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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.58LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.34UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.59LIKELY
Extraversion
0.21UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.47UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.52LIKELY

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
Welcome
We’re studying the Sermon on the Mount
Last week we learned that Jesus didn’t come (as many had hoped and thought) to abolish the law.
He said, he came to fulfill the law; that is, to accomplish all the things that the books of the law and the books of the prophets said would happen.
But Jesus also said some uncomfortable things about the actual commands that are found in the OT.
He said, his disciples aren’t to relax on the commands, but instead disciples are supposed to do them and teach others to do them to.
And the last little interesting piece is what Jesus said about a disciple’s behavior, he says:
A Greater Righteousness
A Greater Righteousness
So, in other words unless we have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the really-super-holy guys, we’re not entering the Kingdom.
And again, when we hear Kingdom, we need to say: “The Reign of Christ” not a disembodied realm somewhere in the clouds.
The Kingdom (Reign of Christ) is over those who have a righteousness that is greater than the religious leaders.
And you obtain that righteousness NOT by upping the ante of acting more and more religious, but by having a righteousness that goes beyond an outward obedience to the law.
There must be an inward, whole-person behavior that accords with God’s nature and the coming Kingdom.
And that’s what Jesus means when he says that he’s come to fulfill the law and the prophets.
He’s come to bring the life and faith that the law itself could not bring.
So, as we study the exegesis of how Jesus intends for this to play out, let us understand that Jesus did not come to bring a new law, but a new heart so that his disciples would have the desire and the power to follow Christ in reflecting God’s character to the world.
A New View of Wholeness
And that’s what holiness is all about.
Church, I talk to so many people who have a view of holiness that completely misses the point.
We act as if God’s happiness depended on our ability to not commit a lot of sin or certain sins.
We have traced this back so many times, but I’ll say it again, God’s intent for his people was always that they would glorify Him.
That hasn’t changed.
Glorifying him, doesn’t mean make him happy.
The way some Christians talk, God is the egomaniac King sitting in heaven on his throne watching his inventions perform.
And when they do stuff on his good list he’s happy and when they do stuff on his bad list he’s sad or mad.
“To glorify God is to reflect His nature.
He is pleased when we glorify Him because he wants people to know Him and what He is like.”
That’s what being salt and light is all about.
God chose people (image bearers) to reflect his nature to the world as a way of showing the world what he is really like.
God acts in love because
So as we come to these next several sections, we must understand, Jesus is not giving the people more of the same of what their religious leaders were giving them.
He’s not saying, “Moses said don’t do this, but I’m going to squeeze all of the fun out of life and I’m going to make things even harder.”
That’s not what Jesus is doing at all.
What Jesus is doing is showing us the full flower or the fulfilled view of the law.
And what better place for Jesus to start than with God’s wisdom for human relationships.
Prayer
Father, you know that we are but flesh.
And it’s a mystery that you would choose to call the weak and broken to reflect who you are, but here we are.
We are your family, we are your people, and we want to live our life on your mission to make disciples in our homes, our church, and in our relationships with those who don’t know you.
We need your wisdom and your grace to understand your word, so Spirit please help us.
What is Jesus saying?
Jesus affirms the law, he doesn’t abolish it, and then he tells the disciples with the authority (that no prophet, scribe, or pharisee would ever have spoken with) what the greater righteousness or what wholeness of person actually looks like.
The new heart that Jesus brings is a heart that is not only concerned with the outward obedience to the law, but is moved to understand God’s wisdom underneath the law.
And what is wisdom that’s underneath the command to NOT murder someone?
and the rightness of human relationships that even the smallest degrading thought of another human being is worthy of the greatest punishment and will limit your ability to offer true worship.
Let us be a people who are quick to confess, quick to apologize, quick to forgive, and quick to reconcile.
God cares deeply about the sanctity and dignity of human life and the rightness of human relationships that even the smallest degrading thought of another human being is worthy of the greatest punishment and will limit your ability to offer true worship.
The new heart that Jesus brings is a heart that is not only concerned with the outward obedience to the law, but is moved to understand God’s wisdom underneath the law.
The heart of the religious person is very pragmatic: “God doesn’t want me to murder someone, okay I can manage that.
But that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to them or like them.
I will secretly hope that they die in a fiery crash.”
And because we live in a pragmatic society, we’re actually not very far from that line of thinking.
“Give me the rules and I’ll do em.’”
Jesus is saying, “Yes, it’s still against God’s law to kill someone, but just because you don’t kill someone isn’t the point.”
See, being a new creation with a new heart means we are soft to understand God’s wisdom.
All you have to do is replay some of the oldest stories in the Bible to find out that NOT murdering someone was actually a pretty big step forward.
It was a big step forward for the Israelite community and it was a way that the people of God could stand out from the rest of the world.
When you live in a world that is overcome with violence (like the ancient world) a law that demands a whole nation not to use murderous revenge to resolve their inner relational conflict was a pretty big deal.
But as nations became less barbaric this law became almost something to gloss over.
By now, none of the super-religious people (Scribes and Pharisees) were killing people.
But clearly there were deep issues of the human heart.
A murderous person is a person who has devalued a person’s life enough times that they have desensitized the ending of human life.
Jesus clearly lays it out for his listeners that underneath the law to not murder someone is God’s own heart.
God cares deeply about the sanctity of human life
We get the sanctity part… kind of.
When we think of sanctity of human life or what is often called being “pro-life”, we naturally think about being anti-abortion.
And we should.
But we should be equally affected by any form of human life taken.
We must take the time to think deeply about issues of violence of any kind towards another human being.
Because God cares deeply about human life.
I read two bumper stickers this week that I think get to the point Jesus is making:
“Play me like a fiddle, and I’ll beat you like a drum.”
“Do the world a favor, shoot a liberal.”
How does God’s own concern for human life inform what you post on social media / what you watch / what games we play and let our kids play?
God cares deeply about the dignity of human life
The Gospel shows to us that we are all created in the imago dei.
Everyone in every race, everyone in every social status, everyone in every generation, everyone in every gender is created in the image of God and is worthy of dignity.
And every disciple of Jesus is salt and light by how they interact with every image of God.
So Jesus says,
“Yes, murder is worthy of God’s judgement.”
“But anger towards a brother or sister is worthy of God’s judgement as well.”
“And don’t assume that because you don’t act on your anger towards one another, you’re ok, because if you harbor contempt towards another, you are liable of judgement from the highest court in the land.”
“And lastly, if you even as much as tear down another one of my creations, you deserve the fire of hell.”
The point that Jesus is making is that the way we feel about other human beings in our own hearts and minds is a reflection of who we really are.
And he’s simply saying, “The new heart that I’m bringing, harbors no thoughts of contempt, or anger, or bitterness towards anyone.”
The new heart that Jesus brings sees everyone the way God sees them.
There is no place in the kingdom of God for elitism, sexism, or racism.
There is no room for religious snobbery.
No matter what we look like on the outside, the heart of every human being looks like it’s been infested with the cancer of sin, and unless we receive the healing of the grace of Jesus, we die in our sin.
Just as every cancer survivor longs for every other person infected with cancer to be healed, so every disciple who has been healed by the grace and love of Jesus wants every other sinner to be healed by the grace and love of Jesus; that’s the heart of a disciple; that’s the greater righteousness.
Now, is Jesus being serious?
Is he saying that the emotion of anger that every human has is sinful?
And we shouldn’t ever be angry?
There are two stories that come to mind when I think of the anger of Jesus:
The turning of the tables
The death of Lazarus
So let’s compare - Jesus is saying that the new heart isn’t angry at a brother.
Commentators are not settled on whether or not he means brothers as in Christians?
Or brothers as in any human being?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9