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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.62LIKELY
Sadness
0.53LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.61LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.2UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.79LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.88LIKELY
Extraversion
0.45UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.78LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.66LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
“Congregational Responsibilities” sounds like a very formal topic.
I don’t know what else to entitle this sermon exactly, but I don’t want us to think this is boring, business-meeting type stuff.
This isn’t Robert’s Rules of Order.
I have all the respect in the world for Henry Robert, a military officer from the 1800s, but his set of rules regarding parliamentary procedure kills me.
The responsibilities of a congregation aren’t dictated by any particular business model, or set of traditions, or the status quo, or any worldly expectations.
As Paul and Silas and Timothy are writing to this new church full of new Christians, they remind them they have lives to live here and a mission to pursue here.
Here they are given some practical instruction about everyday living in the body of Christ.
This isn’t a checklist.
We don’t get to check-off boxes and then feel better about ourselves because we’ve done our religious duty.
This is more of a checkup on the health of the church.
Is the church operating as it should?
Paul’s getting right to the heart of the church—its interpersonal relationships and its internal devotion.
This functions as a gauge of sorts.
How much do we love one another?
And how much do we love the Lord?
Christian congregations are responsible to their leaders, to one another, to the Lord, and to the Spirit.
So writes Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recorded for us in the God-breathed Word.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians.
If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:
This is the Word of the Lord!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In every church, the congregation has responsibilities
Toward Leaders (vv.
12-13)
God has woven into the fabric of life the need to have leaders.
From marriages and sports teams, to corporations and churches, leadership is essential.
Without leadership, everything suffers.
Teams lose, businesses close up shop, churches fail.
The Thessalonians needed some bold leaders.
The church there was facing persecution from without, searching for answers within.
This new church needed guidance.
Paul wasn’t there for long before getting run out of town by those who believed Paul and his friends were rabble-rousers and troublemakers.
Paul wasn’t able to be there in person, so he urges the Thessalonians to follow the leadership of those who work hard among [them], who care for [them] in the Lord, and who admonish [them].
The phrasing there in verse 12 strongly implies—really unmistakably implies—that pastors/elders had already been appointed there are where presently leading the Thessalonian church.
Wherever Paul traveled preaching the gospel, plating churches, one of his main tasks was appointing pastors/elders/shepherds/overseers (interchangeable terms).
In Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (Acts 14:23) “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”
To Titus, Paul wrote: (Titus 1:5) “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”
Paul is calling for proper recognition and appreciation of those who are leading the congregation in Thessalonica—their appointed elders/pastors.
Pastors/elders work hard, they labor and exert energy to the point of weariness and fatigue.
They aren’t in it for paychecks (most pastors/elders don’t make a dime; 80% of our church’s elders are unpaid).
For those who are paid to pastor a church, it’s not a 9-5 job.
It’s not a job at all; it’s a calling.
It’s work.
And it’s leadership.
Some of our Bibles read “those…who care for you in the Lord.”
The word care means to “preside, lead, direct; someone who is over you in the Lord.”
This word is used in Paul’s instruction to Timothy concerning elders within the church.
1 Tim 3.4 “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.”
1 Tim 3.5 “(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”
1 Tim 5.17 “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.”
As a man cares for and leads his family, so the elders/pastors of a church are to be men who care for and lead the family of God.
It’s work and leadership.
And admonition.
This word—admonish—means “to put in the mind” or “to warn.”
This word shows up again in verse 14.
For the pastor/elder to admonish carries the idea of confronting sinful habits and behaviors.
It’s always tied closing to the work of preaching and teaching and applying Biblical truth.
Col 1.28 “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”
Admonishing is one of the harder parts of pastoring.
Correcting inappropriate behavior and confronting sinful attitudes among the people who pay your salary can be a bit of a tightrope walk, especially there’s not shared love and respect.
The pastor/elder’s charge is to preach the word.
That involves correcting and being used as the mouthpiece of God’s Word which He uses to convict and rebuke.
God-called men have a God-given mandate to proclaim God’s Word.
This includes admonishing those under our care.
Pastors/elders labor and lead and admonish the people of God.
Pastors/elders and the people have a mutual responsibility toward one another, to honor and respect each other.
F.F. Bruce writes:
“It will make for the effective life and witness of the church and for peaceful relations among its members if its leaders [pastors/elders] are recognized and honored and their directions followed.
The corollary of this is that the leaders [pastors/elders] should be the kind of people who deserve to be recognized and honored by their fellow Christians.”
The instructions to the Thessalonians are to hold them [their pastors/elders, their leaders] in the highest regard in love because of their work.
Under the watchful eye of God, a pastor/elder leads, keeps watch over, and joyfully cares for his church.
Likewise, out of obedience to God, the people follow, respect, and honor the leadership of their pastors/elders.
If you’ve spent any length of time in the church world, you’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of the pastor/elder to congregate relationship.
I’m beyond thankful there’s no tension or difficulty or division among pastor and people here.
It’s encouraging.
It’s a joy to serve you, to labor and lead.
It’s among the top of the list of things I’m thankful for.
At our Thanksgiving table this year (and each previous year), I get to share that I am thankful for my church family.
The church has responsibilities toward their leaders and congregational responsibilities
Toward One Another (vv.
14-15)
In other words, ya’ll gotta get along.
But this isn’t always easy.
Individual churches consist of people from many different walks of life, backgrounds, races, ethnicities.
Opinions differ (sometimes strongly).
Preferences about a myriad of things aren’t shared universally.
This complicates life in the church.
The most consequential issue facing the church is sin.
Sin mars relationships.
Sin causes hurt between brother and brother, sister and sister.
Sin is present within the church, because we are, all of us, sinners.
We are going to hurt one another by virtue of being selfish, opinionated, and sinful.
Here’s the thing: we have to get along, forgive one another, love one another, serve one another, and work together to glorify God.
The church is to be counter-cultural.
What happens in the world when someone is offended or feelings get hurt?
“You’re dead to me.
I’m done with you.
Block, cancel, delete, unfriend, avoid.
I will never talk to that person again.”
That’s how the world functions.
This is not how the church operates.
We don’t work like that; we don’t act like the world.
We are to behave as the children of God who have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9