Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Invitation or a trap?

Story of “fine dinning” at the work party

So how many bird lovers do we have here this morning?

We like living out where there are a lot of different birds and we have a lot of windows so that we can watch them year long.

We really get excited when we see a bird that we don’t recognize.

We think we have a pretty firm grasp on the common birds like robins, house wrens, hummingbirds, swarrows and such but sometimes we see one that we don’t recognize, or maybe they are an adolescent or female version of one that we would recongnize so we have to look it up.

We will try and either take a picture of draw the bird and then we can look it up in our bird book to see what kind of bird it is.

This is fun for us.

Sometimes I like to sit out on the patio in the morning with my reading and cup of coffee and just listen to the birds.

They can get loud.

It’s amazing.

Growing up in the city I was used to city noises getting loud, but out in the country where you don’t have those city noises you can be overwhelmed by the bird calls.

We really do enjoy it, though, and since we enjoy it so much we have set out various bird houses and bird feeders in order to invite the birds into our yard.

We often get to enjoy them when they fly in for dinner.

Well last week we woke up one morning to find some bird feeders on the ground.

As we went out to investigate we also found the contents of some of our bird houses pulled out and tossed about on the ground.

We noticed that there was a branch from a sumac tree next to the rack where we have most of our bird houses that was broken from pretty high up in the tree and had landed right next to the bird feeders and we started to realize what had happened the night before.

Some critter had climbed up the sumac tree to reach down and get the food that we had left for the birds and the branch broke, but the critter still managed to get to the bird feeders.

Story of “trapping” my brother into damaging the George Washington statue

We had put out bird food, because we wanted to Invite more birds into our yard, but we ended up inviting someone else as well.

Someone we never intended to invite, especially because they were destroying the bird houses and bird feeders that we had put up.

the sunflower seeds out to Invite the birds into the yard, and we eneded up inviting someone else as well.

Someone we never intended to invite, especially because they were destroying the bird houses and bird feeders that we had put up.

So we decided that we should also invite this critter into our yard.

In fact, we were very intentional to invite him into a very small section of our yard.

It turns out that it was much smaller than they were happy with.

There is sometimes not a lot of difference between and “Invitation” and a “Trap” is there.

It really just depends on what it is that you are being invited into.

Are you being invited into an experience where you will be fed and cared for like we do for our birds, or are you being invited into an experience where you are fed only because they want to get rid of you?

Tension

The reason I bring up these two kinds of “Invitations” is because in our text today Jesus was invited to a dinner at the home of one of the religious leaders, but it turned out to be more of a trap than an invitation.

And what I found interesting was that after Jesus masterfully shuts down their Trap, he teaches them about the most important Invitation that has ever been offered.

The invitation to become part of the Kingdom of God.

Transitional Statement

Transitional Statement

If this is your first time with us this morning then maybe you have never heard of the Invitation that God has offered every one of us, but if you have been with us before then you have.

Just about every Sunday I end our service with that invitation and I intend on doing it again today.

If you have never responded to that Invitation, then maybe that is because you don’t understand how it is an Invitation to be fed, cared for and protected.

Maybe you somehow believe that the Invitation to become a follower of Jesus is actually a “Trap”.

If that is you today, or someone you love, then I encourage you to listen to both the response and the instructions of Jesus in our text today.

Turn with me to , Ill pray and we will learn from Jesus together.

Their Invitation was to trap Jesus -

14 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent.

Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.

5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

14 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees,

What is it that you cannot resist?

If someone wanted to trap you what would they use bait?

We woke up a couple of mornings this past week to our bird feeders all knocked around, our bird houses with their nests all pulled out and our container of rabbit food completely gone.

We figured some critter was up all night having a good time.

So I set out to trap to catch them.

I figured the best thing to bait this trap with would be something that we knew that he already liked.

The next morning we had an empty container of rabbit pellets, and a trap full of an angry raccoon.

If someone wanted to trap us what would they use?

We woke up a couple of mornings this past week to our bird feeders all knocked around, our bird houses with their nests all pulled out and our container of rabbit food completely gone.

We figured some critter was up all night having a good time.

So I set out to trap to catch them.

I figured the best thing to use to trap this critter with was something that we had already seen it run off with.

So after a night with a

We woke up a couple of mornings this past week to our bird feeders all knocked around, our bird houses with their nests all pulled out and our container of rabbit food completely gone.

We figured some critter was up all night having a good time.

So I set out to trap to catch them.

I figured the best thing to bait this trap with would be something that we knew that he already liked.

The next morning we had an empty container of rabbit pellets, and a trap full of an angry raccoon.

That would be a pretty telling sign of what was important in your life wouldn’t it?

When we think of someone baiting a trap for us we might be thinking about temptations toward something negative, but these religious leaders knew that a bait like that would never work for Jesus.

So they put before Jesus this man with “dropsy”.

They knew that Jesus could not resist the opportunity to free someone from their suffering.

That would be a pretty telling sign of what was important in your life wouldn’t it?

When we think of someone baiting a trap for us we might be thinking about temptations toward something negative, but these religious leaders knew that a bait like that would never work for Jesus.

They knew that Jesus could not resist the opportunity to help someone who was suffering.

Can you believe the depravity displayed here by these so called “religous leaders”?

They never would have Invited this man with the disease of “dropsy” into this home, except that they wanted to use him as bait to catch Jesus healing again on the Sabbath.

“Dropsy” as it is translated here in the ESV is known today as Edema and causes swelling typically in the arms and legs.

Can you believe the depravity displayed here by these so called “religous leaders”?

They never would have Invited this man with the disease of “dropsy” into this home, except that they wanted to use him as bait to catch Jesus healing again on the Sabbath.

“Dropsy” today is known today as Edema and causes swelling typically in the arms and legs.

Jesus could not resist the opportunity to help someone who was suffering.

Notice that it says that “Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees” What was he responding to?

They hadn’t said anything that we know of…at least not with their voices, but certainly with their actions.

They were watching him closely to see what he would do with the bait that they had laid in their trap.

Man with “Dropsy” - inflamation of the arms and legs.

He was invited only as bait to trap Jesus into healing again on the Sabbath.

Do you see the genius of Jesus here.

They had invited Jesus in to trap him in this very question, but Jesus was not falling for it.

So he gives them the opportunity to step in their own trap.

Before I do anything here, I’ll give you the chance to answer the question first...

They had invited Jesus in to trap him in this very question, but Jesus was not falling for it.

So he gives them the opportunity to step in their own trap.

I’ll give you the chance to answer the question first...

This was not the plan.

He stole their thunder,

took the wind out of their sails,

deflated their balloon

They had their opportunity to answer

However you want to say it, they were shut down.