Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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* Good morning.
*
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,
seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
(Walt Whitman)
When I read this poem, it makes me think of myself standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out over a vast expanse - something like the Grand Canyon.
I have to get from here to there, and somehow do it without killing myself!
I have to plan a plan, scheme a scheme, pick myself up by the bootstraps and somehow carry myself over to the other side, and do it without killing myself.
At our house, we have a cup in the bathroom where we put our toothbrushes.
I discovered it a few weeks ago.
A friend had given it to Lisa, and it has little encouraging sayings all over it.
Now, every morning, before I drop my toothbrush into this thing, I see a little bee looking up at me saying "If it's to be, it must be me!"
It was a very nice little gift – but BAD THEOLOGY!
Because - that's self-reliant hope, and it's not the kind of hope I have.
I have a hope that the world can't understand, and it’s not self-reliant hope.
The world's way is to reject Jesus and His work for them.
And as long as the world rejects the Author of hope, they cannot understand His message.
Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6, verse 9. Hebrews, by the way, *was written by an *unknown author*, to a primarily Jewish church.
Hebrews is toward the end of the New Testament. . . .
Titus – Philemon – Hebrews – James – 1 & 2 Peter. .
.
Our text for today introduces the main argument of Hebrews - namely, that the person of Christ is superior to the Law of Moses.
Today's passage *emphasizes* our eternal security.
And it *encourages* us - in the face of the trials, to hold on to our hope in Christ.
Follow on as I read from the New American Standard Version of the Bible: But, beloved, *we are convinced* of better things concerning you,
and things that *accompany *salvation,
though *we are speaking* in this way.
10For God is not unjust so as to forget
your work
and the love which *you have shown* toward His name,
in *having ministered *
* *and in *still ministering *to the saints.
11And *we desire* that each one of you show the same diligence
so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
12so that you will not *be *sluggish,
but imitators of those who through faith and patience *inherit *the promises.
*13*For when God *made the promise* to Abraham,
since He could swear by no one greater,
*He swore* by Himself, 14*saying*,
“I will *surely* *bless* you
and I will *surely* *multiply* you.”
15And so, *having patiently waited*, *he obtained* the promise.
16For men *swear *by one greater /than themselves/,
and with them an oath /given /as confirmation is an end of every dispute.
17In the same way God, *desiring* even more to show
to the heirs of the promise
the unchangeableness of His purpose,
*interposed* with an oath,
18so that by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie,
*we who have taken refuge* *would have* strong *encouragement*
to take hold of the hope *set before us.*
19This hope *we have* as an anchor of the soul,
a /hope /both sure
and steadfast
and *one which enters* within the veil,
20where Jesus *has entered* as a forerunner for us,
*having become* a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Let’s pray: Gracious God, we come before You today on the edge of a cliff, looking out over our vacant vast surrounding, and wondering how to get from where we are to where You are.
We ask that your Word would be near us, in our mouth and in our heart, resulting in understanding for all of us, and even for salvation in some today.
May we be able to agree with the Apostle Paul at the end of this day, that having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not be disappointed.
For it is in His precious name that we ask this.
Amen.
Now, let’s look again at verse 9. Notice he says, "though we are speaking this way."
That makes me ask, "What way was he speaking?"
Well, I'll tell you what way he was speaking: NOT VERY NICELY!
Let’s turn back a chapter to 5:ll, and see:
11 Concerning him we have much to say, and /it is /hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
The author of Hebrews is telling them that they are being "lazy thinkers" in the way they regard Christ, and His work on the cross.
As I read it, they were still thinking of salvation in Jesus like a daily sin offering of a bull or a goat.
They were thinking that, if they fell away, that they had to get saved all over again.
As I understand the earlier part of Chapter 6, he is telling them that they can’t repeat the elementary things of the faith, even if they fall into gross sin.
They must take in the *full value* of what Christ did for them, accept it by faith, and move on.
So in verse 9 he reassures them, "we are convinced of better things concerning you… things that ought to go along with salvation."
He complements them for the hard work they are doing in the name of Jesus - demonstrated by how much they love each other.
Now, he says, take that same hard work and apply it to how you think about Christ!
I think that the New American Standard Bible at verse 11 does not convey this thought very well.
:8At first reading, it looks like he is saying, some of you are loving each other very well.
Now I want all of you to love each other that way, so that you will realize, or experience, your hope in Christ.
* But, *that is not what the verse is saying.
The thought is better expressed: "We want each of you to show the same diligence toward the full realization of your hope until the end."
The hard work is *to be applied* to how we THINK, not how we ACT.
How many of us have looked up into the sky at twilight, before any stars come out.
Then we see the first star and remember this little rhyme: "Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."
You know, we see the star, but that star has no power to do anything for us.
We can wish all we want, we can hope all we want, but it's just wishing-star hope.
I have a hope that the world can't understand.
It is not self-reliant hope.
It is not wishing-star hope.
The hope I have in Jesus Christ is based not on how hard I wish, but on whether or not He is able to do what He says.
In Walt Whitman's poem, he uses the phrase "ductile anchor."
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