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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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I’m sure you’ve had to make a trip to the Emergency Room.
It’s never fun.
There are sick people everywhere.
I really didn’t want to talk about zombies.
I’m not a fan of zombies.
I don’t like zombies.
I find myself being the most judgmental person in there.
I’m not a fan of TV shows like The Walking Dead.
It think they are dark.
I think that everyone there some super contagious disease, and they are trying to give it to me.
I remember as a kid watching The Night of the Living Dead.
There is a process to making it past the waiting room, and getting a bed in the back, and getting the help you need.
The old horror movie terrified me.
What scared me so much about zombies is that they are people.
There is a process to making it past the waiting room, and getting a bed in the back.
They are living corpses.
You must go through triage.
They wear clothes.
They are recognizable.
The patient must be registered.
You must be registered and put into the system.
Only they are monsters.
After that, a nurse assesses the situation.
Over all they are repulsive.
She asks a series of questions trying to diagnose the major problems.
I resisted saying anything about them, because the whole subject is repulsive to me.
And yet, this is the description that Jesus gives us.
Once this is done, the most important needs are addressed, and the patient is cared for.
Sardis is a church of zombies.
Finally, the patient’s health is tracked.
There should be progress.
It’s of people that look alive, but are not.
There should be an improvement.
Jesus is writing to a church that needs serious triage.
He takes them through these steps.
He registers the patient.
Assesses the patient.
Identifies the needs of the patient.
Then he tracks the progress of the patient.
Let’s read about this church that is in need of immediate care.
We find it in .
Read -6.
Register the Patient
First, let’s Identify the Patient.
Jesus is writing to the church in Sardis.
Sardis is a dying city, with a dying church.
Sardis wasn’t always a dying city.
It once was an extremely wealthy city.
It had a river at the base of the city, called the River Pactolus.
Remember King Midas who had the touch of gold.
The river was apparently filled with gold.
The city was filled with gold, and most of it was mined from that river.
Everything
You might be familiar with the legend of King Midas, he is where the phrase “The Midas Touch” comes from.
The myth is that King Midas welcomed fairy like of creature into his palace for a 10 day feast.
At the end of the feast, the fairy returned King Midas’ kindness with a wish.
King Midas could ask for anything.
King Midas asked for the ability to turn whatever he touched into gold.
Initially, Midas was thrilled with the gift.
He turned:
Sticks into gold.
Twigs into gold.
Rocks into gold.
Everything he touched turned to gold.
Eventually the blessing became a curse.
He couldn’t touch people, because they would turn to gold.
He accidentally turned his daughter into gold.
Eventually he got hungry.
The moment a drop of water touched his tongue, it turned to gold.
Food turned to gold.
He sought the help of the gods, and they told him to wash himself in the River Pactolus, the river at the base of Sardis.
The legend is that the power left his body, yet the river flowed with gold.
That’s the legend behind how the region of Sardis became so wealthy.
Midas’ mythical touch was washed into the river.
It was a wealthy region filled with gold.
The first minted coins came from there.
Sardis was proud of it’s wealth.
Sardis was a proud city.
It was built at the top of a cliff.
They thought that they were undefeatable.
One side of the city bordered a cliff that they thought was unclimbable.
And because of that unclimbable wall, they thought no one could ever attack them.
They were rich, and they were proud, thinking they could not be hurt.
They eventually attacked Persia, but they were easily defeated.
In response, Cyrus, the same one who commissioned the building of the Temple in , he came and laid siege to Sardis.
Sardis was so proud of their unscalable wall, that they didn’t even post guards.
It turns out the wall could be climbed.
And the Persians defeated Sardis.
Then in 17ad, the city was destroyed by an earthquake.
Absolutely leveled.
By this time they were under Roman rule, and Emperor Tiberius ordered that the city be rebuilt, but it was a shadow of it’s former self
It would never be the rich glorious city of it’s past.
It was a city turning into ruins.
It was a rotting city.
It was a dying city.
And like the city around them, there was a church, and it too was dying.
Jesus is the one who is writing to this church.
Look at the first half of , ““And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.’”
Jesus is speaking to the angel of the church in Sardis.
Jesus speaks to John, who is on exile on the island of Patmos.
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