Sermon Tone Analysis

Reading

Intro

Alastair Begg tells the story of three golfers named Bill, Tom, and Fred.

They used to be a group of four along with Harry, and they often played golf together over the last 12 years.

But Harry had died.

It wasn’t only Harry’s company that they missed, but they missed the fact that he was the only one who could see well enough to follow where their ball when after they hit it.

So they went to the club pro, and said, “We need a fourth and the only requirement is that he be able to see, because none of us can see well enough to follow our tee shots.”

So he gave them George, assuring them that George had great eyesight for a man of his age.

So they all hit their tee shots and turn to George asking if he had seen where the ball went.

“Sure did” he replied in each case.

So they jumped in their carts and drove to where Bill usually hit his ball.

Bill stopped the cart and asked George, “Where’s my ball?”

To which George replied,…………….. “I can’t remember.”

We know that our memory is not all there.

Its unreliable.

We forget important things but remember useless trivia

Forgetting names

Noetic effect of sin - on the mind, especially on memory

Rom 1

Movies - unreliable narrator

Memory in the Bible, not just remembering but remembering the promises and faithfulness of God.

What he has done in the past for us to drive us in the present, to be faithful to God, to persevere with hope for the future

Conversely, forgetfulness is tied to breaking our faithfulness to God and going astray

We observe a certain assumption operating in 4:1–10, namely, that the greatest enemy of faith may be forgetfulness (cf.

Deut.

8).

Just as in a marriage, the real threat may not be infidelity but simply a slow process of forgetting and a gradual failure to remember the preciousness of the other person.

2 tim 2:8

2 Pet 1:12-15 (Peter’s history of forgetfulness)

To help us with our memory, God places markers or milestones to help us remember and keep us faithful

This has been a part of God’s grace and revelation throughout history

He asks his people to look back and reflect on this memorials as a means to keep them on the right path

In Josh 3, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan.

The river waters parted so that the people could cross over the Jordan and come to the very border of Jericho, in a place called Gilgal

Here in Josh 4, we see that God institutes a memorial to that event to help his people remember that they crossed the Jordan because of God’s help

He said to Joshua, command them to take 12 stones from the center of the river where the priests stood, that you could not take otherwise unless I had not parted the waters into dry ground, and set it up as a memorial forever (v9) for the people of God in Gilgal

So here is this memorial or milestone to commemorate a spectacular event in Israel’s history

Hall suggests the stones represent for the writer “a theological concern for enduring memory.

This is a passage with so many rich offshoots but I want to focus on what is repeated itself in the Word of God

“What Do These Stones Mean?”

You can go off on a tangent and talk about many things

Dates

Events of healing job etc in your life

But God’s milestones, his memorials, his remembrances that he establishes have specific purposes

God

Us

We tell Others

What Does This Tell Us About God?

Josh 4:22-24

12 stones - not 6, not 11, but 12 representing each tribe of Israel that crossed over

Represents that faithfulness of God to the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

He promised Abram “I will make you a great nation” in Gen 12 and reaffirmed the promise to Isaac and Jacob

When they were in slavery in Egypt, easy to think God had abandoned them

But he raised up Moses and rescued them from Pharoah with great signs and wonders

Specifically, the crossing of the red sea mentioned here

He had done it again, faithful in the past, faithful once again

His promises never fail, they can be counted on, he can be counted on

12 stones had to be from the Jordan, from the very center of the river bed itself

In Josh 3:15

This wasnt fall or dry season but rather harvest time, when the river was at its fullest and even raging, a threat to people who dwelt on the banks for flooding and even to people in boats

So not the best time humanly speaking to be one side of the Jordan hoping to get to the other side

So why did God place the Israelites on the bank in this season?

Why does God tend to do his wonders when there is no other route?

To show them a) their utter helplessness to save themselves and b) to show that he is a miracle working God who intervenes in history to save his people and keep his promises and showcase his faithfulness to them

There was no way out for the people unless God intervened and he did

He is the one who can control and overcome nature and the raging might of the river and the forces of nature

Note also the order of the crossing

First, the priests enter the river.

They are the special representatives of God and the ark is a unique symbol of God’s presence.

God precedes his people in the crossing of the Jordan and thereby enables them to cross.

God goes before them and enables them to cross.

Once they have crossed, Josh 4:18

It is the end of wonder and a return to normal existence

Memorial forever (v9) shows that these memorials were specific and few in number

They commemorate specific miraculous interventions in history where God enters history to save his people

God does not engage in these interventions regularly (by choice) but he does them specifically in situations where his people are helpless to save themselves from their enemies and in his faithfulness, he intervenes to save them

This is where faith comes in.

He says look at what I have done in the past.

Look at the 12 stones, this is a memorial forever so that you can believe that I who saved you in the past unto myself, who went before you in the raging river and enabled you to cross over on dry land onto the other side, I will be faithful to you

So be faithful to me, believe that no situation in the present can take you out of my reach, I will keep you, I will preserve you, keep your faith, your hope and your trust in me.

So keep looking back to the 12 stones, ask yourself what does it tell you about me.

reflect on it, meditate on it regularly

Yahweh’s standard method of retaining his people’s fidelity is not by frequent and dazzling displays of power but by faithful witness and teaching of those particular acts in which he had already demonstrated his care for his own.

It would be in this region that John the Baptist would come many years later to prepare the people anew for the coming of the kingdom of God.83

He would announce that a new Joshua was coming to save his people from the darkness of sin and rescue them and enable them to enter into the land of new life, bor again life.

This Jesus was God, worker of miracles, Matt 8:27 powerful over nature

He entered into the fight against sin and death, going before us as our forerunner, he won the victory, he crossed the river of death and resurrected into new life so that his people who follow him can also enter into new life on the other side of the river.

And he did many miracles and healing but his intervention to save us from sin and death is what is commemorated in the memorials that he instituted

Baptism we do once, bread and the wine that we partake every sunday

What do these stones mean?

We belong to a God who has worked miracles because he is faithful and he has seen us over the river will not abandon us, will not condemn us, and will see us through all the days of our life into eternity

What Does This Tell Us About Us?

Identity

12 stones represent the tribe of Israel

Told the individuals they belonged to a community that was formed and named by God

they were an Israelite, part of the people of God

Remembrance symbols show that we are a Christian and a part of the body

1 Cor 12:13

1 Cor 11:20

like the illustration in 1 Pet 2:4-5 to show our identity in Christ and in being part of God’s spiritual house, his church

Ongoing commitment