Sermon Tone Analysis

It is very interesting to see the difference between how people respond to warnings in cars compared to warnings in airplanes.

For cars, many simply ignore the warning signs.

It drives me crazy, one time I was driving a friend’s car, and he said don’t worry about a little light that comes on, it’s nothing.

As I was driving his car there was a warning sign that came up, I can tell you that was something pretty hard to ignore, besides the sign, there was an awful engine sound, it sounded like it was a cylinder misfiring, and on top of that the car often simply died when stopping at lights.

I called my friend and warned him that he should look into this problem.

Basically, he told that it was not a big deal, it was fine, just ignored it and it will be fine.

Compare that to how meticulous people are for the maintenance of airplanes.

No one in a sane mind will say, the engine is misfiring, but I’ll just ignore the warning and fly anyways.

The reason people are a lot more careful with the warning signs in an airplane is that our very lives will depend on that airplane working properly.

Because of that if there is a warning in an airplane, that problem will not just be ignored.

It will be taken seriously, and it will be studied carefully.

How much more seriously we should take when God gives us a warning that has eternal consequences for us?

We started the study of this warning when we studied v 7-11 which is a quotation from Psalm 95.

Today we will continue the study of this warning by studying v12-19.

In this section, the author of Hebrews makes a comment on the quote that we previously studied.

In these 8 verses, there are two commandments, which are found in v 12 and 13.

God is warning us to watch out for our hearts and He commands us to encourage one another.

We are going to start in v 14 through 19 so we can study in depth the warning before we studied the commands in 12 and 13, to watch our hearts and encourage one another.

Why should we encourage one another and watch our hearts?

The phrase “we have come to share in Christ” has the meaning that we have a personal interest in Christ.

But furthermore, it means believers are partners with Christ.

That is referring back to Heb 1:9 where believers are mentioned as Christ’s companions, then in 2:12 Christ calls us His brothers and sisters.

Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters because it is through His sacrifice that He made us clean and brought us into the family of God.

Because of our redemption and adoption, we have come to share in Christ.

That’s no little thing.

We know this but we can easily forget.

What a privilege and honor to be brought into God’s family, with God our Father and Jesus our brother.

The world will tell us every day that we are not important because we don’t fit in our world.

Our identity is secure and grounded, we belong to Him, we are His and He is ours.

Continuing in v 14 we see the author gives the conditional clause, “if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end”

The wording of this condition is saying that as we continue in the faith is a demonstration that we truly are members of God’s family.

The fact that we are holding on is not the security of our faith, but it is evidence that Christ is holding us in His hands.

If we hear this warning and dismiss it and not have any reverent fear that’s something serious and it begs us to consider if we are truly in Christ.

However, if you hear these words and have a reverent fear, it is a sign that you love Christ and understand that it would be the worst thing ever to not be with Christ.

God is calling us to persevere to the end, it is our perseverance that will demonstrate that we are truly brothers and sisters of Christ.

If we are truly partners with Christ we will confidently say: “You may have all this world, but give me Jesus” We will rather lose everything if it means gaining Christ.

However, if you rather have anything and lose Christ you are not worthy of Him.

If you know Him, you know that He is worthy of losing everything if necessary.

Then the author continues his admonition to us in v 15

Here the author repeats the warning in Psalm 95, do not harden your hearts but believe in what God said and what He promise.

We can have complete assurance that whatever God said, it is coming to pass.

Like Noah, God told him that he was going to bring judgment on all the earth and told him what to do.

Noah believed in God and act trusting that what God said was going to pass.

Noah walked with God, he trusted in God each day.

He did not lean on his own understanding but trusted God with all his heart.

Contrary to the wilderness generation, who saw all the mighty works of God.

But, over and over didn’t believe that God was going to provide for them.

They didn’t believe that God was going to fulfill what He had promised, they hardened their hearts.

Then v 16-18 the author of Hebrews has a series of questions exploring the spiritual identity of the wilderness generation.

It says:

Who was this wilderness generation?

They were the people that were set free from slavery in Egypt, they could have boasted of their relationship with God.

They had seen with their eyes the mighty works of God in Egypt in all the plagues, then how amazingly they left with their hands full of gifts from the Egyptians.

With their feet they cross the red sea as in dry land, they saw God’s judgment on Pharaoh’s army as they tried to cross the sea.

They were covered by the cloud that gave them shade during the day and warmth during the night.

With their mouths, they ate the mana that God provided.

Externally they had confidence in their relationship with God.

They experienced with their eyes, hands, feet, and mouths, but where was their heart?

Many today may have confidence in external things, lifetime church attendance, community service, a good reputation in society, well-behaved children, and serving in the church.

But all of these external things don’t necessarily show what is inside the heart.

They didn’t watch out for their hearts, they sought external things as a confirmation of their faith, instead of relying on a soft heart that listens and obeys God.

God has no delight in sacrifice, He is not pleased with burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.

(Psalm 51:16-17) God looks at our hearts and no one has to tell God, He knows our hearts from afar.

The question for us is what is in our hearts?

For the wilderness generation, verses 17-18 describe what was in their hearts.

They provoked God for forty years by not listening over and over, they sinned and received their punishment, they were not allowed to enter the promised land and they died in the wilderness.

It describes their hearts as sinful, in rebellion, and disobedient.

Their hearts provoked God for forty years.

Then in v 19, the author gives a summary of the spiritual condition of the wilderness generation’s heart.

It says:

Here the author of Hebrews is saying that the wilderness generation received this punishment because of unbelief.

It was because they did not believe in what God has said, that was the root of their disobedience.

It starts in the heart and how we respond to God that matters the most, everything else will flow from our hearts.

Considering this serious warning, what should we do?

God gives us two commandments in v12 and 13.

Let’s look first at v12 which focuses on our heart.

V12 starts with the commandment, which is a warning it says take care.

Other translations translate this commandment as: “Beware, Watch out, Take care, See to it, be careful, watch your steps.”

At first, if we consider the context of the readers, we might say that’s kind of hard words for them.

Believers at the time of this letter were facing persecution for being followers of Christ.

Not only they were looked down upon by others, but they were viewed as the problem of society.

The world saw that getting rid of Christians was the solution to their world.

Being a Christian was against the law, you would be a law-breaker for following Christ.

If you didn’t want to worship the many gods that society worshipped at that time.

There was one way to escape this judgment, to become a Jew.

If you would take the OT as the only word of God, follow Moses and the law given by God to the Israelites, you would be safe.

We see here why it was important to the author of Hebrews to start chapter 3 by comparing Jesus to Moses, showing that Jesus is much greater.

Now the author gives this warning because there were serious consequences for not listening to Moses, how much greater punishment if we don’t listen to Jesus?

Because of the seriousness of the consequence, there is a sharp warning to watch out for our hearts, that we don’t have an evil, unbelieving heart.

We have seen what this evil, unbelieving heart looks like in the description that the author of Hebrews gives in v 14-16, the disobedient, rebellious, and sinful hearts.

As the author gives us such a strong warning, he calls us brothers and sisters.

There are two things we can observe from the fact that he calls us brothers.

First, the author is not coming down on us in a domineering position, but in a humble manner he is giving us a strong warning.

Second, when he calls us brothers and sisters, he is reminding us of our family ties with Jesus, that through the blood of Jesus we are part of God’s family because we are God’s children He disciplines us, warns us, and calls us to persevere, command us to be so focus on Jesus that we are obsessed with Jesus.

The antidote for this evil, unbelieving heart was already given to us in verse 1, to consider attentively to Jesus, think about Jesus, fix your thoughts on Jesus, take a good hard look at Jesus, to be obsessed with Jesus.

The commandment is for each of us to have a look in our hearts.

No one can tell what is in your heart or your mind.

We need to ask God to search our minds and hearts and show us if there is any hint of unbelief.

Psalm 139 is interesting it starts by saying: