Sermon Tone Analysis

Last weekend my family and I participated in a graveside service in the Seattle area for my Aunt Ruth.

Most of her children and several of her grandchildren and great grandchildren were present for the event.

We all got to talking, as you do when you’re eating meals and socializing together.

One of my cousins spoke up and mentioned that they had left their teenage children behind at the house.

“Who knows what they’re doing now… They could be throwing a party for all we know,” he said.

Paul echoed this sentiment in Philippians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

What happens when mom and dad are out of the house?

What happens when the boss leaves the room?

What happens when no one is nearby to see you?

Who you are in that moment reveals a lot about what’s really in your heart.

The Story’s Context

We started this series of messages about Jesus’ Last Parables reviewing the day that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for the last week of teaching before His crucifixion.

We breezed past His triumphal entry on Sunday.

We observed Him throwing out the merchants and money changers from the temple.

The next day, Monday, we saw Him curse a fig tree that didn’t bear any fruit and then arriving in the temple he answered the priests’ question, “from whom do you get your authority?”

In Jesus’ answer we saw His attempt to pierce their hardened hearts and help them see their need for repentance and salvation.

One of the stories he told was about the two boys—the one who said he wouldn’t work in the vineyard when his dad asked him to, but then he repented and went to work anyway; and then there was the one who said, “sure I’ll go work in the vineyard,” but then he never did.

The religious leaders were the second son—outwardly religious and following all the traditions of faith, but inwardly disobedient and rebellious hypocrites.

He then told a similar story from a different perspective; this time focusing on the great responsibility God had given the religious leaders to care for the vineyard of Israel and how they jealously stole the fruit that God expected of them and ultimately He predicted they would kill God’s son.

He then told one more parable about the wedding feast, drawing their attention away from their so-called righteous deeds and showing them they needed to be covered with Christ’s robe of righteousness.

They weren’t too happy about Jesus’ answers to their question.

Instead of repentance, they hardened their hearts even more.

Which is why on Tuesday we find Jesus back in the Temple sharing what are called the “woes on the Pharisees.”

Matthew 23 is a series of characterizations and condemnations of the religious leaders.

It’s some pretty harsh stuff.

And it’s important to know that these statements aren’t random.

The priests and pharisees left their meeting with Jesus on Monday with anger and they determined to kill him, no matter what it took.

On Tuesday, Jesus responded to their determined rebellion with these heart-wrenching, tear-filled statements of the woe because of their determined rebellion.

Here’s an example or two of Jesus’ words:

He repeatedly calls them “blind guides.”

In one place he pointed out the huge disconnect between their outward behavior and the state of their hearts:

He said that they were so careful about keeping the rules that they would strain their water to prevent themselves from swallowing a gnat.

And yet, because of the wickedness of their hearts, the depths of their sin was like the difference between accidentally swallowing a gnat and intentionally eating a camel.

Outwardly obedient to all the religious forms, but inwardly jealous, envious, greedy, proud and filled with anger.

As He ended His woe-filled message he said this important statement:

Matthew 23:37–38 (ESV)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

See, your house is left to you desolate.

The longing in Jesus’ words is so deep you can feel his emotion.

Imagine the tears that must have been running down His face as He said these words:

“You were not willing.”

May we never refuse the loving advances of God.

May He never be able to say of us, “you were not willing.”

Jesus’ last words in that text were, “Your house is left to you desolate.”

On Sunday He had cleansed the temple and He said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”

But today, two days later, he says, “your house is left to you desolate.”

What God had intended to be a place to talk to and hear from God had become a ritualized set of religious forms devoid of meaning and true significant.

Soon, Jesus would do what all those ceremonies had been pointing to all along—the sacrifice of God on our behalf.

The priests would not only fail to recognize that Jesus was fulfilling the ceremonies and sacrifices, they would perpetrate His murder as if they were keeping the temple pure from fraudulent religion.

They saw themselves as righteous when they were really the embodiment of pure evil.

The Coming of Jesus

Jesus left the temple, and as He was leaving he pointed to the whole temple complex and said, “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

(Matt 24:2)

The disciples heard all of this stuff about the religious leaders and then the temple and they were seriously troubled.

“When will all this happen?”

They wondered.

“What will be the signs of your coming and when will the end of the age be?”

They asked.

The answer to their question has been the source of all kinds of theories and date setting ever since.

You can read about it in Matthew 24:3-44.

Here are a few highlights that we need for context before we look at the parable that Jesus uses to teach us how we should relate to this teaching on the end of time.

In Matthew 24 Jesus was describing both the destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in 70 AD when the Romans sacked the city and burned and tore down the temple to get the gold out of it, and He was describing the physical, religious and political climate before His 2nd Coming at the end of the world.

Some of the things he talked about were earthquakes, famines, deadly diseases, wars and warmongering all around the world.

He said there would be false christs and people would seek to lead the saints away from following Jesus.

And then He said this, “see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”

(Matt 24:6)

This is an important point to mark down.

Jesus isn’t telling us not to pay attention to these things, but He is telling us that we can’t use these things to determine when the end is.

The world has always had famines and wars and diseases and false Christs and earthquakes.

And while they’re going to ratchet up in intensity Jesus makes sure we know that even with all these things the end is not yet.

So, what are the indicators of the end?

The defining thing that will happened before the end will come isn’t the false prophets or the miracles or the lack of love in the world or the betrayal of brothers or the tribulation and death threats or the famines and diseases that cripple the world.

No, Jesus says those things must happen but the end is not yet.

The end will come ONLY when the world has been polarized by the gospel message and either rejected it or accepted it.

There’s a lot of good stuff in Matthew 24, but we don’t have time to grapple with all of it today.

Instead, let’s skip forward to verse 32.

When you see the gospel and its fake counterpart polarizing the entire world—as well as all the stuff that goes with it like persecution and death threats and hatred and political upheaval and wars and all kinds of natural disasters—then you can know that Jesus is near, at the very gates of heaven ready to burst upon the world.

But keep in mind what verses 36 and 37 say,

Matthew 24:36–37 (ESV)

“concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

When Jesus says, “For as were the days of Noah” he’s not trying to get us to look around and wonder, “are things just about as bad as Noah’s day?”

The comparison isn’t with the evil of that time, but with the normalcy of that time.

His point is that you won’t know for certain that Jesus’ coming is happening until its actually happening.

Just like in Noah’s day, he was building the ark and people were eating and working and marrying off their children and starting new families just as they always had done.

The indicator for the end wasn’t the measure of evil—that had already been filled up—it was the completion of the plan to save mankind, the completion of the ark.

The people of Noah’s day ignored the gospel being preached by Noah.

He told them, “there’s going to be a huge flood.

No one will survive.

God told me to build an ark to save you.

Please come and join me on the ark.”

But they ignored His warnings and ignored the good news about the ark and they kept right on living their lives.

And that’s when it happened.

As if it was out of no where, water inundated them from all sides.

It was a shock to them.

Not because they couldn’t have known it was about to happen, but because they had closed their ears and their hearts.

The same will be true in the last days before Jesus’ return.

The gospel must be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations—the salvation boat needs to be finished.

But many will stop their ears and close their hearts and keep on doing what they always have done as if nothing different will ever happen.