Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Image

Thursday is Valentine’s Day! How many of would admit you don’t really care about celebrating Valentine’s Day? (Be careful!)

I know it’s perceived by some as a made-up holiday fostered by Greeting Card companies who want to make money.

I know it can be a challenging day for “singles” who desire to be married or for those of you who have “lost” a sweetheart to divorce or death.

I know there are a few hopeless romantics (like myself) who take advantage of the opportunity to express their love to the love of their life.

I always enjoyed Valentine’s Day in elementary schools because we spent time decorating our white sacks with hearts (I’m not artistic so mine was a hot mess), hung them on the wall in the front of the classroom, and exchanged valentine cards.

I think I was more interested in the cards with candy than the girls who gave them to me.

If you’re celebrating this week I hope you have a great time.

If you want an idea a card or poem is always good.

I found a few to help you with yours.

· Valentine Card with a heart: Mom: Thank you for feeding me food so I won’t die.

(Sweet)

· Robin is Red, DarkWing is blue, Rhyming is hard – “I’m Batman.”

(my son)

· Roses are red, violets are blue, even though you have selective hearing, I still love you.

Perhaps for some of you, Valentine’s Day is about getting the courage to ask a girl on a date.

Some guys decide to go with “pick up” lines.

(Sample).

Just a friendly word of warning – I’m not sure that’s the best approach but it might work – I would caution against it.

Need

Sometimes we need a friendly word of warning, spoken out of love and in the interest of others, to help someone avoid trouble or peril.

Perhaps you can think of someone who gave you a word of warning that helped you avoid danger or disaster.

Warnings are important and vastly needed in our lives.

We need them for Valentine pick up lines and even more so for our life of faith.

Today we return to our series in HEBREWS: “Encountering the Greatness of Jesus.

Our prayer is that as we “encounter” the greatness of Jesus revealed in Hebrews would be experienced in our lives.

The book of HEBREWS was written to Jewish Christians who were being tempted to return to their old way of life under Judaism but the penman exhorts them to “persevere” because Jesus is Greater than the Old Covenant.

Please join me in praying that we “encounter the greatness of Jesus” and “experience the greatness of Jesus” as a result of our time in HEBREWS.

Up to this point we’ve learned that Jesus is greater than the prophets, greater than angels, an greater than Moses.

Last week Pastor Jake walked us through the opening section of Hebrews Chapter 3 and prompted us to consider that Jesus is greater than Moses – declaring that Jesus is the Greatest Of All Time Emmanuel Eternal – so today as we continue with the them that Jesus is greater than Moses we encounter the second warning passage of the book.

In Chapter 2 we were warned about “The Danger of Drifting” from the gospel (Jesus).

Today is part one of a warning about “The Danger of Unbelief.”

Preview

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, turn/scroll to Hebrews Chapter 3. .

Today we consider a pressing warning about “The Danger of Unbelief.”

Before we dig in let’s briefly review the approaches to the five warning passages in the book of Hebrews.

The interpretation of the warning passages has been debated through church history.

The primary differences of opinion/interpretation is “who” these warning passages address in the letter.

· Hypothetical arguments (idle threat) – not a true warning but the OT examples cited show the real threat

· Believers - Turn back you will lose their salvation

· Unbelievers (mixed audience) – warnings aimed at unsaved and if they drift back to Judaism it proves they were never saved

· Loss of blessings – not loss of salvation or proof they never had salvation but loss of blessings (invite God’s discipline, loss of future reward, and loss of blessings like maturity in Jesus.

Many Christians disagree on these points in love and respect.

I see three of them that have merit (hypothetical, mere professors/unbelievers, and loss of blessing) but see them as warnings addressed to true believers (Jewish Christians) in danger of losing present and future blessing for going back to Judaism.

In we considered a warning about “the danger of drifting” away from the gospel (Jesus) which can be avoided by “paying more attention to what we’ve heard so that we will not drift away.”

Today we come to the second warning about “The Danger of Unbelief.”

“The Danger of Unbelief.”

The second warning about “The Danger of Unbelief” extends from which we will cover in two parts—today we tackle Part I as we cover —and then we’ll come back next week to pick up Part 2 in .

So let’s set our hearts and minds to considering “The Danger of Unbelief” by taking a closer look at where we will see “A Tragic Illustration” (3:7-11), two “Urgent Exhortations” (3:12-14), and a “Sober Reminder” (3:15-19).

I) THE DANGER OF UNBELIEF

Today’s warning about “The Danger/Warning of Unbelief” is a part of the larger declaration that Jesus is superior to Moses.

The truth that Jesus is “greater” than Moses prompted the penman to issue a second warning and a call to action.

In this section the penman once again reveals his concern for the Jewish Christians who were being tempted to turn from Jesus and return to Judaism (pressure and persecution).

The penman’s warning reveals the danger of turning away from Jesus and exhorts them to persevere in their commitment – it’s a pressing warning for us – and teaches us how to safeguard our lives from unbelief so we will avoid the severe consequences of unbelief.

Let’s walk through this together.

A) A Tragic Illustration revealing the Danger of Unbelief (3:7-11)

We begin with “A Tragic OT Illustration of Unbelief” that warns us about the danger of unbelief.

Let’s read this Tragic OT Illustration of Unbelief (Read ).

This OT illustration of unbelief is used to encourage his readers to persevere in Jesus.

Since Jesus is greater than Moses they must be warned about the danger of disobeying Jesus out of a hard-heart of unbelief.

You’ll notice immediately that the bulk of this text is “indented,” “italicized,” or in “bold” in your Bible.

Why? (Share) Yes – this marks that the penman is quoting a section of the OT.

Since this letter (word of exhortation) was addressed to Jewish Christians the book is filled with OT quotations.

We’ve seen dozens of OT quotes already in the first three chapters of the book.

We also note that the penman highlights the divine origin of the OT Scriptures by declaring “The Holy Spirit says” followed by quotation of .

All Scripture is “God-breathed” (OT and NT) so what David penned originated by the Holy Spirit.

The penman takes his readers back to time when Moses was leading the people of Israel by quoting .

The quotation highlights a tragic time in the life of Israel when they rebelled during their wilderness wanderings after being delivered from slavery in Egypt.

The penman of Hebrews takes us back to which will take us back to tragic events that happened in the life of God’s people after being delivered from slavery in Egypt.

has two main sections, an invitation to worship Yahweh (95:1-6), followed by the

call to trust and obey Him instead of living with a hard heart like Israel did in the past (95:7-11).

King David called the people in his day to not be like their ancestors who had rebelled during their wilderness wanderings—"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your

ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did”—David warned the present generation of God’s people to not be like the previous generation of God’s people who put Him to test by their hard-hearted disobedience from a heart of unbelief even though Yahweh continued to lead and provide for them in amazing ways for forty years while they wandered in the wilderness.

David exhorted the people of his day, if you hear God’s voice don’t harden your hearts and refuse to listen to Him like the generation before you, for that generation “heard” Yahweh’s voice but responded with hard-hearted rebellion.

David exhorted God’s people in his generation to not become “stubborn” and “obstinate” to God’s voice/truth.

David didn’t want God’s people in his day to “test” and “try” Yahweh like their forefathers had done in the past.

The rebellion mentioned in refers to tragic events recorded in and .

Keep your finger/marker in Hebrews and turn back to .

In God’s people (generations before the people being addressed in ) were journeying through the wilderness, they had been freed from slavery in Egpyt, and were on their way to the land of Canaan that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants.

Just a short time ago God’s people had been powerfully delivered from slavery in Egypt by crossing the Red Sea, and God was going to lead them to the Promised land of Canaan.

During His deliverance of Israel He graced them with His presence—guiding them with a cloud by day and a fire by night—up to the time when He split the Red Sea open allowing them to cross before closing it up to drown the Egyptian chariots that were chasing them to bring them back into captivity.

As a result they were praising God but that was quickly replaced with grumbling and unbelief.

highlights one of these events found in .

In the congregation of Israel journeyed through the wilderness before camping at a place called Rephidim, but there was a problem, this place had no water.

A good water supply is a vital part of every good campsite.

When this happened the people rose up and “quarreled” with Moses.

Moses’ response was “Why are you testing God?”

The people continued to grumble against Moses, blaming him for bringing them from Egypt to kill them all in the desert.

God graciously provided water from a rock through their leader Moses but he named the place “Massah” (quarrel) and “Meribah” (testing).

(Read ) And just so we understand, this type of hard-hearted unbelief & lack of trust in God that happened in was nothing new in the lives of God’s people.

If you go back and look at Israel’s journey before this event they grumbled against Moses and tested God.

As they traveled the people questioned God’s plan, complaining about the water supply, and expressing a desire to go back to bondage in Egypt.

God graciously provided sweet water to drink but a few days later doubted God’s plan and provision for their lives, grumbling against Moses, but God graciously blessed them with manna and quail.

So a pattern began on their journey of the people failing to trust in the Lord’s plans and provisions and yet He graciously provided for them in amazing ways.

All along the way you read about Israel’s grumbling, discontentment, and rebellion—people with hard hearts—people refusing to trust and obey God that had graciously provided for them over and over again.

Israel’s testing of the Lord was not limited to “Meribah” and Massah.”

The people of Israel tested the Lord many times during the wilderness wanderings.

The quotation of highlights another tragic event in the lives of God’s people-- “That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’