Think of the effect that that had on that man. This is a man who lived out in the open in the desert, and he went when he pleased, said what he pleased; and now he is confined to a lonely prison cell. What was his crime? His crime was he stood up to Herod and said, The lifestyle youre living is wrong. Youve taken Philips wife to be your wife, your brothers wife to be your wife. Thats wrong. And Herod had an attitude, Who does this man think he is to question me? Im in control, and he has John arrested. Before John goes to prison though, he does baptize Jesus. Remember Johns ministry had been a hellfire and brimstone message. It was a turn or burn. Messiah is coming, and He is ticked. That's kind of the gist of it. He is coming with the wrath of God. He used word pictures like, Hes going to baptize you with fire. That stood for judgment and purification. He said, Hes going to separate the wheat from the chaff, and the wheat is going to gather, and the chaff is going to burn up; so you better make sure youre wheat. If youre not right with God, you better get down to this river and be baptized because when Messiah comes, it might be too late for you. Wrath is coming, and its on its way. People are coming by droves to be baptized by John in the Jordan. His ministry begins-Jesus ministry begins; Johns basically comes to an end. As hes sitting in prison, Jesus starts to say and do things that He did not expect Jesus to say and do. Instead of overthrowing Rome, coming with this show of force and power and crushing their enemy, Jesus is saying things like, Love your enemies. Instead of smiting sinners, Jesus is talking about lilies and sparrows and turning the other cheek. This is not what John planned. You see, John thought Jesus was going to come and deliver the wrath of God to people; but actually what happened is Jesus took the wrath of God on Himself for people. John didnt see that. People are being healed and while thats all great and wonderful, but, When do we get to the good stuff? thinks John, and when do You come and get me out of prison? And John stayed in prison. The longer he stayed, the more his doubts grew until he finally reached the point where he sent a Disciple to Jesus with this question, Are You the expected One or should we wait for another? Jesus had been baptized by John; John had heard the voice of God with audible ear, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. He saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove, and yet in this jail, in this darkness, he begins to question his faith. We said last week that some of you had been in the same place. Youd been in a jail experience, a dark experience and begun to question your faith at times. If John the Baptist could have questions and doubts, certainly you and I can have questions and doubts. Some of you have been in those jail experiences, and some of you are there right now. The door seems to stay locked too long; its too dark; and its lonely there. You want out, and it seems like Gods not answering your prayer; or maybe God doesnt care about your situation. Weve all been there, and thats why this series relates to us so well, because it is life. Well, one day the prison cell opened up. As the guard approaches with the key, John is thinking as he hears the footsteps, Maybe this is my day. Maybe this is the day Ill be free, and I can resume my ministry. How I long to be back in the desert. How I long to be used of God again, but that was not to be. The man standing outside the cell was an executioner, and his hood was on. The news he has for John is not good. He said, John, this is your last day. Herod wants your head, and John is led off to be executed. I didnt talk about that last week because thats heavy. You dont just drop that on a congregation and pass it by because as soon as you do that, you have a lot of questions. You say, Well how could God let this happen to John? Did God drop the ball on this? Did He let John down? Did God fail John? Did He break a promise? Did Satan win in this one? Because this is not a happy ending, is it? That is not the dream that John had. Thats a shattered dream if there ever was one. Were going to answer those questions, talking about a different individual. Were going to get back to John, but I want to talk to you about another young man. You know, John had words to say, and he didnt care what the people who heard them thought about him-not a sensitive guy. He was confrontational. He was in your face. Heres the way it is. The man Im talking to you about was not that way. He cared very much what people thought about him. He cared very much about how they responded and how they treated him. He was very sensitive, which if youre going to be a prophet, being sensitive is not a good thing to be. He often cried, and he wore his heart on his sleeve. He often struggled with self-doubt-whether he was worthy and capable of doing what God had called him to do. There was an inner turmoil in this young man throughout his ministry. One day, early on, God called him and sent him to the potters shop. The potter was a very important man. He made the vessels for your food, for your water and for your bathing; so he goes down to the potters shop, and God says just do down there and watch the potter. So he arrived that morning. Good morning, said the potter as he worked on the wheel, shaping his next work of art. Oh, ah no, Im just here to watch you today. Thank you. Oh, okay, he said as he worked. He said, Listen if theres anything I can do to help you, just let me know. Sure, sure. I will do that. Oh, look what Ive done! said the potter. Ive messed this up. I have to start over now. I guess I wasnt paying attention, so he gets a little bit more clay and a little bit more water. He starts to mold, and he goes, This is a water jar. Im making the wrong thing, and he chuckles and laughs. The young man hears a message then from God and says, This is what I will do to Israel if Israel does not repent of her sin. Israel is like the clay in the hands of the potter to me. I am the potter. Israel is the clay and I can reshape her and mold her any way I want to. You bring that message to Israel, and he does; but Israel does not change. In fact, the leaders form a pact and say, Lets never listen to this man again. Whatever he says, we are going to tune him out. Were not going to listen. God sends him back to the potters house a second time. Good morning, he says. Good to see you again! Do you want to buy something today, or are you just here to watch me this time, too? No, today Im want to buy a jar, and he picks a large jar. He buys it; he takes it to the city and he stands outside the temple with a message given by God. He says, God has called you today to repent. You are doing things that are detestable in His sight. You are committing murder. You are taking innocent lives, and God has said you will reap what youve sown if you dont turn and repent. He takes the jar; he lifts it over his head in dramatic fashion; he throws it to the ground, and it breaks in 100 pieces. He says, This is what God will do to you unless you change. He will break you to the point where cannot be repaired. What do you think the people did? They laughed at him. They got angry at him. They beat him; they stripped him of his robe; they put him in shackles outside the temple, and there he sat all day long, beaten, bloody and broken. People are laughing at him. Theyre mocking him. Theyre spitting at him. He must have done something awful to be in this embarrassing situation. For a sensitive guy, can you imagine what this is doing to his self-image, to have people treat him this way? His only crime was to share what God had told him to share. Thats all he had done. Now he is being treated in this manner. It is a devastating event in his life. When he is freed from his shackles, he has an opportunity to tell God exactly what he thinks of Him at that point in time; and were going to read what he said right now. I want you to open your Bibles up to the Book of Jeremiah 20 (page 770 of pew Bibles). Lets read that today. Were going to start reading in Verse 7. Were not going to read the entire chapter, but were going to read some verses that are indicative of his response to God from his treatment. He begins with a bang, O Lord, You deceived me, and I was deceived… Thats quite a charge to make, isnt it? You werent honest with me, God! You didnt play fair with me. …you overpowered me and prevailed… Youre a bully! This is some strong language here. Jeremiah is upset. Hes mad. …I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. This is the thanks I get. I preach Your Word, and the result is I am ridiculed and mocked. Anybody ever done the right thing? You did what you thought was going to please God, and you just got beat over the head as a result? It doesnt feel too good, does it? Jeremiah is not happy. Jeremiah-whats more-is suicidal at this point. He doesnt want to live anymore. Look at Verse 14, Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! He doesnt want a birthday. Say happy birthday to Jeremiah, and youre probably going to get a punch in the nose. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you-a son! Hes even mad at the guy passing out cigars. Hes even mad at that guy! He wishes he were dead. Verse 18, Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? This is it. He cant even see tomorrow. This is going to be it for him. Thats how mad he is, but what I really want you to focus on is his statement. He says, Lord, You deceived me! Then I want to ask you the question-did God deceive Jeremiah? Did He? Did God say to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, if you proclaim this message, everybodys going to love you and repent of their sins? Did He say that? No. Did He say, Everybodys going to listen and follow what you say, Jeremiah? No, God never said that. I mean I dont blame Jeremiah for being angry. When I give a sermon, theres usually a few of you every Sunday that will come up to me and say, That was a good sermon, Pastor Jeff. I really got a lot out of that. That makes me feel good. It makes me feel like Im doing what God wants me to do. Ive never had anybody come up to me and go, That was terrible! and start hitting me. Be quiet! I dont like you, and Im going to shackle you up! You need to be quiet! Thats never happened to me. If you guys started yelling at me, booing me and throwing things at me, I might not like my job anymore. I can understand how Jeremiah would be upset. He has grounds to be upset, but God did not break a promise to Jeremiah. God did not deceive Jeremiah because God never promised Jeremiah that he wouldnt get hurt, that people wouldnt listen or that people would love him or like him. We have this understanding. Its kind of taught in our culture. Its taught by a lot of preachers and authors that we serve God. We make a commitment to God, try to live a good life, and then God does things for us; and well be reasonably happy, successful, prosperous and healthy. When things dont go our way, we get upset with God. We say, Youve broken your end of the bargain. About 30 years ago, I was much younger, thinner, and more athletic. I was getting ready to play basketball at the university that I was enrolled at, so I took my sport very seriously. I was 18, 19 years old. I was getting in shape, and I remember this like it was yesterday. I went in the gym to scrimmage, and I prayed this prayer because I have a weak ankle from a bad injury when I was a boy. I would have a tendency to sprain it all the time. Every season Id sprain my ankle bad. I said, Lord, please prevent me from being injured today. Lord, I pray especially that I will not turn my ankle. In Jesus name, Amen. Im playing maybe five minutes, and I come down. I go up five, six feet in the air [congregation laughing], and I come back down after that monstrous dunk, and I woke up. No. I jumped up in the air, and I came down on my foot, and I rolled it bad. Im lying there on the ground, and Im in pain; but I am angry. I slam my fist on the ground, and I thought to myself, He let me down. God let me down. I asked Him specifically not to turn the ankle, and thats the thing [I hurt]; and He could have stopped that! He could have stopped it, but He didnt stop it. In fact, thats the very thing I hurt! I was mad! God had let me down. Have any of you ever prayed for something, and the exact opposite of what you prayed for happened? Did you get mad? I didnt pray that prayer for years. Id say, Well, I would pray that I wont get hurt, but I know how that one goes. Till I had to learn some things-I had to learn some things; and when I prayed it, I prayed it differently. I prayed a prayer that goes like this-and I still do-I still pray this prayer, Lord, Im going out today. Now Im an old man, sports-wise. Im now playing against the sons of the guys I used to play with. Im going out there today, Lord, whether I get hurt or I dont get hurt, whether I win or lose, whether I play well or play poorly-help me to have the right attitude and be a good reflection of You in the gym today. Now I dont always-Im not always that… Im a human being. If you get fouled or something, you get mad, or [if there is] a bad call, you get mad. Its part of being a person, but my prayer is different. Do you know why? Because I found out what Jesus really did promise. Jesus didnt break a promise to me, Jeremiah or to John the Baptist. In fact, Ill tell you what Jesus promised you, and you tell me if He broke His promise. John 16:33 (page 1070): Jesus says, I spoke these things that you may have peace. In this world, you might have trouble… Is that what He says? In this world, its possible that one day you might have a little trouble. No. In this world, theres a good chance youre going to have trouble. No. In this world, you will have trouble. The world trouble means pressures, problems. That's a promise. Has God kept that promise? Have you had trouble in this world? [Congregation laughing.] Has anybody-God broke the promise, and you have never had a day of trouble, pressure or problems in your life? Let me see your hand because we all hate you [congregation laughing]. God has kept this promise, hasnt He? We have all had troubles, and we will continue to have troubles because that is the nature of this fallen world; and Jesus is quite up front with that. There are people who believe a Gospel thats very different than this. They think Gods supposed to keep them healthy, happy and rich. When those things dont happen, they get ticked off; and they leave their faith. They think like Jeremiah, God has deceived me. God has abandoned me; and I say to you, God did not abandon you or deceive you. That is a promise; that is a bill of goods. That is not the promise of the Bible. That is not the promise of the Gospel. That is the promise of man. God said quite the opposite. In this world, you will have trouble, but fear not or be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So lets turn our attention to Jesus and see how He was able to do that. If you would turn in your Bibles please to the Book of Matthew 26, we are going to see that Jesus… This is the passion period in His life-before the cross. Hes been betrayed. Hes gone away to Gethsemane with His Disciples to pray. Judas has already betrayed Him. Soon there will be hundreds of men who will come to arrest Him-not a few, hundreds. Theyll come with lanterns, torches and spears, knives and swords. Right now its quiet. Right now, its just the crickets, just the owls and His Disciples in the Garden. Its dark. He takes Peter, James and John with Him, and He begins to be troubled. He tells them whats on His heart. Verse 38 (page 985), He said, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Going a little farther-and by the way, you and I face our own sin. We have bore the weight of our sin. We have felt shame, guilt, remorse and regret over things weve done; but can you imagine-and you cant-what it would be like to bear the weight of the world, of the worlds sin upon you as He is about to on the cross? This moment is facing Him square in the eye. He falls on His face to the ground. He lies prostrate on the ground, and He prays this prayer, …My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. In other words, Jesus wasnt looking to go to the cross. It was not something that He was joyful about. Nobody is asking you to be a martyr. Nobodys asking you to want to be a martyr. John didnt necessarily want to be beheaded, Im sure, that day. Christians didnt want to be burned at the stake. They didnt want to be stoned to death, but they were willing to. Altaf, our missionary in Pakistan-hes not flaunting his faith to his Taliban neighbors. He lives near them. He doesnt flaunt his faith and go, Hey, Im a Christian! Shoot me! But hes willing to die. Hes ready to die if that happens, if God calls him to lay down his life. Jesus says, Nevertheless, not as I will, but Your will be done. I will drink this cup if theres no other way to win mans salvation, and so there was no other way. If the law would have been good enough, Jesus would not have had to go to the cross. If your good works were good enough, Jesus would not have gone to the cross. If some other way was adequate, Jesus would not have had to go to the cross. Jesus goes to the cross, suffers and dies because that was the only price that was sufficient enough to pay for your salvation. There was one way to God, and that's through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and faith in His name. Because there was no other way, He went and was obedient and laid down His life. Friends, this prayer, as powerful and dangerous-and if you can pray this prayer, you know that you are mature as a believer. If you can pray the prayer and say, Lord, this isnt something I like. This isnt something I want to experience. I want to get out of this prison. I dont want my dreams to be shattered. I dont like this but if this is Your will for me, I will drink it. If you can pray that prayer, if you can be faithful to God in the midst of adversity, then friends youre on your way to being mature in Christ. You say, Well, you know what? Were not playing with an even field here because this is Jesus were talking about. This is divinity. Im all for trying to be like Jesus, but come on! Compare us to Jeremiah. We understand that, but to compare us to the Son of God, we cant live up that standard! Thats too high! Well, okay. Youre making a good point, but I want to counter that with another point. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Revelation 2. Revelation, at the beginning of the Book, is unique. We have letters that Paul wrote to churches. Other Disciples wrote letters to Christians and churches. In Revelation, the first few chapters, we have Jesus writing letters to actual churches. John is His amanuensis, but Jesus is the One thats giving the dictation; so Jesus is writing to a specific body, so this church in Smyrna was a church that existed just like we do. They had a building; had a leader; had elders; they came to church on Sunday morning and worshipped God just like we do; and Jesus sent them a letter. Heres what He had to say in Verse 10, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, but I will protect you and make sure that no bad thing ever happens to you because I love you and I want to spoil you like a house pet. We think thats what we should be-Gods little house pets. You know how we have this perfect environment-no predators. Nothing bad happens, and everythings always provided for us. Were always petted and treated nicely, and we think we should be like that-little fat, lazy, sassy pets who God pats on the head and says, Good girl. Good boy. I love you. We wag our tails and work hard for treats. He said, I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer… Hes not going to try to stop it. Hes not going to try to prevent it. He says, You will suffer persecution for ten days. Its going to be a little while, and during that time you will suffer. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life, on the other side. What does Jesus want more than anything from His believers? Faithfulness. Faithfulness. He says when adversity comes, be faithful. When you feel like you dont feel My presence, be faithful. When life does not go your way, when prayers are unanswered, be faithful. When youre in that prison experience and dreams are shattered, be faithful. Dream a bigger dream because there is no bigger dream than living to be in the middle of the will of God. There is no bigger dream than being in a right relationship with the Father. There is no bigger dream than being faithful to God even unto death. Friends, if that is your dream, then there is literally nothing in this world that can happen, even death itself, that can keep you from fulfilling that dream. Think about that. Any other dream you have can be taken from you, but the dream to love God and know God-if everything in my life happens for a good, it makes me love God more; and everything that happens in my life for the bad makes me depend on Him and know Him more, then there is nothing that can happen in your life that can separate you from the highest dream. Christians all through the ages have had what seemed like bad endings. John had a bad ending from an earthly perspective, but when he said good-bye to this world, he was welcomed in Heaven with the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. When those in Smyrna who suffered and even died for their faith left this home, they were welcomed in glory, Well done, my good and faithful servants. I want to close by reading from Chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews. The author is talking about the importance of faith, and he then lists examples of faith. Then he begins to talk about just some of the nameless, faceless martyrs who have perished over the centuries. At the end of Verse 35 (page 1193), the author says this, Others were tortured and refused to be released so they might gain a better resurrection. Verse 36, Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us, a greater dream, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. The dream of God is that we will be perfect. Right now, He is building within us character and faith, Christ-likeness, working toward that perfection. Friends, I want to dare you to dream the greatest dream of all; and that is when your dreams are shattered, dream the biggest dream-to be faithful to God, no matter what happens, until death; to serve Him in adversity and in prosperity; in freedom and imprisonment. Whether things have gone well or have not gone well, He wants you to be faithful to serve Him, obey Him, yield to Him and love Him all the days of your lives. God says in Heaven, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. That is our goal. That is our home-not this earth. I wish I had better news for you. I wish it could be like one of those best-selling authors and tell you that God wants you always laughing, rich and happy all the time; but you know from the Word of God and you know from your experience that thats not true. Thats not the way life is. Lets dream the greatest dream today. Would you join me in prayer this morning? Father, we can identify with Jeremiah. There have been times when we have felt deceived as though Youre not keeping Your promise. Youre not living up to Your end of the bargain-when actually its a promise You never made. A promise You made is in this world, we will have trouble, and that promise has been kept. We all identify with that, but the second part of that promise is to have good cheer in spite of the adversity because You have overcome the world. You conquered death from the grave. Because we are in You, we too will overcome. My prayer is for those who have never made a commitment to follow and serve the Lord Jesus Christ-that today they would put the trust of their eternal soul into Your care. Jesus, help us to dream the greatest dream, the dream that nothing that happens in this life can thwart or stop. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.