Sermon Tone Analysis

Sabbatical stories

It’s so good to be back home and in church.

We’ve had an enjoyable ten weeks of Sabbatical and I’m ready to go again!

If you’re wondering what we did, here’s a few pictures:

We traveled cross-country to a wedding in Virginia, seeing Mount Rushmore and the Badlands along the way and we got to see Niagara falls in NY on our way to visit family in Michigan.

We spent some time with friends in Ohio and got to see the ark and the creation museum in Kentucky.

We went to a pastor’s convention, and then Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

After a visit with my parents in Illinois we raced back here to try to recuperate from six weeks of travel.

And by recuperate what I really mean is that I remodeled the kitchen and a week as camp pastor at camp mivoden.

And we spent a lot more time with Aunt Ruth.

She had stayed with her daughter in California while we were traveling, and when she came back she was showing significant signs of physical decline.

This past Monday in the wee hours of the morning, Aunt Ruth fell asleep in Jesus.

She was so courageous as she faced her final weeks.

It was hard, she didn’t like it, she repeatedly said, “I just want to fall asleep in Jesus,” but she always prayed for strength and expressed confidence in her Savior.

Several of her children, grandchildren and siblings are with us this weekend to process together the beauty of a life well lived and the hope of the soon return of Jesus.

Introduction story

Title Slide

You all know that life is not guaranteed.

We don’t have an expiration date printed on our manufacturer’s tag.

No one knows the day or the hour of our end.

Which is why the Bible repeatedly reminds us that “today is the day of salvation.”

We shouldn’t wait for some future time when things will be more convenient.

And that reminds me of the story of two boys.

Two boys with a choice to make.

The first boy was a rebel.

He’s the kind of kid that you see flaunting his toys and running around town with the big mufflers and the lift kit on his truck.

He’ll do drugs now and then, he drinks beers with his jock friends.

He throws caution to the wind and does daring things that you shouldn’t really do.

He’s the kind of guy that steals things when no one is looking.

He’s not the guy you want your daughter to be hanging out with.

His parents try to reign him in, but he won’t listen.

He’s living his authentic life—raw and gnarly as it is.

The second boy was a good kid.

He’s the kind of kid that does his homework, gets good grades, never skips class.

He works hard and saves his money instead of buying a car.

He plans on going to college.

He goes to church every week and even volunteers in a ministry like the AV booth or as a deacon.

He listens to his parents, and is careful about the friends he hangs out with.

He’s a good kid.

He’s the kind of kid you’d like to set your daughter up with.

But what you don’t see is what’s brewing beneath the surface.

And that’s where the story begins.

But to tell this story we need to back up a little.

Open with me to Matthew 21 where Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the last time in His ministry:

Triumphal entry context

Jesus came to the town of Bethphage on the mount of Olives, just outside of Jerusalem and sent two of his disciples ahead to get a donkey.

With shouting and praises the people lined the road and threw palm branches and coats on the road ahead of Jesus as he trotted along down the hill and entered the gates of Jerusalem.

The people in the city asked all the people who had gathered to praise Jesus who this guy was; Matt 21:11 “And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.””

They shouted out for the whole city to hear:

Matthew 21:9 (ESV)

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

This caught the attention of the priests and religious leaders who were already wary of Jesus and making plans against him.

And then Jesus did something that seems calculated to put him on the bad side of the church leaders—He drove out the money changers and the people who were buying and selling sacrificial animals from the temple.

Now, you probably already know that there is something wrong about what they were doing—why else would Jesus throw them out?

In fact, the priests and council members were making kick-backs off the interest of the money lenders and the sales of the sacrificial animals.

By the time of Jesus People had to buy their animals from the market in the temple—they couldn’t just bring in their own for a sacrifice.

The required offering for someone who is poor is two turtledoves, but the prices were so high that these very common birds were too expensive for a poor person to buy in the temple.

Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived at the time of Christ, wrote this about one of the high priests:

“The high priest, Ananus, (after he had been relieved from his office) to some degree, was respected and feared by the citizens, but in a bad way; for he loved to hoard money.

He became good friends with Albinus, and of the newly installed high priest.

He did so by offering them bribes; he also had wicked servants, who associated with the most vilest sort of characters, and went to the thrashing-floors, and took the tithes that belonged to the priests by force, and beat anyone who would not give these tithes to them.

So the other high priests that followed him as well as his servants acted likewise, without anyone being able to stop them; so that some of the priests, those who were old and were being supported with those tithes, died for lack of food.”

So Jesus drove out all these people and said,

Matthew 21:13 (ESV)

“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

For all his force, Jesus still seemed approachable because the lame and blind and children all ran up to him and he healed them and showed them love.

The children said, Matt 21:15 “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and the chief priests were indignant when they heard this.

Somehow, Jesus made it out of there alive and he spent the night in Bethany—probably with Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

But this time Martha doesn’t seem to have made a big feast because the next morning he left and the Bible says he was hungry as he walked to Jerusalem.

He saw a fig tree which ended up not having any figs on it, and he said, “May you never bear fruit again!” and immediately, the fig tree withered up.

(Matt 21:18)

Yesterday he totally upset the economy of the temple, and today he ends the life of a barren tree.

These two points are worth considering as we read the interaction the religious leaders have with Jesus next:

How is you think you have the authority to upset the temple?

Whose power is it that allows you to heal the blind and curse fig trees?

In asking this question the priests and leaders had a nefarious plan.

They hoped Jesus would claim to be the Messiah and give them the evidence they needed to haul him into court and put him to death.

But Jesus knew what was going on in their minds and he asked them a question:

Matthew 21:24–25 (ESV)

Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John, from where did it come?

From heaven or from man?” ...

They realized that if they said, “from heaven” that Jesus would have them in a bind.

He would ask them, “then why didn’t you believe John?”

But if they said his power was merely human, then the people would potentially mob them because they believed John was a prophet.

So, they just said, “we don’t know.”

(Matt 21:27)

That was the opening that Jesus needed, and though he said, “then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things,” He still wanted to use this interaction as a teaching moment.

Even though He knew that these religious leaders and priests would soon put him on a cross, he still tried to awaken their minds to believe.

Two kinds of Christians

Matthew 21:28–31 (ESV)

“What do you think?

A man had two sons.

And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’

And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.

And he went to the other son and said the same.

And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go.

Which of the two did the will of his father?”