WEAKNESS AS GOD'S WORKSHOP

Main Texts: Matthew 27:39–44; Colossians 1:16–17;

Introduction: The Tension of “Unanswered” Prayer

A Snapshot from People Who Where There.... (Matthew 27:39–44)

• Those who once saw Jesus perform miracles now seem disillusioned: “He saved others… can’t save himself!”
• They quote Jesus back to Him—evidence they followed His teachings—but see only defeat and mock what they believe to be a “failed Messiah.”
• Disappointed hopes: God was indeed at work, but not as they expected.

Our Own High Expectations

• We believe Christ is Supreme (Col 1:16–17)
• Yet we live in a broken reality—“vandalized shalom.” Poverty, disease, conflict, loneliness remain.

The Voice of Doubt: Echoes of the Tempter

• The crowd at the cross: “If you are the Son of God…”
  • Same language used by Satan in the wilderness (Matt 4:3–6): “If you are the Son of God, turn stones into bread…”
  • The insinuation: If God were truly in control, you wouldn’t be suffering like this.
• In our own lives, we hear Satan’s whispers:
  • “If God really loved you, wouldn’t He fix your marriage/cancer/family drama?”
  • “If Jesus is King, why is there so much evil in the world?”
    
    

Christ’s Cross: Failure or Victory?

• For the bystanders, Jesus’ crucifixion was proof He wasn’t the Messiah. Messiahs don’t die on Roman crosses.
• For the Gospel writers, the cross is the epicenter of God’s saving work, setting in motion the resurrection victory we now know.
• We have an advantage: Christ rose! We know God can appear “defeated” while actually orchestrating the greatest triumphs of all.

Faithful Response: Obedience Despite Disappointment

“Our cause [Satan’s] is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy’s [GOD’s] will, looks around on a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis)

Lessons:

• If you feel abandoned, you’re not alone—Jesus experienced derision, disappointment, betrayal.
• Even when God seems silent, He is still at work, often in ways we cannot see until later.
• Prayer, worship, and obedience amid disappointment is a powerful testimony to Christ’s quiet sovereignty.

BBCC Verse of the Week:  Psalm 71:3–5 (NIV)  Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.  For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.

Study Notes

When you are in the darkness, there is no use pretending you can see the path ahead. Just keep inching forward. Call out to God, like David in the Psalms, and when needed, grope for his hand in the darkness. If you are in a time of spiritual and experiential drought, do not be overly introspective, constantly examining your emotions to see if they are improving. Do not try to manufacture spiritual feelings. Do not neglect the Bible, prayer, and church, since these are God's ordinary means of giving grace. Do not worry about long-term growth; God is using your dry season to speak to you. The darkness is speaking, telling us that God is God and we are not, and that God's ways are not our ways. Silence and darkness do not mean that God is absent or angry. They mean that he is present in a different way, a way that is appropriate for this phase of our spiritual journey. Expect a greater sense of God's reality after the darkness than before. Looking back, we will see God's wisdom, though in the darkness we felt abandoned. Timothy Keller, "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God":

The mockery hurled at Jesus (vv. 39-44) fulfills Psalm 22:7-8. Those who passed by—possibly pilgrims on their way to the temple, since the place of crucifixion was beside a well-traveled road—hurled insults at Jesus by wagging their heads (cf. Ps 22:7; 109:25; Lam 2:15). The content of their remarks shows that they were aware of Jesus' teachings. Doubtless his claims regarding the destruction and rebuilding of the temple (26:61; John 2:19) had been garbled in the popular mind. The mockers challenged Jesus to save himself and come down from the cross if indeed he was the Son of God. Their taunt is a repetition of Satan's (4:3, 6). Satan and the world continue to tempt believers to use spiritual power for self-serving ends. The religious authorities likewise mocked, appealing to the same garbled report, but in words more directly reminiscent of Psalm 22:8. Their theology was explicit: Jesus had claimed to trust in God and to be the Son of God; let God rescue him if God delights in him. How blind they were! God's nonintervention testified to Jesus' trust in the Father and to the Father's delight in him precisely because Jesus was obediently going to death. D.A. Carson's "Matthew Commentary" in the Expositor's Bible Commentary:

God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence… The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption, and the deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled… yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God… whereby they are supported in their afflictions… Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), Chapter 5

The cross, which looks like the defeat of goodness by the powers of evil, turns out to be the victory of goodness over evil, the victory which wins freedom for all who are enslaved. The cross, which looks like the supreme example of God's absence from the world, of God's letting evil have its way without restraint, turns out to be the supreme expression of God's presence, of God's coming to share the pain and bear the sin. The cross, which looks like the ultimate weapon in the hands of all those who would use might and violence as the only answer to the problems of the world, turns out to be the ultimate weapon against all might and violence. On the cross Jesus exposed all the powers, particularly the powers of darkness, as that which they really were, and thereby rendered them powerless. The cross embodies the message that love is stronger than hate, that gentleness is stronger than violence, that forgiveness is stronger than revenge. N.T. Wright,  "The Day the Revolution Began"

                          Pastor Samuel Sutter //  sam@BBCCOnline.org

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