Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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A farmer looked out his window one day and saw several young fellows stealing watermelons from his field.
He pulled out his gun and fired over their heads once or twice to scare the thieves off.
Later, when the boys met, one said, “Did you hear those bullets.”
Another replied, “I heard them twice, once when they passed me, and once when I passed them.”
Fear is a powerful motivator, by the power of fear we can “leap tall buildings” and run faster than “speeding bullets.”
The Prairie Overcomer a publication of the Prairie Bible Institute of Canada had this to say about the motivating power of fear:
There are four great impelling motives that move men to action: Fear, Hope, Faith, and Love—these four, but the greatest of these is Fear.
Fear is first in order, first in force, first in fruit.
Indeed, fear is “the beginning of wisdom.”
Scripture summarizes the chief cause of sin and crime: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
As a preacher highly trained in the Greek rhetorical arts the author of Hebrews knew all about the motivating power of fear.
As a preacher highly trained in the Rabbinic system, he also knew that the “fear of the Lord, was the beginning of wisdom.”
It comes as no surprise then that he begins chapter four with an appeal to both fear and hope.
Let us turn our attention to verses 1-3 of Hebrews 4:
Notice the appeal to hope in verse one, “while the promise of entering his rest still stands” and the appeal to fear, “let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.”
The author of Hebrews wrote this sermonic letter because some of the church of Rome had already abandoned the faith out of a fear of man.
They did this because they placed their hope in the things of this world, when persecution came, their worldly hopes where endangered and as a consequence they denied Christ.
The author of Hebrews is combating this by appealing to a greater hope—the hope of entering God’s rest and a greater fear—the fear of God.
By pointing us to the fear of God and the hope of eternal life, the author of Hebrews is reminding us how small the fear of man really is.
As a well trained rabbi, he was familiar with the Old Testament teaching on fear.
Surely he must have been thinking of passages like this:
Therefore...
Let Us Not Fear Man
There is no question that evil men can do great harm to us in this world.
They can even take our lives.
We see the bloody power of men today as we look to places such as Africa, the Middle East or North Korea, but what we must remember is that their power to do us harm is limited to this world and this life only.
In Matthew 10 we find Jesus preparing His disciples for persecution.
He begins by saying...
He then reminds them that this is the way people have been treating Him...
We all know how terribly people treated Jesus—He was not only maligned—he was beaten and crucified!
Yet a few verses later, Jesus teaches us not to be afraid of man...
Man’s wrath is nothing compared to God’s, because God’s wrath extends into the next life and lasts forever!
Therefore...
Let Us Fear God
Let us not forget as we begin chapter 4 that when the author of Hebrews is writing of God’s “rest” he is still quoting Psalm 95.
The clear implication is this: If you don’t enter into God’s rest, you enter into God’s wrath!
Later on in his letter the author will write:
No wonder the Bible reminds us again and again, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
There is nothing more foolish than to rebel against the living God!
It doesn’t matter how great someone”s intelligence is or how great their worldly wisdom is, if they are living in defiance to the living God they are a fool!
As the author of Hebrews will be reminding us again and again, this world is but a shadow pointing to a greater reality.
Our lives in this world are but a flash in the pan, the real story of our lives begins in the next because the next life lasts forever.
That is why it is so important that you...
Conclusion: Don’t Let Your Temporal Fear Rob You of Your Eternal Hope
Where you place your hope will determine where you place your fear.
If your hope is in God’s eternal rest, then your fear will be in God.
If your hope is in this world, then your fear will be in man.
In our Gospel lesson this morning the angel of the Lord told the shepherds, “Fear not.”
Now let me assure you, if you saw an angel in all his glory you would be afraid!
You would be so overwhelmed with fear that all of your strength would leave you and you would fall down as if you were dead!
So on the surface, it is an odd thing for the angel to say, “Fear not.”
However, it is not such an odd thing when you consider the reason the angel says not to be afraid.
You see, it is the hope of a Savior who will bring us into God’s rest that dispels the power of fear—even the power of the fear of seeing an angel!
As Caesarius of Arles said years ago, “If you fear God, you will fear nothing else.” Therefore...
Let us Fear God.
Let us Hope in God’s rest.
Let us pray.
Lord add your blessing to this morning’s Scripture lessons and sermon, that we might fear you only and hope most strongly in your eternal promises found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In whose name we pray.
Amen.
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