Sermon Tone Analysis

Q: How many of you have been to another country?

Did you feel out of place or different?

Q: How do people tend to treat people who are very different?

bring attention to, make light of, reject, fear, not accept, etc....

Wonder: the movie wonder is based on a fictional book about a boy named Auggie who has a condition called Treacher Collins syndrome (which is a real syndrome) that causes the face and head to be deformed.

The movie is about Auggie going to school for the first time and the the struggles of being different as he was rejected and ridiculed by many but also accepted by some.

Q: Is it the religious that are always the accepting ones?

No, in fact in Jesus’ day the religious leaders were some of the most unwelcoming people.

They saw themselves as elite and did not associate with sinners.

In our day there is a lot of confusion as to who we should “accept” and who we should not and what that even means...

When Jesus came along and sought out the sinners, He was called out for it to which He answered back to with the truth that the unaccepted need help.

WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT FOUR INSTANCES WHEN JESUS REACHED OUT TO PEOPLE WHO WERE REJECTED, IGNORED OR LOOKED DOWN UPON FOR DIFFERENT REASONS.

Jesus reached out to the ignored

THE FIRST IS BLIND BARTIMAEUS: let’s read

READ

Jesus listens to the one who everyone else ignored.

Q: How were the blind and disabled looked at in Jesus’ day? (Today we try to help and have laws that protect those who are disable and try to make things accessible.)

In Jesus’ day they were seen as being in that position because they somehow deserved it.

They were thought to have the condition they had because of sin (whether their own or their parents.)

This is shown true in Read…notice the only two options they ask about...

(This mindset is there sometimes because we do not feel comfortable or do not want to take responsibility to help them.)

One of the greatest lessons Jesus gives us are the lessons we learn from His actions to serve the ignored.

JESUS CARED ABOUT THE ONE NO ONE ELSE WOULD!

Q: WHAT IS MOST IMPRESSIVE TO YOU ABOUT JESUS’ INTERACTION WITH BARTIMAEUS?

jesus took the time to stop and talk to him.

He did not just say “you are healed” and move on.

Jesus did this with many people.

He would interact with them.

He never just used people to do a miracle.

He did the miracles to help people as well.

Jesus reached out to searching sinners

THE NEXT THREE PEOPLE COULD ALL BE CATEGORIZED INTO THE SINNER BRACKET:

Jesus reached out to the sinners

ZACCHAEUS THE TAX COLLECTOR ()

Q: As a tax collector how would Zac have been treated socially?

He would have been ostracized socially and probably religiously as he most likely would have been rejected by any synagogue.

Imagine how this would have been.

READ

Q: What is most impressive to you about this story?

Out of all the people there Zac the rejected and hated tax collector was the one Jesus went to eat with.

Q: What do you think Zac’s willingness to climb a tree to see Jesus demonstrates?

It shows that he was truly seeking!

It demonstrates what his later actions demonstrated, that he was willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to see Jesus and be saved.

(As later he promised to give half of what he owned and repay)

SOMETHING THAT THIS DEMONSTRATES IS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD SEARCHING AND SOME OF THEM ARE THE ONES WE WOULD NOT SUSPECT.

2. THE SINFUL WOMAN ()

READ

Q: if you were present in this instance what would have stood out to you most or been strange about these encounters?

It might be that a women coming in who was not invited to Peter a Pharisee’s home.

Not just an woman but this woman who was well known around town (perhaps as a prostitute) coming in and weeping at Jesus’ feet.

To those there what seems strange to them is that Jesus (who is supposed to be a prophet) does not recognize (so they think) that this sinful woman is coming to Him.

But to Jesus it seems that what is out of place not any of these things but instead the condition of the hearts of Peter (the Pharisee, not Simon Peter) and the fact that they had less love for Him than the sinful woman.

Q: Jesus gives the truth that the sinful who are forgiven of much sin love God enormously; what does this tell us about the potential of sinners who no one thinks will amount to anything?

Those who are lost in deep sin can become powerful workers in Christ’s Kingdom.

There is a great contrast in the Peter here and the sinful woman.

3. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL (, )

READ ,

Q: Why do you think the woman came at the sixth hour (or noon)?

When usually people came earlier or later in the day?

It is possible that she did not want to bear the glares of others who knew what kind of life she was living.

Regardless it was an appointment set by God that she meet Jesus.

Q: Do you think that she noticed that Jesus was treating her differently?

Y

Yes, obviously because she brings it up.

THERE IS A HUGE, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS LESSON HERE FOR US: PEOPLE SEE GOD’S LOVE FOR THEM BY HOW WE TREAT THEM.

Just as this woman was surprised (I believe pleasantly) by how Jesus noticed her and treated her as important people are surprised when we are willing to notice them, respect them, listen to them, have compassion on them and see them as important.

This is true because in our world people are so self absorbed that they do not respect and appreciate and notice one another.

We see people as Christ does as most important, priceless and worth helping.

DISCUSSION ON ACCEPTING OTHERS:

Our lesson is about accepting others and the book talks about it but does not get into what that actually means as people have different definitions of what “accepting other means.

Q: What does it mean to accept others or “be more accepting of others?”

According to Jesus’ example:

It means not ignoring, rejecting, hating, trivializing, ostracizing people because of the way they look, there past, affiliation, or sinfulness.

WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE MAKE THE POINT THAT JESUS ACCEPTED PEOPLE AS IMPORTANT BUT THAT DID NOT MEAN ACCEPTING THE SIN THAT THEY WERE LIVING IN.

In all the stories of the sinners the sin is addressed or implied as being wrong and needing to stop.

Zacchaeus repented of his sin with actions, the sinful woman was crying because of her sin and Jesus intentionally bring up the woman at the well sin because it needed to change.

WE NEED TO MAKE THIS DISTINCTION BECAUSE IN OUR CULTURE MANY TIMES WHEN IT IS SAID THAT WE NEED TO BE MORE ACCEPTING OF PEOPLE WHAT IS MEANT IS THAT WE NEED TO ACCEPT PEOPLE’S SIN AS BEING OK.

THAT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT JESUS EVER DID.

WE NEED TO ACCEPT PEOPLE AS LOVED BY GOD AND AND LOVE THEM WITHOUT GIVING THEM THE IMPRESSION THAT WE ACCEPT THEIR SIN.

IN FACT IT IS BECAUSE OF OUR LOVE FOR THEM THAT WE DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR SIN BUT TRY TO GET THEM TO REPENT.