Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
As we begin this morning, picture with me for a moment that you are on a drive with someone, perhaps heading to Missoula.
Perhaps someone you know, they are driving, you are along for the ride.
Along the way you end up talking about Jesus, and whether this person would give their life to Christ.
The response they give is striking and really shows humanities resistance to the gospel.
The look to you and say “My biggest problem is pride.
I can’t humble myself.
And you want to know the reason I can’t give up on my pride?”
They tighten their grip on the steering wheel and say “Because it’s brought be so far.”
You know this persons life, that pride had brought nothing but great pain.
I can think of people like this from my past.
That their pride broke relationships.
Perhaps you can as well, perhaps you can even relate to this persons thinking.
Pride is something we all struggle to lay down.
Because as we think, our pride has brought us so far in life.
When in reality, what it has brought is pain, isolation, and ruined relationships.
Proud people will find reasons to reject God.
How we approach God matters.
This section comes directly after Jesus had spoken of John,
Jesus made this striking statement about John, and about the people and about God’s kingdom.
The next verses makes a clear distinction between two different groups of people.
One is the average people, the lowly people, the tax collectors.
The second group is the Pharisees and the lawyers.
The first is a group who admit their need.
And in response to what has been taught, they declared God just.
The other is a group of people who thought they knew it all.
They were filled with pride, they knew God, they knew scripture (the Law).
Rather than seeing the truth of what John was proclaiming, and who Jesus was, they rejected the purpose of God for themselves.
The other, the people who were prideful, who knew God, who knew the Law, who should have known the just nature of God, rejected the purpose of God for themselves.
As Jesus spoke about the kingdom, people responded to him in two ways.
By either accepting or rejecting.
We see this throughout Jesus ministry, and throughout scripture really.
When Jesus speaks, people respond.
When God speaks, people responds.
In the OT I think of Moses at the burning bush.
We see the opposite response from people especially in relation to the prophets in the OT.
Hosea has been called the “death-bed prophet of Israel” because he was the last to prophesy before the northern kingdom fell to Assyria (about 722 B.C.).
His ministry followed a golden age in the northern kingdom, with a peace and prosperity not seen since the days of Solomon.
Unfortunately, with this prosperity came moral decay, and Israel forsook God to worship idols.
Hosea then explained God’s complaint against Israel and warned of the punishment that would come unless the people returned to the Lord and remained faithful to him.
We know the outcome though, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered.
In the NT think about Paul’s call on the road to Damascus.
Everywhere the word of God was preached there was one of two responses, acceptance or rejections.
Declaring God just, or rejecting the purposes of God.
We know that there were others in Jesus day who did not accept God’s call.
Did not confess their sins, did not see the need to repent and be baptized as John preached.
But the majority of the people who rejected John, where the Pharisees and the scribes (Lawyers).
They were held up as the religious front runners of their day.
They prided themselves on their obedience to God and wanted to be accepted based on their work.
They didn’t think they needed to repent, why after all would a person like them need to?
They were even offended by the idea that salvation was a free gift for sinners.
Salvation was something in their minds you had to earn.
And they thought they were being good enough to earn it.
Their approach to God was wrong.
They sought Him on their terms, not on His.
Does this sound similar to any of you?
I have family members who tend to think this way.
All you need to be is a good enough person.
The attitude I believe stems from one of two things.
Either a lack of awareness, (which I believer very few truly have).
Or a prideful attitude of self reliance and self sufficiency.
Which is why it is important for us to remember in sharing the gospel, that it is the Lord who works upon the hearts of men.
He uses us.
We have the role of going into all nations making disciples.
Proclaiming the truth.
But it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the hearts of men and calls them to repentance.
It is important to remember this because prideful people, will always find a reason to reject God.
The religion of atheism, agnosticism (believing the world can only be interpreted by what you see), are that of pride.
It is tempting mankind to think that we are better than we are but the Bible says we really are.
Jesus tells us that we need to come to him confessing our sins.
The only people who ever find salvation are the people who agree that God is right to say that they are unrighteous.
Who lay aside their pride and admit their need as sinners.
Once we agree with that, we are ready to come to Jesus
Are we so prideful about our desires that we miss what matters most?
That is why Jesus goes on to make the analogy that he does.
This is an analogy from everyday life.
Those who have spent much time around kids know that they imitate what they see.
That is the picture Jesus uses.
Children playing games, mimicking what they saw in the streets.
Two of the things that happened in the streets were weddings and funerals.
Joyous and sad occasions.
Sometimes they played weddings, dancing around the boy and girl pretending to be the bride and groom.
Sometimes they played funerals, singing sad songs and pretending to cry
The rhyme Jesus quotes is one that kids would taunt those with who did not want to play.
We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep
Jesus comparison is really another comment on the spiritual state of scribes and Pharisees.
It shows how much insight Jesus had into the true spiritual condition of the people who refused his grace,
who were always looking for someone or something else.
Jesus understood that it did not matter who preached to them:
they simply refused to have anything to do with the salvation God had to offer.
First came John the Baptist—wearing wild clothes, eating strange foods, and preaching repentance.
He would not play weddings; all he ever did was play funerals, crying about the judgment to come.
John was much too condemning for the Pharisees, because he condemned them as well.
When he dared to tell them to repent of their sins, they decided that he had to be demon-possessed.
Then Jesus came, and the Pharisees did not want what he had to offer either.
He was not somber enough, too loose with who he associated with.
Jesus had such a good time that he had a reputation for partying.
All he ever did was spend time with notorious sinners,
Look at him!
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