Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – A lecturer named Emily Kimbrough was once being introduced when a loud hissing sound came from off-stage.

The MC excused herself to speak to a maintenance man beckoning from the side.

She returned to announce, “Before we continue with the program I have some unhappy news.

We will be delayed for a bit because there is a screw loose in our speaker.”

Some of you may feel that way every Sunday!

It’s for sure the disciples did in this case.

Luke has recorded Jesus’ claims to be Messiah and the confirmation of that fact by fulfilled prophecies and miracles spectacular in content and quantity.

The disciples are beginning to get it as reflected in Lu 9:20, “Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

They implications are not all clear yet, but they get that He is Messiah and that He is even more – the “Son of the Living God” (Mt 16:16).

But while they are getting who He is, they do not understand what that means – altho they think they do!

They’ve got the right phrase – Messiah, Son of the Living God – but the wrong definition – immediate deliverer.

They are steeped in the Jewish tradition which totally ignored OT passages about the suffering Messiah and concentrated all its hope on Messiah as deliverer.

So when Jesus says to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven”; “Bingo, Peter.

That’s exactly who I am,” the apostles were riding high.

The only question they had was, “When?

When do we take over?”

They are expecting revolution; they get: V. 21, “And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

They’re thinking, “Our speaker’s got a screw loose?

Messiahs don’t talk like this!”

They couldn’t have been more surprised had He said, “Now that you get that I’m Messiah, let’s go out and commit mass suicide.”

Messiah being killed didn’t compute.

Mt 16:22 says Peter rebuked Him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!

This shall never happen to you.

23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!

You are a hindrance to me.

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Perhaps the strongest rebuke to a Xn in the Bible.

“Peter, you’re Satan in fisherman’s clothing!

Get out of my presence.

You’re nothing but a hindrance.

Stand aside!”

Strong language.

And as a side note, notice how quickly Peter went from being commended by Jesus because of information he had that came from the Father, to being rebuked by Christ in strongest terms as being the tool of Satan.

It can happen that fast, Beloved.

That’s why Paul instructs in Eph 5:18, “Keep on being filled (controlled) by the HS” – keep on, all the time.

Failure happens fast!

Now, let’s admit, this announcement by Jesus is a shock.

It’s been hinted at.

Simeon had told Mary, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Lu 2:35).

But that is a veiled comment, probably unknown to the apostles.

Jesus told them in 5:35, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”

They would never have read the cross into that.

But now, Mark says, “he said this plainly” (Mark 8:32).

“I’m gonna die”.

No more ambiguity.

From here on, Jesus hammers the point home relentlessly.

Matt 16:21, “21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Jesus warned them, but it just didn’t compute.

I mean, put yourself in these guys’ shoes for a moment.

They’ve given up everything to follow Jesus – home, livelihood, everything and now He’s announcing that He’s going to Jerusalem to die!

You probably wouldn’t be thrilled either.

And there is more strangeness in v. 21.

Peter’s confessed Him as “the Christ of God” much to Jesus’ satisfaction.

Yet in v. 21, “he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one.”

Why tell no one?

You’d think He would want everybody to know!

Yet Jesus often forbids people to talk about Him.

After raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, “he charged them to tell no one what had happened” (Lu 8:56).

After healing a leper “he charged him to tell no one” (Lu 5:14).

After healing a deaf man, “Jesus charged them to tell no one” (Mark 7:36).

Don’t tell.

Why not tell?!

The key is Mt 17:9.

After the transfiguration Jesus told Peter, James and John, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

After that, tell everyone!

The message is not healing; the message is not free food; the message is not simply that Jesus is the Messiah.

The message is the cross and the resurrection.

After that you go into the world and you tell everybody.

But everything hinges on the cross and the empty tomb.

In Lu 9 He’s saying, “Don’t tell that I’m Messiah bc I have to die and be raised first.

That is the story.

That is the gospel.

Meantime, I don’t want people getting all excited about healings and deliverance from Rome.

That’s not why I came.

I came to seek and save the lost – to address man’s biggest problem man has, which is not physical impairment of domination by Rome.

It is the guilt caused by sin.

That’s what I’m after.

That requires the cross and the resurrection.

After that, tell everyone!

That’s the gospel.

That’s the good news!

Notice the word “must” (22).

“The Son of Man must suffer.”

“Must” is the Greek δει – it is necessary.

Jesus is saying He must go to Jerusalem and suffer.

Not maybe He’d have to suffer.

Not possibly or probably He’d have to suffer.

It was a written in stone necessity!

Why? First, it has been prophesied.

His death is detailed in Psa 22 and Isa 53 right down to the method – crucifixion.

Psa 22:16, “They have pierced my hands and feet,” prophesied hundreds of years before crucifixion was ever utilized.

Isa 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions.”

God said it; it must happen.

Second, it was in the plan of God from before the foundation of the world.

Did you know that?

Jesus’ death was no tragic accident, no miscalculation of history, no Plan B, no unfortunate result of an out-of-control mob.

Peter says, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (I Peter 1:20).

It’s a “must.”