Sermon Tone Analysis

From the windows of their apartment buildings, they all heard it

They all saw it happen,

And yet no one did anything about it.

In the early hours of March 13th, 1964, Kitty Genovese was on her way home from work when she was approached by a man with a knife.

And though she screamed and tried to get away,

the man assaulted her, attacking her with with his knife, before one neighbor, a man named Robert Mozer, yelled out from his window,

“Let that girl alone!”

causing the attacker to flee.

The man ran away and Kitty slowly made her way toward the rear entrance of the building, seriously injured and out of view of any witnesses.

Witnesses saw the attacker enter his car, drive away, but then return ten minutes later to attack her again.

And yet, during this 30 minute time-span, no one did a thing to help save this women’s life.

And why not?

Because of something called “The Bystander Effect.”

2 weeks after the murder, the New York times published an article explaining how 38 witnesses saw and heard the attack, but none of them did anything to help her.

And why not?

Because they all assumed somebody else would do it.

And yet no one did, leading to this poor women’s untimely fate.

The story of Kitty Genovese is a tragic tale, and though some of the details around her death are heavily disputed, there is no question about it, the bystander effect is a real phenomenon in which a person feels highly discouraged from stepping in and helping a victim if there are other individuals nearby.

The more people that are present, so the theory goes, the less likely it is that any of them will step in.

And this is because each witness experiences what psychologists call a “diffusion of responsibility.”

Which happens when a person believes somebody else will step in and act, which often leads them to passively sit by and do nothing to help.

This is why we usually continue driving down a busy highway when we see a vehicle stranded on the side of the road.

Sure, we’d probably stop if it was the middle of nowhere and we didn’t think anyone else was going to help.

But, because we are surrounded by so many others, the bystander effect kicks in and we all continue on our merry way without helping the person in need.

Church, do you realize that one of the biggest problems we face is a result of the the bystander effect?

Not when it comes to broken down cars, or people being robbed and assaulted,

but when it come to sin destroying the lives of those we are called to love and protect.

And so in Matthew 18, Jesus gives us the antidote to the bystander effect, and that antidote is actually quite simple.

Don’t be a bystander!

Don’t assume someone else is going to step in act!

If you see someone suffering in their sin - step in and do something about it!

For the truth is, we are all called to be rescuers, not bystanders.

And so if we are going to be Kingdom rescuers, and not bystanders, we must:

Go (v.

15)

Persist (v.

16).

Protect (v.

17-20).

The past couple of weeks we have been looking at Matthew chapter 18, which shows us what greatness in the kingdom looks like.

And as we saw from verses 1-6, the greatest in the kingdom is marked by humility.

What kind of humility?

Childlike humility.

Instead of being first, you must be Last

It’s a totally upside down kingdom, where the way up is down and the way down is up.

And after establishing that Kingdom Citizens have child-like humility, Jesus goes on to warn us about stumbling blocks,

Telling us to not only watch out for them, but to avoid being them as well.

For those who continue to cause the children of God to stumble, they will one day find that it would have been better for a giant millstone to have been hung around their neck and be drowned in the sea!

And not only should we not be stumbling blocks, but we also should do our best to remove stumbling blocks out of each other’s paths.

And the illustration Jesus gives us for this is the parable of the Lost Sheep, which tells us of the man who leaves the 99 sheep to save the 1 lost and straying sheep.

Which is precisely what God calls us to do for each other.

And so with this mind, we come to one of the most neglected passages in all of the New Testament, which is Matthew 18, verses 15-20, which tell us exactly how we are to go after lost and straying sheep.

Are you seeing the picture here now that Jesus is giving us in Matthew 18?

I mean, so often we pull these passages out of their larger context,

which usually results in us completely missing the point Jesus is making.

And the point He’s making in these 5 verses is we are to be a Kingdom Rescuer!

Don’t be a bystander who just stands there when one of the sheep wanders off away from the 99!

Go after them!

And why?

Because, as verse 14 says:

And so if we are going to be kingdom rescuers, we gotta act!

We gotta go!

We can’t stand there idle by thinking: “Oh, somebody else will take care of it.”

“That’s the pastors job...”

“I don’t know to deal with...”

“I don’t even know what i’d do or say!”

Well, here’s the thing: Jesus actually tells you and I exactly what to do and say.

Look at verse 15

These 5 verses we are looking at this morning describe for us the process of church discipline, and the first step is to go, individually to the person and confront them for their sin.

And this verse gives us 3 steps for this process, which are:

Steps for going:

Go always

Go in humility