Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Greetings…

Theme for this year on Sunday mornings has been “The Life Of Christ.”

We have been studying through God in the flesh’s life here on earth with the express desire to draw closer to him, hopefully, and help others want to do the same.

Through this study we have seen Jesus’ popularity grow exceedingly, to the point where he could not enter into cities from sometimes (Mark 1:45).

Not only that but after feeding the 5000 plus people the men tried to force him to be king (John 6:15).

Due to this and the leadership of the Jews consistent threat of trying to kill him we have found Jesus in a series of “withdrawals from Galilee” to the east side of the Sea of Galilee and also to the region of Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia (Matthew 15:21).

Each of these withdrawals had it’s high points such as the feeding of the 5000 and the walking on the water.

Lately, we have been looking at a series of events that all took place in about a week.

We began looking at this monumental week two Sunday’s ago with “The Great Confession.”

Here, we studied both Peter’s great confession “Jesus is the Christ” and Jesus’ great confession that he would build his church (Matthew 16:13-19).

This leads us to our lesson today titled, “Valleys & Mountaintops.”

This is both metaphorical and factual as we begin seeing Jesus and his disciples…

In The Valley

Jesus & His Disciples Were Encumbered.

Because Jesus thought his disciples were ready to learn about the future, he had announced the establishment of the church.

Unfortunately, the disciples found this very hard to accept because of the reality that there could be no church without Jesus’ death.

The church of Christ, is that which is made up of those saved by way of Jesus’ blood.

Up to this point in time Jesus had taught about his impending death through veiled terms.

Matthew 9:15 (ESV)

15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

However, we read that this week would be different.

Mark 8:31–32 (ESV)

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

32 And he said this plainly…

Underline the word “must” in your bible and then in verse 32 the word plainly.

Jesus was no longer teaching them metaphorically but plainly that he was committed to going to Jerusalem where he knew he would die to the Sanhedrin.

Now, think for a moment about the impact that would have on you if you knew not only your time of death was near, but you also knew you would die in a most cruel way.

Jesus was indeed encumbered and talking about this plainly with his disciples would help.

However, for his disciples their “encumbering” was really just starting.

Now remember, Peter, James, John, and the rest of the apostles had been taught their whole life that the Messiah would be coming to set up an earthly and political kingdom.

Jesus, whom they had just confessed as the Messiah, was now saying he was going to die.

This led to a most interesting exchange between Peter and Jesus.

Peter, who made that great confession, not only was confessing Jesus as the Messiah, but in his mind as his soon to be earthly king and now he is being told that will not happen as he had been taught his whole life.

Anyone who was raise in religious error can understand Peter’s confusion here.

Peter, not wishing to embarrass the Master in front of the other apostles took Jesus aside and rebuked him.

The audaciousness of Peter here is almost unfathomable until you realize that most in the realm of “Christendom” also think they know more than the Lord knows.

Jesus’ response was the most harsh he had ever delivered to Peter or any other of his disciples.

Matthew 16:23 (ESV)

23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!

You are a hindrance to me.

For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

A short time before this Jesus was calling Peter “his dependable rock” and now “Satan” his demonic adversary.

Now you and I know Jesus was simply trying to get Peter to understand he was being Satan’s tool.

But what a burdened response that would have put on Peter, Jesus’ friend.

But in this “valley” Jesus took this opportunity and made it into a “teaching moment.”

Now of course this is powerful and once again plain and to the point and if Jesus had left it here that would have been a very powerful moment, but Jesus continued.

Now remember Peter had just rebuked Jesus because he was ashamed at what he was teaching regarding his death.

First, to be called the “Messiah’s adversary i.e., Satan, then to be pointed out that you were “ashamed of your Messiah.”

Summary

The valley Jesus was in emotionally with all that awaited and his disciples lack of understanding must have been staggering.

But the emotionally encumbered apostles was astounding as well.

The gospel accounts do not tell us what happened over the next few days.

We can only imagine the growing tension as the disciples struggled to reconcile Jesus’ words with what they had always thought and likely taught their whole lives.

At the end of the week Jesus and his apostles were ready to be…

On The Mountaintop

The Transfiguration.

We read in Matthew 17:1-3…

Luke records what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were talking about in Luke 9:31.

With Jesus disciples struggling with his death, these Old Testament heroes understood how essential his death truly was for the faithful in all ages.

Emotionally drained and being overwhelmed with what they had just witnessed Peter blurted out…

Now before Peter could even finish his statement this we read this in Matthew 17:5…

With everything that had just taken place the apostles were perplexed about something.

They had just witnessed Elijah at what Jesus was saying was the end of his ministry not the beginning so they asked…

Of course Jesus goes on to explain that the prophecy in question, Malachi 4:5-6, was about John the Baptist.

Summary

Both Jesus and his disciples needed this mountaintop both literally and figuratively.

Things were only going to be more intense as the pending fate of our Lord and Savior on earth drew near.

Conclusion

The reality is we will all go through “the valley of the shadow of death” from time to time.

We have those moments when everything seems that it’s at it darkest.

But this is when God, in our lives, will shine the brightest if we let him.

Because, he will never leave us nor forsake, and give us a way of escaping these valleys.

The best part about going through those valleys is that when you reach that mountain top everything seems all the more beautiful.

We can see more clearly what seems to hidden and the comfort of God that led us through is all the more there.

Invitation