Sermon Tone Analysis
Sunday, September 29th, 2019 - AM - The Right Thing, The Right Way, for the Right Reason (Mt. 6:1-4)
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
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.55LIKELY
Sadness
0.51LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.64LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.85LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.67LIKELY
Extraversion
0.28UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.47UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.78LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction:
Matthew 6 begins a new section of the Sermon on the Mount.
The Master has just concluded a study of six hindrances to the life of righteousness.
Now He unfolds what might be called helps to the life of righteousness.
The first of these has to do with the giving of alms and involves far more than just the offering of gifts to God and man.
It covers the entire area of good works or charitable deeds in the life of the Christian.
[Olford]
Main Thought: Doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons yields the Father’s reward.
Purpose
I aim to challenge God’s people to find areas where they miss the mark.
I aim to help them understand how to channel God’s blessings on them to truly make the best difference they can for others for Christ’s sake.
Sub-intro:
The Symmetrical Constrasting Structure of Matt.
6:2–18
Hypocritical Religion Prohibited:
1.The occasion: “Whenever you …” (6:2, 5, 6, 7, 16)3
2.The prohibited ostentatious activity: “do not …” (6:2, 5, 7, 16)4
3.The prohibited motivation: “to be admired by others” (6:1, 2, 5, 16)5
4.The solemn affirmation: “they have their reward” (6:2, 5, 16)6
Genuine Religion Commanded:
1.The contrasting occasion: “but when you …” (6:3, 6, 9, 17)7
2.The commanded secret activity (6:3, 6, 9–13, 17)8
3.The commanded motivation: to be seen only by the Father (6:4, 6, 18)9
4.The solemn affirmation: “your Father will repay you” (6:4, 6, 18)10 [BECNT]
I. Beware, Lest You Lose the Father’s Reward to Gain the Applause of People (Matt.
6:1-2)
A. The Imminent Danger of Doing Alms to Be Recognized (Matt.
6:1)
ALMS, ALMSDEEDS
eleemosune (ἐλεημοσύνη, 1654), connected with eleemon, “merciful,” signifies (a) “mercy, pity, particularly in giving alms,” Matt.
6:1 (see below), 2–4; Acts 10:2; 24:17; (b) the benefaction itself, the “alms” (the effect for the cause), Luke 11:41; 12:33; Acts 3:2–3, 10; 9:36, “alms-deeds”; 10:2, 4, 31.¶
Note: In Matt.
6:1, the rv, translating dikaiosune, according to the most authentic texts, has “righteousness,” for kjv, “alms.”
[Vines]
ALMS, n. àmz.
[Sax.
almes; old Eng.
almesse; Norm.
almoignes; Fr. aumônes; D. aalmoes; Sw. almosa; Dan.
almisse; G. almosen; L. eleemosyna; Gr. ελεημοσυνη.
The first syllables appear to be from ελεεω, to pity.]
Any thing given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money, food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.
A lame man was laid daily to ask an alms.
Acts 3.
Cornelius gave much alms to the people.
Acts 10. [ADEL]
B. The Illustrations of Doing Alms for Recognition (Matt.
6:2)
But more likely Jesus is drawing on a vivid piece of typical irony.
In our day the same metaphor is well known as a person who wants to “toot his/her own horn.”
[ZIBBC NT]
Three times Jesus uses the phrase, as the Revised Standard Version has it: ‘Truly I say to you, they have their reward’ (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16).
It would be better to translate it: ‘They have received payment in full.’
The word that is used in the Greek is the verb apechein, which was the technical business and commercial word for receiving payment in full.
It was the word which was used on receipted accounts.
For instance, one man signs a receipt given to another man: ‘I have received [apechō] from you the rent of the olive press which you have on hire.’
A tax-collector gives a receipt, saying: ‘I have received [apechō] from you the tax which is due.’
A man sells a slave and gives a receipt, saying: ‘I have received [apechō] the whole price due to me.’
What Jesus is saying is this: ‘If you make charitable gifts to demonstrate your own generosity, you will get the admiration of the world—but that is all you will ever get.
That is your payment in full.
If you pray in such a way as to flaunt your piety in the face of others, you will gain the reputation of being an extremely devout person—but that is all you will ever get.
That is your payment in full.
If you fast in such a way that everyone knows that you are fasting, you will become known as an extremely abstemious and ascetic person—but that is all you will ever get.
That is your payment in full.’
Jesus is saying: ‘If your one aim is to get yourself the world’s rewards, no doubt you will get them—but you must not look for the rewards which God alone can give.’
And we would be sadly short-sighted creatures if we grasped the rewards of time and let the rewards of eternity go.
[NDBC]
Application
Christian giving is a huge issue today.
Many emphasize tithing even though it is an OT rather than NT demand.
While the NT does not mandate tithing, it is clear that 10 percent is where we should start rather than a goal we should strive to attain.
We have so much and give so little, while the people of God in both the OT and NT (and so many Christians worldwide today) have so little and give so much.
This parallels 2 Cor 8:2, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”
In 2 Cor 8–9 we see the center of a biblical theology of giving, stressing the joy and service behind generous stewardship.
We give not out of necessity but out of privilege, both to tell ourselves that everything we have is from the Lord and to return to him some of the blessings he has given to us.
Sacrificial Giving
In our affluent society tithing is where we should begin!
Statistics are an indictment to American giving.
I saw a recent note that evangelicals gave 2.8 percent a decade ago, but now the average is 2.4 percent.
I know of one church that discovered that nearly all their giving came from 15 percent of the members and another where 30 percent of their members had given nothing the previous year!
Christian organizations are so desperate for funds that they actually encourage ostentatious giving by selling bricks with people’s names on them or naming buildings or even whole seminaries after wealthy donors.
The point is clear here—anyone who gives to be noticed and lauded has already received their reward; there is nothing in heaven waiting for them (cf.
Luke 6:24).
Flowing out of Gratitude for God’s Grace and Mercy
Giving is to be an act of worship and compassionate concern, not a statement of worth.
The concept of reward is an important theme in the Sermon on the Mount (see also 19:29).
The principle is that God will reward us on the basis of our spiritual priorities and deeds.
If we live entirely for him and surrender earthly attachments and rewards, our reward will be heavenly and eternal.
[ZECNT]
Application:
You’ll miss the mark when you do it with self-righteous motives
The Pharisees
You’ll miss the mark when you do right to be seen
Ananias & Sapphira
You’ll miss the mark when you take your focus off of the real Judge
The Apostle Paul before Felix
II.
Do the Right Thing, the Right Way, for the Right Reasons (Matt.
6:3-4)
A. The Reward of Doing Right the Wrong Way for the Wrong Reasons (Matt.
6:3)
Plummer says it well: “They receive their pay then and there, and they receive it in full … God owes them nothing.
They were not giving but buying.
They wanted the praise of men, they paid for it, and they have got it.
The transaction is ended and they can claim nothing more.”16
The term “hypocrite” (hypokritēs) originally was used for actors on a Greek stage who put on various masks to play different roles.114
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9