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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Legacy
Ever thought about what your legacy will be?
What impact you will have made on the earth after you’re gone?
Have you ever dared to have a goal for a difference you’ll make in the world?
Are you going to be a world changer?
The next Martin Luther?
The next Martin Luther King?
The next Mother Teresa?
Or are you more at the humble end of the spectrum, expecting just to quietly slip away?
There are billions of people whose lives have simply been forgotten
But planning on that might say more about our pessimism than our humility!
Should we want a legacy?
or is that automatically pride?
Today’s reading shows Jesus telling his disciples they should have a legacy.
One that lasts.
One that’s built on him.
And that means if you’re a follower of Jesus here today, you should have a legacy.
Luke gospel intro; context - Jesus’ mission; a key sermon spoken to crowds - but particularly to disciples
2:00
Reading Luke 6:43-49
Heart diagnostics
3:15 Jesus starts with a diagnostic about trees and fruit
He doesn’t tells us this so that we can judge others
original language tightly connected to what’s gone before
So what’s gone before?
Lk 6:37 “do not judge” “do not condemn”; Lk 6:42 “take the plank out”
Jesus tells us this so we can recognise (Lk 6:44) ourselves
4:15 Every tree bears fruit - every life has results, has an impact - the question is, what
good + bad apples
bad - literally rotten fruit
or good fruit
Jesus says the results of our life on the outside are a consequence of what’s going on inside
more precisely, a consequence of what’s in our heart - literally “the treasure of our heart”
The word “heart” can mislead us a bit today
Today hearts are for emotions and lovey dovey stuff
back then, the heart was seen more as the core of our being, the centre of who we are
So what does your heart treasure?
you could ask it, but it might well lie: “the heart is deceitful above all things!”
5:45 How do you really know what your heart treasures?
Jesus’ diagnostic: our words
they overflow from our hearts’s treasure
So what do your words show is going on in your heart?
What do my words show is treasured in my heart?
Jesus has just been emphasising the mercy God has shown to us, challenging us to show mercy to others Lk 6:36
even to our enemies
Do we speak mercy over others?
forgiveness?
blessing?
or do we speak judgement, condemnation, hate?
7:00 Challenge for this week: listen to yourself.
How is it that you speak to others?
How many times do you speak mercy?
how many times do you speak from a position of humility?
And how many times do you speak judgement?
speaking to our children.
speak out frustration at their failure?
or remember our own failure again+again?
speaking to our colleagues / classmates
speaking to those we disagree with - Christians can sometimes be particularly poor at practising humility towards each other when there is theological disagreement
As Jesus says, “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” - so what is your heart full of?
Take a look in there this week.
If you don’t like what you find, perhaps it’s time to change your treasure.
PAUSE 10
9:30 But fruit of what our hearts treasure goes beyond our words
Remember what Jesus has been talking about throughout this last section, the “sermon on the plain” as it’s called
How disciples are to speak and act towards others:
showing love and mercy as they have been shown love and mercy
particularly to those who reject them and their message
To start from humility because they want to lead, and to help others towards Jesus - like we heard last week
fruit pictures that beautifully for us:
[cut apple] good fruit is tasty [eat some, share]
but more than that, it’s a seed carrier, a reproducer [show core]
and that’s where Jesus goes next, speaking to his disciples about their legacy
Builders + buildings, foundations + floods
10:30 Jesus talks about builders and buildings, about foundations and floods.
If you grew up in the church, chances are you probably sang songs about these things as a kid.
You’re probably pretty confident you know what these pictures are about already.
Do what Jesus says and life will go well, right?
Don’t obey Jesus, and things will fall apart?
No question, doing what Jesus says is a good idea.
Not doing it is a bad idea.
But is that all Jesus is saying here?
Are we really clear on what Jesus is picturing?
We need to listen carefully.
And we need to listen in the light of what’s gone before.
You see, this is Jesus concluding his sermon, summing up and closing.
This is his “mic drop” moment.
We should be expecting this to connect back to other stuff he’s said already.
11:30 So, builders and buildings, foundations and floods.
Let’s take a closer look.
Is the flood the final judgement?
And so Jesus is saying those who don’t obey his words will be swept away in the end?
Lk 6:48-49
Perhaps.
But let me give you three good reasons to question that:
First, it’s a flood, not the flood.
And it’s a different, less dramatic word than where the bible speaks about Noah’s all-destroying flood - Noah’s flood is a κατακλυσμὸς in the original Greek - a cataclysm.
This flood is just a πλημμύρης - it has more the sense of a river breaking its banks after too much rain; a seasonal phenomena.
If you were trying to picture that last and final judgement, I think you’d want to highlight how it’s one-of-a-kind.
Second, it’s the house that’s destroyed, not the builder; v49 “The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete” - there’s no mention of the builder.
Now maybe he’s inside when it falls, and he goes down with it - but if that was Jesus’ point, couldn’t he have been clearer?
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