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.
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Fear
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Analytical
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Tentative
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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/Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, /
/ If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.
/
/ How many of you learned that prayer as a child?
How many of you taught this prayer to a child?
/
/ I never liked this prayer.
My mama taught me to say every night.
The first was the Lord’s Prayer.
The third was the “God Bless prayers.
The second was the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer.
/
/ I always cringed inside when I prayed this prayer, because of that awful line, “If I should die before I wake…” I didn’t want to die.
I didn’t want to talk about dying, especially to God, since He’s in charge of who dies and who lives.
Death was a fact of life I just didn’t like to face.
I can’t remember a single funeral my mom and dad took us to growing up.
I probably went to more funerals the first six months I was a pastor (I was 37 years old) than I’d gone to in my entire life up to that point.
I was kind of like Dear Abby/
Dear Abby: Do you think about dying much?—Curious
Dear Curious: No, it’s the last thing I want to do.
[i]
/ I suspect there are a lot of people who don’t like to think about death much.
We keep death at a safe distance.
We can watch people die on TV or movies and it’s entertaining.
We can hear about hundreds of thousands dying in that earthquake in China and it really doesn’t faze us much.
Usually when somebody close to you dies, when somebody you love dies, you start thinking about death, you start to face some scary questions.
/
/ What does it feel like to die?
Does it hurt?
What goes through your mind as you take your last breath?
What happens to you after you die?
Where do you go? Do you go anywhere?/
/Is there anybody who can give us any assurance that we will go on living after we die?
/
/ There is one Person Who can give you some concrete answers about life and death.
One Person Who reached into the dark maw of death and snatched brought people back to life.
There is one Person who can show you and I how to receive a life that keeps on living—even after we die.
I invite you to come and see how Jesus does this in *John 11:1-44*.
Let’s begin with *vs.
1-32*.
/
*PRAYER*
This passage begins by stressing the hard cold reality:
*I.
YOU HAVE NO PROMISE YOU WILL ESCAPE PHYSICAL DEATH.
(v.
1-32)*
* *Death is a universal face of life.
The death rate for the human race is 100%.
*Heb 9:27* …it is appointed for men to die once…
In this story we discover even Jesus’ friends must keep this appointment.
John introduces us to a fellow named Lazarus, who lives with his sisters Mary and Martha in the town of Bethany.
*V.
5* tells us Jesus has a close relationship with this family (*v.
5*)--an especially close friendship with Lazarus described as /the one You love/ (*v.
3*/./)
It’s only natural when Lazarus becomes ill they send word to Jesus.
They send word because they expect the Lord to come and heal his friend.
Surely if Jesus can heal strangers, He will make a special trip to heal Lazarus.
But Jesus doesn’t come—at least not right away.
He waits two more days before He says /Let us go to Him /(*v.
7, 14*) The disciples aren’t too keen on this plan.
Lazarus’ home is in enemy territory, where *vs.
8* tells us there are folks who want to kill Jesus.
When the Lord insists on going, Thomas sums up the disciples’ attitude: /let’s all go and die with Lazarus! /
As Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, He is met separately by both grieving sisters in *vs.
21, 32*.
Both gently scold Him.
/Lord, if You would only have come sooner, our brother would still be alive!
Why, Lord?
Why didn’t You come sooner?
Why didn’t You heal Him?
Why didn’t You come and save him from death?
/
/Many have echoed this haunting question throughout history /
/Broken hearted parents cry, “If You’d come, my child wouldn’t have died.”
/
/Broken hearted children cry, “If You’d come, my dad~/mom, grandma~/grandpa wouldn’t have died.”
/
/The history of humanity adds their voices to the chorus hurled up to heaven: /
/“Why Lord—why didn’t You intervene?
Why didn’t you heal them?
Why didn’t You keep them from dying?”/
/So often the sky is silent.
Jesus doesn’t answer this question for Mary and Martha, and He probably won’t answer it for you and I. His silence doesn’t mean there is no reason, because our Lord does nothing without purpose.
But so often His only answer is: you must trust Me.
Death is a certain reality, and Jesus never promises to save us or our loved ones from death.
/
/ /*Heb 9:27* …it is appointed for men to die once…
/But even though death is certain, death doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t care.
He loved Mary and Martha, and Lazarus very much, even though He didn’t stop Lazarus from dying.
He loves you, even when He doesn’t keep your loved ones alive.
/
/It is true that the Bible promises there will be those who will not die, but will instead be caught up in the air with Christ when He returns.
/
*1 Corinthians 15:51* /…We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—/
/ //But you and I have no way to know when that will happen.
We all must face the fact that as much as Christ loves us, He never guarantees that you will escape death.
Even if you’re a good person, even if you’re a spiritual person, even if you are a friend of Jesus, you will die.
/
/ /The story is told of a little girl stood outside the bedroom door as the doctor visited her mother.
She overheard the doctor say, "I will be frank with you, Ma’am.
You don’t have very long to live.
Before the last leaves have gone from the trees you will die."
Sometime later the father walked out of the room and noticed his little girl had gone outside.
After searching for her he saw her out in the front yard.
His heart was broken as he watched her picking up leaves, using thread to tie them back onto the limbs of the tree.[ii]
/You cannot stop death, any more than this little girl could stop death.
It is part of living in a sin-cursed world.
You and I have no promise we will escape death.
But we do have a promise found in the next episode in this story.
/
*II.
YOU CAN FIND COMFORT THAT JESUS SHARES YOUR GRIEF OVER DEATH.
(v.
32-38)*
Death is not pretty.
It’s ugly, cruel, and heartbreaking.
Death snatches our loved ones from us, and leaves us with nothing but a cold, lifeless shell.
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