Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

John Holliday, the peppery founder and editor of the Indianapolis News, stormed in the composing room one day determined to fine the culprit who had spelled height without the silent e, making it hight.

And investigation led to the original copy which he discovered he had written himself.

His response when he found he was the maker of the mistake was, "If that's the way I spelled it, then that is correct."

For the next thirty years that was the way it remained spelled in the Indianapolis News.

Back in 1922 the clocks were advanced 20 minutes in England.

One man in Coventry, England refused to accept this loss of 20 minutes in his life.

So he kept his watch for the old time.

He was always 20 minutes behind everyone else.

As a result he was fired from half a dozen jobs, but he never gave in.

He said, "They won't beat me.

I'm going to die 20 minutes late to show them I was right."

It is supposed to be a virtue to stand alone against the world, fighting for your conviction.

In some cases it is a virtue, but as these examples illustrate, it is not always a virtue, even though it may take a lot of courage to do it.

Instead, it can be a vice called stubbornness which makes it nearly impossible for people to admit they made a mistake.

This vice is so prevalent in our fallen human nature that it is one of the primary causes of preventable suffering in our world.

The widespread reality of stubbornness is made evident by all of the words men have devised to describe it.

These are just a few of the more familiar: Headstrong, inflexible, unyielding, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, perverse, pig-headed, and mulish.

We are dealing with a major problem of human nature.

Jesus, as the Great Physician, is deeply concerned about the prevention of suffering.

In this Sermon On The Mount He deals much with the cause and cure of unnecessary suffering.

He is our Creator, and, therefore, is the most qualified to diagnose our problems and prescribe remedies.

In this passage of verses 21-26 He is focusing on this vice of stubbornness, and its power to destroy relationships, and produce enormous unnecessary suffering.

It is unnecessary in that if we follow the doctors advice it can be prevented.

First we want to focus on the diagnosis that the cause of much unnecessary suffering is-

I. STUBBORNNESS.

Jesus make it clear in v. 20 that Christian righteousness must surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

The reason this is so vital is because their legalistic righteousness produces stubbornness, and stubbornness is not a channel through which the love of God will flow.

Legalistic religion actually brings out the worst in man, for it enables him to be stubborn and feel good about it, for he is made to feel his stubbornness is a form of loyalty to God.

The Pharisees were inflexible and would not bend.

Jesus was doing wonders for people.

He was healing them, and enriching their lives, and they loved Him for His compassion, but He had to break some of their rules to show all of this love.

Instead of admitting that their legalism was too harsh and unloving, they began a plot to kill the man who would dare to make them look bad.

They stubbornly refused to admit they were in any way wrong.

It was Jesus who was wrong, and He must die.

Stubbornness put Jesus on the cross, and it has filled the world with much suffering.

If only the Pharisees were guilty of stubbornness, Jesus would not have had to preach on it in this great sermon.

But Jesus knew this would be problem all through history.

If we could write the history of Christianity fully, and the sorrows of church conflicts and splits, we would see that the majority of the suffering Christians have inflicted on one another has been due to stubbornness, and a refusal to admit that one does not have a monopoly on the truth.

Do Christians have to pay a penalty for being stubborn?

Yes! Jesus gives an example here of the man who is being taken to court.

Jesus urges him to admit his guilt, and settle the dispute out of court.

If he persists in his stubborn refusal to admit his mistake, he will end up in prison, and have to pay the full price for his folly.

Jesus is saying, the stubborn refusal to bend and seek a compromise solution is not a virtue, but a foolish vice that leads the stubborn Christian to suffer what could have been prevented by a different spirit.

As we read the history of the church we can see that Jesus knew what was ahead, and how much unnecessary suffering Christians would have to endure because of their following the legalistic Pharisees.

Stubborn legalism which refuses to bend and compromise with a Christian brother is a rejection of the teaching of Christ in this passage and others, and this rejection has led Christians to much unnecessary suffering.

Christians have refused to leave their offering to God, and go to be reconciled with their brother.

They cling to their offering, and like the Pharisees, they feel they are pleasing to God even as they reject His plan and will.

Thomas Muentzer was a Lutheran pastor who despised Luther, and he became a radical leader of the Anabaptist in the reformation period.

Luther, Calvin, and Swingli were convinced Christians should work through the government for Christian goals, but he said this was a compromise with the world.

He said the only way to go is to despise the world and its governments.

He set up his own government and made war on everybody.

His stubborn refusal to cooperate with other Christian leaders led to one of the worse judgments in history.

Christians killed Christians and Muentzer was decapitated and his head placed on a stick.

He had to pay the last penny, and many godly people were slaughtered by other godly people because there was no room for compromise.

When Christians will not bend, they often have to be broken.

The paradox is, Muentzer was not radical enough for others.

Conrad Grebel was even more legalistic than he.

He felt Muentzer was compromising with the Lutherans by introducing German hymns into the service.

He wrote to him warning him of his compromise with the anti-Christ by permitting singing of hymns.

We could go on and on reviewing the legalism of Christians that led to suffering which was easily preventable.

Fortunately, after much folly and tragedy, a leader by the name of Meno Simons took over and led the Anabaptist to a more stable life.

The Mennonites were named after him, and they became a people who have made a marvelous contribution to Christianity and to the world.

The learned to admit their mistakes, and to follow love rather than legalism, and the result was the elimination of so much preventable suffering.

History demonstrates clearly the truth of what Jesus is teaching.

If a Christian develops a stubborn spirit which refuses to admit it can be wrong, and make mistakes, it will lead to unnecessary suffering.

In other words, if the wisdom of Christ's teachings are not applied, but men insist on their own stubborn way, they will suffer for their folly.

This is suffering that God does not will, but He will not prevent it, for if He did He would not be allowing men the freedom of their will.

If a man will not cooperate with the light God gives them, he will have to pay the consequences for walking in the dark.

Here is a window through which we can see a whole new perspective on suffering.

Jesus gives us an insight that explains so much that would otherwise be a mystery as to why good people suffer.

Jesus says, much suffering is not of Satan, or of God, but is man-made due to his refusal to recognize his own stubbornness.

Dr. Ernest Liggon in The Psychology Of Christian Personality writes, "If the Psychologist were asked to name the two major sins, from his point of view, he probably would name fear and anger.

They form the basis for most of our unhappiness.

They are impossible to integrate into a healthy personality."

These are the two primary causes for stubbornness that Jesus deals with in this passage.

Fear of admitting you are wrong and have made a mistake is where stubbornness begins.

We will not go to our brother and apologize for we fear we will lose face.

It is degrading to the self to have to humble yourself and admit you were wrong.

Anger goes along with this, for we are angry at those who confront us with our sins and mistakes.

We get mad at those we injure, for they threaten our security, and so instead of confession and compromise, which can lead to forgiveness we fight to the bitter end.

Jesus says it is bitter indeed, for it is all preventable suffering that does not need to be.

Judgment does not take place only at the end of history.

It is a process running all through history.

You pay the penalty today for your spirit of stubbornness.

Everyday you refuse to soften, and confess your weakness, is a day in which you suffer the consequences of broken relationships, suppression of fear and anger, and both internal and external hostility.

In other words, there is no peace where nobody wants to surrender.

The Christian has escaped the condemnation of God, for by faith in Christ he is assured a place in heaven, and escape from the doom of the lost.

But this does not mean he escapes from the judgment of life.

If a Christian builds on the sand , his house will fall as flat as that of an atheist when the flood comes.

No matter how good a Christian a person is, they cannot ignore the laws of life and relationships, and escape the consequences.

A stubborn Christian will suffer, and reap what he sows.

What this means is, there is a whole world of unnecessary suffering that Christians endure because they do not obey the laws of the Sermon on the Mount.

It is not good suffering, and suffering Jesus wants us to endure to become disciplined and strong.

It is sheer waste, and of no value to God or man.

In the story of the Prodigal Jesus illustrates how stubbornness leads to so much preventable suffering.

The younger son stubbornly insisted on having his own way.

He took all his inheritance and went off to really live.

He blew it and knew it when he was broke, and no longer had a friend.

Had he not been so stubborn he would have gone home right away and admitted his folly, but he had to suffer more as he resisted doing the sensible thing.