Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Bound for Glory
WELCOME (Sterling Tollison)
Scripture Reading (Matthew 11:16-26)
Prayer of Praise (God is Creator), Jean Smith
I Will Glory in My Redeemer
Blessed Assurance
Prayer of Confession (Anxiety), Jason Wells
Great Are You Lord
PBC Catechism #44
What will happen to unbelievers when Jesus returns?
Unbelievers will be resurrected to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment.
The ultimate hope of all creation, and the final state of all that now exists, is the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Pastoral Prayer (Bubba Jones)
SERMON
The story is told of twin boys, one who was an extreme optimist and the other was an extreme pessimist.
Since both the boys were extreme in how they responded to things, they were taken to a psychiatrist for treatment.
The doctor put the extreme pessimist in a room filled with new toys, but the boy refused to play with toys.
Much to the doctor’s surprise he burst into tears, afraid he would break the toys if he touched them.
The doctor then put the extreme optimist in a room filled with horse manure.
Again, much to the doctor’s surprise, this boy smiled and began rolling up his sleeves.
He then started digging into the horse manure shouting “there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”
[1]
Sometimes I fear we think of Jesus like one of the twin boys in that story.
Some of us picture Jesus as an extreme pessimist.
He’s straight-laced, hard to please, often unhappy, and rarely eager to extend grace.
Others picture Jesus as an extreme optimist.
He’s happy-go-lucky, rarely bothered, and always eager to accept and affirm everyone just as they are.
The truth is, Jesus is neither of those things.
Instead, Jesus always responds perfectly to every situation.
Weeping was the perfect response to the death of Lazarus
Righteous anger was the perfect response to the injustice and irreverence in the temple
Gentle but firm was the perfect response to a doubting John the Baptist
But what about when He’s rejected?
Will Jesus respond with the same sort of tenderness towards those who refuse to believe?
Turn to Matthew 11:16
Jesus was approached by John the Baptist with doubts about whether or not Jesus was the Messiah
John was in prison
Jesus wasn’t the Messiah he expected
Jesus’ response to John was gentle yet firm.
He listened to him, spoke truth to him, challenged him, and affirmed him.
But how will He respond to unbelief?
Before I answer that, let me remind you the difference between doubt and unbelief:
Alister McGrath—“Unbelief is the decision to live your life as if there is no God.
It is a deliberate decision to reject Jesus Christ and all that he stands for.
But doubt is something quite different.
Doubt arises within the context of faith.
It is a wistful longing to be sure of the things in which we trust.”
[2]
The Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond said, “Christ distinguished between doubt and unbelief.
Doubt says, ‘I can’t believe.’
Unbelief says, ‘I won’t belief.’
Doubt is honest.
Unbelief is obstinate.”
So how does Jesus respond to unbelief?
Jesus responds to unbelief just as perfectly as He responded to doubt and everything else.
But the right response to unbelief looks different.
The right response to unbelief is an urgent warning.
Not a Christian: I want you to worship the King before it’s too late!
Christian: these warnings are for us too!
Hebrews 3:12-13—Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Four Warnings About the Sin of Unbelief:
1) The POWER of Unbelief
Unbelief is much more powerful than most of us would like to admit.
11:20—Then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.
The word “denounce” is a very strong, used only two other times in Matthew.
It’s used in 5:11 to refer to the “reviling” Jesus’ followers receive from their persecutors and it’s used in 26:44 to refer to the way the thieves mocked Jesus while they were being crucified
Matthew uses that strong word here to describe the rebuke Jesus is about to give these cities for their unrepentance.
But notice what’s going on: the people in these cities did not repent even though they saw most of Jesus’ mighty works!
Why?
Because unbelief is incredibly powerful!!
The story is told of a man who was absolutely convinced that he was dead.
His wife and kids were exasperated.
They kept telling him “You’re not dead,” but he continued to insist he was dead.
So they tried telling him, “Look, you’re not dead; you’re walking and talking and breathing; how can you be dead?”
But he continued to insist he was dead.
So the family finally took him to a doctor.
The doctor pulled out some medical books to demonstrate to the man that dead men do not bleed.
After some time, the man admits that dead men do not bleed.
The doctor then took the man’s hand and poke the end of his finger with a needle.
Of course the man started bleeding.
The doctor asked him what he thought about that, and the man replied, “What do you know?
DEAD MEN DO BLEED!”
Unbeliever: what would it take for you to believe?
Is it possible that even if you had that evidence, that proof you still wouldn’t believe?
The rich man and Lazarus...
In hell, the rich man says to Abraham, “Send Lazarus back from the dead and warn my brothers so they don’t end up in hell with me!”
Luke 16:29-31—But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’”
And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Unbelief is so strong that evidence, reason and even miracles can’t shake it!
Not saying you should have blind faith and not ask questions!
Not saying their shouldn’t be evidence!
Jesus gives evidence and they still didn’t believe!!!
Tim Keller—“Unbelief is not just the lack of something, it’s the presence of something.”
[3]
The problem with unbelief isn’t more evidence.
There’s something going on your heart.
So let’s consider...
2) The HEART of Unbelief
11:16-17—“But to what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’”
Explain: kids in the marketplace playing “wedding” and their friends didn’t want to dance.
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