Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
We took a pause on this series for the month of December so we could focus on Jesus coming in the flesh as a little baby.
Interesting, because that is where we left off in the book of Hebrews.
I know it has been a few weeks, so I want to give a breakdown of the book of Hebrews to this point.
Jesus is Superior
Background of the Book of Hebrews- A church under fire
Jesus is Superior- He is the voice we must listen to (Hebrews 1:1-4)
Jesus is Superior to the Angels (Hebrews 1:4-14)
A Warning Against Drifting (Hebrews 2:1-4)
The Superior Jesus Made Himself Human (Hebrews 2:5-18) Christmas Story!!!
In part...
Jesus is Superior to Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6)
We left off looking at Jesus as being superior to Moses.
We saw that Moses was a faithful servant in God’s household
But we see that Jesus is faithful OVER God’s household.
We emphasized the faithfulness of Jesus and this leads directly into our topic today.
If Jesus is faithful, we look at today’s passage and see an exhortation for the audience of Hebrew Christians to be faithful.
Read today’s passage Hebrews 3:7-19
PRAY
Topic
As we break down today’s passage, we will find that there are three segments to our passage today.
In the first segment, the author of Hebrews makes a statement (exhortation).
In the second segment, the author then says the same thing in a different way.
In the third segment, the author says the same thing in a third way.
All of which makes preaching this passage pretty simple.
I really only need to say one thing three times.
Hebrews 3:7 (NIV)
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
I want to start here.
The author of Hebrews is going to point us back to a passage from Psalms 95.
He will directly quote from that passage in the first five verses of our passage.
But rather than saying, “So as David says:”, he attributes this passage to another author.
We can go back into the Psalms and see that the 95th Psalm was attributed to David.
But the author here is saying something much deeper about the OT Scriptures.
We will find that this author is very aware of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of believers, in His church and in our world.
He will go on at the end of Hebrews 4 to say that the Word of God is living and active, and he goes on to describe beautifully the work of the Scriptures in our lives.
The author is now going to quote from Psalm 95.
The Psalms were poems or songs, and they were written for a purpose.
Some were to praise and worship God
Others, were to pour our our hearts and struggle to God
Today’s passage is a reminder to remember.
Psalm 95 is a reminder of the failures of the people of Israel in the wilderness.
It is their way of remembering those mistakes, so they wouldn’t be made again.
So today, we will look at an example of failure in the hope that we do not repeat the same mistake.
Part 1 (verses 7-11)
We are looking at a snapshot of the failures of the people of Israel in the wilderness.
This passage starts out, “Today, if you hear his voice...”
The people in the wilderness heard the voice of God.
It was often spoken through Moses.
That is why leading into this passage, we see that Moses was faithful in God’s house.
They knew the voice of Moses through the Holy Spirit empowered Scriptures.
They knew that this was the voice of God.
God spoke to them.
However, they did not respond with obedience, rather they responded with hardened hearts and rebellion.
In fact, it says that they were enduring a time of testing in the wilderness.
But their hard hearts and rebellion tried and tested God.
God responded with anger.
He had given them direction and His voice.
They responded by not listening and not knowing His way.
How sad of a testimony.
They had the voice of God, but did not know His ways.
God declared an oath in His anger that they would not enter his rest.
The context and understanding of this means that they would not inhabit the promised land.
As we see in the book of Numbers, that generation passed away and a new generation of Israelites entered the promised land.
This is the story that the author of Hebrews wanted to remind the Hebrew audience about.
These people knew this story very well.
It was their heritage.
They celebrated the Passover where they remembered the work of God to set their people free from Egypt.
They knew of the wanderings in the wilderness.
They also knew of their entering into the promised land.
They quoted and sang the Psalms.
The author of Hebrews is using something they were familiar with to make a point to them about their current state of affairs.
He is using the Bible to make a relevant application to their specific circumstance.
This is what we are doing today!
The author of Hebrews then does a VERY Jewish thing.
He uses a teaching method called a Midrash.
Part 2 (verses 12-15)
Midrash- A method of commentating on the OT text by using key words from that text to make practical application.
What you will find in the next segment of verses is the words and phrases of the first few verses, reused, and applied in a practical way.
Here is the exhortation:
The ancestors of the Hebrews in the wilderness had a sinful and unbelieving heart.
They turned away from the living God.
The author identifies the problem and the result.
Their hearts were sinful and unbelieving.
As a result, they turned away from the Living God.
We are going to come back to this warning.
Commands are always simple.
But the follow through can be a challenge.
How do we prevent this from happening?
How do we avoid having sinful unbelieving hearts?
The author offers his recommendation.
Instead of doing that, do this...
We see the author pull the word “Today” from the Psalm 95 text.
In Psalm 95, it says,
Psalm 95:7 (NIV)
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
He says, “Today, if you would hear his voice,”
This was the warning that we should always listen for the voice of God.
Today
Not listen and talk about what God has said in the past
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