Sermon Tone Analysis
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Anglican Church of Noosa
JESUS – Greater Than – Persevere in the Faith
Hebrews 10:19-31
Rev’d Brad Henley
Wow! “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
That final verse really packs a
punch.
It reminds me of a sermon preached by the American preacher Jonathan Edwards.
Around the time of the Great Awakening in 1741 he preached a sermon titled, “Sinners in the
hands of an Angry God.”
Some people credit his sermon as the catalyst that started the First Great
Awakening when many people returned to God.
Now, I believe that sermons are written for a
context, for a particular culture, time and place, and I think it is particularly so with this one.
I
don’t know whether God worked powerfully around that time because of Edwards’ sermon or in
spite of it.
It is impossible for us to know.
But I know that that particular sermon is not for this
time, place and context, spiritually or culturally.
By all reports Edwards was a calm and restrained
preacher most of the time and apparently, he read this sermon in a quiet unassuming manner.
So,
if anything, it wasn’t the style of His preaching that fired up the people to respond, but I believe
many different factors came together at that time that led to the Great Awakening when people
returned to God, repenting of their sins and followed Jesus with renewed passion, commitment
and discipleship.
The Bible says clearly that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.
So, I suspect that
rather than saying Edwards’ sermon was the catalyst for the Great Awakening, it might be more
accurate to say that God moved powerfully in that area while Edwards was the pastor.
If God
worked through Edwards’ famous sermon, “Sinners in The Hands of An Angry God”, I think it
shows that it is God’s grace that brings about revival, not a particular preacher or sermon.
In the
sermon Edwards seems to major on the anger and wrath of God and minor on the kindness of
God.
God is love, and all of God’s activity is loving.
God’s love is worked out in righteous anger
and wrath against evil, but to preach primarily of wrath and anger with occasional mentions of
God’s kindness seems to be directed at trying to scare people into heaven.
By contrast, the Bible says in Romans 2:4, “it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.”
With
God, there is justice, judgement of sin, and the certainty that all things will be set right.
And God’s
justice, judgement, and conviction of sin comes in the context of his kindness, grace and love.
Now, moving to today’s final verse which shares some similarities with Edwards’ sermon title.
“It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
I want to approach this verse through a couple of stories from history.
The first is from Isaiah.
Isaiah was called by God to be a prophet, to speak out God’s truth to the people of his time.
When God called Isaiah, he gave Isaiah a vision of magnificent splendour.
He revealed a glimpse
of His greatness and Isaiah was overcome with the experience.
“Woe to me!”
He cried.
“I am ruined!
For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of
unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
When Isaiah was confronted with God’s presence, with seeing the King, he immediately saw the
wretchedness of his own life.
He saw that he didn’t have a purity, or holiness of his own.
He saw
that his speech was not worthy of such an exalted God of purity, holiness, and glory.
And rightly
so, Isaiah admitted his brokenness and sin before God.
Isaiah had a healthy fear of God when he was confronted with God’s presence.
But the very next
thing that God does is deal with Isaiah’s fear.
God has one of His heavenly beings bring a coal
from the altar, touch Isaiah at the point of his most guilt, on the lips, and takes away his guilt.
2
The second story I want to share is from one of Jesus’ closest disciples - the one who calls himself,
the disciple Jesus loved.
John knew Jesus well.
He knew he was loved by Jesus.
He knew that he
was chosen and called to share the good news of Jesus and he did so for many years.
When God
took John through a vision-like experience to meet with Jesus later in life John had a similar
experience of fear to Isaiah.
Here was someone who absolutely knew he was loved by Jesus, who
had failed and sinned, yet who knew he was forgiven, and Revelation 1:17 says,
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”
One of Jesus’ closest friends, when confronted
with His greatness, fell as though dead at His feet.
There is a right way to fear God, to recognise
Jesus’ greatness and give him the honour, respect and awe that is His due.
But if we continue
reading in either of these stories, what happens next?
God says, “Don’t fear.”
The verse
continues, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Then he placed his right hand on me
and said, “Do not be afraid.”
Many times, the Angel of the Lord, a word or messenger of God appears to people in the Bible and
the people are overcome with fear.
But the first thing God says and does in these encounters is to
deal with their fear: “Don’t be afraid”, He says, “Let me deal with your sin so that you can draw
near.”
So, when we read, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
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