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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.6LIKELY
Joy
0.14UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.6LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.42UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.06UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.55LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.52LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.48UNLIKELY

Tone of specific sentences

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
*"An Unnatural Enemy" (Death)*
/ /
/shaken to the core/
I have this little joke with my boys, “I was dead once, but I got better”.
They think it’s funny.
It’s much easier to joke about death than face the cruel reality.
For many years Selwyn Hughes  wrote the devotional material called “Everyday with Jesus”.
Before he died, he quipped they’d write these words on his headstone, “Gone to another meeting”.
A lot of Christians I know could have that inscription.
My uncle was not interested in the gospel.
But as he moved toward his own death he felt insecurity and fear.
One day he asked me, “what does the church think about death”?
Fear of the future.
And what did Kerry Packer say after one of his heart attacks, “I’m not ready to go yet”.
What a brave statement.
As though Kerry Packer is larger than death.
For most people death comes as an intruder, uninvited and unwelcome.
No matter the brave face, inwardly most people feel a sense of isolation, panic and despair.
Most of my friends are unable to cope with the reality of death.
The writer to the Hebrews describes unregenerate people as those who “all their lives are held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb 2:15).
All the world knows death by its description in the Book of Job as “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14).
All ages and cultures find the thought of death traumatic: it shocks, upsets, unnerves and shakes people to the core.
Nineteen times the Bible calls the prospect of death its “shadow” for it looms ahead of us as a dark threat.
Death casts a shadow before itself, streaking our sunniest moments with a dark chill.
Soon we shall pass into its darkness.
What lies beyond the darkness?
When this life stops – what starts?
In one sense we who come to church talk about death every week – the gospel tells us how in Christ Jesus we conquer death.
Easter is about the death and resurrection of Jesus and how by faith alone we are united to Christ in his death and we share in his glory.
The church is a community of people who understand death because in Christ death has been conquered and nothing can separate us from the love of God – even the valley of the shadow of death.
We sing words such as these, “where is death’s victory, where is death’s sting”?
But even so, I fear many Christians are scared of death not unlike the culture around them.
What lies beyond the darkness?
When this life stops – what starts?
/the nature of death/
The Bible teaches us that all death is unnatural.
Death is the unnatural enemy.
Our instinctive feelings are confirmed – death is an intrusion.
Ecc 12:7 describes our mortality in these terms, “the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”.
This verse echoes the creation story.
As in the beginning God made man by breathing life into a thing of dust (Gen 2:7) so now in death he partly un-makes him.
In death God severs the two realities he originally joined together.
This is why corpses look vacant – body and spirit have been separated.
It is the emptiness of a body that is unnerving – the spirit has gone – no-one is home.
/            not annihilation but judgment/
Some people think about death in terms of annihilation.
This means that as you were before conception, so you are after death.
Non-existent.
But the Bible everywhere takes personal survival after death for granted.
Paul says in 2 Cor 5 that death for the Christian is the “unclothing” of a person by dismantling his earthly tent and then being clothed with “an eternal house in heaven”.
Death is a change of wardrobe.
2 Cor 5:4, “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wished to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling”.
Throwing off the old and temporary – putting on the new and permanent.
Death is not the end of personal life – all people live on – the person in Christ looks forward to shedding what is mortal and being clothed with heavenly realities.
The Old Testament pictures death as going down to the place called Sheol or Hades.
These are alternative words for “grave”.
Turn with me to Job 13:14.
Job says to God, “if only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me to your anger has passed”.
In my Bible the word “grave” has a  footnote which says “Hebrew Sheol”.
Sheol is not the same place as hell – nor is it the final place for the dead.
Sheol is the grave and the Bible looks forward to an emptying of the grave when the dead are raised for judgment at Christ’s return.
John’s vision in Rev 20:11-13 is helpful here, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
Earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done”.
Those whose names are written in the Book of Life will rise from the grave and are welcomed into their heavenly home.
The rest will rise and experience the force of God’s anger – not extinction – but the far worse prospect of an endless awareness of God’s just and holy displeasure.
Using the full weight of Jewish imagery, the Bible describes an endless hell as an “unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12) – the place where “the devouring worm never dies” (Mk 9:47f) – a place of “whaling and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 25:30) – “eternal punishment” (Matt 25:46) – “eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess 1:9) – “the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:8).
An endless hell is as part of the Scriptures as an endless heaven.
For Christ-less people physical death which is the first death does not mean extinction but only the unending pain of the second death.
Jim Packer says the godless person dimly senses the second death and so he fears to die.
In the New Testament death is primarily a spiritual state – the state of mankind without Christ – the state of separation from God, cut off from his favour and fellowship.
/death and sin/
Both the physical and spiritual aspects of death are God’s judgment upon sin.
Ezek 18:4 says, “the soul who sins is the one who will die”.
Later, the Apostle Paul says in Rom 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death”.
Back in the garden of Eden God warned Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of God and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:16-17).
This is in part a reference to Adam’s physical death as suggested by Gen 3:19 where Adam is told that he will return to the ground “since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return”.
We have a Saviour who abolishes physical death.
Jesus rose from the dead and many will share in his resurrection.
The stench of death is not the final word.
Graves will one day be empty.
When God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden they also suffered a spiritual death –  no longer walking with God in the cool of day - fellowship with God was broken – they were driven away from the tree of life and the flaming sword stopped them from returning.
We have a Saviour who abolishes spiritual death.
Through his death the penalty for sin is paid and we are acquitted by God – justified by faith – declared righteous and free to fellowship with God and eat from the tree of life.
The final vision in Revelation sums it up, ”Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:3).
/the decisiveness of death/
The world sees physical death as final closure, a meaningless end to a person’s life.
At funerals I usually say this, “Death is not like a railway line – you come to the end of line and there’s no where to go.
Death is better pictured as a valley – a valley that people cross to go from one place to another.
Jesus was the first one to successfully cross the valley of death and rise again to new life”.
And so death is a beginning – the opening of a door where one reaps what one has sown.
At the moment of death it is too late to change – after death there is a great gulf between those whom God accepts and those whom he rejects (Luke 16:26).
The time of choice has passed.
All that remains is to receive the consequences of that choice.
There is nothing arbitrary about eternal punishment – it is in essence God respecting our choice throughout eternity.
And so we should set ourselves to live in the light of eternity.
Well did the psalmist pray, “Teach us to number our days aright, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90:12).
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9