Sermon Tone Analysis
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This morning we are continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark.
If you’re new to our church it would be good for you to know that we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.
What that means is we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible, and the studying them from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in order to understand what they mean in our lives.
With that said, we are currently walking through the Gospel of Mark.
A Gospel meant to teach us who Jesus is, what he came to do, and what it means to follow him.
Today as we pick back up in our study we are back in and the final 12 hours of Jesus’s life.
Just as a quick recap, you may recall as we left chapter 14 we watched as Jesus was arrested and put on trial by the Jewish religious leaders of his day.
A group made up of three religious sects who saw Jesus as a threat.
The only problem for them though is, Jesus had done nothing wrong.
So as witness after witness takes the stand, it becomes glaringly apparent that they have arrested an innocent man.
So, in a last stitch effort to condemn Jesus, they ask Jesus a question that Jesus is guilty of.
They ask Him if he is the Son of God.
And at that point, Jesus affirms his identity as the Son of God, and in a fit of rage and disbelief, the religious leaders accuse Jesus of blasphemy and sentence him to death.
However, they still have a problem.
Because while they can try Jesus and sentence him, they have no authority to carry out the sentence.
Because at this point, Israel is under Roman occupation, and Rome had a law that only the Roman government had the right to execute prisoners.
It was called “The Right of the Sword”.
As a result, the only way they can have Jesus executed is with Rome’s approval.
And for that to happen, Rome will need to see Jesus as a threat.
And so they come up with a plan.
And as we saw last week, the plan was to present Jesus to a Roman governor named Pilate and convince Pilate that Jesus was an insurrectionist and wanna be king, which would have been a capital offense in Rome.
Because in Rome there was only one king, and his name was Caesar.
So, the plan is to convince Pilate that Jesus thinks he’s a king like Caesar.
But the truth is, Jesus has never claimed that, and as Pilate questions Jesus, it becomes apparent to him that the religious leaders are trying to pull one over on him.
They’re trying to trick him into executing Jesus.
From what Pilate can see, all Jesus is guilty of is disagreeing with their theology.
So, Pilate does something they’re not expecting.
Pilate declares Jesus innocent of any guilt.
And then to add salt to the wound, Pilate capitalizes on an annual custom he had established in Jersualem.
The custom involved Pilate setting a Jewish prisoner free as a way to appease the Jewish people.
So, in an attempt to stick it to the religious leaders for their trickery, Pilate presents Jesus and a murderer named Barabbas to the people.
And he gives them a choice of either setting Jesus free or Barabbas.
He does this because in his mind he believes the people will surely choose Jesus.
I mean, why wouldn’t they.
Jesus has done nothing wrong.
He’s an innocent man.
But the religious leaders aren’t done.
Because while they couldn’t deceive Pilate, they are able to convince the crowd that Barabbas is the better choice.
And much to Pilate’s surprise, instead of shouting for Jesus to be set free, they begin to shout for Barabbas to be set free.
In Mark writes:
Mark 15:11-
Mark 15:12-15
Pilate is blown away by the crowds decision.
So, not wanting to have a riot on his hands, Pilate releases Barabbas and sends Jesus off to be crucified.
At this point Jesus’s fate has been sealed.
The religious leaders have gotten their way.
Jesus will be executed in the most horrific way you could possibly imagine.
A death that we are going to look at in detail for the next few weeks.
So, that’s where we’ve been as we come back to today.
So, here’s what I want to do.
Before we jump back into today, I want to begin by asking you a question.
A question that I hope will help give us some framework for the message today and help get our minds and emotions engaged in the today’s passage.
Question - Have you ever had somebody mock you?
In other words, have you ever had somebody taunt you or ridicule you for something you said, did, or believed?
Or, have you ever had somebody mimic a physical trait or behavior you have in a degrading manner?
Let me give you a couple of examples of what I’m talking about.
Example 1 - Maybe at some point somebody mocked your favorite sports team.
For instance, and I’m not saying somebody would say this, but maybe somebody came up to you and said, “Hey, do you know what the difference between the Kansas City Chiefs and a dollar bill is?”
And like a good naive Chiefs fan you said, “What’s the difference?”
And then they said, “The difference is you always get four quarters out of a dollar bill.”
Or maybe, and again I’m not saying somebody would say this, but maybe you had somebody come up to you and say, “Hey, what does a Kansas City Chiefs fan do when the Chiefs win the Super Bowl?”
And like a good naive Chiefs fan hoping for a 2019 Super Bowl win, you say, “What?
What does a Chiefs fan do when the Chiefs win the Super Bowl?
I’d sure like to know since it hasn’t happened in this century.”
And they say, “He turns off his Xbox”.
If your a Chiefs fan, and somebody has said something like that to you, then I hate to tell you this, but you have been mocked for being a Chiefs fan.
So, that’s one example.
Example 2 - Maybe you’ve had somebody mock you by imitating or mimicking how you walk, talk, or act.
A great example of this would be the 2016 Presidential election as Comedians like Jimmy Fallen dressed up like Donald Trump and did an overly exaggerated imitation of Donald Trump.
From the way he does his hair, to the way he talks, to his hand motions, Fallen and others jokingly mocked our future and now President.
Maybe you’ve had something like that done to you.
Or maybe you’ve done that to somebody else as you jokingly imitated the actions or behavior of another person.
Probably one of my favorite examples of something like this comes from a show called The Office as Jim Halford imitates his Dwight.
Check this out:
Video Clip - The Office
So, that would be another example of how a person could be mocked.
And the truth is, while mocking can be funny and is often done in good fun and humor, sometimes mocking can be hurtful and can bring harm.
And all the Chiefs fans said, “Yeah, that’s right Pastor Brad.”
That being the case, the reason I ask you to consider this question, is because as we come back to today, we come to the beginning of the mocking of Jesus.
A mocking that is distasteful, degrading, and damaging.
A mocking that demonstrates the wickedness of man and our need for a savior.
And a mocking that reminds us of what following Jesus might cost us.
Because the truth is, if you’re a Christ follower, at some point you’re going to be mocked.
At some point somebody’s going to make fun of your faith and mock you for what you believe, how you live, and maybe even where you go to church.
Jesus himself promises us this.
In Jesus puts it like this,
“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
(ESV)
In other words, if it happened to Jesus, it’s going to happen to you, it’s’ going to happen to me.
In fact, unless I miss my guess, it’s already happened to some of you.
Maybe you’ve had somebody tease you about believing in Jesus, and they called you a Jesus freak.
Or maybe because you read your Bible, somebody called you a Bible Thumper.
Or maybe because you attend MCF, somebody asked you if you go to the Taco Bell church.
Or maybe because you read your Bible, and as a result somebody labeled you as a Bible Thumper.
Or maybe you hold to certain set of moral and Biblical standards, and as a result you’e been labeled a weirdo, a bigot, a racist, a homophobe, a prude, or whatever other mocking label somebody might use.
Or maybe because you attend MCF, somebody asked you if you go to the Taco Bell church.
If you go to that church where they play with snakes and dance in the isles.
I know a few years ago we sent out a Christmas mailer, and we had a gentlemen call the church who didn’t want to be on the mailing list.
He told my wife Denise, “I don’t want to get one more piece of mail from a wanna be church that meets in a building that looks like a metal garden shed.”
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