This Too Will Pass

Introduction

Good morning. We all open your New Testament to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. As many of you who were here last week know, Ken just could not let it go. Even in the midst of some compliments, he said, Well, you know, Greg. One of us has to be the bigger man, so I might move on. In Matthew chapter 26, though, we see an example of Peter in verse 69. Peter, the apostle, the apostle who had preached the great sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter, who could do miracles. Peter, who, albeit had tons of flaws and missteps, was a foundational pillar of the New Testament church. Peter in Matthew 26 and verse 69, as Jesus had prophesied, is about to deny him not once, twice, but three times.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied it with an oath.

After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Key in on this last phrase, please. And he went out and wept bitterly. You see, it’s interesting. Peter is often the punching bag or pinata of the apostles because the gospel messages, and frankly, even Paul’s letters reveal so many of his missteps. But really, Peter, as the foundational apostle, as the one that we have at least recorded in Acts chapter 2, preaching that great sermon of the kingdom now at hand of the resurrected Jesus and the resurrection we can share in.

Peter has denied Jesus three times, and notice and imagine his feeling as verse 75 concludes.

He knows Jesus had said, You will deny me three times. And Peter’s reaction was, What ours would be? No, I would never do that. But Jesus knew. Jesus had the timestamp of the rooster crow in three times, and Peter knew not just that he was wrong, but that he had denied his Lord, Savior, and Master three times. Can you imagine what that had to be like for Peter? For many of us, these types of moments often lead to a tailspin. I just denied Jesus three times. I swore up and down I would not deny him. And yet here I am these days later, and I have sworn that I did not even know the man. We have these defining moments in life, and there are tons of moments in life that are marked by our failures.

Moments in life marked by bad happenstances, circumstances beyond our control. The question is, how do we respond to them? You see, we all have different types of struggles and concerns. I have a certain type of co-worker. I’ll go into that, but well, you know Ken. But when it comes to Peter, he dealt with a personal failure. We’re going to look in a different type of lesson this morning. Instead of at one passage deeply, we’re going to look at several different examples of different devoted servants of God. People we would hold up in high esteem and say, be like this faithful individual. Look at what this faithful child of God could do in God’s service. And we’re going to look at them at their worst and see what they were able to overcome.

1. Peter’s Personal Failure

And we will see too that the moments in life that seem to leave us in darkness, stuck in the pit, stuck in despair. Please know that God makes it clear, this too shall pass. We look, first of all, at the idea of Peter, and as we look at the temporary struggles of God’s people, we see that Peter has denied Jesus, but no, going back to verse 70. He denies it before this group of people, and the irony is not lost on any Bible reader that Peter would then be going out and in the book of Acts trying to tell anybody who would listen, Jesus was Lord. Jesus was Savior. In fact, in Acts 4 and 5, Peter and John were going to be beaten for that message.

And in Acts chapter 5, when they say, you have got to stop preaching Jesus, what is Peter’s response? We must obey God rather than men. You see, Peter was able to recover, but when we face personal failure, when we have those moments of the end of verse 75, when we realize what we have done, we are a failure in the sight of God. What will I do? Will I trust that God can forgive me? He promises in 1 John 1 that if you are a Christian and you confess your sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do I believe that? Or do I allow that failure to envelop me in such a way I say I’m no good?

God can’t love me. As Brother Rufus mentioned before the Lord’s Supper, Jesus died while we were still sinners. In Romans chapter 5, God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Paul wrote. And by the way, Paul’s an interesting case we’re not going to speak about this morning, who directly, more so even than Peter, not only denied Jesus, but dragged away those that would be too afraid because they realized who Jesus was to deny him. You see, Peter and his personal failure could look back in the book of Acts and say, I moved on because Jesus could pull me through. I moved on because there was work for me to do, and that’s the first message this morning.

2. Job Endured All Manner of Great Suffering

When you feel like you’re in the depths of despair of your own, of my own personal failure, I have to remember God is working through me as his child. I might not be able to get up, pull myself up by my bootstraps and keep going. But with God, I can. These moments don’t have to stop us. They might bog us down, but we must keep on going. But you see, it’s not just personal failure that sometimes keeps us bogged down. Job endured all manner of great suffering. Turn with me to Job chapter 1. And it’s not just the physical, we’re going to highlight that. But in Job chapter 1, as you think about Job, and if you want to talk about a good role model, in Job 1, not only does the text narrate this about him, but God speaks to Satan himself and says, Have you considered my servant Job, who is a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?

Can we say that Job was a strong man and example of faith?

God says it, it must be so. In fact, he tells the devil, he basically issues him a challenge and says, Do you realize that you’ve been going to and fro on the earth? And here’s Job. You haven’t gotten Job. And Satan says, of course, in verse 9, does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around all that he has, his house and every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land, but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. Satan takes the wiggle room. God does set a limitation on him in verse 12. You can take all that he has, but you cannot touch him.

And so as we read verses 13 through the end of the chapter, Job is not just losing great wealth and riches. Although he lost that. Job doesn’t just lose his style of life, although that certainly would leave him. Job lost his servants, more servants, yet even more servants. And he even lost his children. So when we think about the suffering of Job, let’s not just say that this was a rich man who lost his possessions. As you look at verse 17, while one servant was speaking to him, having just escaped a burning fire, there came another and said, The Chaldeans formed three groups, made a raid on the camels, and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you, and here is that news while he was yet speaking.

There came another one to him and said, Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you. We remember Peter’s failure, and we highlighted that last phrase in verse 75. Notice Job’s reaction in verse 20. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. In fact, verse 22 says, In all this, Job did not charge God with any wrong or sin himself. If you think about Job for a moment in chapter 1, Job is somebody who has lost all that he’s had, all that he’s used to, and lost all of his sons and daughters in one day.

If anyone here has lost so much as a parent, let alone a singular child. Words cannot express the grief Job must be having. This is a grief that goes beyond losing stuff. When we talk about struggles today, it’s not just about when I have done wrong. Sometimes it’s things outside of my control that happened to me. When you read chapter 1, was Job at fault for this? Not in the slightest. But it still happened. Job still had to respond. It is Job who finds himself in absolute anguish and agony facing the death of his children. But it didn’t even stop there. In chapter 2, because he’s failed, God once again issues the challenge to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Blamous and upright, fears me and turns away from evil.

And Satan says, Well, that’s because of that restriction you gave me. In fact, he says in verse 4, skin for skin, all that a man has, he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. Now remember this for later. Satan says, God, you reach out and touch him. Does God allow Job to be tempted, tried, punished, suffered? He allows it. But the devil is the one who does it. In fact, in verse 6, the Lord says, Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, struck Job with loathsome swords from the sole of the foot to the crown of his head, and he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

And that is just the beginning. He is so miserable in verse 8. See this picture of Job. Job, the mighty man of God, the mighty man in terms of wealth and riches and prosperity in the east. He is sitting there, relatively alone, scraping himself with broken shards because of the pain and suffering he’s facing. Sometimes, a lot of times, health, our physical well-being leads us to feel trapped, stuck, and bogged down. But for Job, that wasn’t even the end of it. If you look at verse 9, then his wife shows up as one redeeming family member, or so we would hope. And her first message, as recorded in Job chapter 2, do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. Now much can be said about why she would say this, what she was facing, what she was suffering.

But for our purposes this morning, do we see Job adding another layer of suffering? Job is now facing all of these restrictions. He has lost his children. He has lost his wealth. He’s lost his health. His wife is telling him, curse God and die. If you study the book of Job, you know even that wasn’t the end of the suffering. Because remember, God told Satan, do not take his life. You know what Job starts wishing for in chapter 3? Oh, that I had never been born. You want to talk about struggles, pain, difficulty, anguish of every kind, to the highest level, emotionally, physically, spiritually? Job faced it. But turn with me to Job chapter 42. As we go along, we’re going to see the beginning and the end.

See that Job’s lifetime. When you read chapter 1, you read through chapter 39 in particular. You see that Job wasn’t someone who just faced some struggles. He’s someone who lived in constant struggle. He was ridiculed and mocked by those who should have elevated him as the wise man that he was. He was called unrighteous and foolish and arrogant when he was none of those things. But in Job chapter 42, at the end, it’d be easy to look at Job and say, just hold on, this too shall pass. But notice what he reveals about himself and about God. Chapter 42 and verse 2, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Two problems with our struggles. One is they get us stuck, and two, we see Job realizing here. What does he say in verses 5 and 6? My ear had heard of you, but now I see you. The second problem with the struggle isn’t just the pain, it’s the why. Why is this happening? Can you see Peter may be thinking to himself, why would I let myself do this?

I’m better than this. I know Jesus. Certainly we don’t have to hypothesize. We can see in the book of Job, Job wondering of God and to some extent his friends, why is this happening to me? I know I didn’t control it. I know I don’t deserve it, but it’s still happening. Why am I not getting any relief? Why do I have to live like this when so many others who are guilty are living so much better than me? But Job starts giving an answer to his own dilemma. When he says, now, after the moment has passed, and by the way, that moment spans a large amount of time. Now my eye sees you. Verse 6 conclusion, therefore, on the above basis of trusting in God, and that I now understand more about my creator and maker.

I despise or humble myself and repent in dust and ashes. I, Job realize I’m nothing before God, and that only he can pull me out of this mess. You see, Job was a complete disaster. Not as an individual person, as a soul, but in terms of this physical life. You name what could go wrong, it happened. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, existential abuse. Job had it all. And yet what we look at Job and say is, Job, hang on. Trust God. We’ve read the end of the story. This too shall pass. You see, sometimes that sounds good unless it’s you. Unless it’s me, I’m being told that this too shall pass. That’s great advice. That’s great wisdom. No better example of this than Joseph. You turn to Genesis chapter 39 as you’re turning there.

3. Joseph Unjustly Accused

Think about Joseph’s life. In Genesis chapter 39, as you skip over chapter 37, you consider one of the clearest passages in Scripture on sibling relations. Bad news if you have dreams and tell your family they’re going to bow down and worship you. News flash, they don’t like it. Joseph was telling his family, I’ve had these dreams. And guess what? You all bow down and worship me. And by the way, Dad, Jacob, Patriarch, you’re going to do it too. Let me sidebar for a moment. Was Joseph right? Yes. He was right in interpretation of the dream and in a sense of prophecy. And the reaction was, we’re going to kill him. Save for one of his brothers stepping in and saying, let’s not kill him. They throw him into the pit.

And because that wasn’t enough, they said, Well, why don’t we just leave him in a pit? That’s silly. Let’s profit from this. They sell him to the Ishmaelites. And by the way, we’d say, hey, this is great. Joseph, hang in. I know you’re in the pit. I know you’re in slavery, but you’re going to get to Egypt. That’s how your dream is going to come to pass. Trust God. Hold on. This too shall pass. But then in chapter 39, this too has passed. This terrible moment where he is told what he has been revealed to by God. He’s been sold into slavery. He’s rising up in the household of Potiphar. And then we find this ominous phrase of the second part of verse 6 of Genesis 39.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. One quick sidebar. Anytime the scripture says someone was handsome in form and appearance, usually something not good is following. That’s why Ken and I don’t worry about that kind of thing. But because he was handsome and because he was good looking, of course, Potiphar’s wife, who would spend some time with him alone in the house, noticed him. And she says, lie with me. And he says, No. In fact, Joseph righteously takes the stand. I will not sin against Potiphar, but moreover, I will not commit this great wickedness and sin against God. And we say, Joseph, what a great example of faith.

What a great example of courage. And what does Joseph get for that courage and faithfulness? She’s close enough to where she can grab his cloak and he flees, but she still has it. And she says, That Hebrew slave that you brought into the house, he was trying to coerce me. And so Joseph is thrown into prison where he doesn’t wait moments of hours and minutes. But years. We would tell Joseph, if we could, since we have the whole Genesis story, hey, Joseph, don’t worry. This too shall pass. Because we know the ending. We know God had a plan. We don’t have to trust. We can read the words. God had a plan. Why was he in the pit and in slavery? To get to Egypt. Why was he in prison?

So we could interpret the dream of somebody who would forget and then remember to tell it to Pharaoh, so then he could rise to the second in all the land of Egypt and prepare for God’s children in a time of famine. And we say, Joseph, just hang on. But can I stop for a moment and say, when we think about our personal failure, that’s one thing. When events are out of our control, we realize life happens, that’s hard. But what about when something happens to me because somebody else, to be kind, unjustly accuses me. You can use much harsher terminology for that expression. They lied, they cheated me, they robbed me, they afflicted me. This can bog us down, and again, not just simply because we feel bad, but because now what’s the reaction?

When somebody strikes me, I want to strike right back. Proverbs, the New Testament are very clear. God says, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. But you know the problem with this is we get bitter because, unlike Joseph, who would say, Hey, Joseph, just hang on. It’s just two or three pages more in my Bible and you’ll be out. I’ve been in this situation for months. I’ve been in this situation for weeks. By the way, remember, Joseph was in prison for years. But I’m in this pit. I’m in this prison. Don’t tell me to wait. Why isn’t God doing something about this? Now it’s not fair. And the problem with that bitterness is not only does it consume our soul, even when someone has unjustly accused you, if someone has purposely set out to tear you down, which does not happen nearly as much as we would like to think.

But even if they did, the bitterness doesn’t harm them at all. Bitterness only harms me and my relationship with my God. So as I’m sitting and stewing at home, you know what the other person’s doing? Nothing. Because they don’t know, they don’t care, and it doesn’t change anything. And by the way, if they did do it on purpose, my bitterness is probably only playing into their desires anyway. Joseph was unjustly accused. He was unfairly, although it wasn’t good sibling relations, cast into a pit and sold into slavery. But the message for Joseph is hang on. God has a plan for you. Now you may be thinking, now that’s great for Joseph, but just because I’m going through suffering doesn’t mean God’s going to make me vice president.

And that’s true, possibly. But God has bigger plans. He has greater plans that go beyond this life. And if waiting years is not just two or three years, but rather a lifetime, does God promise something greater at the end of this life? Yes. The New Testament scripture is clear. What did Jesus die for? To have a nice, peaceful life? To have a good 401k. Jesus died because of my failure so that I could overcome sin. I could overcome temptation and be with God forever. That’s God’s great plan. And anything short, I’m selling my soul for something Jesus didn’t die for. I can overcome this if I can remember this is temporary. If I can remember that, yes, the advice is good to somebody else, but the advice is good for me.

4. Elijah Alone and Completely Isolated

This too shall pass. Because my God’s plans are greater than my enemies’ desires. Look at two other examples with me this morning. Sometimes there’s personal failure. Sometimes there’s complete life ruin and destruction. Sometimes there’s somebody out to get me. And sometimes it just feels plum like the entire world is out to get me. In 1 Kings chapter 19, I hope you’ll turn there with me. In 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah is coming off one of the greatest moments in biblical history. You can’t search the pages of the Old Testament and find a much greater exhibition of God’s power, of him up casting and overshadowing the prophets of Baal and the fictitious God Baal himself. And then in 1 Kings 19, after this great victory, after all the faithfulness has been to some extent restored, we find Elijah, verse 3 of chapter 19, afraid, arising, and running for his life.

In verse 4, he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father’s. And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.

Here is Elijah, this great miracle working prophet of the Lord, who has just seen arguably the greatest sign of God’s power and superiority that there is in the Old Testament pages. And he says in verse 4, it is enough. Take my life.

God says, What are you doing here, Elijah? In verse 10, he says, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. The people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, they have thrown down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. Elijah was scared, he was alone, and he felt completely isolated. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like there was nowhere to turn? No good to be done, no hope, no pleasantness. You look at the world around you and you say, Yeah, I know God has done good things, but here I am alone. I know people should be good, but here am I being mistreated.

Jezebel, instead of keeping the promise of many of the people, is now seeking my life, even though we won the competition. I am God. Elijah faced a lonely, complete depression. I want to be clear as we always are when we use expressions like depression. We’re not talking about a medical condition that needs to be treated in different ways. Elijah was a child of God who understood his power more than many of us could aspire to in a lifetime. It’s a blessing that we can read the words of God and come to a proper faith in him. But how amazing is it that Elijah would have this type of conversation with God? What was God’s answer to Elijah for being alone, seeing no good, having no allies in this life.

Nothing but disappointment. Go back to verse 5. As Elijah is down and sleeping under a broom tree. Behold, an angel appears and touched him and says, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strengths of that food forty days and forty nights to or of the mount of God. And by the way, as you could pick up the reading in verse 11, as he has said to God, I alone, I alone am left.

Not only does God say the phrase we remember, there are 7,000 who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. What does he do in the interim of those verses? God shows Elijah himself and his power. What is the answer to Elijah’s isolation? Find a good church group. Find me. I, God, am there for my people. I see you. I will not forsake you. And by the way, if you’re going to make the claim to be alone, no, you don’t have the knowledge I do. There are others out there with you, allies in me. God says, I will deliver you. And so our message to Elijah would be, this too shall pass. But this too shall pass is not just because Elijah ate some food and slept for a long time.

5. Jesus Embraced It All

And it’s not just because Elijah ran away. It’s because God worked for his children. Do I trust that God will be there for me? We have all kinds of temporary struggles that we have to push through because God requires it. Because what God wants for us is better than what we see in front of our faces. And no one understood that better than Jesus. In Matthew chapter 27, Jesus embraced it all. In Matthew chapter 27, of course, one chapter after we have just seen Peter’s denial of Jesus. Arguably Jesus’ closest confidant has forsaken him and fled. Scriptures teach, by the way, Peter wasn’t the only one who fled. All the disciples fled from Jesus. But in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 32, Jesus, the Son of God, who came into this life to die for us while we were sinners.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a school, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed it by derided him, wagging their heads, saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

So also the chief priests of the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, He saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, verse 46, Jesus is there on the cross. He is alone, and he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We don’t need to know about Peter, Job, Joseph, or Elijah. To know that what it means to wear the name of Christ.

It means to be willing to sacrifice any and all status, convenience, luxury, and life decisions. In the name of doing what God wants us to do. Jesus left being with God. The very place we’re aspiring to be, the very place that God’s children should be longing for with every, not most, every fiber of our beings. And this is easy to see because Jesus did it all. Jesus embraced the sin of the world. Because of my failure, Jesus was crucified. Because of my arrogance, Jesus was derided and mocked. Because of my lack of trust in God, Jesus was put to death by the hands of lawless men. We can think about whatever it is that makes us not trust God’s plan. Maybe we don’t believe in him enough.

Conclusion

Maybe we don’t trust him. Maybe we don’t think we need him. But we do. And the message this morning is not grow in your faith, although that always should be the scenario. That’s always the solution. Trust God more. The answer is no, this too shall pass. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not for years. But God has a plan for you. And he has a plan for me. We need to remember in times of darkness, for God’s people, this suffering will pass. No maybes. No, I hope so’. No, I really think, but I’m not sure. For God’s children, our suffering will pass. In 1 John 2, 17, after writing about the distractions of this life, John says, the desires of this life are passing away. But those who belong to God will abide forever.

Which side of that fence are you on? Are we on God’s side? Are we on the side of eternity, victory, and peace? Or the side that says, I can’t go on. I can’t make it. I can’t be forgiven. God says, I want you to trust in me. I want you to know this will pass not because you’re great, but because I am great. Jesus did the impossible so that we might simply step up and by faith do what is possible according to God’s perfect plan. If you’ve never become a Christian, recognize Jesus’ death is for everyone. In fact, in 1 John chapter 2, beginning in that chapter, we learn that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world at verse 2. If you believe in Jesus as the Christ, if you are willing to confess Him as Lord and all that that entails, repent of your sins, recognizing our life doesn’t work.

Our life leaves us stuck. But God’s way leads to salvation. You can be baptized into that death, into that burial, and share in the resurrection of our crucified Lord. Because God wants you to know this sufferings, the consequences of sin, they can pass if you’ll take God’s outstretched hand. Maybe you’re a Christian and you’ve doubted. Maybe you felt alone, maybe you felt like the weight of the world is against you. No, that part of God’s plan is that there is a family. And while people do fail, God’s people put him first. And if you you want the prayers of this congregation, you need someone to walk arm in arm with you, we are here. We love you. We care for you. We may not be perfect, but our God is.

Trust in his plan. Partner with Christians today as we walk to be with God forever. If we can help you in any way, come forward as we stand and sing the invitation.