Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week, we picked up with Jesus and the disciples heading towards Jerusalem.

Jesus is still teaching and ministering as he goes, and as he does, he continues to confront what we would think of as normal.

Last week, Jesus hit the disciples hard.

They had been arguing about who was the best, and Jesus showed that his kingdom doesn’t operate like ours.

We aren’t going to have time to cover every verse as we go through this time, so we are jumping over a section where Jesus reminds us to take drastic measures to battle sin.

Then, he puts the Pharisees in their place, proving their ignorance, and again turning the tables.

That leads us to where we are picking up this morning.

Jesus is continuing to turn everything upside down.

Here, he is going to do it by contrasting two different types of faith: the faith of a child, and the faith of the proud.

As he does, he makes it very clear that the faith you and I need is the faith of a child.

In fact, you could sum up this week’s message by saying, “Fight to keep a child-like faith.”

Let’s look at what the Bible has to say this morning.

Start with me in .

Let’s start unpacking this by examining...

1) The faith of a child.

Go back to verses 13-16.

This is the second time in two chapters that we see Jesus explaining the kingdom using children.

Last week, we saw that children represented the lowest, weakest members of society.

Jesus challenged us to welcome even the lowest if we wanted to be great in his kingdom.

Now, he is taking this a step further.

It’s one thing to welcome a child, it’s another to say we should copy them.

You can see that the disciples clearly didn’t understand what Jesus had taught them, because they are doing the exact opposite of what he commanded in the previous chapter!

Instead of welcoming the children, they are pushing them away and rebuking their parents for bringing them.

Look at Jesus response in verse 14.

He got upset at them!

Why?

Because they were rejecting the ones who give us the clearest picture of how we come to Christ.

The kingdom of God, a right relationship with God, is only attained by those willing to come to God like children.

Think about kids for a minute.

We have three in our house, and this week, we have lots of togetherness because of the snow.

When you are around young kids for a while, you notice certain traits.

You see that they are trusting, almost to a fault.

They believe what you tell them is true, often without question.

They aren’t yet jaded to the harsh disappointments in life, and in their eyes, mom and dad can do very little wrong.

One example of this: We were out at a restaurant recently, and a family friend did the “quarter in the ear” trick to our two-year-old son.

About a week later, he caught the sinus crud that was going around, and it stopped up his ears.

He asked his mommy to check to see if there was another quarter in his ears stopping it up.

Cute, isn’t it?

Why do we think that is cute?

Because our heart longs for that innocence that has been lost by all the pain and heartache we have experienced in life.

Man, to be that trusting, to simply believe without doubting.

You see it when a child jumps into your arms.

They do it, knowing you are going to catch them whether you want to or not.

Not only are they trusting, they are also bold.

J.D. Greear, a pastor in NC, recently highlighted this in a message on prayer.

He pointed out how bold our kids are when they ask for things.

Ever been in a store with a child?

Friday, we had to run to the store before school, and I made it crystal clear to the kids that we only needed a few items, and then we were getting out.

As we are standing their, looking at one of the things we needed, what starts happening?

They start asking for things.

Ever been cooking dinner and had your kids come ask you for something to eat since they are hungry now?

Listen, when mommy has been home with you all day long and answered 10,000 questions from the kids, or she and dad are both worn out from a long day at work and you don’t have the patience to wait 5 minutes to get something to eat, that’s boldness!

So what does that have to do with entering the kingdom of heaven?

Only those who are willing to simply put their faith in Christ, trusting him completely and boldly, will find entrance into the kingdom.

We can see that clearer when we see the contrast in the next section.

Look now at...

Jesus is continuing to turn everything upside down.

2) The faith of the proud.

Pick back up in verse 17-20.

Here is a man who, on the outside, has it all together.

In fact, he seems like his heart is even in the right place.

Jesus was getting ready to leave, so he ran to him, which was culturally unacceptable for an adult male.

Not only that, he kneels before Jesus with an honest request.

This is one of the most masterful interactions in the Gospel.

Jesus doesn’t beat this man over the head with his sin.

Instead, he lovingly exposes the pride in his heart.

In pointing the man back to the commands of the law, he is exposing his pride.

The man acknowledges it in verse 20.

In his eyes, he is perfect!

Is that what you think this morning?

You have tried really hard all your life to do the right thing, so you should be good to go?

Are you willing to be honest with me and say that you have made at least one mistake?

You have told at least one lie or dishonored your mom and dad at least once?

Here’s what the Bible says:

This man had to sense that, right?

Even though there was a part of him that thought he had done everything right, he still wasn’t sure he had done enough to earn eternal life.

Maybe that’s where you are this morning.

The reason you keep coming to church is because you are hoping that you can come enough to quiet that nagging voice that you aren’t right with God.

Slow down and reread verse 21 again.

Jesus looked at him.

He didn’t casually glance over this young man; he looked at him.

The gaze of Jesus goes deeper than our appearance.

We see in a couple of verses that this man was wealthy, so he was well dressed.

He probably was articulate and intelligent and appeared to all to be a good man.

Yet, Jesus could see down to the core of the man’s heart to see his pride.

How did Jesus respond to what he saw?

He loved him.

Isn’t that incredible?

He could have said, “Wow, you are so wrong.

You haven’t kept these commandments and you and I both know it.

In fact, you just broke the ‘false witness’ one when you told me you had kept them.”

Instead, he pushes past the man’s defenses.

Like a skilled surgeon, Jesus cuts right to the core of the problem.

“Go, sell everything, give it to the poor, and come follow me.”

Don’t miss the point here.

Jesus isn’t saying that this guy was just one act of obedience short of making it to heaven.

Instead, he was penetrating this man’s defenses and objections, pointing him to the source of the problem: his faith was in himself and his possessions, and he wasn’t willing to give them up to follow Christ.

That’s the faith of the proud.

A proud heart says, “I can do this on my own.

Just tell me what I need to do.”