Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction
One Friday during the last school year, I took our youngest son, Jeremiah, to school at 7:30 am.
I always took him to school on Friday mornings because he participated in the school’s news team on those mornings.
That particular day he was a little bit congested, but none the worse for wear.
Then, at around 11 am I got a text message from Jeremiah.
It read,
I know that I’m not supposed to be texting during school, but I don’t feel well.
I don’t know if it’s allergies but I feel like I’m going to throw up at some point today.
And, of course, I respond and tell him that I’ll come and pick him up.
So, as I am on my way to the school, I text my wife to ask her what Jeremiah’s teacher’s name is…She replies to me, “I don’t think you need the name.
Just go to student services and they’ll find him.”
I’m a bit skeptical about that reply, because I’ve done this before and I remember them asking me for his teacher’s name.
I get to the school, and go to the front office.
The lady at the front desk asks me whether I’m here to pick up my child.
I say, “Yes I am.
His name is Jeremiah Ince.”
As I am filling out the early dismissal form, do you know what her next question is? “What’s his teacher’s name?” I’m thinking to myself, “I knew it!
Now I’m going to have to be embarrassed and say that I don’t know.”
I tell her that I don’t remember.
So she starts typing his name in the computer to search for him.
But she has a puzzled look on her face because she can’t find him.
She does another search, she tells me later that it was a school system wide search.
She turns to me and says, “Jeremiah is in sixth grade.”
I literally go down on one knee and put my head in my hands as I am utterly embarrassed.
Jeremiah goes to Mayfield Woods Middle School.
I went to pick him up from Deep Run Elementary School.
Now, mind you, I had just dropped him off at Mayfield Woods a few hours earlier!
Of course, the ladies and the other dad who were in the front office got a good laugh out of this.
If it were possible, there is no doubt that my face would’ve been bloodshot red.
I couldn’t believe what I had done.
By the time I get to Mayfield Woods and pick Jeremiah up, he’s wondering what took me so long.
What does this story have to do with our text this morning?
Not a whole lot.
Except at this point.
The title of this sermon is, “The Scandal of God’s Kingdom,” and in our regular life experiences we have all kinds of events that might be deeply embarrassing, but they don’t rise to the level of something that is scandalous.
If I run for public office, what I did that Friday isn’t something that becomes “dirt” in my past that an opponent can use against me.
But there are things that can be scandalous and can be a mark against you in the public eye.
And we find in our text Jesus showing his disciples and the crowds that being associated with him can be scandalous.
Not because they necessarily do something wrong.
But, as Stanley Hauerwas writes,
The kingdom he brings is one of gentleness and humility that cannot help but reveal the violence of the world…We will not, therefore, be surprised then, after Jesus has plainly said who he is and what he has come to do, that everything he says and does invites controversy and resistance.
So I want to look with you at these 19 verses in four points.
We’re going to talk about The Scandal from vv. 1-6.
Then, The Superlative from vv. 7-11, The Suffering in vv.
12-15.
And, The Snare, in vv.
16-19.
The Scandal
Let’s situate ourselves in Matthew’s Gospel as we begin to look at the scandal from vv. 1-6.
Here’s the structure of Matthew’s Gospel book.
The first four chapters are essentially his introduction.
Then there are five major discourses in the body of the book from chs. 5-25.
And the conclusion is chs.
26-28.
And after each of the discourses Matthew makes a bridge statement.
Something like, “After Jesus finished these sayings, or these instructions, or these parables…” You’ll find that statement at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in 7:28.
You’ll find it in 13:53, 19:1, and 26:1.
What do we find in v. 1 of ch.
11?
“Then, when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went up from there to teach and preach in their cities.”
Guess where we are?
We’re transitioning from a major discourse, the Sermon on Mission—where Jesus predicts opposition for the twelve disciples—to the section where we see that opposition explained implicitly and explicitly.
Here is one aspect of the scandal.
Our passage follows on the heels of Jesus’ message to the twelve about the opposition they will face as they do the work of the kingdom.
They are not to be surprised that their good work is met with suspicion, rejection, and persecution.
If they are like Jesus, then others will react to them the way they reacted to him.
“If they call the master of the house, Beelzebul,” Jesus says in 10:25, “how much more will they malign the members of his household.”
Now he transitions to the implication of this for the members of the kingdom.
Matthew says in v. 2.
Now, after John heard about the works of the Christ while he was in prison, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one to come, or should we be waiting for another?”
Matthew doesn’t tell us until ch.
14 why John the Baptist was in prison, but he gets word that Jesus is preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and that Jesus is doing the miraculous.
John and Jesus had the same message.
In 3:1 John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In 4:17, after Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, Matthew says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
So why John’s question now?
John is the one who said to the people, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but there’s One coming after me who is mightier than I am.
I’m not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Why is John doubting?
Let me say this to you please.
Doubt is not the same as unbelief.
To experience doubt as a believer in Jesus, to experience doubt as a Christian is not a cause for shame.
It’s not scandalous.
Sometimes Christians think that if they have any doubt about any aspect of the Christian faith they’re unacceptable to God.
And this is often an aspect of Christianity that non-Christians don’t understand either.
It is inherently the case, if you’re not a Christian, that you have doubts about it.
You doubt the authenticity of the Bible.
You doubt the authenticity of Jesus and his resurrection, his claim to be the way the truth and the life.
You doubt the necessity of the salvation that he offers.
You doubt the reality of heaven and hell.
We have a culture that exalts skepticism.
Dr. Dallas Willard, a philosophy professor at USC from 1965-2012, who was also a Christian, put it this way,
We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than the one who believes.
He was right to say,
If you’re going to be a doubter, be sure to doubt your doubts as well as your beliefs.
Here is the point that I am making when it comes to this issue of doubt.
Doubt is not the barrier to faith for a non-Christian.
Unbelief is the barrier to faith.
It is a matter of the heart, not a matter of the intellect.
For the Christian, the existence of doubt is not the same as unbelief.
It is what arises in us when our experience as Christians doesn’t match our expectations.
John’s doubt here comes from his affliction.
His expectation of the Messiah’s coming did not include his imprisonment.
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