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
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.5LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.51LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.8LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.45UNLIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.91LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.9LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.77LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Today we will be looking at John 5:1-15.
Let’s begin by reading the passage together.
Prayer
Background
During Jesus’ years of ministering on earth, he spent a lot of time in Galilee, his home area.
And, like good Jewish men of his day, he made frequent trips to Jerusalem for the prescribed Festivals, or Feasts of Israel.
Times that God had set aside for His people, Israel, to come together to remember Him, worship Him, and look for His salvation.
John 5 records what happened on one of those trips to Jerusalem.
Bethesda
John describes this pool which was found outside the temple area.
Because of his descriptive detail, archeologists have been able to locate and determine which of the pools this was.
This graphic is one person’s attempt to recreate what Bethesda may have looked like.
At this pool, John says a “great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.”
Why were they lying there?
If you have a KJV, NKJV or NASB translation you find the answer in verse 4.
If you have an NIV, ESV, NLT or other of the more recent English translations you may wonder what happened to verse 4. Well, look in your margin or footnote.
Verse 7 hints at the reason when the lame man spoke of the water bubbling up and trying to get in the water, but being beaten by someone else.
The earliest copies of John’s gospel don’t go into more explanation.
But somewhere in the following centuries someone familiar with the culture of the time included it in their copy of the gospel.
In many of the Greek manuscripts where is it found, it is marked off as an addition.
So, earlier translations of the Bible into English included it.
Later, translators opted to put it in a footnote to indicate that it was not in the earliest manuscripts.
Anyway, the point is that the people believed that when the pool which was fed by a spring, bubbled, it was an angel stirring the water so that whoever got in would be made well.
So this man who was lame was among the many who were hoping for a miracle.
They spent their time watching the water; waiting in anticipation for the bubbles.
Then they would scramble to be the first into the water.
Unfortunately, this man was there a long time, and never made it into the water.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for him?
He likely spent years by that pool.
And, as we read in the context, alone.
He had no one with him.
He was alone, day in and day out.
He lay there watching the water.
Watching and waiting… was that a bubble!?!… No, a breeze… Was that… everyone is moving!
He begins to drag himself… But, someone gets in… he struggles back to his bed, to wait again.
Day after day he rehearses this routine, until finally… Well, what would happen to your hope after all of those years?
Then, he hears a voice.
Someone is asking him a question.
What is that?
Do you want to get well?
Jesus asks him, “Do you want to get well?”
It seems a silly question to ask.
But, is it?
Notice the man’s answer.
He did not say yes.
He simply explained why it would never happen.
I don’t have anyone to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.
While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.
I believe this man was lost and without hope.
He really believed if he could only get in the water, he would be healed.
However, that belief in his ability to get the healing had been shown to be misplaced hope.
He could not possibly do it.
He could not do it on his own...
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
He came to bring hope to the hopeless.
Jesus came to make him well!
Jesus came to make him well.
To strengthen those feeble knees, and restore hope to his fearful heart.
He came to save him!
Jesus truly came to seek and save the lost.
He sought out this man, just like he sought out the Samaritan woman.
Out of all the people in that crowded portico… out of all the people who were there struggling with infirmity: blind, lame, paralyzed… Jesus came to this man.
He did not look for someone who was worthy of Him and His time.
He came to the one who needed Him.
Jesus’ miracles were primarily done for those who had some measure of faith in Him.
This time, this man did not even know Him.
Instead, Jesus came seeking.
He came to the one who was at the end of himself, who knew he could not do it on his own.
He came to the man who had lost hope.
He came and said,
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
Jesus did not help this man in his efforts.
He did not come to help this man crawl to the pool.
He did not come to give assistance so that this man could rely on his own efforts to become well.
No. Jesus spoke and did what this man could not do.
He made him well.
When this man was powerless, Jesus came and displayed his power.
When this man was without hope, Jesus gave what he needed and restored hope.
What this man was too weak to do, Jesus did for him.
What a wonderful savior!
Can you imagine the joy and hope that this man must have felt!
I can only imagine what a man who was paralyzed for 38 years would do when suddenly he was strengthened and made to walk!
Do you want to get well?
This reminds me a lot of us.
Law and Grace
Law - what you can do to earn eternal life
Law - powerless to save
Law cannot save because it depends on us to do it!
We are weak.
We are like the lame man, unable to do what it takes!
so why would God ever give the law?
Why tell us to do good and live with Him if we could not do it?
God gave the law so we would recognize our problem and realize that we were powerless to change on our own.
we were powerless and hopeless to have a true relationship with our Holy, righteous creator.
And the reality is,
We all sin.
We all do what is wrong.
Our Creator has set in place what is right and wrong.
He tells us in his word.
He puts it within us, each of us having a conscience.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9