Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Textual Introduction

In our text this morning we see Jesus under pressure from all sides.

News about him has gone viral.

Friend and foe alike crowd around to see the spectacle.

He must have felt a little bit like a start up entrepreneur whose business just took off, here we go, we are off to the races.

The press on his human nature must have been immense.

His family clearly thought if he had not actually had a break down, he was in danger of it from the work load.

In our sermon this morning, I want to consider these pressures with you, I want you to see the threat they brought to His ministry, and I want to consider Jesus’s response, and, in particular, what it says about His priorities in ministry.

The First word I jotted down when I was working through this passage this week was Pressure,

Jesus is Facing Pressure from all Sides

From the Pharisees Who Seek to Destroy Jesus

From the Pharisees (Book End Our Passage)

mark 3:

This it seems is the religious establishment’s first line of attack.

Rather than killing him outright— which could prove dangerously unpopular with the people.

Let’s try a campaign of misinformation.

The reason he is so successful with demons is that He is in league with them.

A vicious lie, and a dangerous one.

Make no Bones about it

Jesus and His mission will always have earthly enemies who will bandy together to attack us by any means at their disposal.

Openly hostile to Christ and His Mission....

From the Crowds Who Threaten to Distract Jesus

Seek to Destroy Jesus

From the Crowds Who Threaten to Distract Jesus

Mark stresses how these crowds come from far and wide to meet Jesus.

More what he does than what He says

These were desperate people, desperate not to miss their chance to touch Jesus.

Desperation made them more of a mob than a congregation, and evidently they posed a clear, and present danger to Jesus’ physical welfare (Verse 9).

It also seems clear they were drawn to Jesus mostly by his deeds, not by his words.

Remember Jesus was primarily a preacher and a teacher.

His miracles served as authenticating signs, validating his message from God.

They were never meant to be the focus of his ministry.

Healing bodies was not what Jesus primarily came to do.

And it seems the crowds constantly missed this point.

Jesus is neither a vending machine nor a magician.

And yet the crowds had the tendency to treat him a little bit like that.

And if he is not careful, the very vitality, purity, and purpose of his mission could easily fall prey to mission creep.

More what he does than what He says

Mission Creep

According to Wikipedia, mission creep is “the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals, often after initial successes.”

The term was originally coined in a 1993 Washington Post article on the UN Peacekeeping mission in Somalia, in which the writer argued that a humanitarian mission turned into a military operation which did not have clearly spelled-out goals and for which the soldiers on the ground were not prepared.

Horton, Michael.

The Gospel Commission: Recovering God's Strategy for Making Disciples (p.

8).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

According to Wikipedia, mission creep is “the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals, often after initial successes.”

The term was originally coined in a 1993 Washington Post article on the UN Peacekeeping mission in Somalia, in which the writer argued that a humanitarian mission turned into a military operation which did not have clearly spelled-out goals and for which the soldiers on the ground were not prepared.[1]

Horton, Michael.

The Gospel Commission: Recovering God's Strategy for Making Disciples (p.

8).

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

This can be a constant danger both for churches and for her pastors.

We must keep the main thing the main thing.

Yet there is constant pressure to turn away from the primary thing God has called us to be and to do.

HE ONE piece of mail certain to go unread into my wastebasket basket is the letter addressed to the "busy pastor."

Not that the phrase doesn't describe me at times, but I refuse to give my attention to someone who encourages what is worst in me.

I'm not arguing the accuracy of the adjective; I am, though, contesting the way it's used to flatter and express sympathy.

"The poor man," we say.

"He's so devoted to his flock; the work is endless, and he sacrifices himself so unstintingly" But the word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal.

It is not devotion but defection.

The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker.

It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront.

Hilary of Tours diagnosed our pastoral busyness as irreligiosa sollicitudo pro Deo, a blasphemous anxiety to do God's work for him.

Eugene H. Peterson.

The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction (Kindle Locations 149-171).

Kindle Edition.

I (and most pastors, I believe) become busy for two reasons; sons; both are ignoble.

I am busy because I am vain.

I want to appear important.

Significant.

What better way than to be busy?

The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself - and to all who will notice - that I am important.

If I go into a doctor's office and find there's no one waiting, and I see through a half-open door the doctor reading a book, I wonder if he's any good.

A good doctor will have people lined up waiting to see him; a good doctor will not have time to read a book.

Although I grumble about waiting my turn in a busy doctor's office, I am also impressed with his importance.

Such experiences affect me.

I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions are evidence of importance, so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions.

When others notice, they acknowledge my significance, , and my vanity is fed.

I am busy because I am lazy I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself.

I let people who do not understand the work of the pastor write the agenda for my day's work because I am too slipshod to write it myself.

The pastor is a shadow figure in these people's minds, a marginal person vaguely connected with matters of God and good will.

Anything remotely religious or somehow well-intentioned can be properly assigned to the pastor.

Because these assignments to pastoral service are made sincerely, I go along with them.

It takes effort to refuse, and besides, there's always the danger that the refusal will be interpreted as a rebuff, a betrayal of religion, and a calloused disregard regard for people in need.

It was a favorite theme of C. S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard.

By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

But if I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don't have time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called.

How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion?

How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?

Eugene H. Peterson.

The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction (Kindle Locations 149-171).

Kindle Edition.

From the Demons who Seem to Endorse Jesus

“Truly You are the Son of God...” At first glance you might think this was a positive testimony.

Wasn’t it PT Barnum who coined the phrase, “No publicity is bad publicity.”

But that is not the case here.

Jesus silenced the demons, forbidding them to speak.

They were after all unclean spirits.

FURTHERMORE Jesus can only be properly known and understood as His divine self-revelation is received by faith.