Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So a couple weeks ago, Hannah and I observed our annual Black Friday tradition: Every year we go out for coffee at a Starbucks near my sister-in-law’s house in Gibsonia.

(It’s the only time of year I pay that much for a cup of coffee—but spending time with Hannah makes it worthwhile!)

And of course, every year Starbucks creates a specific holiday design for its coffee cups—do you remember a few years ago when there was a big dust-up surrounding their cup design?

In 2015 the company put out a plain red cup for Christmas with the corporate logo in the middle, and there was a great hue and cry that they were carrying out a “War on Christmas” because they didn’t have any traditional Christmas designs like previous years—trees, holly, reindeer, candles, etc.

Honestly, it really is kind of silly, (and Starbucks made a ton of money out of the extra publicity!), but it demonstrates very clearly the kind of atmosphere that we live in today—that everyone, everywhere, at one time or another, is deeply and personally offended on a regular basis.

Even something as inconsequential as a paper cup can inspire choking, incoherent rage in people—and that was back in 2015!

If anything, the “offense” culture we live in has ratcheted up even more fiercely today!

If you want an example of the toxic “offense culture” we live in, just look at Chik-Fil-A.

After years of people being “offended” by their Christian beliefs on sex and marriage, they finally gave in and stopped donating to charities that hold to a Biblical standard of marriage.

But as soon as they did that, hoping it would pacify all the offended people, then people were offended that they hadn’t gone far enough, and that they needed to publish a statement of unconditional support for gay marriage!

In this “offense-driven” culture, giving in doesn’t make peace with the offended; it creates demands for more capitulation.

As Christians, we have to understand that this world will always be offended by us, because this world will always be offended by Jesus Christ.

Jesus said it Himself in John 15:

So one of the first things we have to realize is that

The only way to avoid offending this world is to abandon Christ.

And I hope that when I say that, your heart immediately skips a beat—that you instinctively react with some form of “Never!”

We cannot abandon Jesus Christ, but the pressures of this world to give in “just a little here” or “just a little there” will, as we have seen, always be followed by more demands for more capitulation, until we have departed the faith entirely.

That’s why Jesus’ words in our passage this morning are so important for us:

It’s worth examining this verse closely as we begin, because this verse represents a promise that Jesus Christ makes for us here in this perpetually offended world.

You may recall that the word “blessed” here in New Testament Greek (and in Old Testament Hebrew) can also be translated happy.

And the word translated here into English as “offended” is one that you will recognize—the word is skandalizo, where we get our English word “scandal”.

It literally means stumbling block.

So another way to read this promise is, “Happy is the one who does not get tripped up over Me!”

Not only can you survive in a world perpetually offended by Jesus Christ, you can live happily!

So where does this happiness come from?

In a world perpetually scandalized by the claims of Jesus Christ, how can we stand for him with a happy steadfastness, not tripping up over Him, not backing down, but bold in our stand for Him?

Last week we began looking at the ministry of John the Baptist, as he “prepared the way” (v.

10) for the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

As we will see this morning, John was a man who was unshakeably tough in his ministry of proclaiming the arrival of Jesus Christ.

And what I aim to show you today from God’s Word is that

We can have an “unshakeable toughness” in a world perpetually offended by Jesus Christ.

Last week we began to study John the Baptist’s ministry there on the banks of the Jordan River as he proclaimed the arrival of the Messiah—as he “prepared the way before” Jesus (v.

10).

But since we saw him last time, John’s situation has changed dramatically, hasn’t it?

Last week we saw him boldly proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom; today, we find him thrown into prison:

At first glance, it may seem to us that all of John’s boldness and certainty of belief in Jesus as the Messiah has gone out the window—that he has “stumbled” in his faith in Christ.

But what I want us to see here is that, even as John expresses doubt here in these verses,

I. John Doubted without Stumbling in His Faith (Matt.

11:2-3)

Just for a moment, think back to the message that we saw John proclaiming last week.

Turn back a few pages to Matthew 3 (p.

808).

In verse 11, John was preaching that when the Messiah came, He would baptize us “with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

But the, just a few verses later, Jesus did arrive—but His arrival did not look the way John expected, did it?

Verses 13-15:

John expected Jesus to come and baptize him with the Holy Spirit—instead, John baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descending on Him!

You’ll recall also that John was proclaiming that Messiah’s arrival meant the end of the current regime: “Even now, the axe is laid at the root of the trees...” (Matt.

3:10) In several places in the Old Testament, the Kingdom of Israel is compared to a tree.

And so John expected that the immoral and corrupt tree of the current kingdom was about to be felled—that emboldened him to speak against the reprehensible immorality of King Herod, who had been carrying out an adulterous (and possibly incestuous) affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias (the story is told in Mark 6:17-19).

Here again, John was expecting the arrival of Messiah to mean that the rotten tree of Herod’s contemptible reign was about to be cut down and thrown into the fire—and instead, John was placed in chains and thrown in Herod’s dungeon!

So when we see John here in today’s passage in Matthew 3, we can understand his reasons for doubt, can’t we?

The Messiah was supposed to baptize the people with the Holy Spirit—but John baptized Jesus instead!

The rotten tree of the corrupt king was supposed to be thrown into the fire when Messiah came—but John was thrown into prison instead!

But what we see here is that John

Doubted his own expectations about Messiah (Matt.

3:10-14; Mark 6:17-19)

—he did not doubt Messiah Himself!

You can hear this in the question that he had his disciples pass on to Jesus— “Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

In other words, John is saying, “I know Messiah is coming—but Jesus, You don’t fit my expectations!”

And see how Jesus reassured John in verses 4-5:

In other words, Jesus re-directed John’s focus from his expectations so that instead he

Focused on God’s power (Matt.

11:4-5)

He saw the miraculous ways that Jesus was delivering people from death and destruction—the blind could see, the lame could walk, the lepers were cleansed—Jesus was demonstrating the power of God in a way that no other prophet, priest or king ever could!

And John saw that power at work in people’s lives so that he could know that the Messiah had indeed come!

And there is another piece to this answer that Jesus gave John—you might have recognized it when we read verses 4-5 just now.

Jesus’ answer

to John is actuall a direct quote from Isaiah 35:

John not only focused on God’s power revealed in Jesus, but he also

Focused on God’s Promises (Isa.

35:5-6)

When John was tempted to stumble over Jesus—when his expectations of the way Messiah would make His appearance in the world did not match what Jesus did, he did not trip up in his faith, did he?

He doubted his expectations, but he focused on the power and promises of God—and he wasn’t “scandalized” by Jesus’ appearing.

John doubted his expectations, but he did not stumble in his faith in Christ.

And in verses 7-10 we see that

II.

John Proclaimed Without Compromise in His Message (Matt.

11:7-10)

Look at how Jesus describes John in these verses:

This is where I get the description of John as a man who proclaimed the arrival of Jesus with “unshakeable toughness”.

Look at verse 7—Jesus says, “What did you go out in the wilderness to see?

A reed shaken in the wind??” No, Jesus says—John was a man who was unshakeable!

John was not like the description of the doubter in James 1:6, “like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind...”

John proclaimed his message with conviction (cp.

James 1:6)

John wasn’t the guy who wet his finger and stuck it in the air to see which way the wind was blowing so he could adapt his message to the times, was he?

He wasn’t one of those preachers who act they’re embarrassed and apologetic about God’s Word—he didn’t stammer where the Word of God speaks; he didn’t whisper where the Word of God roars!

He was unshakeable in his convictions about the message God had given him to deliver— “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Not only did John proclaim his message with conviction, Jesus says that John

Proclaimed his message with courage (cp.

Daniel 3:17-18)

John was not a “yes-man”—he wasn’t one of those smarmy, cringing underlings that are always telling the boss how smart and funny he is.

He wasn’t one of those people who are always trying to impress the “cool kids”, copying the way they dress and talk, copying their Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts with one that says “Abreadcrumb and Fish” (yes, that’s actually a thing!)

He was willing to take a hit, he was willing to take a stand.

He was cut from the same cloth as Daniel’s three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, when the king threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace unless they bowed to the idol he had made:

“God is able to deliver me from your hand, but even if He does not, I will not bow!

You can throw me into that furnace, and then you will have my charred bones—but you will never have my submission!”

Where is that courage today, beloved?

Where is that conviction in our churches?

The Evangelical church has traded the conviction and courage of John the Baptist for the sinking sands of capitulation.

We have wet our collective fingers and stuck them in the winds of the culture and decided that we need to “go along to get along”, afraid that if we keep offending the culture they won’t allow us a place at the table, they won’t allow our voices to be heard in the public square.

“Oh, we need to keep from offending anyone, or else they won’t want to hear our message!”

But what if that message is meant to be offensive to them??

What if we are supposed to preach “the offense of the Cross” that we saw Paul preach in Galatians 5:11?

What if, instead of worrying that we’ll offend someone if we share the Gospel with them, we finally got it through our heads that the world is going to be offended no matter what, and so if they’re going to be offended, they may as well be offended by our proclamation, and not by our cowardice!