Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Introduction
Have you ever been misunderstood?
Have you ever had people trying to silence you even though you knew what was right?
Being mischaracterized is a common event in our lives as people.
We have this all the time.
People want to silence any opposition that may hinder what they want accomplished.
Maybe that is even your family or friends because they do not believe in what you believe in.
As believers we face much opposition to our faith.
We will face attacks and insults to us.
We will be insulted and condemned as bigots, haters, arrogant, and many worse titles.
Some of this may even come from your own family.
It may come from coworkers.
It may come from once friends.
One thing is certain, hate and attacks will come for us if we are following Jesus.
We will be mischaracterized and insulted and attempts to silence us will occur from all arenas.
Some attacks will come from the realm of “Christianity.”
There are many within the umbrella term of Christian that want to silence anyone who believes the Bible and Jesus’ words.
Many people are like this salesman, “One dark rainy night a salesman had a flat tire on a lonely road.
But to his dismay he had no lug wrench.
Seeing a nearby farmhouse, he set out on foot.
Surely the farmer would have a lug wrench, he thought.
But would he even come to the door?
And if he did, he'd probably be furious at being bothered.
He'd say, "What's the big idea getting me out of bed in the middle of the night?"
This thought made the salesman angry.
Why, that farmer is a selfish old clod to refuse to help me.
Finally the man reached the house.
Frustrated and drenched, he banged on the door.
"Who's there?" a voice called out from a window overhead.
"You know good and well who it is," yelled the salesman, his face red with anger.
"It's me!
And you can keep your old lug wrench!
I wouldn't borrow it if it was the last one in the county."
That man made his mind up before ever talking to the farmer.
He imagined what the man would say and how he would react.
He had a mischaraterization of the man and he did not even try to work with him but instead started out insulting him.
This is the world’s view of us who are in Christ.
They follow stories and thoughts that others have made about Christians and then act on what they have heard.
The worst part is many Christians do the same to them and to other Christians.
Too many think they are the correct ones and all against them must be condemned.
And they do this all in the name of love and inclusivity all the while excluding anyone who is not like them.
That is what I want you to remember about today, insults will come and they will come from many who we think are our friends and loved ones.
We see that many act in a certain way but deep down only want us to behave as they do.
We see this in the text today.
We see that Jesus’ family did not understand, the religious people did not understand, but our family formed in the Lord will because in that we are all seeking to do the will of God.
In the first two verses and again in 31-32 we see that...
Families May Not Understand (20-21, 31-32)
What is crazy about this aspect with Jesus is that Mary and Joseph had both been visited by an angel and told about Jesus’ birth and His greatness.
We do not see Joseph in this story but we do see Mary.
She knew Jesus was more.
She knew He was from the Lord because of the pregnancy and visit from the angel.
Yet, even with that we see her trying to stop Jesus from carrying on His ministry.
Many had begun to follow Jesus and many were becoming angry with Him, as the next section will demonstrate.
So, we see something in the text here that could indicate fear for Jesus and what may happen as why His family tried to stop Him.
I can understand this as a father myself but the text says they were saying He is out of his mind.
Maybe they were saying that to help alleviate any struggle that may come from His ministry or maybe they thought he was insane.
Whatever the cause, they were not supporting Him and they were against Him by doing what they did.
It seems that his family did not believe he was the messiah.
I do want to ask here, what would it take for one of your siblings to think you were the Son of God, the Messiah?
I doubt that any of our siblings would think we were the Messiah.
So, even though the miraculous happened with Mary, she may have even begun to doubt.
They did not understand who Jesus was and they were trying to stop Him.
Just as I said in the intro, we will face this in our lives.
We will be insulted and sought to be made to shut up.
Many will, and do, say we are out of our minds.
We speak of the savior of the world and we seek to make Him known to all we can.
People tried to stop Jesus, His family tried, people will try and stop us.
They will attack and insult.
Many people who were close to us and may have thought we were great, will turn on us and reject us.
It will hurt it will be rough.
I am sure Jesus felt this from His family and all the others who rejected Him.
Yet we do not see this taking away from Him and what He was doing.
Mark (Religious Leaders Accuse Jesus of Being Under Satan’s Power / 3:20–30 / 74)
Family members require the most patience.
They see us at our worst when our guard is down.
Remember that Christ’s family rejected and ridiculed him.
Jesus knows what you face by trying to be a witness for him in your own family.
Stay true to your faith, and don’t respond negatively to the attacks that may come.
Over time, your love for them will have a positive effect.
Jesus remained on point as we see in the next section where He confronted the religious people because...
Religious People Will Not Understand (22-30)
The Scribes were the experts in the Law.
As Charles Swindoll explains, they were like a cross of today’s legal scholars and Bible Scholars.
They knew what the OT said and they were going to keep it as they read it.
They did not want this man who came in and stomped all over their beliefs to continue.
So, they did what people who get insulted and are afraid of the truth do, they said He was possessed.
Now, not all do this today but they do say you are a heretic, a Christian nationalist, patriarchal, misogynist, oppressive, or many other names.
They want to ruin your credibility and your beliefs.
These Scribes had seen the works of Jesus.
They had witnessed many of His miracles, yet they said He was possessed.
They did not want the truth or want to believe what they have seen.
They only wanted to have what they said the text means to be what was.
People caught up in their religion will insult and attack.
They do not care about the truth but what they say is true only.
And everyone is in a religion of some sort.
We all have some set of beliefs we hold to be true.
The world has theirs and it is that you can do whatever you want as long as what you do does not offend another persons beliefs.
Other so-called Christians hold a worldly view mixed with some Christian beliefs.
All of them condemn us who hold to Biblical Christianity and seek to follow Jesus and His apostles as He has lain out for us in His word.
The question we need to ask ourselves is will we return insult for insult, attack them, or act as Jesus did here.
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