Sermon Tone Analysis

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By Pastor Glenn Pease
How wrong can the experts be?
Let's look at history and see.
Daryl F. Zanuck, who was head of 20th Century Fox, back in 1946 said, "TV won't be able to hold on to any market after the first 6 months-people will soon tire at staring at a plywood box every night."
Marshall Foch of France said in 1911, "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
James Hoffa, president of the teamsters said in 1975, "I don't need bodyguards."
Hitler at the peak of his power said the third Reich will last one thousand years.
He was only off by 988 years.
General George Custer said there are only about 300 Indians down there by the Little Big Horn.
He was off by two thousand eight hundred.
Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic said, "This ship will never sink."
He was close, for he only missed it by one, for it only sank once.
We get a kick out of just how wrong experts can be in there judgments, for it makes us feel superior.
If we knew just how often they are wrong we would probably rid the world of the feelings of inferiority.
The poet writes,
The world is full of experts, but with every breaking story
The experts seem a whole lot like Professor Irwin Corey.
Because they are authorities, they stand out from the throng,
The only problem being that they are so often wrong.
It is almost impossible not to be wrong, for not only can nobody know that needs to be known, but it is possible to be wrong even when you are right.
It is possible to be subjectively right, and yet objectively wrong.
This is the paradox we find in the words and spirit of John the Baptist.
He is famous for his sentence about his relationship to the Messiah where he expresses profound humility.
He says in Mark 1:7, "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie."
John is saying, I am not worthy to be this mans slave, and do for him the task of the lowliest servant.
Since John was the forerunner of the Messiah, he was the only man alive on earth who knew the Messiah was about to make His move.
He was the worlds authority on the Messiah.
Yet he made this statement which was truly how he felt, and thus, a right statement, but one which was nevertheless wrong according to the objective facts of the Biblical records.
Jesus came to John and said not only are you worthy to untie my sandals, I want you to be the one who baptizes me.
John did not want to do it, for he sincerely felt unworthy, but Jesus insisted, for Jesus considered him the most worthy man, not just of his day, but of all of history.
Jesus said John was the greatest man ever born of woman.
So what we have here is the greatest man ever born, and the leading authority of his day on the Messiah, saying something that he sincerely felt, and thus, it was a virtue, but it was objectively false.
He was worthy to untie his Masters sandals, and a whole lot more than that.
He was the man Jesus chose to baptize Him.
Now this distinction between the subjective and the objective is no minor matter.
It is important for our understanding of what otherwise would be a direct and plain contradiction in the New Testament.
Last week we saw how the last two verses of the Old Testament prophesied that Elijah would come, and that was the hope of Israel.
We also saw how John the Baptist fulfilled that prophecy, and thus, the New Testament begins where the Old Testament left off.
But we now need to see that John the Baptist did not know that he was Elijah.
In John 1:21 we read o how the priests came to John and asked him who he was.
The verse reads, "They asked him, then who are you?
Are you Elijah?
He said I am not."
If you take John's word as your final authority you would conclude that he was not Elijah.
But if you take the words of Jesus as your final authority you would conclude that he was.
Listen to the discussion about this issue in Matt.
17:10-13.
"The disciples asked Him, 'Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?' Jesus replied, to be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.
But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished.
In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.
Then the disciples understood that He was talking to them about John the Baptist."
Jesus said it even more clearly in Matt.
11:13-14.
"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come."
Here you have Jesus saying John was Elijah and John himself saying he was not.
Is that not a clear contradiction?
Of course, it is, but no more so than John saying I am not worthy to untie His sandals, and Jesus saying you are worthy even enough to baptize me.
Subjectively John felt worthless compared to Jesus, but objectively he was wrong.
Subjectively he did not feel he was the great prophet Elijah but objectively he was wrong for Jesus said he was the fulfillment of that great hope.
We learn a valuable lesson from this reality of the conflict between subjective and objective truth.
The lesson is this: The objective truth always has priority over the subjective.
John really felt unworthy, and he really felt he was not Elijah, but he was wrong.
We can all feel all sorts of things deeply and sincerely, but this does not mean we can't be wrong.
If the greatest man born of woman can be wrong, no one can boost that their subjective feelings and opinions must always be right.
It is not that there is no truth to a false subjective feeling.
There always has to be some truth to it, for it represents a real feeling even if it does not conform to objective facts.
The well known poem reveals my point.
It is called The Blind Men And The Elephant.
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant,
Though all of them were blind
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Again his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we hear
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
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