Sermon Tone Analysis

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.”

[1]

It is reported that a copy of the Quran is burned and news reports tell of mobs of Muslims storming embassies and killing innocent people.

[2] A Muslim cleric states that a mentally handicapped child desecrates a copy of the Koran, and the child is jailed and threatened with lynching.

[3] A cartoonist draws caricatures of Mohammed and his life is threatened.

[4] Muslims react with fury and rage if they even imagine Mohammed is slighted or even ridiculed.

[5] These violent responses are all reported in recent years, and even within the past month.

Candidly, hardly a month passes without a report of Muslim violence and protests.

During this same period, a notorious artist had an exhibition (an appropriate term) of his ridicule of the Faith of Christ the Lord.

[6] No Catholics rioted because he placed a crucifix in a jar of his own urine.

Recently, students at Harvard planned a “satanic mass.”

[7] Despite vigorous protests from various Christian groups, there were neither riots nor threats of violence against the school or the misguided students.

No Christians stormed an art museum because of a painting of the Virgin created with elephant dung.

[8] When cartoons show the virgin menstruating, ridicule the Son of God [9] or reduce the Faith to a comedy routine, [10] no Baptists or Presbyterians threatened to behead a single artist or comedian who deliberately attempted to provoke ridicule or desecrate the Faith.

The response of various Christian groups is notable for its lack of violence or threats, despite the constant whine by some groups that Christians are hateful.

These series of responses to what both Christians and Muslims consider insults illustrates a vital difference between the two approaches to God.

Adherents of Islam respond to mocking of the central figure of their religion with outrage and violence, demonstrating a significant difference between their religion and the Faith of Christ the Lord.

The work of Mohammed is based on being honoured; the work of Christ is based on being insulted.

This essential difference produces two distinct reactions to mockery and provocation.

Christians will say that Jesus’ uniqueness and beauty is on display whenever His followers respond to such provocation with grace and gentleness.

Recently, when Muslims, outraged by a reported desecration of a Qu’ran, attacked a Hindu temple, a Muslim scholar said, “Our religion, Islam, preaches peace, love and forbearance.

However, it is also necessary that the followers of other religions should respect the sentiments of the Muslims.”

[11] The message of this Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, be good Dhimmis and submit to your Muslim betters!

To allow non-Muslims to act in any way other than as slaves is an insult to Mohammed.

It is the height of arrogance; and it is the essence of Muslim religious doctrine.

Contrast that response to the biblical teaching concerning the Faith of Christ the Lord.

“[The Son of Man] will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon” [LUKE 18:32].

Based on this response of the Master to insult, we are taught, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God” [1 PETER 4:14-17]?

Again, recall the teaching Jesus delivered in His Sermon on the Mount near the beginning of His ministry, ““Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” [MATTHEW 5:11].

The teaching of Jesus was not a distortion of Jewish response to insult and mocking.

We read of the example of Moses when reproached because of his heritage.

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible” [HEBREWS 11:23-27].

Now you can see the application of the truth stated in the text.

The Master pictured His followers as sheep surrounded by wolves.

Believers should know they will be attacked—their Faith will be ridiculed, they will be mocked and hated, even being attacked because they follow the Prince of Peace.

Tragically, these assaults against the faithful will come even from their closest family members.

Focus on the final statements the Master gave, holding them in mind.

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” [MATTHEW 10:24, 25].

Too frequently, the professed people of God have chosen to live as though we are already living in the Millennium.

The message from many pulpits in this generation are so focused on personal comfort and self-gratification that we have scant time to do the things we are commanded to do.

Candidly, in popular thought, and especially among professed followers of the Lamb, the Faith is reduced to a formula—say the right words and you get a fire insurance policy.

In this day, what is too often substituted as though it was the Faith differs little from Gnosticism—knowledge of the magic formula puts one on easy street.

However, Jesus presented quite a different view of how life would be as a Christian.

It is worth our while, and especially in light of the constant agitation of Muslims for “respect,” to remind ourselves of why Christ is insulted and Mohammed is honoured.

In order to do this, I invite you to consider again the instructions Jesus gave His disciples as He sent them out into the world.

The text is found in MATTHEW 10:16-25.

*THE DISCIPLES’ EXPECTATION* — It appears that Jesus shattered the disciples’ expectations.

They, as is true for so professed Christians in our day, appear to have supposed that because they believed Jesus was the Son of God, they would be welcomed in the world.

Yet, throughout His time preparing the disciples for His exodus, Jesus warned repeatedly of opposition and conflict.

It must have been terribly confusing and somewhat daunting for these men; their expectations were at odds with what Jesus was teaching.

Superficially, if we were creating a religion to appeal to people, it would be much like Islam—we would demand honour for our god; we would expect people to acknowledge our superior reasoning.

Human pride does not allow an individual to accept anything less than honour for his religious principles.

Whenever the Christian Faith has been taken over by men who substitute their concepts for the revelation of the Lord of Glory, that newly minted religion has sought to compel others to accept what is taught.

Thus, Jesus’ warning has been realised, “Their teachings are but rules taught by men” [MATTHEW 15:9 NIV].

The disciples’ focus was often on their own greatness.

Consider one instance where this was on full display.

“The disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” [MATTHEW 18:1]?

Another example is found in a request of Jesus by His cousins, John and James.

“James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’

And he said to them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” [MARK 10:35-37].

These two men were prompted by their mother, who wanted great things for her boys [see MATTHEW 20:20 ff.].

It was a natural request, based on Jesus’ own revelation, “When the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” [MATTHEW 19:28].

Like us, the disciples seized on the promises of the Master; and they wanted them fulfilled immediately.

The disciples wanted to be honoured for making the right choice; they wanted to be recognised as wise and decisive in following the Master; they wanted the world to acknowledge their superior intellect and abilities.

We are cut from the same cloth.

Thus, were we creating our religion, we would seek honour and glory.

As the little band drew ever nearer to the Master’s Passion, the jockeying for position grew greater and the competition intensified.

Even as they shared the final Pascal Meal and witnessed the institution of the Lord’s Table, the disciples were vying for position with the Master.

“A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

And he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.

But not so with you.

Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.

For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves?

Is it not the one who reclines at table?

But I am among you as the one who serves” [LUKE 22:24-27].

To be certain, Jesus continued His teach by promising yet again that these disciples would receive divine acknowledgment in the coming Kingdom.

“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” [LUKE 22:28-30].

The disciples wanted recognition now, however.

They wanted the world to justify their faith because of its raw power and because of the way in which it would coerce people.

However, such was not to be.

James Chancellor, Professor of Christian Missions and World Religions at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes of an exchange between a Muslim cleric and a group of university students.

The incident of which he writes illustrates what is expected by a religion made by man.

Doctor Chancellor writes, “Some years ago I attended a lecture given by a leading North African Muslim cleric to a group of university students in the United States.