Sermon Tone Analysis

BRTP

Sermon buddy

Let me open up this morning by asking you a question, kind of like last week.

How many of you talk to yourselves on a regular basis?

Okay, so not too many hands.

Those of you who did raise your hands, a further question?

How many of you answer yourselves?

Actually don’t raise your hands.

You might not want everyone to know that.

You know what, just see me after church.

Now let me challenge like 99% of you who said you do not talk to yourself.

Are you ready for this?

Turn to your sermon buddy and ask, “Are you ready for what he’s going to say?”

I’m sorry to break this to you, but you do talk to yourselves.

Here’s what I mean.

All of us go through our days with a song playing on our inner MP3 player.

Or for those of you who are little more traditional, there’s a record playing over and over or a CD playing over and over and, for those of you who are really over the hill, there’s an eight track playing in your head over and over.

Except this tape or CD or MP3 - it’s not playing music.

It’s playing a series of statements about yourself.

“I will never be able to lose weight.”

“No one will ever find me attractive.”

“No one really loves and cares for me.”

“I am not a good Christian.”

“I don’t know how to pray well.”

Make sense to everyone?

These things are what you might call negative self-talk.

Sometimes we run these statements around in our head, often without even realizing it.

Psychologists call that rumination.

It’s weighing you down and discouraging you; and, it’s shaping how you act and how you respond to other people around you.

This morning, our text, I think, addresses four statements of negative self-talk - and, let’s just be honest and call them lies - it addresses these four statements and confronts them with the truth - the truth of who God is, what He has done for you, and who you are in Him.

So first, this one: “No one understands what I’m going through.”

Lie #1: “No one understands what I’m going through”

Our text opens up after Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, his own disciple.

He’s been arrested.

He’s been questioned — and mocked and beaten — by the high priest.

The high priest then sends him over to Pilate, the governor of Judea.

The Jewish leaders want Jesus dead.

They think He’s dangerous.

Problem is, Judea like the rest of the known world in the first century AD is under Roman occupation.

And under Roman law, only a Roman court could sentence someone to death.

So that’s where Pilate comes in.

And that’s where we pick up, with Jesus before Pilate.

So Bibles out, hearts prepared and open to God, eyes down in your copy of God’s word.

Look with me at how John describes what Jesus endured as He was on trial before Pilate.

Is it true that “no one understands what I’m going through.”

Can Jesus understand what I’m going through?

What did Jesus Himself go through?

Well, first, there was the physical pain.

It begin with the beatings.

A Roman flogging was administered using a whip made of cords, and the cords often had little pieces of sharp stone, bone fragments.

The victim would be made to hug a pole to which he was tied, so that his back is completely exposed.

And what often happened was the whipping went on until the soldiers were physically exhausted - and these are strong Roman soldiers.

And that meant that when it was over, often the crucifixion victim was dead before he even got to the cross.

I know that’s gory and honestly disgusting, but that’s the point.

Salvation is messy because our sin is messy.

And it’s the messiness of our sin that makes our salvation so amazing.

God wasn’t afraid to get messy with us, for us.

So he endured physical pain when he was beaten.

And none of that even compared to the cross.

Jesus understands your pain - your chronic, severe, unrelenting pain.

He knows what’s it like, and He cares.

But Jesus also understands another kind of pain.

Jesus understands emotional pain, relational pain.

He was mocked.

He was the king of the Jews, right?

In reality He is the king of kings and lord of lords.

But of course the Romans didn’t believe that.

“So, you’re a king, right?

Well let’s get you dressed up like a king!

Can’t have you dressed like a Palestinian peasant.

Let’s put you in some clothes fit for royalty.”

By which, of course, they meant a tattered purple sheet for a robe.

And a crown of thorns.

I didn’t know this until I was looking at this in depth for you all this week.

The thorns were taken from the date palm, a tree in the Middle East with thorns that are 12” long.

These were twisted together and press into his scalp.

And with this mock robe and crown of thorns, the soldiers, one by one, are coming up to him, bowing in mock reverence, saying “Hail, King of the Jews”, and then breaking his nose with their fists.

Blackening his eye with their hands.

And in this condition, bloodied and weak and struggling to stand, in this condition he is brought out by Pilate to be displayed to the crowds.

Pilate hopes that having beaten Jesus, the Jews will have mercy on him and say, “You know what? the beating was enough.

Justice is served.

Let’s all go on with our lives.”

Verse 5 says “when the chief priests and the officers saw him” - i.e. saw him in this condition, and what did they do?

- “Crucify him!

Crucify him!”

Jesus suffered rejection.

Church, do you know what it is to be rejected?

Some of you know what it’s like to be rejected by your own, by those closest to you - maybe your mom and dad, or your husband or wife, maybe the most painful all, you’ve been rejected by your children, grandchildren.

Isn’t it interesting how some people seem to never even have to know what rejection is, while others seem to be followed by rejection everywhere they go?

I don’t know why God allows that for some of us.

But here is what I do know: Jesus is the only One who will never reject you.

“Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37 ESV).

Jesus looks at you have been rejected and says, “I am yours and you are mine.

I am for you.

I will never leave you, neither will I forsake you.

I will never leave your side.

I will be with you every step of the way during your earthly journey, and even though there may be times when you don’t feel me there, trust that I am there.

And I will lead you safely home.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6 ESV).

Now let’s take it a step further: Jesus was abused.