Sermon Tone Analysis

OPEN WITH VIDEO, “A SERVANT’S HEART”

Read , ,

I listened to another pastor yesterday, and of how he talked about Jesus and His mind always being upon and thinking of people, that is, He was always thinking of others and not Himself!

Probably one of the greatest examples of this very thing, is at a point and time in the life of Jesus, when He is at the pinnacle of suffering and pain and shame; that is, when He was hanging upon the Cross of Calvary.

You have to try and think and capture the full extent of what that day would have done to a person’s mind: If you were completely innocent of all guilt and crime and yet you were handed over to a group of the most lascivious and cruel men that existed (men who prided themselves and were especially placed at their positions, by the Roman guard, because of their lust for pain and humiliation)!

If you were unclothed before men and women and then whipped and scourged and taunted and spat upon and smacked and your family was made fun of and you were paraded around in front of thousands upon thousands of people in mockery.

And if you were marched up a hill and stripped down, possibly totally naked, or at the very least, with a small loin cloth (because of Jewish customs) and then you were nailed onto a wooden structure and then stood up in front of the jeering crowds and left hanging there............

Where would your mind be?

What would you or I be thinking about and yelling out?

My point here and leading back to what the preacher said yesterday, is that Jesus’ mind was still upon the good of the people and saving them; NOT LASHING OUT AND DEMANDING JUSTICE!

Two of the things that let us know that this is where His mind was at that exact time, were the statements that He made with regard to His mother Mary, when He called out to John, His disciple and told him to look after His mother and make sure that she was taken care of.

And then, probably the most famous statement that He yelled out, in the midst of His torment and agony, was when He cried out, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing!”

You see, Jesus always had the good of the people and their betterment on His mind, versus His own self and making Himself look better or feel better before others!

tells us,

It is because of this, that Paul goes on to tell us that we are to, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you.

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”

In other words, Make sure that everything we do, is done for His glory and His honor.

It is never to glorify or honor us, or make us better in the eyes of others!

AMEN?!

So, this morning, I wanted to read a particular set of verses, that deal with a particular time frame in the lives of the disciples.

In doing so, my hope and my goal is point out what I believe God wants to stress to us in our walk with Him.

I really struggled with this all day yesterday.

And, in fact, I tried to find a different topic and a different set of verses to read and discuss with you this morning!

And it was like some funny movie scene, every single time I would turn to another passage and start trying to move in another direction; I would involuntarily turn back to this section!

(Mimic your hand being made to turn back as you protest and fight doing it!)

We are going to read this morning from the gospel of Luke, in chapters 9 and 10 and we are going to look specifically around the time frame of when Jesus commissioned and sent out the two sets of His followers.

And in looking at these two instances, what I feel the Lord was pointing out to me, is the way in which both groups got caught up in a sense of pride of self and in their own abilities and their own wants and desires.

Has anyone in here ever in your life, looked out for your own wants and desires and put them above others?

Turn with me to , ,

So, this is the trial run for Jesus’ 12 disciples.

It is here that He sends them out into the Jewish towns and villages, as we see in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 10:5-6 about this same account, as opposed to the gentile regions, like you see with the next group that He sends out, the Seventy two!

There are no specifics exactly as to why Jesus sent the twelve to the Jewish people exclusively, except that we know that the Gospel Message that Jesus brought, was given to the Jews first, as we see in ,

Now, I just mentioned that Jesus also sent out a second pilot group, which we know to be the seventy two messengers, that Jesus chose.

Turn with me to ,

Now, although they are two different groups, does everyone see that they are almost identical in the directions that Jesus gave to both of them?

Both groups were sent out in pairs ( tells us this about the 12)

Both groups were sent out with the authority and power to cast our demons and heal all manner of sickness and diseases.

Both groups were instructed to not take any money for their journey, or extra sandals (I know this would be hard for a lot of ladies, especially with your love for shoes!), nor take a traveler’s bag, or food, or even a CHANGE OF CLOTHES!

Think about how we are when we travel and what all we pack for a weekend getaway and then try to imagine being sent out from town to town, city to city without a change of clothes, or a bag to carry anything in, or even SNACKS!

Both groups were to announce to the town/city that the Kingdom of God was near.

Both groups were to stay in the same house that they entered until they departed that town.

(This was largely, probably to deter showing favoritism and also to demonstrate humility and thankfulness!)

Both groups were to bless each house that received them in and that they stayed at.

And bother groups were told that if a city or town rejected the gospel message of the kingdom that they were bringing, then they were to “shake the dust off of their feet” as they left that town and move on to the next one.

This was done as a symbol of old an Rabbinic custom that held that the dust of a place was a defilement and not worthy to be carried into the next region.

It was, in this situation, a sign of judgement that was being pronounced for the people’s rejection of the Gospel Message, for as Jesus, Himself, stated, “ Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me.

And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me.

And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”

By the way, this has not changed.

If you reject the entirety of the Gospel Message, then you reject Jesus, Himself.

And in doing so, you also reject God the Father!

So, both groups go, out and both groups return to Jesus.

And in both cases, they were successful in their mission objectives, as they report back and discuss them with Jesus!

What I want to point out about these two groups, is something that we see, more so with the 12 (probably just because the Bible is more focused on them), that Jesus was wanting to reroute and get them away from.

Large and in part, I am speaking about pride and self ability!

And with this comes a tendency to be inwardly focused and not outwardly and looking out for the needs and betterment of others.

You can start to see this very quickly with the 12 disciples, right after their apostolic test run, in , which is the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

In this account, they have just returned from their adventure and are excited to share with their teacher all that has happened.

In return, Jesus decides to have them all get away from the crowds so that they can have some time to talk and share.

Instantly, the crowds are drawn to Jesus, because of His miracles and the disciples lose their private time with Jesus.

In verse 12 the disciples come to Jesus and this is what happens, “Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night.

There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.”

Note the way that this scenario plays out: DISCIPLES - “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night.”

(Then they turn and start walk away.)

JESUS - “YOU give them something to eat!”

The disciples probably whipped around like, “SAY WHAAAAAAAT?

Um, look Jesus, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish and unless we walk to some village and make, like a huge purchase for some 15,000 people, then they aren’t going to be eating tonight!”

How quickly they forgot, or chose to ignore, who they were talking to and what they had just finished experiencing in their mini disciple outing!

Instantly, after having just returned from casting out demons, healing the sick and lame and declaring the gospel message, (which is actually a message of LOVE), the disciples turn a cold heart and demand that the LORD send away the people, instead of asking how they can serve the people!

INWARDLY focused on their part!

Then, right after this, we read of the account where Peter makes the amazing confession of who Jesus is before the other 11 disciples and then of course, we see the powerful statement that Jesus makes to Peter.

“Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”

Now, this is not a case of pride, or self focus on Peter’s part, but as we look at other instances of the disciples, you can easily imagine how this might have pumped his ego around the others!

(Mimic Peter after Jesus tells Him all of this!)

Right after this, is when Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him: “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!

This shall never happen to you.”

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!

You are a hindrance to me.

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

The very next thing, we see Jesus taking His three closest confidants of the 12 disciples up the mountain and where we witness the Transfiguration.

Again, there could have been some sense of pride in rank and position, as these three were privileged to attend this secret meeting on the mount, in which Moses, Elijah and Jesus, discuss the very near and imminent departure of Jesus.

Peter, again, vocalizes when he really doesn’t know what he is talking about, which stems from a lack of true Godly wisdom; (, “ Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth.

Therefore let your words be few.”)

Even as Peter is saying this, God the Father shows up and not only clarifies who they are beholding, but also corrects Peter for speaking so rashly!

Again, I am not saying that Peter was operating out of pride and conceit, yet it is a fact that these three were more privileged to the private affairs of Jesus, than the other 9, which would have easily been a breading ground for pride.

Just as many today, seek both position and title within churches and organizations, as well as gifts of the Spirit for pride and pomp!

And what if exclusivity was what the disciples were looking for with Jesus; did it help them attain more in their ministry and spiritual power?

Well, as soon as Jesus and Peter, James and John were coming down from the mountain, they were greeted with situation of the father and the possessed son, whom the other 9 disciples couldn’t deliver or heal.

We instantly pick up on that Jesus was not happy with both the crowds lack of faith and belief, but equally so, even His disciples lack thereof!

You see, this becomes even more stressed after Pentecost and Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh; we are all equal in importance within the Kingdom and equally part of the body!

As Paul said to the church at Corinth, one part of the human body cannot say to another part that it is more important, or that one part is not needed, because one cannot do another’s part and thus each part is of equal value to the good of the body!

And as soon as the demon inside of the boy saw that it was before Jesus, it wen into a fit and Jesus instantly took ALL authority over it and cast it out!

Literally, just a short period later, we find another circumstance within the 12 disciples, in verses 46-48, where they were arguing amongst themselves as to who was or would become the greatest in this new Kingdom, or more the superior of the group!