An Unpredictable King – More Than a Man Series
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AN UNPREDICTABLE KING – MORE THAN A MAN SERIES It has been said before that the most difficult thing to do in all of sports is to hit a live baseball. The most difficult thing to do in all of sports according to some sports experts is to hit a live baseball. And it can become more and more difficult the more the pitcher develops in his skills to pitch. It gets harder from little league to junior high to high school to college to professional ball and ultimately to the major leagues. Now if you know anything about baseball a wise coach only lets a pitcher when he is young throw one pitch. And what is that pitch? It is the fast ball. And why does a coach not allow a pitcher to throw other pitches like curve balls? It is because of injuries. They don’t want the pitcher to injure their shoulder, and in particular their elbow, because what takes place when a pitcher throws a curve ball is the twisting motion can create some serious elbow issues. But what happens is, as the pitcher learns to master different pitches, he becomes more unpredictable to the batter. In little league the batter knows what he is facing, it will be a fast ball. Now the batter does not know how accurate the fast ball is going to be, but the batter knows that he is going to face a fast ball. But when a person gets into college level baseball and into the major leagues, a pitcher by that time has mastered three to four, and some pitchers may have five different pitches that they have mastered. And what that does is it puts the batter in a very unpredictable circumstance. He has to try to anticipate what is to come if he has any hopes of making contact with the baseball. Now it is one thing to stand up and try to hit a 95 mile an hour fast ball, and it is another thing to wonder if the ball is going to come in fast, or is it going to come and curve, or is it going to come quick and do a slider, or is it going to be sort of a dancing knuckle ball. What kind of a pitch is it going to be? It has also been said that one of the most difficult pitches to hit is what is known as a circle changeup. Now when I was learning this pitch, it is not only difficult to hit, it is difficult to throw. I remember once at a try out where I literally messed up with one of these things and I ended up throwing the ball over the back stop. I knew I really needed to work on this pitch because it was incredibly inaccurate. The circle changeup was a hard pitch to learn and it was a hard pitch to hit. And what makes it so difficult is the motion looks the same to the batter when it is coming at you. If I am throwing a fast ball, it looks one way and if I am throwing a circle changeup it still looks that way. You don’t see the twisting of the arm. And so that makes it difficult. And here is what happens with the circle changeup. If you throw a 90 mile an hour fast ball on one pitch, then you could come back on the next pitch and throw a circle changeup and you could bring the ball in at 65 miles an hour. So now all of a sudden the batter just saw one pitch at 90 miles an hour, and man when it is coming at 90 miles an hour you do not have a lot of time to wait. You have to be ready to swing fast. But when Page 1 of 15 pages 9/12/2010 AN UNPREDICTABLE KING – MORE THAN A MAN SERIES the ball comes in at 65 miles an hour, and you just saw a 90 mile an hour fast ball, you might be out in front of the ball, so you can get duped. Why? It is because the pitcher has to keep himself unpredictable to be successful. And I will tell you something. When it comes to Christianity, we have to understand something about Jesus. He, like a pitcher, is an unpredictable king. And people did not know what is coming with Jesus. When they were hearing the gospel, they were always confused by His message, by what He was saying, by the pitches He thrrew their way. They thought that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to pitch a fast ball of judgment and to set up His kingdom. But He threw them a changeup on Palm Sunday. He threw them a curve ball that they weren’t expecting. Ever since the beginning of John’s gospel, we have seen this sense of perplexity and Jesus has shown Himself as an unpredictable king. In John Chapter 1 and verse 14, it says, “The word became flesh.” Who is the word? Jesus. Who is Jesus? God. And God became flesh. That is an unpredictable move. You wouldn’t predict that that would be the way that God would save us by becoming flesh, by becoming like one of us. And then in John Chapter 2, He is unpredictable once again. He says this statement, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” And they are thinking, ‘Wait a second. It took many, many years to build this temple and you mean to say you are going to destroy it and then raise it up in three days?’ But He was talking about His body. It was an unpredictable statement. Then on another occasion He was at a wedding in Cana in Chapter 2. And His mom came up to Him and said, ‘Hey Son, we have run out of wine. Do something about it.’ Jesus provides wine in a very unpredictable way. He does it with water, no grapes were needed. Go figure. In John Chapter 3, Nicodemus comes out. He walks up to Jesus and He asks Him what he needed to do to be saved. He wanted to know what was needed to be done to enter the kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus said, “You must be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” And you can picture Nicodemus scratching his head when he says, “How can a man be born again when he has already been born once?” Jesus made an unpredictable statement. He threw Nicodemus a curve ball. And Nicodemus wasn’t expecting that kind of pitch. In John Chapter 4, Jesus is unpredictable once again. He is sitting with the woman at the well. And He basically throws her a real fast ball that hits her in the chest. “You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” How in the world did He know that? She was not expecting that. But He was more than a man. And when we don’t understand that Jesus is more than a man we will be confused by Him. Page 2 of 15 pages 9/12/2010 AN UNPREDICTABLE KING – MORE THAN A MAN SERIES In John Chapter 5, Jesus shows up on the Sabbath day. And what happens then? He heals a person who has been an invalid for thirty-eight years down at the Pool of Bethesda. And people could not believe that he did this. They were confused by that because He healed on the Sabbath. Then you come to John Chapter 6, and Jesus said, “Unless you eat of my flesh, and drink of my blood, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Talk about a curve ball, “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood,” what is He talking about here? What kind of a message is this? Also in John Chapter 6, He throws them a curve ball because of the feeding of the five thousand, plus women and children. How does He do that? He takes two sardines and five little rolls and He creates an all you can eat buffet for everyone there. And He provided it in a way that was unpredictable. They didn’t expect it, they didn’t anticipate it. In John Chapter 8 and verse 58, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They knew that He was saying that He was eternal. And what did they want to do? They wanted to stone Him to death at that moment because He was making a claim to be more than a man, that He was eternal. And it was an unpredictable statement. How could someone who appears to only be 30 years old make a statement like that? In John Chapter 10 and verse 30, He makes this statement, “I and the Father are one.” They picked up stones again to kill Him. Why? How could He make such a statement to be one with God? But they didn’t understand the fullness of God, did they? In John Chapter 11, we studied about when Mary and Martha were losing their brother, Lazarus. They sent a messenger to go tell Jesus that Lazarus, the one whom He loved, was dying. The messenger tells Jesus, and what does Jesus do? He responds in an unpredictable way. He waits until Lazarus is dead before He goes. Why? It was because Jesus is always throwing us curve balls, and unless we understand that Jesus operates in unpredictable ways, we will always be confused by our relationship with Him.