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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Fear
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Joy
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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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
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Anger
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*Luke 18:18-30*
*Close But No Cigar*
v Illustration: The Danbury Fair
Ø I love to go to Fairs
§ Perhaps it is because of the memory of going to the Danbury Fair every years as a boy
· My family always took a day off from school to go to the Danbury Fair
¨ I remember one year as a boy of 10 or 11 raiding my piggy bank and bringing $9 in rolling the pennies
Ø Heavy, bulging pockets
§ Ready to play the carnival games
Ø I loved the carnival games area
§ Everyone has a favorite and the games never seem to change
· The squirt gun in the clowns mouth
· Darts and balloons
· Ring Toss
·
¨ And there is always the hammer and bell
Ø As a boy I used to stand and watch because I was too small to lift the wooden mallet
Ø Men would pay to swing again and again
Ø Their girlfriends watching
v On the way up to the bell there was a scale with various insulting remarks
Ø Dud, Try Again, Weakling, Almost a man,
§ But right next to the top was a saying that has become an idiom in our culture
· *Close but no Cigar*
¨ Years earlier, cigars were given out as prizes for this and other carnival games
v In our text today, a man approaches Jesus asking a very good question
Ø What must I do to inherit eternal life?
§ He is asking about salvation
· But as we see…
¨ He gets close, but no Cigar
*READ 18:18-25*
v I think we all know people like this rich ruler
Ø People who have a sincere desire for salvation…
Ø Who might find the Christian life attractive…
Ø Who might even do all the things that we as Christians do…
§ Yet will always fall short because of various reasons
· Just like this young ruler
v One way they fall short is
*A Poor View of Christ*
* *
v In v. 18-19, there is an interesting initial interchange between the rich ruler and Jesus
Ø The rich ruler approaches and asks a really good question
§ ‘Good teacher, how do I get to heaven?’
· Jesus, as we have come to expect, responds with a question
¨ A rather enigmatic question
Ø “Why do you call me good?”
§ In effect, Jesus is saying to the rich ruler…
· Do you know what you are saying?
v You see…
Ø There is a deep, foundational, OT Scriptural truth that no one is good except God alone
§ *1 Chron 16:34*
· /Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever/
§ *Ps 34:8*
· /Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him/
§ *Nahum 1:7*
· /The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him/
Ø The Bible teaches that God alone has an exclusive claim on goodness
§ No one else is good!
· God is the only one who is “good”
¨ Some of us might think that we are good
Ø But even a cursory reading of the Bible teaches that that is not true
§ It teaches that man is depraved, sinful, prone to wander, idolatrous,
· Only God is good
v So Jesus challenges that man to think through what he has just
Ø He actually wants him to complete the Syllogism
§ A syllogism is a simple logic framework in which there are two premises and a logical conclusion
· Example:
¨ All men are mortal.
¨ Socrates is a man.
¨ Socrates is mortal.
§ He wanted to man to complete the syllogism
· If Jesus is good
· And God alone is good, then…
· Jesus is God
v And herein lies the irony…
Ø Believing that truth is what answers to the ruler’s question…
§ How do you inherit eternal life?
· Believing in Jesus Christ the incarnate God alone for your salvation
¨ *John 3:16*
Ø For God so loved…
¨ *Acts 4:12*
Ø There is only one name on earth by which men shall be saved
¨ *Rom 10:13*
Ø for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
¨ *John 3:36*
Ø Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life
¨ *1 Thes 5:9*
Ø For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
¨ *Acts 2:21*
Ø And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
v Many people approach Jesus
Ø Many people step up and swing the mallet
§ But If they do not believe that Jesus was the son of God…
§ That he was the second person of the Godhead incarnate…
· They are close, but no cigar
v The second way that the rich ruler fell short was in his view of sin
Ø He had…
*A Reduced View of Sin*
* *
v Jesus goes on to list some of the ten commandments
Ø Adultery, Murder, stealing, lying, honoring your parents
§ What is Jesus doing here?
· Is he saying the rich ruler that the Law can save?
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