WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.080 In our evening services just now, we are working up through a series called 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:11.460 Flesh and Blood Jesus. And our aim in this series is to think through the 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:16.920 different ways in which Jesus's humanity is revealed to us in his words and 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:24.560 actions. And in that we want to remember that not only is Jesus God the Son but 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:34.799 also that he is the perfect human. In Jesus we see the glory of God revealed but 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:42.759 we also see everything that humanity was meant to be. Our title this evening is 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:51.719 He Gets Angry and we are going to look at two or three different passages but we 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:58.439 can take as our texts the words that we just read in Mark chapter 5 verse 3 and 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:03.239 he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of the hardness 00:01:03.239 --> 00:01:08.719 of heart and said to the man, stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:21.519 his hand was restored. We're going to start with a little game. The game is 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:27.879 called Good Word or Bad and basically how it works is I am going to write down 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:32.140 three or four words and after each one I want you to ask yourself the question 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:35.939 whether you think this whether instinctively you think that this word 00:01:35.939 --> 00:01:40.120 is referring to a good thing or a bad thing. So very simple game, Good Word or 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:51.399 Bad. So here's the first word, Grace. Good Word or Bad. What about Peace? 00:01:51.400 --> 00:02:08.400 Good Word or Bad? Mercy? Hope. Good Word or Bad? I think all of them we tend to 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:13.040 think would be good but what about this word? 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:23.799 Anger. Do you tend to think of a good thing or do you tend to think of a bad 00:02:23.799 --> 00:02:31.159 thing? I think for many of us if not all an instinctive thought is of anger as a 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:36.759 bad thing and I think the reason for that is because many of our day-to-day 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:42.280 experiences of anger are nearly always negative. So if your boss was angry with 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:45.840 you at work this week it makes for a rubbish day. If you've had to deal with 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.800 an angry partner or angry parents or even angry children then it's horrible 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:59.319 and so often when we get angry ourselves we come away with a deep sense of regret. 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:04.719 All of this means that thinking about anger in relation to Jesus and means 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.759 that we're coming to something that I think is a bit of a neglected topic 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:13.879 maybe even a controversial one. I don't think that you find many fridge magnets 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:20.519 or wall plaques with Mark chapter 3 verse 5 written on them and I think some 00:03:20.519 --> 00:03:27.759 people might even feel that we shouldn't associate anger with Jesus at all. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:33.599 But of course the truth is passages like Mark 3 are making it really clear to us 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:43.039 that there were times when Jesus was angry and so the gospel narratives 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:49.079 are making that plain. Coupled to that though is a crucial truth that we keep 00:03:49.079 --> 00:03:56.400 highlighting in this series the fact that Jesus was without sin. So when he did 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:02.400 get angry that anger did not have all the negative stuff that we display or 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:08.159 that we experience in expressions of human anger. In fact what I hope we will 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:15.560 see tonight is that when we see Jesus getting angry we are seeing something 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:22.879 amazing. So as we look at that we're going to ask four very simple questions 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:26.639 there they are on the screen. What made Jesus angry? What does this teach us 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:31.680 about Jesus? What effect did his anger have? What should we do in response? 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:36.240 However before we go into these questions there's one more crucial 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:43.280 introductory point that we must highlight. On your screen just now are 10 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:49.079 moments when Jesus interacted with people. Number one, Nicodemus a religious 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:53.639 leader who didn't understand even basic theological truths. Number two, a 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.800 bleeding woman who was too afraid to speak and just wanted to secretly touch 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:02.600 Jesus's garment even though she was unclean. Three is the woman at the well 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:06.400 who had five failed marriages and now was living with a man who was not her 00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:11.080 husband. Number four, the Canaanite woman who begged Jesus to help her even 00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:17.720 though she was a foreigner and I had no real right to his concern. Five is the 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:23.920 disciples in Mark chapter 6 when they were exhausted, burnt out. Number seven 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:27.519 and number six is again the disciples this time in John 10 when they were 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:31.159 confused and that happens in many other places they couldn't understand what 00:05:31.159 --> 00:05:36.519 Jesus was saying. Number seven is a notorious woman who wiped Jesus's feet 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:40.839 with her hair. Number eight is Thomas who doubted the resurrection. Number nine 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:45.839 is Peter who failed spectacularly by denying Jesus and number ten is the 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:53.000 whole betrayal, arrest and trial of Jesus when he was falsely accused, mocked 00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:00.800 and beaten. In these 10 moments Jesus was confronted with people who failed to 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:05.399 understand even simple things, people whose lives were a mess, people who made 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:09.160 huge mistakes, people who were broken and vulnerable, people who had let him down 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:17.000 and even people who were aggressive towards him and yet all these moments 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:33.399 have one thing in common, Jesus didn't get angry. And that is reminding us that 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:41.240 when we think of the times when Jesus did get angry, God forbid that we forget the 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:48.120 times that he didn't. And that of course means that when we are faced with the 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:52.519 same kind of people, people who are difficult or broken or slow to understand 00:06:52.519 --> 00:06:56.840 or who let us down or even those who are aggressive towards us, if we are 00:06:56.840 --> 00:07:03.720 seeking to be Christ-like in these situations then we need to strive to 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:12.040 control our anger as well. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:19.920 and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. In so many of life's most 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:26.920 annoying situations, Jesus is a model of not getting angry and we must never 00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:35.160 forget that ourselves. But Jesus is also a model of good anger and so as we 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:41.000 consider that tonight we can turn to the first of our four questions, what made 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:48.480 Jesus angry. I'm going to briefly highlight seven occasions in the gospel 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:53.800 narrative when Jesus' anger is revealed. Sometimes it says directly that he was 00:07:53.800 --> 00:08:00.840 angry, other times it's implied. We'll just go through these really quickly. So 00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:09.000 Mac 1.5 we read and there was this man with the withered hand. The leaders 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.840 were watching to see whether Jesus would heal him or not, they were trying to 00:08:13.840 --> 00:08:19.759 catch him out and Jesus looked around them with anger, grieved at their 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:25.920 hardness of heart. So what made Jesus angry here? He was angry at the cold 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:32.439 indifference of the religious leaders to the suffering of this man. He was angered 00:08:32.439 --> 00:08:35.000 by the fact that they were more interested in catching Jesus out than 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:41.639 they were in helping this man. Example number two is from Mark 10 when people 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:46.360 were trying to bring children to Jesus but the disciples rebuked them and 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:50.200 stopped them as if to say don't waste Jesus' time with these little children. 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:56.399 Here we see when Jesus saw it he was indignant and said to them let the 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:01.600 children come to me. What was Jesus angry about there? He was angry about the 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:05.320 discrimination that the disciples were showing towards people who seemed 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:10.519 insignificant. He was angered by the fact that children were seen as unimportant. 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:15.080 Example number three is three different texts. Some apologies that you can't see 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:23.560 the bottom one. Let me just get rid of myself. There we go. So here then in a 00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:32.960 storm at the sea Jesus rebuked the wind. Matthew 17, Jesus heals a demon-possessed 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:38.920 boy. He rebuked the demon. Luke, he visits Simon's mother-in-law who is 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:45.399 unwell. Jesus rebuked the fever. In all these examples what made Jesus angry? 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:51.599 The causes of human suffering. He rebukes that which causes pain, distress and 00:09:51.599 --> 00:09:57.279 fear. Next example is in Matthew 23. I won't read it all. This is when he was 00:09:57.279 --> 00:10:03.279 pronouncing woes on the Pharisees. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:08.879 What made Jesus angry? It was the hypocrisy of these religious leaders. He 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:14.399 was angered by their false piety and their lack of integrity and the way in 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:22.679 which that had caused so much difficulty for others. Next example, John 2. This is 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:28.960 example number five where Jesus cleanses the temple. What made Jesus angry here? 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:34.960 Commercialization and exploitation. The temple had been turned into a market 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:41.200 place. It was full of money changers selling oxen sheep and pigeons. And for 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:47.080 Jesus the building that was supposed to be a house of prayer for everyone had 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:52.920 become a house of profit for the select few. Then example number six is an 00:10:52.920 --> 00:10:57.440 interesting one in Matthew 9. Here we have two blind men who came to Jesus 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:01.000 asking to be healed and he said to them, do you believe that I'm able to do this? 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.080 And they said, yes Lord, he touched their eyes and healed them. But then it says 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:09.520 their eyes were opened. Jesus sternly warned them. And the language there is 00:11:09.520 --> 00:11:18.160 strong. Jesus was giving them a very strong angry rebuke. See to it that no 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:23.639 one knows about it. What was it that made Jesus so angry here? Well, what made 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:31.600 Jesus angry here was the fact that he was, they were at risk of spreading a 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:36.040 false gospel. Because the common view of the Messiah in those days was that he 00:11:36.040 --> 00:11:40.879 was going to be a military leader who was going to come and basically drive the 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:45.720 Romans away from the Jews. And because of that false expectation, that's why 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:50.159 Jesus repeatedly told people not to spread the news about what he was doing 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:55.639 in order not to feed that misconception. And he gives this really stern warning 00:11:55.639 --> 00:12:01.399 about spreading a message that would make people think that he'd come as some 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:06.559 kind of nationalist revolutionary who was going to drive out the Romans. Because 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:12.679 that wasn't the truth. And Jesus gave him a stern warning not to spread a false 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:18.799 message. In all six of these examples, we're seeing two main things emerging. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:27.279 We're seeing the fact that Jesus is anxious to defend people. And he is 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:36.839 anxious to defend the truth. His anger is provoked when he sees people suffering 00:12:36.839 --> 00:12:44.079 and when he sees the truth being twisted. Can you just imagine what he must 00:12:44.079 --> 00:12:52.839 think of our society today? But the place where Jesus' anger is seen most 00:12:52.840 --> 00:13:06.920 clearly is in the passage we read in John 11. Here we read that Jesus saw Mary 00:13:06.920 --> 00:13:12.920 weeping and the Jews who'd come with her. He was deeply moved in his spirit. And 00:13:12.920 --> 00:13:21.160 then when he came to the tomb, he was deeply moved again. Now this is an 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:28.279 example where the translation of the Greek word here in ESV is not really 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:32.639 capturing the word. Because it's one word for deeply moved and it's the same 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:39.799 word here for deeply moved there. And what it actually means is outraged. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.240 It's not an expression of kind of like sympathy where you're moved to 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:56.440 sorrow. It's a word that means anger. Jesus, when he sees the horror 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:02.360 of death, when he sees the agony of separation, when he sees the fact that 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:13.600 humanity has been torn apart by a brutal enemy, he is utterly outraged. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:23.200 That leads us on to your second question. What does this teach us about Jesus? 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:28.399 Well, to answer that I think it's good to think about where anger comes from. What 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:35.279 are the triggers that prompt us to anger? And I think there's probably lots we 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:40.960 could say here but I think there's three main triggers for anger. Number one is 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:48.200 pain. So as you know I'm quite tall that means I quite often hit my head on 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:54.519 things. In my parents house there's quite low doorways and I often hit my head in 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.879 the doorways and even in houses with normal ceilings and normal doorways I 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:04.040 can sometimes hit my head on light fittings. I also when I eat I quite often 00:15:04.040 --> 00:15:09.320 bite the inside of my mouth because I chew too quickly and when these things 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:16.640 happen it's blooming sore and for just a split second you could feel anger just 00:15:16.640 --> 00:15:21.600 flame up inside you. I don't know if any of you watched the film Inside Out where 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:26.400 you have the wee anger figure who kind of explodes in fire. When you hit your head 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:30.320 or bite your tongue or stub your toe or hit your finger with a hammer while 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:36.040 you're nailing it in, when you get pain it's like that. Anger just flares up very 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:42.480 quickly but it's not just physical pain and psychological pain can have the same 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:47.839 effect. That's why we get annoyed if we're interrupted or when people around 00:15:47.839 --> 00:15:53.439 us are noisy or when something we hope for fails to materialize pain gives 00:15:53.439 --> 00:15:59.959 rise to anger. Second trigger for anger is our sense of morality or if you like 00:15:59.959 --> 00:16:05.839 our sense of right and wrong. So when we see something that we think is wrong it 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:11.440 provokes us to anger. That might be in regard to big ethical questions so things 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:15.600 like the plight of refugees, the drug deaths situation in Scotland, the 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:20.080 inequalities in our society. When we see something that we know is wrong it 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:24.720 provokes us to anger but this can also apply to much smaller issues. So for 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:29.920 example in football when a refereeing decision goes against our team, when we're 00:16:29.920 --> 00:16:33.360 out in the car, if someone drives in a way that fails to meet our expectations 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:36.480 or when we're watching the news and a politician says something that we don't 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:48.320 like, we feel wronged and we get angry. And the third trigger for anger is love. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:54.039 When we love someone or something, if you see the object of your love being 00:16:54.039 --> 00:17:00.440 threatened or hurt or abused it prompts us to anger. Now that might be a trivial 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:04.400 thing so someone might get angry if their car gets scratched but it also 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:09.160 applies to much more serious issues. So we might be angry if our child is getting 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:14.519 bullied in school or if our friend is getting a hard time at work and we might 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:20.080 get angry when we feel that people are treating us badly. And for us as humans I 00:17:20.080 --> 00:17:25.720 think this is why anger and fear are very closely related. When something that we 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:32.200 hold dear is threatened it can stir up our anger. So these are the three triggers 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:38.960 for anger. Pain when we say that hurts, morality when we say that's wrong and 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:47.720 love when we say that's precious. And the key point that arises out of all of 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:56.880 this is that there is a crucial link between our anger and our character. 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:05.000 I'll never forget hearing a sermon of Eric Alexander when he said one of the 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:10.759 most penetrating tests of our character is to ask the question what makes you 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:18.559 angry. So if you get angry if your car is damaged then that tells you that you're 00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:25.359 perhaps too materialistic and that you care a lot about your car. If you get 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:30.960 angry when your team loses or when you don't get top marks in an assignment it 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:35.720 tells you that you're too competitive and you're too concerned about winning. 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:42.680 But if you get angry when your friend or your spouse or your child is mistreated 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:52.120 then it tells you that you love them. If pain, morality and love are the 00:18:52.120 --> 00:18:58.720 triggers for anger then that means that your anger tells you an awful lot about 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:05.640 what you really care about. It's always a crucial question to ask ourselves. 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:13.040 What makes me angry? And the key point that I want to highlight in relation to 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:21.160 these three triggers is that all three of them apply to Jesus as well. Jesus was 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:29.800 angered by pain but not when he suffered it himself but when he saw it in the 00:19:29.800 --> 00:19:35.240 lives of others. Jesus was angered by wrongdoing not when it was done to him 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:39.680 but when it was being done to the people around him and he was angered by wrong 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:45.519 teaching because it was leading people astray and Jesus was angered by his 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:52.160 love not love for himself or for his possessions but love for others. When they 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:57.960 were threatened and mistreated he was angered because they are so precious. 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:02.880 And this is where we start to see that Jesus's anger is actually something 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:10.440 amazing. His anger is showing us that at the very core of his character is the 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:17.520 deepest and most passionate concern for other people and that's of course why he 00:20:17.520 --> 00:20:23.160 said that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:28.440 ransom for many. And I think this is a big help for us when we are confronted by 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:35.519 awful things in our lives. So when we see the pain that other people suffered 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.200 when we see the injustice in the world around us when we see the horror and 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:46.400 agony of death we must never forget that these things don't just prompt Jesus to 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:56.480 be sympathetic. They're provoked to righteous and holy anger. And this is 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:10.559 where we see the amazing truth that Jesus is never indifferent. If I was to ask 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.720 you the question what is the opposite of love what would you say? I would think of 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:20.799 answer is usually hate and of course in many senses that's true but I think 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:28.720 it's equally true to say that the opposite of love is not hate it's indifference. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.720 And of course one of the reasons why there's still so much inequality and 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:38.039 suffering and pain in the world is not because of hate it's because people just 00:21:38.039 --> 00:21:46.079 aren't bothered. And so it's a tragedy when you see a government or a society 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:51.559 or a community confronted by the suffering of others and it prompts no 00:21:51.559 --> 00:22:04.679 reaction at all. Thank God that Jesus is never like that. And that brings us to our 00:22:04.679 --> 00:22:12.480 third question. What effect did Jesus's anger have? Well in order to answer this 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:19.079 question I think that we need to draw a distinction between anger and grumpiness. 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:25.920 The two of them can feel very similar but I want to distinguish between them. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:34.799 Grumpiness is a state of irritation, disappointment or moodiness that manifests 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:44.919 itself in moaning. Anger is a profound aversion to something that manifests 00:22:44.919 --> 00:22:54.079 itself in action. So if something really angers us we don't just sit and moan we 00:22:54.079 --> 00:23:00.399 will do something about it. And for us that can be good but all too often it 00:23:00.399 --> 00:23:04.079 will be for bad and that's why when you are angry about something it's important 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:08.279 to avoid being hasty. It's important to examine yourself and to ask yourself 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:15.599 well am I going to make the situation worse if I react according to my anger. 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:22.519 We have to be very careful but the key point is anger will lead to action. So if 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:27.639 we're asking the question what effect did Jesus's anger have? The answer is that 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:36.640 it prompted him to action. And we see that very clearly from the pages of 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:44.560 scripture. So when Jesus was faced with human suffering he took action in order 00:23:44.560 --> 00:23:49.280 to deal with it. So he was angered by the suffering experienced by the man in 00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:55.560 Mark 3 and so he took action. He said stretch out your hand and his hand was 00:23:55.559 --> 00:24:02.039 restored. When Jesus saw the truth being distorted by the Pharisees and the 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:08.159 religious leaders he took action. He rebuked them and corrected them for the 00:24:08.159 --> 00:24:14.240 fact that they have neglected the weightier matters of the law. And when 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:25.399 faced with a grieving family in John chapter 11 Jesus took action. He 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:31.480 came he saw Mary and Martha and he saw their broken hearts. He was asked to be 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:40.480 taken to the tomb. When he got there he said with a loud voice, Lazarus come out 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:45.480 and the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:50.759 linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth Jesus said to them unbind him and 00:24:50.759 --> 00:25:01.200 let him go. All of these give amazing examples of the fact that Jesus, Jesus's 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:08.200 anger prompted him to do something about it. But the amazing thing about John 11 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:15.160 that you can see there on the screen in front of you is that what Jesus does 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:27.000 there with Lazarus is just a glimpse of what he has really come to do. Jesus 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:34.040 didn't come just to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead. He has come to 00:25:34.040 --> 00:25:40.600 conquer death itself. And when we see Jesus's anger at the grave of Lazarus 00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:45.759 we're reminded of the fact that Jesus has come to defeat a bitter enemy. He's 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:51.719 come to conquer the kingdom of darkness. He's come to destroy the power of sin 00:25:51.719 --> 00:25:56.599 and death. That enemy, the enemy of death, is not just a body that we need to get 00:25:56.599 --> 00:26:02.119 rid of. It's not just a problem that we kind of hope will go away. Death is a 00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:12.519 hideous, vicious enemy that provokes Jesus to outrage. And that outrage drives 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:21.039 Jesus forward from the grave, from the tomb of Lazarus, all the way to the cross. 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:28.359 And this is at the heart of why Jesus became flesh and blood. We know how 00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:34.119 horrible death is. We are vulnerable to its attack. We are exposed to the pain 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:42.159 and agony that it causes. Jesus has come to stand alongside us and he knows 00:26:42.159 --> 00:26:47.159 exactly how that feels. He knows what it's like to be a human facing the 00:26:47.159 --> 00:26:56.119 horror of death. And in the face of death's grip we are powerless and all we 00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:04.000 can do is surrender. But here is where Jesus is different. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:09.559 Jesus is the same as us in that he is horrified by the damage that death 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:18.199 causes. But the amazing difference is that he is not powerless and he is never, 00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:28.600 ever going to surrender. He has come to conquer. That's emphasized so powerfully 00:27:28.600 --> 00:27:36.039 in Hebrews chapter 2. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he 00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:41.200 himself likewise partook of the same things. Why? That through death he might 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:47.000 destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:53.160 those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong savoury. All the 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:58.920 things that cause Jesus to anger, pain, lies, suffering and death, these are the 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:03.119 things that come from the kingdom of evil and that is the kingdom that Jesus has 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:08.079 come to destroy. That means that when we see Jesus angry, we don't see a violent 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:13.640 hothead who can't control himself. We see a mighty warrior preparing for battle. 00:28:13.640 --> 00:28:21.440 We see a courageous rescuer coming to our aid. We see a conqueror ready to fight 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:31.640 for us. We see holy, irrepressible anger at all the damage that sin and death are 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:37.759 doing to you. And the incredible truth that all of that is telling us is that 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:54.160 when it comes to saving you, you do not mess with Jesus. Our last question is, 00:28:54.160 --> 00:29:02.359 what should we do in response to this? I want to say three things very, very 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:13.639 briefly. We should admire Jesus. So often when we see anger in people around us, 00:29:13.639 --> 00:29:17.319 it's a display of weakness, a short temper, a lack of patience, a selfish 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:24.359 streak. It's never like that with Jesus. His anger is only ever good anger. In fact, 00:29:24.359 --> 00:29:32.719 in Jesus, what we are seeing are the best displays of anger that the world has ever 00:29:32.719 --> 00:29:38.599 seen. It's an anger that arises from extraordinary compassion, from his 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:45.399 impeccable integrity, from his hated of sin, and from his deep, deep love for 00:29:45.399 --> 00:29:52.919 sinners. We should admire him. The second thing we should do is that we should seek 00:29:52.920 --> 00:30:04.759 to emulate him. If Jesus is the perfect human, and if Jesus got angry at times, 00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:08.920 then it's showing us that there are occasions when anger is an appropriate 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:14.279 emotion for us as followers of Jesus. There are many times when anger is 00:30:14.279 --> 00:30:18.519 inappropriate and damaging, and please, please don't use this sermon as an 00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:23.879 excuse to lose your temper this week. But having said that, Jesus is showing us 00:30:23.879 --> 00:30:28.680 that there are times when anger is appropriate and good, and that's why we 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:35.559 need to pray, Lord, please help me to never get angry about the things that 00:30:35.559 --> 00:30:42.200 don't matter, but help me never to be indifferent about the things that do. 00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:50.680 Please may my anger be like Jesus's anger. We want to love the way Jesus loves, to 00:30:50.680 --> 00:30:56.920 care the way he cares, to help the way he helped, and we want to be angry only ever 00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:05.799 in the ways that he was. God grant that the sight of injustice, suffering, 00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:13.879 exploitation, and twisted truth, God grant that that bothers us in the way that 00:31:13.879 --> 00:31:28.599 it bothered Jesus. But number three, and above all else, we should hide in Jesus. 00:31:28.599 --> 00:31:37.719 Ultimately, all of reality is in the context of conflict between the kingdom 00:31:37.719 --> 00:31:42.039 of God and the kingdom of evil. There's no third alternative, there's no neutral 00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.879 ground. That's why Jesus said, whoever's not against us is for us. We are either 00:31:45.879 --> 00:31:51.879 for Jesus or against him. There is no neutrality. Everything is in the context 00:31:51.879 --> 00:31:57.240 of that conflict, and in that conflict we have to ask ourselves, who's side do we 00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:04.759 want to be on? And surely for every single one of us, 00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:08.599 we want to hide behind Jesus. 00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:16.440 He is our warrior. He is our defender. He is our hero, and in the face of all the 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:25.079 threat of sin and evil and death, he will take the fight to the enemy, and all we 00:32:25.079 --> 00:32:33.000 have to do is hide behind him by putting our trust in him. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:39.960 And this is where I hope we've come far enough to be able to recognize 00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:46.759 an amazing theological truth, and this is my conclusion. 00:32:46.759 --> 00:32:49.960 The amazing theological truth that I want us to 00:32:49.960 --> 00:33:00.680 to recognize is this. You make Jesus angry. 00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:07.880 Now I must explain that I think. So often in life people are angry with us, 00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:12.120 so we're on the receiving end of anger and it's horrible. That is not what I mean 00:33:12.120 --> 00:33:18.680 at all. Jesus is not angry with you, and I am not saying that you get on Jesus's 00:33:18.680 --> 00:33:22.360 nerves. That is never true. He is patient and long 00:33:22.360 --> 00:33:27.640 suffering. You never get on his nerves. I'm sure that you can think of many 00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:30.840 people who are angry with you or who have been angry with you. 00:33:30.840 --> 00:33:34.039 The last thing any of us needs to hear is that someone else 00:33:34.039 --> 00:33:41.320 is angry with us. But what every single one of us needs is someone who cares 00:33:41.319 --> 00:33:50.279 so much that they will be angry about us. And that is what I mean when I say that 00:33:50.279 --> 00:33:55.319 you make Jesus angry. When sin tries to hurt you and destroy 00:33:55.319 --> 00:34:00.279 you and wreck your life and your relationships and your future, when 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:04.039 sin tries to do anything like that to you, 00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:15.000 Jesus is outraged. And the reason he is outraged is because you 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:17.800 are his. 00:34:18.360 --> 00:34:27.320 And so he doesn't get angry with you because to him you are irritating. 00:34:27.320 --> 00:34:34.600 He gets angry because to him you are irreplaceable. 00:34:34.600 --> 00:34:42.440 His anger is not him saying to you, don't you dare come near me. 00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:48.680 His anger is him putting you behind him and saying to the kingdom of evil, 00:34:48.680 --> 00:34:54.200 don't you dare, near finger on him. 00:34:54.199 --> 00:35:03.159 That is where the cross places you. That is the safety and security that you have 00:35:03.159 --> 00:35:08.599 if you are a Christian or that you will have if you become one. 00:35:08.599 --> 00:35:12.679 And that is why the fact that Jesus gets angry 00:35:12.679 --> 00:35:20.439 is absolutely amazing. Amen. Let's pray. 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:30.679 Lord Jesus, we recognize that our anger is so often inappropriate and 00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:38.519 unhelpful. But your anger is amazing. 00:35:38.519 --> 00:35:45.079 And we thank you so much that this is how much you care about us. 00:35:45.079 --> 00:35:49.800 And we pray that all of this would make us just run to you 00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:55.640 and hide in you because we need you so so much. 00:35:55.640 --> 00:36:02.920 We bow before you and praise you Lord Jesus for your holy, righteous, good 00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:21.000 anger. Amen.