Sermon Tone Analysis

*Response of the heart*

Please turn to Luke 7:28 *[P]* – recently I was reading this passage in my morning reading: [*Luke 7:28-35* “/I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

But the Pharisees and the lawyers /(the religious set)/ rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.

“To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?

“They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

/(it didn’t matter what the form of the music, they did not respond) /“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children/.”]

Well who was right: *[P]* Jesus or John? – their lives were totally opposite.

John was this ascetic, living out in the wilderness, cut off from society and its pleasures.

He ate what wild food he could mange to find and wore rough clothes.

His faith led him to lead a life of self-denial.

However, Jesus joined in the celebrations of people.

He did not cut Himself off; remove Himself from society in the wilderness as John did.

John did so for a reason – there was a message in what John did, it spoke to people.

His life said that society was rotten; people had gone the wrong way, pursuing luxury and things instead of God.

Jesus also did what He did for a reason – there was a message in what /He/ did, it spoke to people.

God was not removed, but living among them, with them!

Hallelujah!

Emmanuel!

It was not personal preference, inclination, character or personality that was the cause of their different behaviour – they were both reinforcing their message, communicating something through the way they lived.

Their lives were making a point!

But the people did not get it.

They criticized John, said he was crazy, he had a demon – because he was lived differently to them.

That is how we dismiss something that challenges us or convicts us, something we don’t understand or is different.

We categorize it, label it, and dismiss it.

Jesus did not abstain from food and drink as John did.

But if they criticized John for not eating and drinking, they criticized Jesus for doing exactly that.

Jesus ate and drank – but they exaggerated and misrepresented His actions: they said, "Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard".

It didn't matter what they did, in what form the message came; no matter what they refused to respond!

Jesus and John had a different approach, a different presentation, but the message was the same.

Their actions were vindicated by the fruit of their work.

They did not do what they did out of personal inclination, they did so in obedience to God's direction – they acted according to Divine wisdom – and this wisdom was vindicated by the results, “her children”.

Wisdom’s children are the deeds that wisdom produces.

We have children and they are different in nature, personality and appearance – you may have one that is out-going, another that is shy – but they are both your children.

What wisdom produced in John was an ascetic life – very different from what wisdom produced in Jesus life.

But both were the product of Divine wisdom – wisdom is vindicated by all her children.

You cannot say one way is right and the other is wrong – wisdom was shown to be right ("ἐδικαιώθη ") in both cases.

Now the Pharisees were very concerned with being right, being correct *[P]* – but the correctness of the Pharisees and lawyers was shown to be nothing but hypocrisy.

It did not matter what they did there was no appropriate response – no matter what was done it had no effect on them.

They were resistant to the effects of the music.

There was not the intended response.

That is exactly what both Jesus and John encountered.

They both proclaimed a message – different in style, but their actual message was identical (cf.

Matt 3:2; Matt 4:17 ).

But all people see are the incidental externals; they criticize these and never see the heart of the matter.

Jesus and John were both seeking a spiritual response – but people were spiritually hardened and did not respond no matter what form the message came in.

The key message of this parable is that people did not respond.

They are determined not to respond to the voice of God.

They will be picky about externals: the music is too loud and lively, or too sombre and dull; the people aren't friendly, standoffish; or the people are too "in your face"; the meeting is too charismatic and Pentecostal, or it is dry, staid and dead – but really all it is, is an excuse for their rejection of the underlying message.

See how they rationalize their rejection: they had valid reasons to reject John (he was demon possessed) and Jesus (He associated with sinners) – they had their correct and rational reasons – they were “correct” but unresponsive *[P]*.

As I looked at this passage, it struck me that I can use my rational mind to harden my heart.

I’m very clever – I can very easily come up with a reason not to respond, to harden my heart.

I am so clever that I can easily persuade and convince myself.

I’m made aware of someone in need – I can quickly come up with a reason why I cannot afford to help at the moment, or am too busy to help; there are other priorities.

I can come up with other sources of help, who else should help them or what they should be doing themselves.

When the Holy Spirit prompts we can use our rational mind to keep our heart from responding.

*[P]* We can use our reasoning to silence our heart and resist what the Spirit is saying to us.

Remember the man in Luke 10 who came to Jesus – he was a lawyer, a legalist – and he wanted to know he had to do to inherit eternal life.

He actually knew the answer; Jesus said to him: [*Luke 10:26-28*/ “What is written in the Law?

How does it read to you?”

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”

And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”/]

– he had the right answer but what does he immediately do?

Use his reasoning to justify himself [*Luke 10:29* /But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”/]/./The

Pharisees, who we met in the first passage I read, were very concerned with being correct, being right, having the right answer, knowing what was right, knowing the Scriptures, having their doctrine correct.

And we do too, don’t we?

It may be our education system or something – but we have this fixation with being able to give the right answer – we may not necessarily act upon it, but we know the answer.

We have this inordinate concern with getting the right answer *[P]* – we have to give the right answer [Dennis Allan story – it didn’t matter that he didn’t understand, he had the tick in the right box].

We are conditioned from a very young age in this fixation with getting the right answer.

We have the little ones in Sunday school – every time they get a right answer we give them a lolly – we are conditioning them.

We are encouraging them to be selfish!

– we may teach them the principle of being selfless and considering others – and yet when they give that correct answer we give them a treat – our very actions are training  and reinforcing the very opposite of what we say!

Encouraging them to think of themselves, get the lolly that they want.

When I ran the Children’s Church at Elim I stopped the giving of sweets as rewards because I could see us producing the exact opposite of what our teaching proclaimed.

Oh yes, they could give the correct answer, but their hearts were selfish – we were training them to be so.

But the correct answer isn’t everything – tell me, what is the greatest commandment?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; the next is love your neighbour as yourself.”

Right?

You knew the right answer, and if you didn’t, give me five minutes and I will be able to get you to give the right reply.

I can give the correct answer – but having been saved for almost 50 years I am only too well aware how deficient I am in actually loving the LORD and my neighbour!

What good is being able to give the right answer if I still haven’t got it?! Do you recall this very question came up with Jesus from one of the experts in the Mosaic Law?

[*Mark 12:28-34* /One// of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel!

The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

“The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices/.”

(you notice that basically he just repeated what Jesus had said)/ When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions/.]

I use to wonder why Jesus thought he had answered intelligently when all he did was agree with His statement and repeat it back.

See, Jesus saw that he wasn’t just repeating the correct answer back but that he actually got it!

There was a rich young man who came to Jesus – he wanted to know the right answer – and like those Sunday School children his motivation was essentially selfish: [*Matthew 19:16-22* /And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”/ (this man had a spiritual hunger, he wanted to know)/ And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good?

There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Then he said to Him, “Which ones?”/ (he wanted to get it correct, find out the bare minimum to meet the requirements, get 50% - the pass mark)/ And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”/

(he was right in what he did, punctilious, doing what was required but his heart wasn’t in it – he knew he still lacked something, something was still missing)/ Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” /(not a fulfilling of legal requirements but an abandonment – giving all of yourself) /But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property/.]

Jesus touched the thing that was dear to his heart: his wealth; and his heart remained devoted to his riches rather than Jesus, he went away.

He valued his things more than Jesus – that is where is heart is.

And it is your heart that God wants.

The rich young man was going to do what was right and correct, but the motivation was selfish – do what he had to in order to get eternal life.

I can remembering being that way – make sure my sins are forgiven, that I was saved, but then get on with my own life – what I call an “insurance Christian” – ensure that you are OK for all contingencies.