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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Tone of specific sentences
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In any great forest you will find many huge trees.
They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity.
However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees.
At first one wonders, “Why leave them?
After all, a tree that big must contain twice or thrice the amount of lumber as a smaller tree.”
The reason is simple.
Huge trees are often rotten on the inside.
They are the hollow trees that children’s picture books show raccoons living in.
And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be the picture of strength, in fact their hollowness makes them weak.
This is the essence of hypocrisy—appearing strong on the outside but hollow and rotten on the inside
Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 200.
During Jesus’ ministry He spent a lot of time talking about the spiritual tall trees of the forest, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the other religious leaders.
Like the tall trees in the illustration, these folks loomed high above everyone else.
They intimidated the common folk.
They were so holy!
They knew the Bible backward and forward.
They knew who everyone had written about the Bible.
They obviously followed even the most obscure laws.
During Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount, He dropped a truth bomb about these spiritual tall trees.
Jesus said that if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven!
Woah!
These religious leaders are like some of the leaders we have today, they wear robes, pronounce forgiveness and even speak for God Himself.
Jesus tells us that our righteousness has to exceed theirs…
How about you my friend?
The word for righteousness simply means the state of being right or good.
How good are you?
Is your goodness better than those who have the title Rabbi, Father, Reverend?
Do you have more righteousness than those that have taken a vow of chastity, or poverty, or have committed years and years studying the early church fathers in order to be ordained?
Is your goodness more abundant?
Is your goodness good enough for God?
As we begin our series entitled “Inside Out: the Pursuit of Genuine Christianity” we must first find how we can have more righteousness than Religious experts have.
We will do that by examining the different kinds of righteousness that we could possess.
Our Righteousness Is Not Enough.
Our “Clean” is Filthiness
Our Obedience is Incomplete
Our Wealth is Poverty
Our Boasting is Silenced
Religious Leaders’ Righteousness is Not Enough
They Make Empty Promises
They Do Not Read The Book They Preach
They Do What They Do to be Seen of Men
** Righteousness Cannot Occur from The Outside In**
Jesus’ Righteousness Is Good Enough
Imputed
Purchased
Declared
In his Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes Interpreter’s house, which Pilgrim entered during the course of his journey to the Celestial City.
The parlor of the house was completely covered with dust, and when a man took a broom and started to sweep, he and the others in the room began to choke from the great clouds of dust that were stirred up.
The more vigorously he swept, the more suffocating the dust became.
Then Interpreter ordered a maid to sprinkle the room with water, with which the dust was quickly washed away.
Interpreter explained to Pilgrim that the parlor represented the heart of an unsaved man, that the dust was original sin, the man with the broom was the law, and the maid with the water was the gospel.
His point was that all the law can do with sin is to stir it up.
Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can wash it away.
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