Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Good Ol’ Run-of-the-Mill Sinners”*

*Luke 13:1-9*

 

v    Since June 1974, there have been 6 church shootings

Ø     Where a person has entered a church and begun shooting

§        Resulting in 19 dead and 30 injured

·        Add to that…

Ø     Last Sunday a man walked in to Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church, in Detroit, Michigan

§        And shot a woman and wounds a girl next to her

·        *Q: What was the reason?*

¨     Apparently it was a dispute over the woman’s daughter that led this man to do what he did

v    These types of tragedies are especially disturbing because they happen in churches…places of worship

Ø     These types of crimes seem so senseless and out of place

§        So we search for the reasons behind them

§        Of the 6 church shootings

·        The reasons given online were:

¨     Mental illness

¨     Racism

¨     Anti-Semitism

¨     Family dispute

¨     Political views

 

v    Today in our text, Jesus is told of an awful event that took place in the temple…

Ø     The sacred place of worship!

§        And, like today, the people were searching for answers

·        But they are looking in the wrong place...

* *

*READ 13:1*

* *

v    Explain what Pilate did to the Jews in the Temple

Ø     What an abominable thing to do!

§        People killed in the holy temple

·        And they, like us, ask the question “why”

·        What reason could possibly explain this tragedy?!

¨     And from Jesus’ answer, we can understand the answer they came up with

 

*READ 13:2-5*

 

v    Here Jesus debunks some bad theology   

Ø     The people did not feel that the Galileans were killed because of racism or a family dispute or even political views…

§        They thought that they were killed because of their sin!

·        That they were being punished because they were particularly egregious sinners!

 

v    To that, Jesus says, “That is ridiculous!”

Ø     To show how ridiculous he gives another example

§        The tower of Siloam disaster

·        18 people killed doing a good thing

¨     Helping to bring water into the city of Jerusalem

Ø     “Do you think they were more guilty than all others in Jerusalem?!

§        In other words…

·        Were they worse sinners than anyone in Jerusalem that they were singled out?

 

v    What Jesus is debunking is the belief that circumstances and sinfulness have a one-to-one cause and effect relationship

 

v    Jesus is answering the age-old question…

*What is the relationship between Sin and Judgment*

Ø     The Jews believed that sin and punishment were inextricably linked

§        They thought of it in a cause-effect way

·        If a person life was going south, then they obviously had been sinning

¨     Thus by syllogistic logic the opposite was true…

·        If a person’s life was going well, then they must be leading a less sinful life

Ø     What the Jews and some people today believe is that sin and quality of life chart together

§        This is exactly the bad theology that  Job’s counselors gave him

·        *Job 22:5-10 ~~ Eliphaz*

¨     /Is not your wickedness great?

Are not your sins endless?

You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked.

You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land— an honored man, living on it.

And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.

That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you/

Ø     What Eliphaz is telling Job is that…

§        You must have done something bad to deserve this

 

v    This bad theology, I’m sorry to say, is alive and well today…

Ø     I have had people sit in my office and tell me during a difficult time in their life that they are being punished by God

Ø     I have learned of pastors who tell people who are going through a bad time that there must be some unconfessed sin

§        Are they being punished by God for some great sin?

·        Jesus’ answer is the same now as then…

¨     “I tell you, no!”

 

§         *Remember in John 9:1-3*

·        /As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”/

¨     What they were asking is the same question here…

Ø     What egregious sin has caused this?

§        Jesus’ answer…

·        / “Neither this man nor his parents sinned”/

/ /

v    What Scriptures teach us is that…

Ø     This life is not fair

§        Reward and punishment are not meted out in proportion

·        The rain falls on the just and unjust alike

·        *Habakkuk’s second complaint (1:13)*

¨     /Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?/

·        *Ecc 9:11 sums it up…*

¨     /I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them./

v    This life is not fair, but the next one is!

Ø     Specific sin is not the cause of it…

§        The Fall is

·        We live in a sinful fallen world

¨     Where the world’s rules are not as they were created to be

¨     And where mankind is all equally guilty of sin before God

Ø     And that is where Jesus takes the discussion about sin and punishment…

§        The question is not…

·        Why did these people die?

§        The right question Jesus says, is…

·        What right do you have to live?

 

Ø     Because…

§         All are sinful