Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Anger
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Anger
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TITLE:   The First Children's Sermon        SCRIPTURE:    Mark 9:30-37 \\ \\ Jesus' disciples knew that they were following a great man.
Peter had already identified Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus didn't deny it (8:27-30).
The disciples had seen Jesus heal sick people, and it was clear that his teaching was something special.
Three of the disciples had seen Jesus on the Mount of the Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah (9:2-8).
There was no doubt that Jesus was a great man.
\\ \\ And the disciples had the inside track.
There were only twelve of them.
As Jesus expanded his reach, he would need all the help he could get.
I don't suppose that they had ever heard about, "span of control," but they instinctively knew what it meant.
"Span of control" has to do with the number of people that one person can directly supervise.
There are exceptions to the rule, but the classic answer is that a person should not directly supervise more than five people.
If you are trying to manage a thousand people, you need to organize them so that you have four or five reporting directly to you.
Then each of those can have four or five reporting to them -- and so on down through the chain.
\\ \\ People often violate that rule, of course.
They try to supervise ten people -- or twenty.
But that is hard, and often it doesn't work very well.
\\ \\ Jesus' disciples knew that he was going places.
He had been making himself known all through Galilee, and now they were on their way to Jerusalem.
As more and more people came to know Jesus -- to see what he could do -- they would climb on board of the bandwagon.
The disciples weren't quite sure which direction Jesus would drive that bandwagon, but they hoped that he would take over the country -- assemble an army -- drive out the Romans.
Then he could build a palace in Jerusalem, like David had done so many years earlier.
He could establish alliances with rulers of other countries.
Before long, he would have things sewed up.
Nobody could touch him.
\\ \\ When that happened, he would need all the help he could get.
Where would that leave the disciples?
Would he make all twelve of them top-level managers, or would he pick four or five for top positions and let the rest of them serve one tier down?
If he did that, some of the twelve would be working for others of the twelve.
Which ones would be on top and which ones on the bottom?
Nobody knew, but they knew that big changes were coming, and they were nervous.
\\ \\ So they had been arguing about who among them would be the great ones (9:34).
It was obvious that Jesus had already marked Peter, James, and John for top positions.
When Jesus healed Jairus' daughter, he had taken Peter, James, and John into the house with him while the rest of the disciples cooled their heels outside (5:37).
When Jesus went to the top of the mountain to meet Moses and Elijah, he took Peter, James, and John with him (9:2).
It was clear that Jesus favored Peter, James, and John.
\\ \\ So maybe the rest of them would be working for Peter, James, and John.
Or maybe Jesus would find places at the top for all of them.
Maybe all twelve would report directly to him.
They would like that better -- much better.
\\ \\ They liked Peter well enough, and he was clearly leadership material, but Peter had a terrible temper -- and a tendency to shoot from the hip.
You never knew what kind of crazy thing Peter might do next.
The disciples liked Peter, but they weren't keen about working for him.
Peter might be a disaster waiting to happen.
\\ \\ And James and John -- do you know what they called James and John?
The Sons of Thunder -- that's what they called them -- Sons of Thunder!
How would you like to work for someone with a nickname like that!
What if you worked for the Sons of Thunder and made a mistake?
Would they erupt like a volcano?
Would they spew steam and hot rock everywhere?
Would they fire you?  Would they hit you?  Would they make you write on the blackboard, "I'll never do that again!" a hundred times?
Nobody knew, and nobody was anxious to find out.
\\ \\ So the disciples had been arguing among themselves about which one was greatest:  \\ \\ -- Am I going to work for you, or are you going to work for me?  \\ \\ -- When you get to the top, what would you like to accomplish?  \\ \\ -- What about Bartholomew?
Bartholomew was a quiet one, but you have to watch the quiet ones.
Pretty soon the quiet ones end up running the whole show.
\\ \\ -- Or Simon the Zealot?
If Jesus wanted to run off the Romans, Simon the Zealot would be the logical choice to do the job.
Nobody hated Romans like Simon.
It was rumored that he kept a long knife under his robe -- and that he knew how to use it.
Would they all find themselves taking lessons in the martial arts from Simon someday?
Nobody knew.
\\ \\ And so they talked about it as they walked along.
Hopefully, all twelve of them would be great, but who would be the greatest?
Who would be the hero?
Whose name would go down in history?
They wondered about it -- and they talked about it.
\\ \\ They tried not to talk about it in front of Jesus, of course.
Jesus was a funny guy.
You never knew how Jesus might take things.
They had their private ambitions, but they preferred that Jesus didn't know about them.
It would be better to wait so that he could see them in action.
Then he could reward them for a job well done!
\\ \\ With their minds on such things, they hadn't really heard Jesus when he told them what he was going to do.
If they had been listening, they would have been smarter, but they had been talking.
When Jesus told them what he was going to do, they were busy talking about who would be the greatest.
\\ \\ What had Jesus told them?
He had told them that he would be handed over to his enemies -- and killed -- and that he would rise again after three days.
But the disciples hadn't been listening -- and that isn't what they wanted to hear anyway.
\\ \\ So when they got to Capernaum, Jesus took them inside a house -- probably Peter's house -- and asked, "What were you arguing about on the way?" \\ \\ They didn't know what to say.
They were embarrassed.
They looked at the ground and shuffled their feet.
They felt like little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Nobody answered.
Not even Peter, who always had a quick answer on the tip of his tongue.
Silence!
\\ \\ Jesus didn't say, "I know what you were talking about!"
He didn't rebuke the disciples.
He just sat down, because teachers always sat down to teach.
He sat down and answered the question that had been in the back of their minds -- What must we do to be great?
Jesus said: \\ \\       *"Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."*
\\ \\ What!  Say again!
You know how it feels when your head is one place but the person to whom you are listening says something completely out of the blue.
It's like you need to turn your head around backwards and listen again.
That's what these disciples needed.
Excuse me, Jesus, while I turn my head around backwards.
Then say that again!
Maybe I'll understand it this time.
So Jesus said: \\ \\ *      "Whoever wants to be first  must be last of all and servant of all."*
\\ \\ Oh!  Oh!
Of course!
We knew that!  \\ \\ But, of course, they didn't!
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