Sermon Tone Analysis

Why Are You Shouting?

Intro

Pray

[picture of roman domination of Jerusalem…police state in america?]

I think to understand today’s significance, and our text, we need to start where they are starting.

That can be hard for us, because frankly, we have never known the oppression and the fear that they had known.

You see, these were a people who were emotionally, physically, and spiritually abused.

They had overseers, in the Romans, who would constantly change the rules whenever it benefitted themselves.

They were beat for no reason, even for just looking at them.

And even their own Pharisees and Rabbi’s - their pastors - they would twist faith to their own benefit and their own ends, constantly making it seemingly impossible to experience God or feel His presence.

They had been waiting for salvation, it turns out.

They knew that there was a Messiah to come!

But, because of their spiritual abuse, and their dire situation, they didn’t know what He would look like!

Understand, when they saw Jesus come in on a donkey, there is no doubt in my mind that they would immediately think of the verses that predict this very moment!

Matthew even includes them in his Gospel.

Understand, when they saw Jesus come in on a donkey, there is no doubt in my mind that they would immediately think of the verses that predict this very moment!

Matthew even includes them in his Gospel.

Matt 21

Your King is coming, Zechariah says, coming to you on a donkey.

The offspring, or in the lineage of, a servant - a beast of burden.

I am sure they would have all gotten that imagery.

But knowing people, I am also sure that they probably weren’t looking forward to that type of King; the King of Peace.

No, they were more interested in the King that Zechariah later mentions in the very same prophetic text.

The King of War.

Zecariah, a great prophet of the inter-testamental period, was led by God to prophecy about the coming messiah.

He does so in two ways.

There was this King of War, as described in chapter 14 of Zecariah, one who would come out from Jerusalem against all the armies of the world and prove victorious.

Zec 14:

He goes on to say that the world will flee, that there will be no light, and that from Jerusalem will flow living water.

And the Lord will be King over all the earth.

That is who they were shouting for.

That is who they were shouting for.

We know that because of the words they shout and the way they shout.

You see, it is all about understanding language, and understanding the situation.

You know, I am no stranger to shouting for stuff.

I used to shout at my TV all the time in the Fall, you know, football season.

But now I shout for our girls at soccer and our youth at ball games at school.

It’s funny, though.

It always feels so funny shouting for a team of 6-8 year old’s playing sports, or shouting at high school kids.

Seriously, I feel bad shouting just for my kid, so inevitably, whenever anyone does anything, I cheer them on in some way!

And honestly, with Olivia, I sometimes I even get confused at which team is which!

It seems like that with all of us sometimes.

Sometimes we can start shouting or rooting for something, or get excited about something, not knowing why, but just because everyone else around us is doing it too!

And sometimes, we just shout because someone else is shouting, either at us or for us.

What we shout, when we shout, how we shout, what we shout for; it all matters.

And it matters because it shapes the outcomes we experience and it shapes our expectations and reactions to our situations.

[picture of cemetery]

I remember going on out patrol in Haiti, while in the Army.

We would walk through town, and neighborhoods.

But the best times, and I use “best” very ironically here, the best times were spent walking through these large cemeteries trying to make sure there was nothing bad going on.

[picture of cemetery]

Looks like tons of fun, right?

Now I was pretty young, but I had taken four years of French up to that point in my life, so I was looked to as a sort of make-shift translator.

And because Haitians that go to school have to learn French, I was able to speak to them in French and have them help me learn a little bit of Creole, so I was pretty useful in a pinch.

Well as we walked through this cemetery, we heard all sorts of stuff coming from behind the vaults, and behind the bushes.

People chanting in hopes of raising the dead.

People crying for help.

And people cursing at us as we passed.

Of course, if you didn’t speak the language, it all kind of sounded the same, really.

That became very real to me one night when we heard a bunch of yelling off in the distance.

As we walked toward it, it got louder and more panicked.

Eventually we heard people running toward us and shouting at the top of their lungs, this primal shout; part fear and part anger.

Delivre Nou - Save us

Delivre Nou - Save us

Delivre Nou

So they are running to us, shouting at the top of their lungs “Delivre Nou, Delivre Nou” and here we are petrified, and not understanding what they are saying.

So we raise our weapons to defend ourselves.

And just as they are getting into sight, we get the whole picture.

We see their faces, we hear them more clearly, and in that moment I finally understand why they are shouting!

I understand why, church, because I understood what they were shouting.

{move slide}

Save us! Save us!

When we didn’t understand their situation, and their words, we were ready to destroy them, but once a little clarity came into the picture, once we understood why they were shouting, we understood that they needed saving, and that we had a job to do.

But understand when we were ourselves shouting at them to “get down,” or were shouting from fear in our hearts, we couldn’t understand anything.

But when we listened, we heard all we needed to hear.

[Picture of Jesus on Donkey]

On the flip side, we can sometimes have our message lost in our own shouting, can’t we? We, like the Jews, shout for salvation, but as we run toward God, do we run toward Him looking to be saved, or to tell Him what to look like, and what to give us to make us happy?

Are we looking to be saved by God, or looking to save ourselves by using God?

That is the question that should have been on the minds of those shouting for Jesus in our text.

Just like us all, they heard about Jesus somewhere, and then through some providence, are able to come into His presence in some way.

Of course they would come to that place with an idea of what they thought the Messiah needed to look like, right?

Just like us!

They wanted a conquering hero!

And church, until they could quiet their souls and really listen to Jesus, they were never going to experience Jesus the way He intended!

You can’t hear what He is saying if you are shouting constantly about what you think He is!

So we have to ask ourselves, “Why are you shouting?”

What are you looking for?

For the Jews, the answer was simple.

So simple, in fact, that it is laid out right there in our text!

For the Jews, the answer was simple.

Even more than simple, it is laid out right there in our text!

As I said, these folks understood Jesus from prophecy, Isaiah, Zechariah, many other authors and prophets, but like myself and those other soldiers on patrol, and the Haitians running towards us, they only had a part of the picture.

But even so, they knew one important fact - one thing that matters the most when dealing with a life or death situation!

They knew they needed saving.

You can see it in their words.

“Hosanna!”

They shouted.

“Hosanna!”

The same cry of those Haitians, and the same cry of every single person in this room, and this world, at some point!

Save us!