Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Max Lucado in his book In The Eye Of The Storm tells the true story of poor Chippie.

Chippie was a pet bird just peacefully perched in his cage when all of the sudden life was changed into a living nightmare.

It all began when Chippie's owner decided to clean his cage with a vacuum cleaner.

She had just stuck the end of the hose into the cage when the phone rang.

She turned to pick it up, and as she said, "Hello," she heard a strange sound in the cage.

She looked, and Chippie was gone.

He had gotten sucked into the vacuum.

She gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag.

There was Chippie.

He was alive but stunned by his involuntary flight into utter darkness.

He was covered with dust, and so she grabbed him and ran to the bathroom.

There she held him under running water.

When she realized he was soaked and shivering she got her hair dryer, and blasted him until he was dry.

Now you know what I mean by poor Chippie.

He never knew what hit him.

In a matter of minutes he had been through more trauma then most birds see in a lifetime.

A few days later the owner was asked how the bird was doing, and she replied, "Chippie doesn't sing much anymore.

He just sits and stares.

As we look at Paul, the jail bird, we are looking at a man who has been through great trauma as well.

He has been sucked up into a vast legal system where he is a mere pawn between the major players of Judaism and Rome.

To make matters worse, it is not just his enemies he has to put up with, but his friends are also trying to take advantage of his imprisonment to further their own careers.

But unlike Chippie Paul is not singing less, and just staring at the prison walls.

He is rejoicing, and looking ahead to a greater life in time, and a glorious life in eternity.

Paul is an incurable optimist because he cannot lose.

For him to live is Christ, and to die is gain, and so no matter which way the ball bounces, he wins.

No matter how much Paul was put through the mill, he never stopped rejoicing.

He said to others, "Rejoice in the Lord always," and he practiced what he preached.

Paul was honest about his emotions, and he tells us in verse 20 that he did have some fear that he would fail his Lord, and be ashamed to stand fast if it would cost him his life.

Paul was not a computer program to smile even when the roof was caving in.

He was a man, and he had his weaknesses, and though he expected to pass the test, he knew it would take a lot of courage.

Paul was going through what we all do when we think of being put to the ultimate test of our faith.

What if a gunman said, "Deny Jesus as your Lord, or I will pull this trigger."

We all sweat with self-doubt as we ask, "What would I do?" Would I have the courage to die for Jesus, or would I hang my head in shame as I denied Him? Cowardice or courage-which will it be?

Paul says that he hopes he would not be a coward, but have the courage to exalt his Lord by either life or death.

We do not face the same pressure as Paul did, but the fact is, everyone of us faces the alternative constantly between cowardice or courage.

Let's look at these two forces that hinder or help us to be what God wants us to be.

First consider,

I. COWARDICE.

Shakespeare said, "Cowards die many times before their death.

The valiant never taste of death but once."

His point being that the fear of death that cowards feel makes them taste of death over and over.

The courageous, however, only have to taste it when it actually comes.

Cowardice is a paradox, for the cowardly fears to suffer, but by so doing he suffers far more than the courageous.

By trying to avoid suffering he actually multiplies his suffering.

Cowardice brings on itself more of the very thing that it fears.

For example: If I do not have the boldness to tell my peers that I do not take drugs because of my Christian conviction, they will keep bugging me to do so, and I will have to go through the cowardly agony over and over of figuring out how to avoid it.

I have to keep faking excuses, and being hypocritical.

I add to the problem more misery than anybody seeks to lay on me, but it is all self-inflicted, because I am ashamed to confess with my mouth that I want to honor Christ with my body.

One bold and courageous confession of your Christian convictions can solve a mass of problems.

But because of cowardice, and fear to speak out, Christians go through great agony in trying to please both God and the world.

Jesus said it cannot be done, for you cannot serve two masters.

Your cowardice will lead you to compromise with the world.

And God will not be pleased, and neither will you.

The world, the flesh, and the devil will be pleased with cowardice, but God will not, and you will add to your own pain.

Peter turned coward and denied he even knew Jesus.

Paul expresses concern that he not be ashamed if he has to take a stand at great personal cost.

The point we need to see is, every Christian, at some point in their life, is going to be tempted to be a coward.

The best defense against this is to be aware of the yellow streak that is in all of us.

The fear of pain and suffering; the fear to be rejected and made ashamed, is common to all.

We have enough fears to make us fail in almost any trial.

We are wise if, like Paul, we admit our weaknesses, and recognize our limitations.

It is not being honest about our potential cowardice that will lead us to make the very mistakes we most fear.

This happened to Beethoven.

He was ashamed to admit he was going deaf.

Everyone else knew it, and they tried to advise him not to conduct a performance of Fidelio.

He would not admit his limitation, but went ahead and created a disaster.

The orchestra got ahead of the vocalist, and soon there was total confusion.

He threw down his baton, and rushed from the building.

He was later found on a sofa with his head between his hands shaking with sobs.

It was a painful experience from which he never fully recovered.

He died with hope, however, for his last words were, "I shall hear in heaven."

It was his cowardice and fear to face his handicap, however, that lead to failure in time, and it was unnecessary suffering.

He could have been spared this burden had he been willing to acknowledge his weakness.

If Peter would have said, "I have a fear of being accused of being guilty.

I feel shame when I am identified with a failing cause.

I had better stay back and see what is happening," he could have avoided his cowardly denial.

But oblivious to his weakness, he stomps right into the presence of Christ's enemies, and is forced to reveal his yellow streak.

We do not always have a choice.

Paul did not, for he was a prisoner.

But we often do, and we need to avoid situations where we know our weaknesses will lead us to be cowards.

If you are a chicken to say no, then you just don't go to places where you will be asked to do what you know is not God's will for you.

Be honest about your potential cowardice, and you will be better prepared to either avoid it, or be courageous to make the right choice.

Paul faced his potential cowardice, and was confident he could control it, and when the test came he could exhibit courage.

Let's look at his-

II.COURAGE.

The primary focus of Paul is on boldness of speech.

The area where most Christians become cowardly is right here on this issue of speech.

Christians can boldly boast of their love of sports, or their love of the theatre, or any number of loves, but when it comes to the love of God, and the love of His Word, they freeze up and turn as yellow as a dandelion.

You would never dream that Paul would ever struggle with this, but the fact is, a verbal defense of the Gospel, when it can hurt you, and embarrass you, calls for the same kind of courage as that of the soldier who is ordered to advance when machine gun bunkers are just ahead.

It takes heroic boldness.

The Greek word Paul uses here is PARRHESIA.

It is a word the Greeks loved, for it represented one of the essential characteristics of their democracy-freedom of speech.

A Greek citizen had the same rights as you and I have in our democracy.

They could speak out and disagree with the leaders of the land.

If we do not like a policy of the President, we can boldly go on T.V. or radio, or write to the editor, and say in public that we think it is all wrong.

We can be so bold because it is a right, and the President cannot send police to shut us up, as is the case in some countries where there is not such right.

The Greeks said, bring your complaints to the officials with PARRHESIA, that is, boldness, and with a spirit of courage rather than cowardice.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all saw this as a key virtue of their society.

This sense of freedom to speak boldly.