Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

It was in Santa Clara, California, in the summer of 1988 that Lavonne and I experienced our one and only earthquake.

We were in a motel and the bed began to vibrate like it does when you put a quarter in the machine at the side of the bed.

It only lasted a few seconds, but even that made an impression on us, and we felt a mild fear to be in the presence of such power.

Psychologist say earthquakes can be more destructive psychologically than natural disasters because quakes strike at our most cherished belief-that the earth beneath us is solid and steady.

Earthquakes shake the very foundation of our security.

We can imagine the awful fear that comes with a powerful earthquake, like the one that hit that same area where we were.

Earthquakes are a part of this fallen world and they are going on all the time.

Some like to speculate that they are more frequent now than ever, but F. W. Borham, writing in 1918, said, "there is an earthquake on the average every quarter of an hour-or about thirty to forty thousand a year.

The earth is like a flea-bitten dog which is always shaking and twitching."

Sometimes the destruction is beyond belief, but experts say we have not seen the worst yet-the big one.

But the world has already seen some really big ones.

The greatest loss of life by an earthquake took place in 1556 in Central China when 830,000 people were killed.

The second largest loss of life was in 1976 near Peking, China when 655,000 people died.

There have been dozens of earthquakes with tens of thousand of lives lost.

It is estimated that about 13,000,000 people have lost their lives in earthquakes.

So there have been big ones in the past, and there will be bigger ones in the future.

The Bible tells us of the biggest one of all big ones.

In Revelation 16:18 we read, "Then there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a severe earthquake.

No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.

The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed."

The implication is, the biggest big one will not be affecting anyone nation only, but will be international.

So the experts and the Bible agree-we haven't seen anything yet.

But what we have seen is very disturbing to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Anything as big as a earthquake gets you into theology, for it goes beyond humanism.

You have got to think about God when you think about earthquakes.

The problem is, earthquakes seldom stimulate good thoughts about God.

Paul said whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, what is admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy-think about such things.

These kinds of thoughts lead you to praise God.

But it is hard to maintain this level of positive thinking when the world is collapsing around you, and you loose loved ones and all you possess.

Earthquakes force you to confront God from a different angle, and they make you tend to blame God for all the evil that they bring.

It is hard to avoid since we have already tried God and found Him guilty.

We call such tragedies acts of God, and so He is the one to blame.

Coming to this conclusion has never been a fortifying factor in people's faith.

Earthquakes can wreck everything, including faith.

In 1755, on Nov. 1, the great Lisbon earthquake hit when the churches were full of people, and over 50,000 were killed.

It was devastating to faith, and Goethe made up his mind the earth was a chaos that hopelessly out of control, and no longer in the hands of God.

Many came to this conclusion as their faith was shaken, and that is why we need to do some serious thinking about earthquakes, and tragedy in general, to know just how God fits in, and whether is valid to get mad at God, and blame Him for the tragedy.

The first thing I learned about earthquakes in the New Testament is that they can be completely positive with no harmful effects.

Our text is a case in point.

Paul and Silas are delivered from prison by the violent earthquake that opened all the doors.

Nobody was hurt in this quake.

There was no judgment on the criminals there.

Just the opposite, in fact.

It was a day of salvation for the Philippian jailer and his family.

God used an earthquake to open the doors of the prison, and the doors of the Kingdom of God, and a new family was taken into the family of God.

This family would be praising God for the rest of their lives, and for all eternity, for the night of the earthquake.

It led to deliverance and not to destruction.

That would be great if God always used the power of the earthquake for such a positive purpose.

The fact is, every earthquake in the New Testament that God deliberately caused was just such a positive power.

Come with me to the cross where we see another of God's directly caused earthquakes.

Listen to Matt.

27:51-54.

"At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom.

The earth shook and the rocks split.

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus rose from the dead they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

When the Centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, surely He was the Son of God!"

Here again, is a totally positive earthquake.

It did tear the temple curtain, but that was symbolic of God's making the way into His presence open to all in Christ.

There is no report of injury or death.

In fact, the tomb's were open so that we have here the only earthquake on record that added to the population.

People who were dead were shaken into life.

The spiritually dead were also shaken into seeing the truth that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.

What a powerful positive impact God had with this earthquake.

Then in Matt.

28:2 we find another one-the Easter earthquake which accompanied the resurrection of Jesus.

Here was the best of them all.

Here is the really big one from the positive perspective.

This was the ultimate in positive earthquakes.

The kingdom of hell was unhinged, and Jesus walked away as Lord of all with the power to release everyone from the bondage of death.

Now let's face this New Testament fact.

God used earthquakes to accomplish His purpose of salvation for mankind, and, therefore, there is a wonderful and awesome and positive side to the earthquake.

It is important for us to see this positive side for it is comforting to know that God may be doing something of great value for mankind even in what seems to us to be very negative.

Unfortunately, there are two sides to every issue, and we have to see the New Testament also reveals God's use of the earthquake as a means of judgment.

Just as a father uses his belt both for support of his pants and for discipline; and just as a mother uses a kitchen tool for food control and child control; and just as the teacher uses the ruler to measure and to punish; so God uses the earthquake both for saving man and judging man.

All of the seven judgment earthquakes are in the book of Revelation.

They are severe in there devastation, and go way beyond the Richter Scale.

Revelation 6:12-14 says, "There was a great earthquake.

The son turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs dropped from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

The sky receded like a scroll rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place."

Such are the judgment earthquakes that represent God's wrath on a sinful rebellious world.

The interesting thing we see in the judgment earthquakes is the radically different response of those who feel God's wrath.

In Revelation 16:21, the response to the big one was the people cursed God.

But, on the other hand, back in Rev. 11:13 we read, " At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.

Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven."

Every earthquake gets people's attention on God, either to curse Him or to praise Him.

So what we have so far are positive and negative earthquakes caused by God for either salvation or judgment.

But the negative judgment type earthquakes still leave the door open for a positive response.

They too have the potential of turning people to God and, thus, become positive tools that lead to salvation.

If this was all we had on earthquakes we would be forced to conclude that most of those we hear about are judgment type earthquakes.

The problem with this is the record will probably reveal that those who died, or suffer great loss, were not greater sinners than those who survived.

In many cases they will be very good and even godly people.

There will not be a clear, or even vague, connection between the crime and the punishment.

Therefore, to classify it as a judgment earthquake takes quite a measure of audacity.

There are some records that leave little doubt about judgment.

When the quake hit Mount Pelee in 1902, it was acknowledge to be the wickedness spot in the West Indies.

Blasphemous rights and mockery of all things holy was the in thing.

On Good Friday a pig was masqueraded through the city, and then crucified.

The wickedness was deliberate and appalling.

Forty thousand inhabitants perished in what could reasonably be considered the judgment of God.