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.
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Anger
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Analytical
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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

Tones
Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
Language
Analytical
Confident
Tentative
Social Tendencies
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Emotional Range
Anger
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It is Friday in Jerusalem and a huge crowd has gathered at the place called Skull Hill.
It was on the north side of the city, just outside the Damascus Gate, and located by the side of a well-traveled road.
The Romans liked to hold their crucifixions in public places.
Killing people in public had a salutary effect on the masses.
This particular crucifixion started at 9 A.M. For three hours everything proceeded normally.
Then at exactly 12 noon, the sky went black.
Not overcast, but pitch black, so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
It wasn’t anything normal like an eclipse.
The darkness seemed to pulse and throb, almost like the darkness was a living thing, an evil mutant creature escaped from some science fiction movie.
Only this was no movie.
What happened was real.
For three hours darkness fell across the city of Jerusalem.
There were screams, hideous cries, moans, and other unidentifiable sounds.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, the darkness lifted, disappeared, vanished, and sanity returned to the earth.
One glance at the middle cross made it clear that this man Jesus would not last much longer.
He looked dead already.
His body quivered uncontrollably, his chest heaving with every tortured breath.
The soldiers knew from long experience that he wouldn’t make it to sundown.
Then it happened.
He shouted something—"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Someone in the crowd shouted back to him.
Moments passed, death drew near, then a hoarse whisper, “I thirst.”
The soldiers put some sour vinegar on a sponge and lifted it to his lips with a stalk of hyssop.
He moistened his lips and took a deep breath.
If you listened you could hear the death rattle in his throat.
He had less than a minute to live.
Then he spoke again.
It was a quick shout.
Just one word.
If you weren’t paying attention, you missed it in all the confusion.
Then he breathed out another sentence.
Then he was dead.
The Gospel of John records it this way:
What was that shout?
In Greek it is only one word …
Tetelestai
… “It is finished.”
Jesus didn’t say, I’m finished.
no he said IT IS FINISHED.
That is finished.
Tetelestai.
This was a victory proclamation…not a word of defeat it is finished, but a victorious proclamation IT IS FINISHED!
That leaves us with a very important question.
What is the IT?
We might think, it is the suffering, his punishment, his life.
But all those would be defeats.
It refers to his purpose.
It is his purpose.
What was the work of Jesus?
First to reconcile man back to God.
Each one of us is born with a love for sin.
We love it.
we might hate the sin we do, but our senses and nature seems drawn to it.
That’s part of what happened to us at the curse in the Garden of Eden.
That’s the curse of sin that each person is born with.
Babies too?
YES.
Babies are born into sin.
Think about it, do you have to teach a baby to be selfish?
To have temper tantrums?
no, they learn it on their own…our fallenness is that each one of us is born into sin that puts us outside a relationship with God.
Jesus finished this reconciliation.
As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians, that the sin of the first man Adam brought death, the death of the perfect son brought life.
His death, spiritually healed the fracture in the spiritual relationship between God and creation.
His death, spiritually healed the fracture in the spiritual relationship between God and creation.
But this cosmic effect of sin isn’t all that Jesus finished.
No.
You see, try as I might to walk with Jesus, I seem to sin every day.
I try to pray, read scripture, love God and my neighbor, but I fail.
Some days more than others, and Jesus came and died for everyone of my short comings.
Yours too.
That’s what it means that he died as a propitiation for my, your, sin.
Propitiation, That’s a big preachy word.
What does it mean?
In Jewish law, you had to present sin offerings on a regular basis.
It was intended to teach us the importance of sin.
Generally, we believe that what I do doesn’t really affect anyone else but me so what’s the big deal.
God wanted us to understand that we don’t live in a vacuum, but our sin has real effects.
It affects other people and it affects God.
In order to help us understand this cost, he directed his people to make regular sin offerings.
It wasn’t meant to send you into poverty, but everyone sins, therefore everyone was expected to make these offerings.
The offerings were based on your ability so that everyone could take part.
If you were super poor, a few grains of wheat.
If you were poor, 2 doves or pigeons $0.50-5.00
If you were middle class, a goat or sheep $2-300
Upper middle class, a calf or steer $7-800+
Jesus did more than finish it, he completed it.
Wealthy church leader, a bull $2000+
Everyone was responsible, so everyone was expected to make a sin offering.
1 sin $400, 2 sins $800, 3 sins $1,200, 4 sins $1,600...
Think about if we did this.
Now we are middle class folks, so we woudl be in the goat, sheep, calf, steer range.
We could say a reasonable thing for us would be say $400 offering.
Now, think of the sins you committed this week.
Count them.
Now, take the number of sins and multiply it by $400, the cost of our sheep, goat, calf, steer.
Then when it’s time in the service for our offering, just put that in the plate.
Next week, you can count your sins ahead of time and bring that with you.
This is the way God set it up.
Not to make us holy, but to show us how pointless it is for us to try.
Do you understand that this was a never ending process?
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