Sermon Tone Analysis
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Anger
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*Hearing Jesus 6: Jesus and the People*
*Palm Sunday*
050-00747 Mark 12: 35-37
I.
There are certain people who have a gift of talking.
A. Think back in your experience.
1.
There is probably someone you can think of that you used to love to hear speak.
2. It didn’t matter what they said.
3. It was the sound of their voice, the rhythm and melody of their diction, the way they put thoughts together.
4.
You could listen to them speak and lose track of time.
B. I have felt that way on occasion.
1. Have any of you seen the ShamWow commercial?
I don’t know why but I love to hear that guy talk.
a) Every time I see it I stop to listen.
b) I try to figure out just why he is so mesmerizing.
c) I don’t want to buy his product and I don’t believe most of his claims.
d) But I want to want to buy the product.
I want to believe what he says.
2. The ShamWow guy is an example of someone who uses speech techniques to sell us something.
I don’t know if he really believes his own pitch.
But he has the job he has because he sells towels.
And he makes you feel kind of special for buying.
C.
There are others, though, who have something much more serious to say and their voice has led people into deep truth.
1. John Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
2. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a dream.”
3. Though many have had heart stirred by such speaking, few have really allowed themselves to be carried away into action by them.
4. We still have a self-serving attitude about government and we still tolerate and even defend racist systems in our land.
D. Therefore, we should not be surprised to learn that when Jesus spoke to the people shortly before his death, they “listened with delight” but their lives were not significantly changed.
II.
I am talking about the time shortly after Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time.
A. He came riding a donkey.
1.
The people lined up and cheered him.
2. They waved palm branches, a sign of the victorious king.
3. *Mark 11:9-10 *Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest!”
4. Hosanna was a cry unto God for salvation which over centuries of worship became a praise unto God for the salvation he sends.
B. Things did not occur, though, as the people had expected.
1.
The first place Jesus went was the temple.
2. With great force he drove those who were buying and selling and exchanging money out of the temple declaring, “My Father’s house is a house of prayer.”
3. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Chief Priests and Scribes were already jealous of this man’s ability to gather and hold a crowd.
But this was a direct challenge to their God given authority.
How dare he!
4.
This is not the salvation of the Lord.
This is an attack on God’s people.
Salvation would be in the destruction of all the Gentile nations who have ever oppressed Israel.
C. The battle was on.
The line was drawn in the sand.
It was institutional Judaism versus a heretic named Jesus.
1.
The leaders of the Temple queried Jesus, “By whose authority do you do these things?”
But Jesus kept his calm and said, “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.
Was John’s baptism from heaven or from man?”
They had to refuse to answer for either answer they could give made them look bad.
So that ended that discussion.
2. But not the anger burning in their souls.
3. Jesus continued to teach while in the Temple.
He told the story of the Tenants – you may remember it.
A man built a wall around his property and hired some families to live within the protection of the wall.
All they had to do was raise his vineyard.
Everything went fine until the man sent his servants to collect the grapes.
The tenants got to thinking that what they had worked for was theirs so they killed the servant.
So what was the owner to do?
He would kill the tenants and claim his property.
Quoting a Psalm that spoke of the Temple the message became clear.
Jesus was sent to gather the harvest.
He was sent to judge those who falsely laid claim to God’s house and kingdom.
4.
And their anger burned all the more.
5.
The Jewish leaders continued to test Jesus.
a) The asked about taxes to Caesar.
b) They asked about marriage at the resurrection.
c) They asked about the greatest commandment.
d) And in each case, Jesus answered them in ways that they could neither reject nor rebut him in public without revealing themselves as petty or evil.
6.
And their anger became a roaring fire within.
III.
Now Jesus has a question for them.
A. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all write about this event.
1.
They all agree with each other.
2. But their styles of writing and their individuality come through so that we can get a larger picture of the event by integrating all three into one combined telling.
While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ?
Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.
“How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, in the Book of Psalms: “The Lord said to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'”
David himself calls him ‘Lord.’
How then can he be his son?”
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
3.
At this moment we might say that Jesus has moved from the defense to the offense for he now takes charge of the conversation.
4.
And the final result will be a permanent silence.
No more tests.
No more questions.
5.
As we listen to Jesus speaking to the people this morning, we must accept that his message will bring us to a place where we can ask no more questions of him.
We can only accept him or reject him.
6.
This morning our very lives are at stake by the way we hear Jesus.
B. What do you think about the Christ (Messiah)?
Whose Son is he?
1.
The answer did not take long.
2. Whatever we may think about the Pharisees and Sadducees we can claim that they were biblically illiterate.
3. Tough we do not like their interpretation of Scripture and the Law, they did know it well.
4. So they answered without hesitation.
“The son of David.”
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