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
0.12UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.06UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.47UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.48UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.41UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.51LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
The Way of the Master
Peter walks in the Way of the Master, repeating some of the greatest miracles of Jesus.
This is not a story about how amazing Peter is but a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that his disciples would do even greater things than he.
The fruit is that people believed in the Lord.
This is discipleship.
It isn’t Bible Study or more church or small groups or spiritual disciplines or prayer.
It is looking to and looking like Jesus.
Let’s look to Jesus, let’s look like Jesus.
Great Expectations
Started at 18 years old.
Worked there for a few months.
Offered a full-time position when Peter went crazy.
When John called me in to his office to offer me the full-time position he told me this.
Peter, from the padded room, had called him and said “My life is complete because I discovered Dusty Mackintosh.”
Have you ever been “discovered”?
This contributed to my early megalomania, but also setup RIDICULOUS levels of expectation as I started.
Who is this guy?
I hadn’t done anything yet… but they were watching and waiting to see what I was going to do.
Watching and waiting to see what I was going to do.
Have you ever felt that level of expectation placed on you.
“Do something amazing, now!” We’ll wait...
As crazy as what Peter said about me was… Jesus said something similar about me.
Well… about us.
After saying he was the “Way, the Truth and the Life.”
Do you believe in Jesus?
Yes?
Then let’s sit back and watch you do greater works than Jesus!
Go!
There is some crazy expectation there.
And even though we have read and studied this verse before, I suspect most of you are skeptical that you will ever do “greater works than Jesus.”
Me too.
Because Jesus did some AMAZING things.
Not counting the cross and resurrection, we read about incredible miracles.
Remember this one?
And Jesus forgives his sins and the people freak out, and Jesus says “which is easier....
Jesus heals the little girl
Jesus was on his way to heal a little girl and he was delayed when someone was healed in the crowd by touching him.
WHAT???
And then Jesus goes and says “You will do greater things...”
That is EXPECTATION!!!
Well here comes Peter.
Peter was there when Jesus healed the paralyzed man.
Peter was there when Jesus healed the paralyzed man.
Peter was there when Jesus healed the little girl.
He was one of the few allowed in the house.
And now Peter has received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and he is following in the footsteps of the Master.
We pick up the book in Acts.
We just heard about the radical transformation in the life of Saul and very soon the book of Acts is going to transition from focusing on the Acts of Peter to focusing on the Acts of Saul.
But first, Peter is going to initiate the greatest heresy in Christian history… we will see that next week.
So before he commits this heresy, Luke has to display Peter’s credentials as a legit follower of Jesus Christ.
So we catch up with Peter-on-tour.
Walking the country even as Jesus did, a man of the road.
He is going from Jerusalem, swinging over to the West Coast.
Peter heals the paralyzed man.
Short and sweet.
The man was paralyzed and Peter heals him… in the name of His Master, Jesus.
“Take up your bed and walk.”
“Rise and make your bed.”
He couldn’t say “take your mat and go home” because Aeneas was already home.
Peter resurrects Dorcas
I have some friends named “Tabitha” but it is a real tragedy how few babies are named “Dorcas” these days.
They both mean “Gazelle”.
(I looked it up, though, over 14,000 babies named Dorcas this year).
Dorcas was a beloved women, full of “good works and charity.”
The fact that she has an Aramaic name (Tabitha) and also “Dorcas” indicates a Jewish woman living in a largely Greek city.
They are well into the grieving process.
Showing mementos.
There is no expectation of healing here.
WHAT???
Peter raised that woman FROM THE DEAD! Amazing, and the crowd goes wild.
The town of Joppa goes wild.
That is INCREDIBLE.
But we see, it is in the footsteps of Jesus.
I have so many questions.
How did Peter know that he was appointed, called, to heal the paralyzed man, to raise Dorcas from the dead?
Did he pray for everyone at every funeral or was there special discernment that this was an appointed moment?
I don’t know.
It doesn’t say.
Was there a special process or systematic approach to these kinds of healings that made them so successful?
I don’t know.
It doesn’t say.
Fundamentally: how did he do it?
I don’t know.
It doesn’t say.
And those things aren’t the point of the story.
I don’t think it is any accident that these miracles are such parallels to the miracles of Jesus.
Luke, who is writing the book of Acts, has a clear purpose here.
He is authenticating Peter as a disciple of Jesus.
This is Peter walking in the footsteps of the Master.
Walking in the Way.
It is, first of all, NOT a story of how great Peter is.
You can always tell that by the fruit.
What happens as a result of these healings?
The results
When Peter healed the paralyzed man, what was the outcome?
When Peter raised Tabitha from the dead, what was the outcome?
Peter walks in the Way of the Master, repeating some of the greatest miracles of Jesus.
This is not a story about how amazing Peter is but a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that his disciples would do even greater things than he.
The fruit is that people believed in the Lord.
Luke authenticates Peter as a true disciple of Jesus Christ, walking in the Way… because the next chapter is about to throw all of that in doubt.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9