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
0.1UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.63LIKELY
Sadness
0.58LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.56LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.11UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.83LIKELY
Extraversion
0.32UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.89LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
A Significant Event
This Christmas we have highlighted the birth of Jesus by looking at his family’s trip to Egypt right after he was born.
Egypt is a significant place.
Many people used Egypt as an escape destination when they were in some kind of trouble.
That certainly was the case with Jesus.
Egypt is tied to significant people.
Joseph, Moses and Jesus are the three big names that come to mind.
Jesus is the center of our study.
Joseph was the son of Jacob who, through the providence of God, became the head of the famine relief agency in Egypt.
Because of his position, he was able to move his family from Israel to Egypt during a time of great famine.
Moses arrives four hundred years later and is responsible for leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Egypt is tied to a significant event.
With Moses, we find a third element that makes a place significant.
Places are significant because of certain events that happen in that place.
I was born in Barre, Vermont.
I was married in Hingham, MA.
I pastored a church in Unity and Palermo.
My mother died at the Hanover Hospital in Hanover, NH.
My father died at his apartment in Milford, NH.
What makes a place significant is the event or events that took place there.
We commemorate special events.
I have never been to Gettysburg, but that is the site of one of the most important battles of the Civil War.
Kitty Hawk is the place where the Wright brothers first flew an airplane.
We find little crosses lining some of our highways that point to the spot that someone’s son, daughter, husband or wife died in an automobile crash.
Years ago I took a ride with Walter Banton.
As we traveled down some country roads he would point out certain places and then give a story about what event made that place significant.
If one were to ask a first century Jewish person, “What makes Egypt significant…” most of them would no doubt mention a very significant event: the Exodus.
Exodus
The Exodus was the name given to the second book of the Bible.
It highlights the birth, childhood, maturing of Moses and his confrontations with Pharaoh over the release of the Israeli’s from Egyptian control.
God intervened and on one fateful night, Pharaoh agreed to let Israel leave.
This departure was called the Exodus.
This was a movement from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land.
The Exodus was celebrated yearly in the Passover and was deeply embedded in the national mind of Israel.
In Jesus’ day, the nation of Israel was looking for a second Moses, a Messiah, who would break Rome’s control over Israel and allow them to be self-governing and free to follow God.
Exodus is literally “the path out…” As such, it refers to someone leaving a place.
We use the word “Exit.”
They used the word “Ex” which is to leave and “odos” which is a road or path.
The exodus or departure of Israel from Egypt was significant for two purposes.
First, the exodus was significant because they were leaving slavery.
Second, the exodus was significant because they were headed to the land of promise.
What event is most tied to Egypt?
The Exodus made Egypt significant.
The Old Testament prophet, Hosea, gives us a deeper insight into the significance of this Exodus event.
After Israel left Egypt and settled in the Promised Land, they forgot God and turned away from the God who delivered them and were worshipping other gods.
God does not believe in pluralism.
He says that we shall have no other gods before him.
Israel was in trouble.
They were especially in trouble because they turned their backs on a God who loved them.
God loved them before they were a nation.
He loved Israel before they crossed the Jordon River.
He loved them before he gave the Ten Commandments.
He loved them before they crossed the Nile.
He loved Israel when they were slaves in Egypt.
When they were still in Egypt, he called them his “son…” his children.
His love is expressed in strongest terms.
Most parents have a stronger love for their children than for each other.
People have gone through divorce “for the sake of the children.”
If someone came into a home and said to a wife, “Who do you want me to kill, your husband or your child?” most women would choose to have the child live.
That would be a horrible choice, but our gut reaction is to love our children deeply.
God had that same gut level love for Israel when they were in Egypt.
His great love is the reason he called them out of Egypt.
There were slaves all over the world.
But God had a special relationship with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He entered into a covenant, an agreement with them.
Even when they were in Egypt, his love never failed.
When we look at the significance of the Exodus from Egypt, God’s loving hand is behind every element.
He put Pharaoh in a rough spot.
He parted the Red Sea.
He provided manna, quail and water during their forty years in the wilderness.
He split the Jordon River.
He helped give victory over their enemies.
God was good to Israel.
Because Israel rejected God’s love, Hosea is telling Israel that bad days are ahead.
If one reads Hosea, one will see that in spite of the prophecies of judgment, God will ultimately redeem his people.
The similarities between Moses and Jesus are striking.
Both were born to poor parents.
Both were saved from an early death that claimed the lives of their peers.
Both had royal connections.
Both were in Egypt.
Both came out of Egypt.
Both moved when the people who wanted to kill them died.
Moses returned to Egypt.
Jesus leaves Egypt.
This last part is highlighted by verse 15.
The prophet that Matthew quotes is Hosea.
Matthew is aware of certain things.
First, he is aware that Jesus is God’s son.
Israel was God’s son in a metaphorical sense.
Jesus is God’s son in a physical sense.
God didn’t call Jesus his prophet, nor did he call him his servant.
God called Jesus his son.
God loves Jesus as a father loves a son.
If we mess with Jesus, we mess with God.
The love that God has for Jesus is mentioned more than once.
At Jesus’ baptism, God said,
The love that God has for Jesus is one of the major reasons for we have for calling people to trust Jesus.
This close bond works in two ways.
As God loved Israel in its infancy, so God loved Jesus from his birth.
As he brought Israel out of Egypt, so Jesus was brought out of Egypt.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9