Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Last week we began a new journey as I introduced the first four verses of the epistle of first John.

What we didn’t know then is while we were offering our corporate worship as one body last week, 1500 miles southwest of us, a deranged active shooter killed 26 people and had the intention of killing at least 20 more in a Baptist church of about 50 congregants in a town of around 500 residents—less than one fifth of Kingsford alone.

So, last Sunday, one tenth of that town was murdered--which was over a half of a local body of believers—whom had many striking similarities to us here at Grace.

This tragedy raises several important questions.

How do we respond to something like this?

Should we respond to something like this?

Why did God allow this?

What is my responsibility in stopping this from ever happening to Grace?

Is it my responsibility to stop this from happening?

—Some of you here have asked me something along these lines just in the past few days and all of these have been asked by me to YHWH.

These questions ought to be answered!

But answered thoughtfully, carefully, and only after much prayer and supplication.

My concern is that the temptation to come with answers too quickly to these weighty matters is to surrender to fear, to worry, to anxiety.

“But what if a shooter were to come in here today???

You never know!!” you may say.

If this is dominating your thinking right now, then you are in the trap of fear, worry, anxiety and it is sin.

Yes, Church shootings are increasing every year in America.

And while the percentage of churches with shootings is relatively small, I agree that this issue is one where we must be prepared.

The worst case scenario is just too much to ignore--as it is with fires, child abuse, and so forth.

However, statistically speaking, if you came in here worrying about a shooter, you could have an unhealthy fear problem.

The average yearly church shootings are 2.7 percent compared to 16 percent of churches this year will have a fire that destroys the whole building, and 30 percent of those fires are from cooking equipment.

So just from sheer statistics, one might be considered reasonable to worry about what’s going on in the church’s kitchen more-so than an active shooter.

But how many of you came in here worried about a fire this morning?

How many of you are worried about a fire now that I just mentioned the statistic?

Such fears are not from God.

So then, where is this balance between being prepared and not living in fear and therefore not living in this sin?

And yes it is sin because when you live in fear you are proving your distrust in our Lord’s protection and provision.

So what time does our Lord & Savior say exactly about active shooters entering in the church?

Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is in a rather lengthy speech/sermon with His disciples as he’s about to send them into the world to spread the news of the coming Kingdom.

Essentially He’s warning them, “persecution will come, these active shooters are to be expected” but He doesn’t leave them with just that warning, Jesus tells them that with His call to serve, He has also already provided protection He stands with His chosen servants in any and all their trials, He takes notice of every threat that they will endure, He honors them in this life for their witness of Him, and then will abundantly reward them in the next life for all their faithfulness.

In the words of Keith Brooks: No cross, no crown.

No gall, no glory.

You might be thinking, “Well, certainly Jesus could be understanding if I’m pretty scared;” however, this passage in Matthew 10 doesn’t seem to give any indication of that and I believe it is primarily because Jesus gives us ample reason to trust in Him.

In fact, He says in verse 28 who we should really fear—who is it?

Well, I doubt it is Satan because in this context, He’s talking to His chosen disciples.

But I don’t think Jesus is really trying to say we need to be afraid of the Father, if I am right, then what He is saying is that if we are to seriously fear somebody, it should only be YHWH since YHWH is worthy of that kind of fear with His omnipotence.

if you don’t think this is right look at the next verse (verse 29).

The father’s omniscience is spelled out all the way into verse 30, but look here at verse 32 and 33 this is just one of several tragic results of cowardly fear.

I. Cowardice prevents people from confessing Jesus

So to prevent verse 33 from happening to you, I want to show you the seriousness of why we cannot be cowardly in the Gospel of John:

As Jesus gained more popularity, people recognized Him as the long awaited Messiah, yet they were too afraid to confess Jesus is LORD publically because of the fear of man.

This reminds me of stories I hear and read about some “Christians” who visit the Creation Museum and the Ark.

While inside the buildings, these Christians whole-heartedly enjoy and agree with what they see and learn there, but the moment they step past the property lines where the atheist protesters chant their misgivings, these Christians seem to forget who they are and what they’ve just stood in support for until they are a safe distance away and their amnesia is magically cured.

Cowardice inhibits bad and good behavior

In Matt 14, we find an interesting twist on the effects of cowards.

John the Baptist is arrested and Herod wanted to kill him immediately:

so thanks to the coward Herod, John the Baptist gets to live just a little longer.

Then jumping a few chapters to chapter 21, the Christ asks a question of the Pharisees in response to the Pharisees questioning His authority

It is from the Pharisees’ fear that we get this somewhat comical reaction.

Cowardice leads to avoiding difficulties

in one of the most difficult moments leading up to the cross for our Lord we see the consequence of fearful men.

Jesus is about to be arrested and he tells the crowd there:

Right as Jesus confronts the chief priests and Elders about the real reason this is happening, the disciples run away.

I don’t know if there is a clearer picture of the selfishness that is involved in self-preservation.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do think as part of being good stewards of all that Christ has given to us, we ought to have a plan in place and to be prepared for disasters.

However, it crosses a line when one becomes obsessed with the ways to prepare for all the infinite “what ifs.”

The focus then shifts from God to you as you think of yourself and how will you survive.

“How can you say that Josh?” Well first, danger and risk are expected as almost a norm for the Christian life, not as exceptional.

“Yes, so what’s your beef with preppers?”

Well, the New Testament’s attitude to this fact of Christian life is not self-protection, but rather self-sacrifice or “a living sacrifice.

That’s the attitude of a mature believer.

That’s what we can expect to experience.

“Really?” Yes! Paul did:

And if that is not enough, Jesus, the living Word, had promised that’s the way life should be for us:

Second, an obsession with self-preservation is inherently going to confuse the world of what it means to follow Jesus — Matthew 16:24–25

Third, for those of you who are known to the lost as a person who uses extra money and time and effort and focus too much on creating a refuge to withstand EMP or Nuclear attacks, it is going to make you look as if you don’t believe the psalms when they say:

and what about Ps 62?

So fear communicates to the lost that a distrust in YHWH is acceptable.

If we are really doing all our self-preservation or “prepping” out of selfless love, what about the people who are going to die eternally for lack of the gospel?

Are we really concerned in taking the same steps as seriously to preserve them for eternity?

What a horrible price to pay.

This brings us to the next point:

Cowardice is contagious

It can spread within a group, The OT is full of examples:

Cowards were prohibited to be near the armies of God’s people.

And this is seen with Gideon’s army as well by a direct command from YHWH:

And YHWH kept going until there were 300 men—that is scary!

But that is because YHWH is Omnipotent!

All-powerful!

II.

God gives hope to the Fearful

Yes! our all-powerful God gives us glorious hope even if we are the ones that are the cowards!

And it is through the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit!

Turn to Acts chapter 4, I want you to see how the Holy Spirit gave the disciples a supernatural boldness.

Peter and John had just healed a lame man and then preached to the people about how they killed Jesus, the One who gives them power & life.

They get arrested for their fiery preaching and brought before the Sanhedrin, the council of the Sadducees:

Ac 4:5–10; Ac 4:13; Ac 4:29–31

Peter is not beating around the bush on this one!

now jump to verse 13:

It Is by their boldness that these people listening recognize that they are from Jesus! Then in verse 29, in a middle of a rejoicing prayer:

WOW! if only we could do the same today!

I think we can!

So What?

So Church shootings do happen, severe persecution happens daily.

but the answer isn’t found in tighter security, more guns in the hands of “good citizens”, or even the opposite: no guns at all.

The answer isn’t found in laying awake late at night unable to sleep from worry and anxiety over wondering if that scary Muslim knew that I was a devoted Christian.

The the answer is a complete trust in Christ.

According to The Gospel Coalition:

There are an estimated 378,000 different churches in the United States, which means the likelihood of any one congregation being involved in a shooting in any year is approximately one in 126,000 or 0.0000079 percent.