Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning, I would like to begin a short series of Sunday Schools in preparation for Easter.

The first, is a general overview tracing the rejection of Christ by the Jews from start to finish.

As we begin, I would like to briefly mention a few concepts.

1. Introductory Issues:

A. The Expectation of the Jews:

What did the Jews expect in a Messiah?

What they did expect:

Edersheim observes in Jewish literature that they recognized that the Messiah would be a prophet, priest, and King.

But there need drove them to primarily looking for a conquering King.

In the absence of felt need of deliverance from sin, we can understand, how Rabbinic tradition found no place for the Priestly office of the Messiah, and how even His claims to be the Prophet of His people are almost entirely overshadowed by His appearance as their King and Deliverer.

This, indeed, was the ever-present want, pressing the more heavily as Israel’s national sufferings seemed almost inexplicable, while they contrasted so sharply with the glory expected by the Rabbis.

Further, Edersheim notes that there were several aspects of Christ they did not expect.

What they did not expect:

We now approach this most difficult and delicate question: What was the expectation of the ancient Synagogue, as regarded the Nature, Person, and qualifications of the Messiah?

In answering it—not at present from the Old Testament, but from the views expressed in Rabbinic literature, and, so far as we can gather from the Gospel-narratives, from those cherished by the contemporaries of Christ—two inferences seem evident.

First, the idea of a Divine Personality, and of the union of the two Natures in the Messiah, seems to have been foreign to the Jewish auditory of Jesus of Nazareth, and even at first to His disciples.

Secondly, they appear to have regarded the Messiah as far above the ordinary human, royal, prophetic, and even Angelic type, to such extent, that the boundary-line separating it from Divine Personality is of the narrowest, so that, when the conviction of the reality of the Messianic manifestation in Jesus burst on their minds, this boundary-line was easily, almost naturally, overstepped, and those who would have shrunk from framing their belief in such dogmatic form, readily owned and worshipped Him as the Son of God.

They did not expect the the unity of the Messiah as both God and Man.

a) They rejected Christ because he claimed to be God.

b) They rejected Christ because he came into the world through natural birth, of common parents, and common means.

We will look at this more when we talk about the rejections of Christ.

B. The Relationship to the Kingdom:

All unifying views of Scripture hold to a rejection of the King and the Kingdom.

(Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Progressive Dispensationalism, and Traditional Dispensationalism)

All views hold that the Messiah was to be the anointed King of the lineage of David.

Kingdom as Present Reality - Those who hold this position (Covenant Theology, Progressive Dispensationalism, and Realized Eschatology) would

talks about the Messiah being enthroned by God.

So everybody understand that he is going to come as a ruling King.

Remember, that,

An important understanding of the rejection of Christ is it is also a rejection of His rule and the promised Kingdom.

It is not only the rejection of the Savior ().

C. The Spiritual Reality of Christ’s Early Success.

To say that Christ was rejected is not to say that Christ did not have any success.

Many crowds followed Jesus in his early ministry.

However, there reason for following him early on was because of his miracles and the blessings of those miracles:

a. Fascination with Signs.

b.

The blessing of Healing.

c.

The blessing of food.

d.

The uniqueness of Christ’s teachings.

His latter ministry demonstrated that there followings were not a Spiritual acceptance of the Messiah or the required repentance from there sins.

2. The Rejection of Christ by Israel:

There two main bodies that the Gospels include as rejecting Christ.

1.

The Rulers

a.

The Roman Authorities.

1) Pilate (Roman Governor)

2) Herod Antipas (King, ruling the area of Galilee)

b.

The Sanhedrin

1) Composed of 71 men including Priests, Scribes (also known as lawyers), and civil leaders (“elders”).

2) The religious leaders were a mix of:

a) Pharisee’s (controlled most synagogues, favored by the commoners)

b) Sadducee's (controlled the temple, favored by the upper class)

c.

Unaffiliated (according to Metzger)

2. The “Crowd” (Common Population of Israel).

Composed of 71 men:

As many of you have heard before, there is great emphases on the rejection of the Jewish religious rulers in and of the people in .

Now I do not disagree with the Emphases there.

People rightly understand that as a defining moment in Jesus’s ministry and a culminating moment of rejection.

Priests

But understand, no one got up that day and decided they were going to reject Christ.

The rejection was a culminating point in time.

It began with disagreement well before the rejection in those two places.

I also would say that equal emphasis ought to be on the cross as the ultimate rejection by both the people and all rulers involved.

What I would like to do is trace the rejection of Christ from beginning to end as well as group them topically.

So understand the categories:

- The people groups who are doing the rejection.

- The chronological aspect of the rejection.

- The kinds of rejection.

Much of what I am doing today is not found any one book.

I asked Dr. Bookmen of Shepherds Seminary if there was an article, thesis, or book that does this.

And he knew of none.

Most authors use and possibly as representative of the whole.

(Examples: George Ladd, Darrell Bock, Alva McClain, and John Walvoord.)

Most primarily deal with

So I am really on my own in presenting this material so I ask for your grace as we work through it.

Chronology and People of the Rejection:

The Early and Mid ministry -

The Early and Mid ministry is a mix of excitement, curiosity, and the early beginnings of rejection.

The Initial Success: Almost immediately we see large crowds coming out to see Jesus.

(, , , )

He begins with John the Baptist:

John was already gathering a crowd, but then Jesus comes at just increases the excitement.

Matthew gives a great snapshot into his early success in .

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).

But we are also given a number of examples of people rejecting the ministry of Christ.

But we are also given a number of examples of people rejecting the ministry of Christ.

The Early Rejection of the Gospel:

The cleansing of the temple- .

A sign is requested, but the real importance of this is found in his trial when this is brought up.

()

The cleansing of the temple in .

The crowd is falsely following him: .

The

, : The disbelief by Nicodemus (a Pharisee) regarding entrance into the Kingdom.

, , : The forgiving and healing of the paralytic man.

The Pharisee’s reject Christ ability to forgive sins.