Sermon Tone Analysis

If we’re honest, our reading from the book of Numbers is a perfect description of the inner monologue that comes to the surface during Lent.

At this point, when we see how Israel acts, we can respond one of two ways, like the Pharisee or the tax collector.

We can lift up our eyes and with a loud voice proclaim thanks to God that he hasn’t made us like these rebellious Israelites.

No, we would never treat the goodness of God with such ungrateful contempt.

OR, when we look at Israel’s attitude, we can respond like the tax collector and say, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner, another sinner.

To me, the narrative in brings to mind insights about myself at my worst moments, and even, humanly speaking, what would appear to be my best moments.

The pride of “accomplishing God’s work for him.”

At the moment we turn to Christ in the pursuit of greater obedience and the desire to follow him more closely, the business of life, the various lusts of the flesh, and the enemy of our souls drum up a micro-rebellion.

It can last for milliseconds or months.

Or years, really.

For some our passage doesn’t describe the rebellious heart surfacing in the face of spiritual discipline.

For some, the rebellion expands and becomes a way of life.

Some literally cry out, weep, grumble, wish for death; or worse, they wish for the life they lived before ever knowing God.

In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews addresses this very passage and that very temptation— to pretend like this Christianity thing is just a phase or a thought exercise, or a group of nice people I know.

I’d like to spend a moment there, so, if you have your Bible, turn to

One major lesson that even the earliest Christians learned and, in the Book of Hebrews, taught from this passage in Numbers, is that even people who have seen God’s deliverance, who have left a life of sin and godlessness, grow impatient waiting for results, grow discontent in the journey, and want to throw in the towel.

And this passage in Hebrews says, don’t let sin corrupt your heart so that unbelief reigns there.

It’s another warning against the spiritually blinding effect sin has on us.

All-out rebellion can look like turning away from God, but it can take more insidious forms too.

Soren Kierkegaard describes, in a parable, a man who walks away from God, facing backwards.

This person might be smiling and waiving to God like he intends to walk toward him, but keeps taking backwards steps, until God is absent from view.

This person is doing what the book of Hebrews warns us against.

He’s thinking he’s got this religion thing under control, running on auto-pilot, maybe intending to draw close to God, but keeping a safe enough distance to never see himself as needing Christ ever again.

I’m not sure which form of rebellion is more destructive.

Whatever the case, instead of walking away from God, while facing him or not, the Lord of the book of Hebrews and of the book of Numbers want us to hear the Word of God and believe.

To trust in God’s promises in Christ.

To be patient.

Because the disorientation from leaving your spiritual captivity is worth it when you enter the rest that God has waiting for you.

But you must thwart your lack of commitment to God and your lack of belief.

And like you, the Israelites were not alone.

They had Moses and Aaron, but also the men who originally spied out the land.

These men who had seen the land not only had personally seen the good end that the Lord was leading them to, but they trusted that God would be the one who accomplished it, “If he delights in us,” they said.

The people responded by picking up stones to stone them.

Rebellion can be self-delusion, but it can also be just outright rebellious.

In this case, the peaceful, encouraging exhortation to calm down, to hang in there, to trust in God, was met with threats and full intention of murder.

The vast majority of the Israelites had made up their mind to reject God and go back to face re-enslavement or worse.

Thank goodness it wasn’t a democracy.

God intervened in the attempted murder.

He called a huddle with Moses, letting Moses know that he had had it with these people who had witnessed the plagues that God had orchestrated to free them from their captivity, only to willingly walk back to their captors.

God was done.

He was ready to start over with Moses and wipe the Israelites out.

God didn’t need them, he could start over and make a super race of God-followers from Moses, just like he did with Noah.

This reoccurring idea of God’s is something to be aware of.

It should remind us that we are not doing God a favor by bringing him worship, though he accepts it graciously.

He doesn’t need us humans to be complete.

He is a Trinity, a tri-unity that expresses perfect and complete love and honor and much more within the life of the Godhead.

We can’t appreciate God better than God appreciates God, and our appreciation doesn’t meet some need that God has.

But even though God doesn’t need us, he fights for us.

Hopefully that fact has been born out in your personal experience.

Hopefully you’ve seen him work, beyond comprehension sometimes, to free you from the captivity you were in or could have been in.

And after you’ve experienced your freedom, you have an advocate just like the Israelites did.

Because of their advocate, God ultimately pardoned Israel from her death penalty.

But a whole generation ONLY knew, only experienced a 40 year tension between leaving captivity and never arriving home.

Our appreciation doesn’t meet some need that God has.

But even though God doesn’t need us, he fights for us.

Hopefully that has been born out in your personal experience.

Hopefully you’ve seen him work, beyond comprehension sometimes, to free you from the captivity you were in or could have been in.

And after you’ve experienced your freedom, you have an advocate just like the Israelites did.

God ultimately pardoned Israel from her death penalty.

But a whole generation ONLY knew, only experienced a 40 year tension between leaving captivity and never arriving home.

Look at verse 20.

The Lord leads Israel safely into the Promised Land, but not all of Israel.

He will faithfully bring you and bring me into the Promised Land, but not all of me, not every bit of you.

This process of sanctification that he leads us through, this time of waiting between being released from our captivity and entering our rest means that we aren’t getting out of this life unchanged.

God is in the process of removing our rebellion one year at a time, as we walk with him.

God gives us a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, to put down the rebellion in our souls.

And we live to fight this fight because he gave us an advocate, a champion who has known our struggles and can help give you victory in that battle, someone who has been victorious in that battle himself.

His name is Jesus Christ, and we will celebrate his victory in its fullness soon enough.

Right now, in the last week of Lent, it’s enough to face our battle with the knowledge of his victory keeping us going.

The Lord leads Israel safely into the Promised Land, but not all of Israel.

He

The book of Hebrews goes on to show us what or who can help give you victory in that battle, someone who has been victorious in that battle himself.

His name is Jesus Christ, and we will celebrate that victory in its fullness soon enough.

Right now, in the last week of Lent, it’s enough to remember his victory during our battle.MORE ABOUT THE ADVOCATE HERE: This advocate lived and died to take you with hi

This advocate lived and died to take you with hi

Listen to the words God says about people he’s freed from captivity in verse

So be encouraged this Lent.

Don’t lose heart if the journey has gotten hard.

Don’t lose heart if your freedom is disorienting.

The freedom is worth it.

It’s hard-fought and hard-won.

Your commitment to Christ just has to survive the journey to the land of promise he is keeping for you.

The Israelites had an advocate in Moses

One last lesson we should take with us.

The writer to the Hebrews was concerned that his hearers were in danger of turning back.

That they didn’t

But what we deal with on a personal level, Moses and Aaron were dealing with on a national level.

But what we deal with on a personal level, Moses and Aaron were dealing with on a national level.

Dual warning:

1. Don’t give up if your life as a Christian isn’t working out as you thought it would.

2. Don’t start thinking you can do this Christian life without Christ (Hebrews 3)

Untitled Sermon (2)

Untitled Sermon (2)

Thom Blair / General

Don’t say Alleluia yet, but, we are nearing the end of Lent: this time for giving extra focus to prayer and fasting and almsgiving and studying the Scriptures.

Before we move into Holy Week, it’s a good time, here at the end of Lent, to think about how well we’ve used our opportunities this season.

How well have we followed our commitments?

It’s a good time to take a deep breath and ask, “How is my life as a Christian going?”

You’ve probably seen some things in yourself that you can affirm.

There is a closeness with God that can come from choosing to take God, his Word, and the things he values a little more seriously.