Beeson Podcast, Episode #521
Reverend Doctor Maurice Watson
Nov. 3, 2020

>>Announcer: 


Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. 


>>Doug Sweeney:


Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I am Doug Sweeney here with my co-host, Kristen Padilla. On today’s episode we want to share a sermon preached this fall by one of our alumni, the Reverend Doctor Maurice Watson, for our community worship service. Reverend Watson was not able to be in person with us on campus because of our COVID-19 restrictions, but he did record the sermon you’ll hear today from his church, Metropolitan Baptist Church, of Largo, Maryland. We played it during an otherwise live worship service on September the 8th.

Before Kristen tells you more about what you’ll hear today, I have a special announcement to make. Each semester we give an award to a graduating student who demonstrates excellence in preaching. The award is named for the late Dr. James Earl Massey who was a dear friend of our school and an excellent preacher himself. This fall the person who was chosen for the James Earl Massey preaching award is our beloved friend, Rob Willis. Rob is Beeson’s media and technology manager, having served in this role since 1996. And you may know him from his work behind the scenes with the Beeson Podcast. He is our Podcast Engineer and makes us all sound much better than we really do in person.

Rob graduates this December with his Master of Divinity degree. After taking one class per semester for the last 24 years while working full time here at Beeson. This is an amazing achievement I’m sure you’ll agree. We are so very proud of Rob. As the award recipient, Rob will preach during our community worship service on November the 10th, which is one week from when this episode airs. You can tune into the service from 11:00 until Noon at BeesonDivinity.com/live.

Rob, we love you and are proud of you.

All right. Kristen, would you please tell us more about the sermon we’ll hear today from the Reverend Dr. Maurice Watson?


>>Kristen Padilla:


Hello, everyone. Welcome to today’s episode. Allow me to join with Doug in congratulating our colleague and friend, Rob Willis, for being recognized with this award. Rob, we look forward to hearing you preach on November 10th and we are praying for you.

As Doug mentioned, today were are playing a sermon given by the Reverend Dr. Maurice Watson, called “The Scandal of Unexpected Outcomes.” Using Matthew 11:1-6 as his text. As already mentioned, Dr. Watson is a Beeson graduate, having earned his Doctor of Ministry degree in 2006. And in this sermon, Dr. Watson urges us against placing our expectations and hope in our circumstances and instead reminds us to place our faith in Jesus Christ, no matter the circumstances. We hope this sermon encourages you in your walk with the Lord Jesus today. 


>>Doug Sweeney:


Let’s go now to Hodges Chapel and listen to the Reverend Dr. Maurice Watson preach on Matthew 11:1-6 on “The Scandal of Unexpected Outcomes.” 


>>Reader:


A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Chapter 11, beginning at verse one. 

“Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his twelve disciples that he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ he sent two of his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.’”

The Word of the Lord.


>>Dr. Watson:


Well, this is the day the Lord has made we ought to rejoice and be glad in it. It is certainly a joy and a privilege to have been invited to share today, in today’s chapel service. Thank you, Dean Sweeney, for affording me this opportunity. I certainly wish we could be there in person in that beautiful chapel under the dome with those great religious luminaries looking down at us. But circumstances on the ground won’t let us do that at this time. We look forward to the day when we’ll be able to gather in person again.

There is a word I’d like to share with you today. It is found in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew Chapter 11 and I want to read into your hearing verses 1-6, Matthew 11:1-6. I’m reading from the New King James Bible. Here’s how my bible reads,

“Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding his twelve disciples, that he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.’”

Look at verse three again, it says, “Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another?” “Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another?”

I want to talk about the scandal of unexpected outcomes. The scandal of unexpected outcomes. I read a quote not long ago that says, “What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our heads of how it’s supposed to be.” Often in life, friends, there is a disconnection between the life that one expected to have and the life that one actually has. This can happen in a positive way when the outcome of one’s life exceeds his or her expectations – causing him or her to perhaps be awestruck or surprised or even humbled. A person in that situation probably says to himself, “With all of the odds that were stacked against me and the obstacles that I’ve had to overcome, who would have ever thought that I would have gone this far in life? Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that my life would have turned out this great.” 

On the other hand, this disconnection between the life that one expected to have and the life that one actually has could happen in a negative way. Oh, this person perhaps had high and lofty goals and dreams for his life or her life but unfortunately life didn’t turn out the way that he or she expected that it would. Perhaps it describes someone who majored in a particular subject in college and years later you look back through the rearview mirror and wish now you had majored in something else. 

Or perhaps it describes someone who has worked on a job for decades, but that job has only left you less than fulfilled. Or maybe it describes someone’s marriage that is not so much a source of happiness and joy and bliss, but it’s more a source of pain and agony. It didn’t start out that way when you were newlyweds ... life and marriage was so wonderful, but then life happens and then things turned sour. 

Sometimes, friends, life doesn’t turn out the way that we expected that it would. Someone has cynically said that expectation is the root of all heartaches. They’ve convinced themselves that if life had only turned out the way that I expected life to turn out I would be so much more happy – but that’s not necessarily a true proposition. Because I’ve known people to have all of the trappings of success and yet they are still unhappy and unfulfilled. 

Sometimes, friends, life will not turn out the way that we expected that it would. And when this happens we can allow it to cause us to become cynical and despondent and to live with a perpetual sense of regret, if you will. Or we can see it as a teachable moment. It would help us to better understand the plans and purposes of God for our lives. 

This, friends, is the lesson that John the Baptist learned firsthand in this text that I’ve read into your hearing. Now, I don’t want to assume that everybody knows John’s story. So, let me give you a Cliff Note abridgement of his personal history. He was the son of a priest by the name of Zacharias. His mother, Elizabeth, was a relative of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

I mean, even before John was born, John had “special” written over his life. Because before he was born an angel came to his father and gave Zacharias a prenatal prognosis of the trajectory of his prophetic ministry. The angel told Zacharias that, “You and Elizabeth are going to have a son. You’re going to name him John. He’s going to be great in the sight of God.” He also told him that, “John would become a great preacher who would cause many of the people of Israel to turn to God because he was going to come in the power and spirit of the prophet Elijah.” I mean, before John ever took his first breath John had special over him.

I’m sure, no doubt, that his relatives fully expected that John would follow in the footsteps of his father, Zacharias, and become a priest. But when John came of age God called him to be a prophet. Perhaps they expected that John would go to rabbinical school, like his father. But instead when John came of age he chose to go into the desert and live the aesthetic life. Perhaps they expected that John would wear the priestly attire of a priest like his father, but John chose to wear the simple clothing of a prophet – a camel’s hair tunic and a leather belt. 

No doubt they expected that John would be kosher and refined like his father and only eat the finest of kosher food. But John rather chose to eat the simple food of the desert, locust and wild honey. John started his ministry not in a fancy pulpit – no – but he started preaching out in the desert. His sermons were powerful. I mean, John would tell the people that the Kingdom of God was imminent. That it was at-hand. And John told the people that they needed to repent of their sins and that as a sign of their repentance that they needed to be baptized. 

People began to come from all over the region to be baptized by that firey preacher out in the desert. I mean, John baptized so many people that they gave him a nickname. They called him “The Baptizer.” People were streaming out of the city, out into the wilderness, to hear this firey, young preacher preach his passionate sermons. I mean, the more John preached the larger the crowds grew. John was the hottest ticket in town. 

Unlike the Pharisees and the other religious leaders of this day, John didn’t sugarcoat his gospel, he wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power. And the common people loved and admired him for his bravery, but it was precisely his bravery that eventually got him in trouble with King Herod. He had the unmitigated gall to tell Herod that he was wrong for marrying his dead brother Philip’s wife. And Herod had John thrown into one of his prisons and from that moment on John’s ministry began to spiral downhill. 

No longer were the large crowds gathered in the wilderness to hear him preach his passionate sermons of repentance. No, all he could do now was sit there in that prison cell. I’m sure that John must have felt that he was irrelevant. He must have felt that for all practical purposes he had been taken out of the game. I mean, at first it was for weeks and then for months and then for almost two years. John, who had once been the talk of the town, was sitting in a dark, dank, dirty dungeon cell. 

I’m sure that John must have said to himself, “This is not what I expected. This is not how I expected that my ministry would end up.” John, perhaps, fully expected that he and Jesus would have gone on a tag team ministry together that he could be the opening act for Jesus. And Jesus could be the closer. He didn’t expect that his ministry would end with him being lonely in a prison cell.

I’m sure that prison must have been an ordeal for John, but there was one bright spot. And that was that John was allowed to receive visitors. And every now and then some of his former disciples would stop by the prison to check on John. John was eager to know what was happening on the outside. And particularly he was interested to know what was happening in the ministry of his cousin, Jesus. 

I mean, remember, before John went to prison when he preached in the desert John had the privilege of baptizing Jesus in the wilderness. And at the baptism John declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” I mean, John announced Jesus as Messiah in front of the crowd. So, John was eager to know what was happening in the ministry of Jesus. John’s disciples said, “Well, John, we need to tell you ... Do you remember how large those crowds used to be that came to hear you preach in the desert? Well, the crowds coming to hear Jesus are much larger than yours. And John, unlike your bold, in your face, message of the coming judgment of God, Jesus is preaching a slightly different kind of message. A message of mercy and forgiveness. John, Jesus is showing compassion for the people. He’s performing miracles. The sick are healed. The blind receive their sight. The lame are able to walk. The lepers are cleansed. And the poor have the gospel preached to them.” 

I’m sure John must have been taken aback by this, and said to them, “What do you mean he’s not preaching the message of the judgment of God coming on the people? What do you mean he’s performing miracles for the people while I’ve been sitting in this jail cell for months on end? Why don’t he perform a miracle and get me out of jail? I tell you what, I want you to go and ask Jesus a personal question for me. Tell him that I said, ‘Are you the coming one? Or do we look for someone else?’” 

John, friends, had run into that scandal that every one of us will run into from time to time in life, it is the scandal of unexpected outcomes. The life that John expected to have did not square up with the life that John actually had. And every now and then we will face that same scandal in life. So, what do you do when the life that you expected to have does not square up with the life that you actually have. Well, I’m glad you asked.

I believe this text teaches us, first of all, that when the life you expected to have does not square up with the life that you actually have you need to know this – it is only human to express your doubts. It is only human to express your doubts. Some people may find the fact that John had his moment of doubt may find that rather odd, if you will. I mean, how can one like John who had so passionately declared at the baptism of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” How can he now be saying, “Are you the one we’ve been looking for? Or should we look for someone else?” 

This is the same John, friends, who had told the crowd that, “I’m not worthy to untie his sandals.” This is the same John who had told the multitude, “I baptize with water, but he’s going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.” And now that same John is saying, “Are you the one that we’ve been looking for? Or should we look for someone else?” 

May I remind us today that authentic faith is not the absence of doubt. No, authentic faith says that, yes, in life we will from time to time have our moments of doubt. Where we wonder: Does God know? Does God care? Does God even exist? Authentic faith is not the absence of doubt, but authentic faith will eventually trump your doubts and cause you say, “But I still believe.” 

I believe that’s where John is. I believe that he doubted, first of all, because of his circumstances. John had heard his disciples report about Jesus’ miracle working abilities. And he wondered why the one who had the power to give sight to the blind and raise the dead hadn’t performed a miracle and gotten him out of jail. He wondered, perhaps, why the one who promised to set the captives free had not set him free. And so John found himself saying, “Are you the one we’ve been waiting on, or do we look for someone else?”

May I remind us of an important truth today, and it is this: That when you place your expectations in your circumstances you set yourself up to be disappointed in life. Let me say it again. When you place your expectations on your circumstances you set yourself up to be disappointed in life. 

Maybe that’s where someone is right now. That life hasn’t turned out the way that you expected life would turn out. You fully expected that by now your life should have been much further along than it is. You fully expected that by now you wouldn’t be facing financial struggles in your life, or that you wouldn’t have to deal with a particular sickness or illness in your life. Maybe you expected that by now you would be married. But now you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and that still is not your reality. 

And you find yourself wondering, “Does God care about me? Does God know what I’m going through?” Friends, whenever you place your expectations in your circumstances you set yourself up to be disappointed. Maybe there’s a preacher ... he went to all the right schools. You dotted your i’s, you crossed your t’s, if you will. Got the education from seminary that you knew you needed to prepare you for ministry. And you perhaps expected that you’d be pastoring a mega sized church, but that’s not your reality. For the last 20 years you’ve been there in a rural church, a small rural church of about 40-50 members. And you wonder, “What’s wrong with me? Why didn’t life turn out the way I expected?”

Friends, it is the scandal of unexpected outcomes. Sometimes the life that we expected to have will not always square up with the life that we actually have. John doubted because of his circumstances, but I believe John also doubted because of the Lord’s methodology of doing things was different than what he expected. Jesus didn’t come in the way that perhaps John and the other religious leaders of Israel expected the Messiah would come. 

John was a revolutionary. John wanted a revolution. Like many of the religious leaders of his day. They wanted a messiah to be a more militant messiah. They wanted the messiah to be a geopolitical figure who would raise up an army and go to war with Rome and set the Jews free from Roman domination. But every occasion that they tried to crown Jesus as a King, Jesus rejected those overtures, because he in essence said, “I didn’t come to be some earthly despot. I did not come to be a political king on this earth. I’ve come to establish a higher kingdom, the Kingdom of God.” 

Because he wasn’t the kind of military geopolitical figure that many of the religious leaders expected. John perhaps is saying, “Are you the one we’ve been looking for, or should we look for someone else?” Sometimes we find ourselves doubting God, because God doesn’t move the way we think God ought to move in our lives. You were so sincere when you prayed that prayer that God would open a particular door, that God would give you a particular opportunity, that God would bless you to marry a particular person, but none of those things happened. 

Friends, I just want to remind us today that God is not obligated to say “yes” to us. If you don’t believe me, ask the Apostle Paul when he had some condition that he describes as a “thorn in his flesh.” Whatever it was it was painful and Paul prayed three times that God would remove it, and God told Paul, “No,” he says, “my grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” May I remind us of something today?

“No” is an answer. God reserves the right to tell us “no” because God is sovereign. That means he can do what he wants, when he wants, to whom he wants, through whom he wants, whenever he gets ready, and he doesn’t owe anybody an explanation. You can get mad at God, shake your first at God, stomp, holler, and even spit at God if you want to – but guess what, when your makeup runs dry up he’s still going to be God. 

The reason he’s still going to be God is because he’s always been God. He didn’t run for the office. Nobody voted him in and can’t anybody vote him out. Moses says, “From everlasting to everlasting, though art God.” 

Sometimes, friends, our sovereign God will not allow our lives to go the way that we expected that they would. I believe John doubted because the Lord’s methodology of doing things was different than what he expected. But I believe John doubted perhaps because of the Lord’s timing. Maybe John had wondered why there were no immediate signs of the imminent judgment that those wicked sinners in the wilderness would receive from the Lord.

You remember, when John preached in the wilderness he quoted Malachi 3:10. He said, “The axe is laid at the root of the tree. And every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire.” John perhaps wanted judgment to come upon those sinners right now, but for Jesus ... Jesus preached a slightly different kind of message. A message of mercy and forgiveness. For him the judgment would come at the end of the ages. But perhaps the case could be made that John was doubting because perhaps he wanted judgment right now and Jesus says, “Yes, but not now.” 

What do you do when your right now runs up against God’s not now? 

You’ve got a right now problem and you want God to move right now. But our sovereign God sometimes chooses to say, “I’m going to move, but not now.” You see, because he’s sovereign God does not, is not obligated to move in our timing and to move according to our schedules. And the reason he doesn’t have to move according to our schedules is because God doesn’t have deadlines. There are no lines that if God doesn’t cross at a certain time he’s going to be too late. And God doesn’t have emergencies. No, we have emergencies, not God. 

That’s what those two sisters learned when Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here our brother would not have died.” And Jesus said, “You’re going to see your brother again.” Martha says, “Yes, Lord, I know I’ll see him in the general resurrection.” Jesus said, “It’s apparent that you obviously don’t know fully who I am. I am the resurrection and the life. I can let your brother be dead for four days, rigor mortis already set up in his body and it’s already decomposing, and still not be too late.” And Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus and said, “Lazarus, come forth.” 

The old preacher of my childhood said had he not called Lazarus by his name every dead person in the cemetery would have gotten up that day. 

Friends, I tell you today that sometimes we have our moments of doubt, because God doesn’t move life along in the timing that we want God to move. So, here it is. Sometimes we’re going to face this scandal of unexpected outcomes where the life that you expected to have is not always going to square up with the life that you actually have. When that happens you need to know that it is only human to express your doubt.

But there’s a second movement in this passage and it is this – that when the life that you expected to have does not square up with the life that you actually have, secondly, you need to know that your faith in Christ is not in vain. Notice that Jesus is not taken aback, nor does he express any disappointment with the fact that his friend, John, had his moment of doubt. But he lovingly and tenderly gave a word of encouragement for his friend. 

He knew that John knew the scriptures and he would understand his reply. So, he says to John’s disciples who had brought him the message from John. He says, “Go back and tell your teacher something from me. Go back and tell your teacher what you heard, the gospel that you heard me preach, but don’t just tell him what you heard with your ears, tell him also what you saw with your eyes. Tell him how you saw the sick healed. Tell him how the blind received their sight. Tell him how the lame are able to walk again and the lepers are cleansed and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Then John, who knows the scriptures, will know that what the prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61:1 is being fulfilled by me today. That the things that you see and hear me do today will remind John that his faith in me is not in vain.” 

Sometimes, friends, we find ourselves disappointed in life because the life that we expected to have does not square up with the life that we actually have. And in those moments we find ourselves questioning our faith, and we say to ourselves, “Does faith in God matter?” Are we on some wild goose chase? Does faith in God really matter? I mean, you quote the promises of God, but your present reality doesn’t look anything like the promises that you are quoting. 

Maybe I’m talking to somebody ... you are faithful in giving your tithes and offerings and you’ve always heard that if we bring the tithe into the storehouse he opens the windows and pours out a blessing, won’t have room enough to receive, and you look around and you say, “Where are those windows?” (laughs) “Because I’m struggling to make it from paycheck to paycheck.” 

Maybe you try to live for God and try to be as obedient to God as you can. None of us are perfect. We all have sinned and come short of his glory, but at least you’re trying. But you’re struggling from week to week and then there’s a joker that lives down the street who goes to no one’s church and doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. And in those moments we wonder, “Does faith in God matter?” 

But our faithful and sovereign God has a way of coming to us with a word of encouragement. Sometimes he encourages us with a sense of his abiding presence. Sometimes he’ll send a friend or a perfect stranger who comes at just the right time and says just the right thing. Sometimes he’ll encourage you through a song that the choir sings, or through a sermon that the preacher preaches, maybe through this sermon today, to remind us that our faith in God is not in vain. 

Oh, friends, that’s why we gather together corporately in houses of worship. Although we can’t physically go to those houses of worship now, but that’s why we gather for corporate worship weekly, because when we gather for corporate worship it is our opportunity not only to re-affirm our corporate believe in love for God, but we know that in the corporate worship experience that we’re going to receive a word from God. A word that will help us to look at life and its many vicissitudes and say to life that my faith in Christ will help me to survive whatever you throw at me this week. 

That’s what got our slave forefathers and mothers through debauchery of slavery. It was their abiding faith in God that reminded those slaves that a better day is going to come. You could hear it in their hymnity, those old slave songs. They would say in the midst of the harshness of their circumstances, “I’m so glad that trouble won’t last always.”

Many of those slaves never owned a pair of shoes. They went barefoot all of their lives. But they still believed a better day was coming. So, they would sing, “I’ve got shoes. You’ve got shoes. And all of God’s chillin got shoes and one of these days I’m going to put on my shoes and walk all over God’s Heaven.” That’s why they would sing, “Swing lo, sweet chariot, come forth to carry me home.” Because their faith in God reminded them that a better day is coming. 

I want to say to someone today ... maybe you’ve run into this scandal of unexpected outcomes. The life you expected to have didn’t square up with the life that you actually have. I want to remind you today that your faith in Christ is not in vain. But then there’s a final movement and I’m in my seat and it is this: that when the life that you expected to have does not square up with the life that you actually have, here’s what the text teaches us – you remain faithful regardless of what happens to you. 

Jesus says in verse six, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.” Now these words of Jesus were not only meant to encourage John but also now to encourage those among the crowd through whom he was speaking, who also believed to know that their faith was not in vain. And so in this little beatitude he said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.” That word, offended, is a Greek word that from which we get our English word “scandalize.” It means to stumble, to fall away, to stumble into sin, to stumble into disbelief. 

He said, “I want you to go and tell John, don’t stumble over me. Because living for me is not a guarantee that you’re going to live an idealized life. No, living for me might mean that you end up in prison,” like John, “or you end up on Nero’s chopping block, like Paul, or you’re crucified upside-down, like Peter. Living for me might mean you have to stay in a marriage that makes you miserable, or in a job that leaves you unfulfilled, or pastoring that little small church with 40 members. But whatever you do,” he says, “you be faithful. Don’t stumble because of me.”

Oh, my brothers and sisters, that’s a word for someone today. Because you look back with regret at your life and you wonder why your life turned out the way it turned out and why your circumstances are the way they are and you find yourself saying, “I woulda, I coulda, I shoulda.” Well, it didn’t happen, so deal with it. Living for Christ does not mean that you’re guaranteed to pastor a mega church. No, it might mean that you have to be faithful with those 40 members that God sent to you and preach to them as if you were preaching to 5,000 people, because God didn’t call us to be big or popular – he called us to be faithful. “Don’t stumble because of me.”

I think of Nelson Mandela who, like John the Baptist, also went to jail for what he believed in. But for 27 years of his life they took away his freedom. But Nelson Mandela never stumbled. He never stumbled into disbelief or of not believing what he stood for and the cause for which he stood. He remained faithful. 

I say to you today that sometimes in this life the life that you and I expected to have is not going to always square up with the life that we have, but whatever you do, friends, remain faithful, because time is filled with swift transitions, naught of earth unmoved can stand. Build your hopes on things eternal and hold to God’s unchanging hand. Because we are tossed and driven on the restless sea of time; somber skies and howling tempests oft succeed a bright sunshine; in that land of perfect day, when the mists are rolled away, we will understand it better by and by.

The scandal of unexpected outcomes. If you receive it, give the Lord praise.


>>Kristen Padilla:


You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.