Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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LAST WEEK
We saw a Paralytics friends do whatever it took to bring him to Jesus
We saw one of the greatest pictures of the church
Where you have someone that is far from God
Not able to come to God on his own
But who had friends that had enough faith to bring him into the presence of Jesus
Hoping that God would do the miraculous
Watching God not only heal him of his spiritual sickness but also his physical infirmities.
We also saw the calling of Matthew into the Ministry
We went to the Gospel of Luke to see what that looked like
We saw a guy who had been known as Levi
Who was hated by Jews and couldn’t really be trusted by the Romans
This Dude, Begins to Follow Jesus
Leaving his very prominent business behind
Trading in a bad reputation for one that was considered even worse.
Exchanging the known for the unknown
He knew God had saved him
He also knew that God wanted to save his friends
So Matthew threw a party for Jesus
A Party where he invited all of his friends.
Sinners, Tax Collectors, and Winos.
When the Religious of the day saw Jesus hanging out with these bad dudes, they called him out on it,
They asked his squad if this was their Rabbi
If this is the guy that they wanted to be associated with
Challenging the very think that identified them
We also saw Jesus respond to the Pharisees with a message that cut them to the heart.
THIS WEEK
We are going to look at another accusation made by the Religious Leaders of the Day
But before we get started, I want us to have a clear perspective of who these guys were:
Who were the Pharisees?
Google defines it as this: a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity.
a self-righteous person; a hypocrite.
Josephus points out that the Pharisees were a group of men who where held in high regard by the common people in Israel
They were the students of the law
The ones that set the standard for law keeping
Paul considered himself a Pharisee
Gamaliel was a Pharisee
This group of guys were not only well educated, their education created a sense of elitism that was felt by those below them.
They weren’t just educators to those beneath them
They created a burdensome expectation of what holiness should be
They raised the bar that made religious growth seem impossible.
A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.
- AW Tozer
These guys valued Spiritual Orthodoxy more than the Spiritual Journey
They valued keeping the rules
Instead of focusing on the process of reconciliation that restored the people who didn’t have the character or drive to keep the rules.
READ
PRAY THAT GOD WOULD CHANGE THE PHARISAICAL HEART OF THE CHURCH TODAY
Who were the Disciples of John?
These were the guys who were predominantly Gentile
They had heard the voice crying in the wilderness
They had responded to the Prophetic Message of Repentance
They had probably been baptized in the Jordan
They had maybe even seen the Baptism of Jesus
Maybe they even saw the heavens opened
Heard the voice of the Father proclaiming who Jesus was
But they were curious
They couldn’t trust Jesus just yet
But they continued to follow John
Even after John relagated himself in light of Jesus’ coming
Proclaiming that he must decrease and Jesus must increase
Proclaiming that he wasn’t worthy to loosen his sandals
Proclaiming that
These guys come up to Jesus saying: “Why do we and the Pharisees Fast often, but your disciples do not fast”
Valid question
But a question that revealed the focus of their spiritual practicum
First of all:
These guys who had repented of their sins
Who had been baptized into the waters of repentance
Who had heard John preach on the coming of the Messiah
Who had studied under John the Baptist
Where still using the Pharissaical model of Penitence to flesh out their spiritual practices.
They were still applying the Old Method of Self Inflicted Humiliation in order to bring attention to themselves without realizing that it was at the expense of God’s Glory
They were using Fasting as a means to prove their holiness
They were using fasting as a form of public humiliation in order to prove their holiness.
They were using this OT Practice just because the religious leaders of the day were also doing it.
For some reason, this OT practice was a way to prove something
This practice had become a way to draw attention to the practitioner instead of the what they were trying to accomplish
When they saw the Fast-less Practice of Jesus’ Disciples
Those who Jesus had chosen to be a part of his squad
Those who were following this so called Messiah
Those who were the closest to the “Son of God”
WERE NOT FASTING
Those who were the closest to the “Son of God”
They were confused
Because it looked different than theirs
They had to be wrong
They couldn’t reach the same spiritual echelon
They couldn’t be as holy as they were.
Not only that
It is as if their whole Spiritual Worth was considered Null & Void
Their whole Spiritual Identity was challenged
If John was pointing to Jesus
And Jesus Students were not fasting
What did that say about how they determined their spiritual worth?
Before they could say anything, Jesus answers their question with a complete redefinition of what Fasting truly was about and what it is to be
Matthew 9:15
Jesus in his genius, goes on to explain
It is as if He takes them up to 30,000 Ft for a brief moment and says:
Can the friends of the bridegroom
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