, it's because we're sinners. And communion is a reminder to us sinners that the blood of Christ covers all of those who are his and new starts, new mercies are available to us every single day. Maybe you're here and you have never trusted in Jesus Christ. Maybe you, you require a whole bunch of questions to be answered. And I've got good news and hard news. The good news is you don't need your questions to be answered in order to believe in Jesus Christ. Why do I say that? Here's the hard news. You're never ever gonna get all of your questions answered ever.
Speaker 1 00:33:10 But do you know that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh? And do you know that Jesus died for your sins in your place? Do you, do you believe that God raised him from the dead needs coming back? Are you willing to trust your body, your soul, and your eternity to your creator's hands and heart? And if you are willing to do that today, you can trust Christ for the very first time and receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when you do that, you still won't get all your questions answered, but he will prove himself faithful from this point forward into all of eternity. You're never gonna get to a point when you look back and you regret trusting your life, your heart, your soul, and your eternity to Jesus. If that's a decision you wanna make today, come talk to somebody up front.
Speaker 1 00:34:03 Tell somebody who came with, and we would love, love to celebrate you for the first time being reconciled to God, not by being a good person, but by believing in Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the example of these disciples. I thank you that we get to look at their dense behavior and it's so frustrating. But God, we're not that different. We actually have less excuses because as, as your sons and daughters, after the resurrection, we have the Holy Spirit in us. But God like them would, would you protect us from a hard heart toward you? Would you teach us to trust you and to give you the benefit of the doubt, especially when we come up to these red lines. God, I pray you would just give us this ability to have the complete confidence to entrust our reputation to you, our finances to you, our body to you, our friendships to you, the outcomes to you. Or would you build in us a spirit of trust so that when we do come toe to toe with these red lines, we can put one foot in front of the next and follow you wherever you lead us. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
