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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.05UNLIKELY
Fear
0.62LIKELY
Joy
0.64LIKELY
Sadness
0.13UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.29UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.5UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.22UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.72LIKELY
Agreeableness
0.94LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.48UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Responding to a Christmas Miracle
Luke 1:26-38
Online Sermon:
http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567
It is almost Christmas time again!
While I am not a big
fan of insane traffic and shopping in overcrowded malls, how I
love to visit family and friends and gorge on some of the best
cooking one could ever desire!
And while expressing love
towards one another is part of our obligations to God at
Christmas time I can’t
help but think that
there is more asked of
us during this joyous
occasion!
For
instance, when the
virgin Mary was told
she was about to have
a child who would be
called the “Son of
God” who would fulfill the Messianic prophecies, how did she
respond?
God asked her to risk her very life and fulfill a role in
His kingdom beyond her understanding and yet she had
incredible faith and said, “may Your word be fulfilled in me!”
Even though Mary was a teenage with a low social status, this
“ordinary person” was told she would become the mother of
1
John G Mason, Luke: An Unexpected God, ed.
Paul Barnett, Second Edition., Reading the
Bible Today Series (Sydney, South NSW: Aquila Press, 2019), 11.
2
John G Mason, Luke: An Unexpected God, ed.
Paul Barnett, Second Edition., Reading the
Bible Today Series (Sydney, South NSW: Aquila Press, 2019), 12.
Jesus!
The Bible states we are Christ’s ambassadors, royal
priests and have been given spiritual gifts to accomplish the
divine roles assigned to each one of us!
Since we are divinely
enabled should we not respond to the babe lying in the manger
with more than just enjoying presents and great food?
Are we
not like Mary being invited to love Jesus by doing great things
in His kingdom?
What keeps us from serving Jesus this
Christmas, is it fear of being ridiculed, fear of not being capable,
laziness, or outright disbelief that the Good Shepherd can do
anything in and through our very lives?
During this sermon,
please listen to how Zachariah and Mary responded to the angel
Gabriel and ask yourself, how should I respond to Christ’s birth
so that I might honor Him rightly on His birthday!
Jesus’s Birth Foretold
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy” (26a)
In foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ Luke invites us to
go back to the first of the chapter and review the foretelling of
the birth of John the Baptist.
The story begins stating that in the
time of king Herod there was a priest named Zachariah who was
married to Elizabeth who was a descendant of Aron (5).
Though
both were “righteous in God’s sight, observing all the Lord’s
commands and decrees blamelessly” (6),1 like Abraham and
Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah they were beyond childbearing
years2 and “faced lifelong disappointment and shame”3 of not
being blessed by God with children.
One day when Zachariah’s
division was on duty he was chosen by lot to “go into the Holy
3
Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary
(Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), Lk 1:5–7.
1|P age
Place before the presence of God and burn incense during the
sacrifice.”4
This was a once in a lifetime experience5 but what
made it even more miraculous is what happened next.
The angel
of the Lord Gabriel appeared and told Zechariah to not be afraid
for he was “gripped in fear” (12).
Gabriel told him that his
prayers had been heard
and he was going to
have a son and who was
to be named “John”
(13) which means “the
Lord
has
shown
favor.”6
John would be
a prophet that would go
before the Lord in the
spirit and power of
Elijah, he was to take
7
the Nazarite vow to never take “wine or fermented drink,”8 and
would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born
(15)!9 John would be the promised Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 who
would “turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord” (Malachi 3:1-2, 17)!10 While John
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9