Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sermon Worksheet & Manuscript*

*Robert L. Hutcherson, Jr.*

*Quinn** Chapel A.M.E.

Church*

*Sermon Preparation~/Delivery *

                                                     *Mark 10:35-45 *

*“/You’re Gonna Have To SERVE Somebody/”*

*The Rev. Karla J. Cooper, Pastor*

*October 22, 2006*

\\ \\ Sermon Worksheet & Manuscript

*AUTHOR*

*Who wrote (or is credited with writing) the text?*

/While there is little if any direct evidence of authorship, it was the unanimous testimony of the early church that this gospel was written by John Mark.

Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the tradition of the things said and done by the Lord.

The first mention of him is in connection with his mother, who had a house in Jerusalem that served as a meeting place for believers.

When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from Jerusalem, Mark accompanied them.. Mark next appears as a helper to Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but he deserted them to return to Jerusalem.

When Barnabas proposed taking Mark on the second journey, Paul flatly refused..Barnabas took Mark and left for Cyprus.

Mark reappears in Paul’s letter to the Collossians written from Rome.

Paul sends a greeting from Mark and adds “you have received instructions about him about him, if he comes to you, welcome him.”

by the end of Paul’s life, Mark had fully regained Paul’s favor../

*From what perspective does the author write?*

/Mark writes this Gospel not as a finished sequential account of the life of our Lord, but as the preaching of Peter preaching, which was directed to the needs of the early Christian communities.

Tradition holds that the Gospel of Mark largely consists of the preaching of Peter arranged and recorded by John Mark./

*TEXT*

/" 35James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, ~*came up to Jesus, saying, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.

36And He said to them, What do you want Me to do for you?

37They said to Him, Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.

38But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?

39They said to Him, We are able.

And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.

40But to sit on My right or on {My} left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

41Hearing {this,} the ten began to feel indignant with James and John.

42Calling them to Himself, Jesus ~*said to them, You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them.

43But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

(Mark 10:35-45 NASBR)/

* *

*Specific** Purpose~/Central Idea.*

*(In one clear sentence say what the sermon is about and why you are preaching it).*

*I propose to show:** *That since we must (and will) end up serving someone whether by intention or otherwise, that we should make the conscious decision to serve Christ through the auspices of His Church.

*To the end that the hearers will:** *Make a renewed commitment to Christ and begin to seek out ways to answer the question: “How can I serve Christ best here?”

and take an active role in one ministry or another.

*BODY*

 

 

 

*The text for today’s lesson comes from the Lectionary Gospel reading for today.

For those who may not know, the Common Lectionary is a cycle of Bible readings covering a three year period.

Many denominations choose this guide and one of the things I have learned about it through using it is that it helps me focus on the broad scope of the Word of God rather than on texts that I’m familiar with, or topics that I’m comfortable with.*

* *

*In any case, it certainly helps with today’s topic which is service.

As you know, our theme for this Conference year is “Serving Well”.

Preaching on passages that stress service is difficult /not/ because service is not important or that we don’t see its value but if you’re like me, most of the sermon on this topic we heard growing up were quite pedantic and quite boring… if not confrontational.*

* *

*Another reason is that are called to serve into and conflicts with our sinful human nature.

We are accustomed to thinking or at least become accustomed to thinking that the life the universe and every part of it is all put here for me, and all about me.

However, Christian disciple ship is nothing more than the process of becoming just like Jesus in this passage our lord and savior,the lord of lords, the King of Kings, gives us the short definition but his purpose here on earth.*

* *

*" 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

(Mark 10:45 NASBR)*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*The point is when it comes right down to it we were created to serve God.

Jesus defined serving God as serving people in His Name.

Servanthood is an integral part of being human.

There was a song from back in the early eighties written by singer~/ songwriter Bob Dylan during his brief experience as a Christian that says “ You’re gonna have to serve somebody…Yes you’re gonna have to serve somebody, Now it might be the devil, or it might be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”*

* *

*If we miss out on this purpose the fact of the matter is that we lose something precious we lose our meaning and our purpose if we’re not serving.

We become toxic Christians when we do not serve.

Indulge me for a moment while I attempt to explain this.

Most of us have heard of the Dead Sea.

The shoreline around the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth on dry land…one thousand 292ft.

below sea level!

The waters of the Jordan River have poured into the Dead Sea for ages upon ages and once they are those wanting there until they evaporate.

Because there is no outlet, all the salts and minerals and the watershed surrounding the Jordan River are collected and regional of concentration that is poisonous.

Therefore, nothing lives in the Dead Sea.

I hear you saying “Well Brother Robert, that’s why they call it the Dead Sea”.

But my point is, that this is not because the Dead Sea lacks nutrients, but because those nutrients have become so concentrated that they are toxic.

*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*“Where are you going with this, Brother Robert?  “That’s a very good question, I’m so very glad you asked.

Because many Christians are just like that.

We want to be fed and nurtured by the ministry of the church, but we could care less about serving others.

As a result some of us have absorbed so much spiritual nutrition that without an outlet to serve we have become toxic .

Our spiritual life is dead and empty.

We race around in the hope that another book or seminar or worship service or a sermon will ignite us and fire us up.

But the truth is that we need to stop looking within ourselves and get out and serve somebody.*

* *

*In our text it tells us in first 41 that the remaining ten disciples were “indignant” with James and John because they asked Jesus for the places of honor when he came into His Kingdom.

The common tendency for us is to think that the disciples were upset with James and John because they were making a request while having the wrong attitude about Discipleship.

But the truth is they weren’t upset about their attitude…they were upset that they got to Jesus with their request /first/.

Plus James and John were just like most of us.

No matter how sincere our relationship may be with the Lord, there is still that part of us which looks at Christ and His Church as a way of getting to some personal seat of honor if you will… some point of distinction… /something/ to make us look better than somebody else.

/That/ was what James and John and really the rest of the disciples wanted.

*

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Countless people over the years walk in the door here at Quinn, and walk out later because we didn’t have some “program” that they wanted.

They say they like the church… it’s a beautiful building, like the beautiful sound the Choir makes, they love Pastor’s sermons, but we just don’t have a vibrant Youth Ministry…a Captivating Children’s Ministry…a Significant Singles Ministry… a Radical Recovery Ministry…a Magnificent Moms Ministry…a Huge Hospitality Ministry or even a Prosperous Prison Ministry…and so on and so on.

“You just don’t have what we were looking for”.

I note that none of these people ever say "Hey we noticed that this church has this particular need and we'd love to help you with starting this ministry”.

How can we serve Christ best here” perhaps that’s the question all of us need to ask ourselves “ How can I serve Christ best /here/?” all too often, our conditioned response when we don’t find what we want to hear, rather than to try to create, is to run somewhere else.

I’ve known many such people in my time.

Many in ministry refer to them as “the tumbling tumbleweeds”…they just seem to roll from church to church to church, whichever way the wind blows.

What’s important to note is that the tumbleweed is nothing more than a dead plant.

So because the plant is dead it can’t take root anywhere it was blown to.

Perhaps we need to have our look of life restored to us, so that when we arrive at someplace we can take root… we can /serve/ somebody.

We /should/ serve, we /have/ to serve so that we can maintain our joy, our focus, our vitality, our /life/!!*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, writes about the Roman aqueduct in his native Spain.

It was built in 109 E. D. 418 hundred years it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty sitting 60 generations of men drank from it.

Then the next generation came who said “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children as a museum piece…as a landmark…so we will relieve it of its centuries-long labor.”

And so they did, they installed modern iron pipes.

They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest.

At this point the aqueduct began to fall apart.

The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble.