Sermon Tone Analysis

We began Matthew in December 2019.

By design, the journey is slow.

It's slow because we take substantial detours to emphasize the important seasons in the Christian year and important emphases within the life of our congregation.

Our journey is slow because we take the time to go deep.

For example, we spent a sermon on each of the beatitudes and on each phrase of the Lord's prayer.

One can conceive of the Gospel of Matthew as organized around 5 major discourses by Jesus.

Matthew takes the first four chapters of His gospel to lay the biblical, historical, and theological foundation for accepting Jesus as Israel's expected Messiah.

Chapters 5 - 7 are Jesus' first discourse, the Sermon on the Mount.

In chapters 8 and 9, Jesus shows his authoritative power as the Messiah.

Matthew devotes chapter 10 to Jesus' second major discourse, the Mission Mandate.

At the conclusion of the mandate, the disciples go on mission to Israel and Jesus strikes out on a solo mission to Galilee – a place of ethnic diversity including Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles.

We will spend the next seven weeks in chapters 11 and 12.

Here we find opposition to Jesus on the rise.

In this series, we want to learn from Jesus how to face opposition like Jesus.

In the story this morning, John the Baptist is in prison.

He sends his disciples to Jesus with a question.

Jesus tells John's disciples to go report what they have seen and heard.

He ends his instruction with this blessing and warning, "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."

How to avoid stumbling on account of Jesus

The important lesson I think Matthew wants us to learn from watching and listening to Jesus in this passage is how to avoid stumbling on account of Jesus.

Our passage reveals to us ways that we can avoid stumbling.

Let's dive in to see what they are.

First, if we do not want to stumble on account of Jesus, we must . . .

Understand what it means to stumble

The Greek word translated "to stumble" is "skandalizo".

Other senses of the word include to be offended or to fall away.

According to the Lexham Theological Wordbook, "skandalizo" refers to the experience of being offended or tripped up that could cause a falling away from the right path.

When "skandalizo" occurs in relationship to those who follow Jesus, it most often means to fall away from following Jesus.

[1]

You have probably deduced that our English word "scandal" has its roots in "skandalizo".

When I think of a scandal, I think of an action by a person or group that is a violation of something considered as a moral or ethical line that is not to be crossed.

For example, our society still considers sex between an adult and a minor to be a scandal.

It surprised me to learn general moral or ethical transgression is the secondary meaning of scandal.

The primary definition of "scandal" according to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is a discredit brought upon religion by unseemly conduct in a religious person or conduct that causes or encourages a lapse of faith or of religious obedience in another.[2]

Therefore, we can think of stumbling on account of Jesus to mean to become so offended by Jesus in what he teaches (counter-cultural) and what He does (senseless to the contemporary mind), that one ceases to follow Jesus.

This happens to individuals and to churches.

To stumble on account of Jesus or to cause another person to stumble in their faith is a scandal.

Jesus says in the last days,

Matthew 24:9–13 (NIV)

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

When the cost becomes heavy . . .

and eventually it will, will we be faithful to the end?

Because only in the end will Jesus make things right.

Therefore, the foundational step in not stumbling in our faith is to . . .

Settle in our heart, mind, soul, and body that Jesus is the Messiah

Matthew records that "when John heard about the deeds of the Messiah" he sent his disciples to Jesus.

As mentioned earlier, Matthew took great pains in the first four chapters of His Gospel to introduce Jesus as God's Messiah, the promised one who will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:24).

The rest of Matthew's Gospel shows us that Jesus is the Messiah and explains to us how to follow Jesus.

Matthew and all the apostles and all true Christians have believed that Jesus is the one and only Son of God who can and will put all things right.

This goes to the heart of John's question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"

We must be able to answer in the affirmative that Jesus is the Messiah for Israel, for all who believe in him and for each of us individually.

If we cannot make this confession, then we have already stumbled on account of Jesus.

This is our foundation.

Jesus Messiah, Son of God, is the Solid Rock upon which we stand.

We often sing, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

When all around my soul gives way, Jesus then is my hope and stay.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."

When we stand upon Jesus, the Solid Rock, we cannot stumble on account of Him.

We can avoid stumbling in our faith on account of Jesus if we. . .

Hear and see the activity of Jesus in us and around us

John the Baptist was in prison because he dared to speak truth to power.

Herodias, the wife of King Herod Antipas' brother Phillip, deserted Phillip to marry Antipas.

Luke briefly tells the story like this,

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Luke 3:19–20 NIV

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

One only really speaks truth to power when that power can and most likely will retaliate.

Herodias would not forgive and forget John's boldness.

She contrived a means to behead John.

Herod opposed John's truth speaking.

Matthew tells us that Herod wanted to kill John from the beginning, but he did not do so because he was afraid of the people, because they consider John a prophet (Matthew 14:5).

John the Baptist sits in prison.

John the Baptist: the herald of the Messiah.

John the Baptist, of whom the angel said,

"He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

(Luke 1:16–17, NIV)

John the Baptist, who boldly declared of Jesus,

"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, NIV)

John the Baptist, of whom Jesus said,

"Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.

(Matthew 11:11, NIV)

This John the Baptist sits in prison because of the King's opposition to truth.

John probably expected Jesus to restore immediately the Kingdom of Israel.

But this did not happen.

In fact, John is hearing things that might be disturbing.

Jesus appears to have delegated the mission to Israel to his apprentices.

Jesus, himself, appears intend on enlarging his mission beyond Israel.

Has the Messiah lost his focus?

Maybe Jesus is not the Messiah at all.

The supposed messianic herald sitting in prison has plenty of time to contemplate, plenty of time to allow doubts to arise concerning Jesus and the nature of his own mission.

Did he get it wrong?

If opposition can cause John the Baptist to doubt God and to doubt himself, opposition can do the same in our lives.

Opposition introduces spiritual danger into our lives because we could stumble in our faith.

Seeking some assurance that his work and suffering are not meaningless, John sends his disciples to Jesus with this question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"

John is asking, "Are you who I have believed and proclaimed you to be?"

If we are honest, we know that this is not an unthinkable question.

Who among us in our spiritual struggles have not asked of God, "are you who I have believed and proclaimed you to be?"

If we will allow ourselves, John's question can help us be honest in the presence of Jesus who with grace receives our doubts and questions.

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see.”