Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: I have 2 stories to share with you this morning about baptizing cats.

Matthew 11:16-

Introduction: I have 2 stories to share with you this morning about baptizing cats.

The young son of a Baptist minister was in church one morning when he saw for the first time baptism by immersion.

He was greatly interested in it, and the next morning proceeded to baptize his three cats in the bathtub.

The youngest kitten bore it very well, and so did the younger cat, but the old family tom cat rebelled.

The old feline struggled with the boy, clawed and tore his skin, and finally got away.

With considerable effort the boy caught the old tom again and proceeded with the "ceremony."

But the cat acted worse than ever, clawing and spitting, and scratching the boy's face.

Finally, after barely getting the cat splattered with water, he dropped him on the floor in disgust and said: "Fine, be a Methodist if you want to!"

Story 2

There on the window sill was a little boy and his cat.

The boy's mother came to see what they were doing, and she heard the little boy preaching God's word to his cat.

So she went about her chores.

Later she heard the cat fussing, so she went to see what was going on.

The little boy had the cat in their kitchen sink full of water.

The mother told him that cats don't like water.

The boy sharply replied, "He should've thought of that before she joined the church!"

One thing is for sure, you can’t baptize a cat.

Well, you can sure try but you will not survive the ordeal unscathed.

They are going to fight you and claw you every step of the way.

Why?

They hate water and they hate those who try to put them into the water even more.

People can be like cats at times.

They are contrarians.

Always unhappy.

Always judging.

Always critical.

Always indifferent.

Never satisfied.

They hate the truth about as much a a cat hates water.

They fear it The avoid it.

Like Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones sang, “When I'm watchin' my TV and a man comes on and tells me how white my shirts can be but, he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me… I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Jesus also dealt with people like that.

He said, but to what shall I compare this generation?

It is like children...”

He could have stopped right there.

But he didn’t.

He went on to give an illustration comparing these children to children playing games.

One pastor called this passage, the Parable of the Brats.

There is one theme that runs throughout chapter 11 from beginning to end: Unbelief.

The Parable (vv.

16-19)

Illus.

I’ll bet many of you played games as children.

I’m not talking about the kind that required a TV and a controller.

I’m talking about role playing games like cowboys and Indians.

You can’t play that anymore because it is not politically correct.

You have to play Bovine Technicians and Indigenous Persons.

On the rare occasion that I had a friend or cousin come over, we would play army or whatever.

So Jesus uses a common image that people of his day would understand - this generation is like children playing in the marketplace.

The Parable (vv.

16-19)

At the center of most villages there was the marketplace - the agora in Greek.

On Market days, merchants would come and set up their booths to sell their goods to people of the village.

The people would come and go shopping and the children would get together with their friends and play games.

On the days that the market wasn’t operating, this left a big open space for them to play together.

They often played games that mimicked adult life and two popular games in Jesus day were Wedding and Funeral.

Those wouldn’t have been my first choices, by the way.

Inevitably, there would be disagreements about what to play and at times, there would be children who wouldn’t agree to play anything.

Imagine this dialogue among friends...

“You want to play wedding?

Let me be the musician and play a song and you can dance and have fun.”

“Naw, I don’t want to play that.”

“OK, then… I know, lets play funeral.

I will play a sad funeral song and you can cry and morn.”

“Nah, I don’t want to play that either.”

“What do you want to play then?”

“I don’t know.”

“How come you never want to play any of our games?”

“I don’t like your games.”

They don’t want to play anything.

They just sit and criticize.

Illus.

Reminds me of the story of the many who asked his friend what the difference was between indifference and apathy.

The friend said, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

He goes on to explain the story...

We have two ministries compared and contrasted here - that of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus.

Luke 11:1

John came in funeral mode.

Jesus came in wedding mode.

John lived the life of an ascetic.

He didn’t wear soft clothing - he wore clothing made of camel’s hair.

He ate the diet of locusts and wild honey.

He preached fiery sermons and denounced sin.

He was a prophet.

Jesus lived like the average ordinary person.

He ate and drank like normal people did yet they accused him of having no self-control and of being a drunk.

And he hung out with undesirable people too.

Was the real problem here with the ministries of John and Jesus, or was the problem with the critics?

I’ll let you decide.

Perhaps they reasoned, “If we can find fault in John and Jesus, we can ignore the message they are bringing.”

Was the real problem here with the ministries of John and Jesus, or was the problem with the critics?

I’ll let you decide.

I have had lots of encounters in witnessing to lost people.

They will ask some kind of outlandish question to deflect the conversation so that they can ignore the message.

(Questions)

Perhaps they reasoned, “If we can find fault in John and Jesus, we can ignore their message.”

But Jesus was addressing the religious crowd with this parable.

He was speaking primarily to the Pharisees and lawyers.

Why were they like that?

Why, instead of humbling themselves, did they act like pouting children that didn’t get their way?