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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.08UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.56LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.66LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.36UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.9LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.66LIKELY
Extraversion
0.14UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.68LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.55LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Memory is an interesting and powerful thing.
I’ve been blessed (or cursed) with an odd kind of memory.
I can recall movie quotes and lines from my favorite TV shows years after the fact.
I’ll say something and my longsuffering wife will ask, “Is that from something?” She’s usually right in assuming that I’ve quoted something from The Office or Seinfeld or Parks and Rec and applied it to our daily lives.
Sometimes I’ll quote something and then ask Meghann, “Hey, do you know what that’s from?”
To which she almost always responds: “Sweetie, this game is no fun for me.”
I remember phone numbers and addresses—random phone numbers, random addresses.
I still remember my college best friend’s social security number, and that was more than 16 years ago.
He asked me to memorize it so he didn’t have to, and that way I’d be able to help him with all the forms he’d have to fill out during college.
So I did.
513-86-****.
I know his mother’s maiden name and his home address.
If I wanted to steal his identity, I think I probably could.
Things just stick in my brain.
My mind will be filled with random, if not useless, information like: Kathie Heuser purchased her first microwave in 1982.
And Patricia Boyles got her first crock-pot in 1968 and it was avocado green and harvest gold.
Why do I remember stuff like that?
I’d like to know, I really would.
I’ve got a decent memory, and yet, how prone I am to forget!
How quickly I fail to remember that which is actually important.
The Bible repeatedly calls us to remember.
The reason lies not in our stupidity, but in the importance of memory in Biblical terms.
We are not told to remember something simply because we might have forgotten it temporarily or because the pressures of the day tempt us to adopt different priorities.
Remembering in the Bible is a responsibility, an act of will.
Those who remind God’s people to remember do so for a purpose.
God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to wear tassels on their clothing:
Underneath all the remembering of man is the wonder that God remembers His covenant for ever (1 Chronicles 16:15).
When God sent Jesus it was because He was remembering to be merciful (Luke 1:54).
God wasn’t about to forget to be merciful, but this kind of language underscores the serious of His commitment to the covenant.
When Christians gather at the Lord’s Table to break bread and drink from the cup, they do so in remembrance of the Lord Jesus.
We are not in danger of forgetting the fact of Jesus’ death; but He wants us constantly, every day, at every turn to recall its significance and remember that He will return someday soon.
Above all, it is the function of the leadership of this and every part of Christ’s Church today to do as Jude did: making sure that Christians understand the gospel and do not budge from it.
It is the responsibility and high calling of the preacher/teacher/elder/leader to REMIND the church.
Jude knows perfectly well that his readers already know the Bible stories he’s going to tell them.
But it’s clear from their behavior that they have not understood them.
The ESV of the Bible makes this clear:
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it...
Jude’s not just saying, “Let me give you a nice little reminder.”
What Jude’s getting at is more, “Come on, guys!
There was a time when you knew all of this! How, how, how are you not getting this now?”
Jude knows that they know, but that some of them don’t really get it.
They once fully knew all of this.
But they’ve stopped remembering.
They need a reminder to remember.
They’ve treated the Old Testament stories they grew up hearing as good stories for children, nice little morality tales, but stories that don’t have much of a message for adults.
That kind of thinking couldn’t be more wrong.
The Old Testament stories so many people have neglected (and that Jude’s audience has failed to remember) serve as examples, powerful examples that ultimately all serve the same purpose.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to the short letter of Jude.
In our text this morning, Jude reaches back to the Old Testament and to Jewish history and to some extrabiblical writings and uses a handful of various analogies to make his point.
Follow along as we look at verses 5-19 piece-by-piece:
Without a doubt, the Lord saving His people from captivity in Egypt is a formative moment for Israel.
It’s one of the most incredible demonstrations of God’s providence and love, His protection of His people, and His power over all creation.
The great and marvelous word of the exodus is deliverance.
The dreadful part of the exodus story is the word destruction.
God delivered His people and then destroyed those who did not believe.
You remember when Moses sent 12 spies into the land which God promised to them and those spies returned saying, “The land looks good, but, holy cow, there are some big fellas there!”
So, out of fear, the Israelites wimped-out and decided not to enter the land.
Sissies....
God’s response to their unbelief was to say: “Not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers.
No one who has treated Me with contempt will ever see it.”
Despite the numerous promises God had given then, and the numerous proofs of His power, when they were actually faced with the task of acting upon those promises, they showed a complete lack of faith.
Can you see where Jude is taking us, why Jude’s giving us this reminder?
There are people in every church around the world (including this one) who look and sound like the people of God, but who will not be saved on the last day because they have not truly believed.
Just because someone looks like a Christian and quacks like a Christian, doesn’t necessarily mean they are a Christian.
The reminder: those who do not believe will face judgment and destruction.
Jude’s second example is a little more difficult to pin down.
He might be talking about the fall of the angels caused by their rebellion against God.
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give us glimpses of this.
Or Jude might be talking about that strange incident in Genesis 6 when the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Whatever it is, whatever the exact sin of the angels is, isn’t really the point.
The point is that they left their positions of authority and abandoned their proper dwelling.
The angels have been given responsibility by God in certain areas.
But they were not satisfied with the role God had given them; they infringed the boundaries set for them by God.
The future for those rebellious angels is darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
People who rebel against God must not think that they can get away with their rebellious behavior forever.
The reminder: those who rebel will be judged.
In the Bible, “Sodom and Gomorrah” is basically synonymous with judgment (Dt.
29:23; 32:32; Ps. 107:34; Is. 1:9–10; 3:9; 13:19; Je. 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; La. 4:6; Ezk.
16:46–55; Am. 4:11; Zp. 2:9; Mt. 10:15; 11:24; Lk. 10:12; 17:29; Rom.
9:29; 2 Pet.
2:6; Rev. 11:8.
all have something to say about these two cities).
This has extended to pop-culture, even.
If someone is speaking about God’s judgment, there’s a good chance there will be a reference to either one of these infamous cities.
In the classic movie, Sister Act, several nuns are in a helicopter, overlooking a city.
One of the ladies looks out the window and says loudly, “Reno!”
To this, the head nun adds, “And Gomorrah!”
But Sodom and Gomorrah weren’t the only cities destroyed.
There were five cities in the surrounding area (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar).
Only Zoar was spared, and that, because of Lot.
I won’t go into detail about their sin, their sexual immorality and perversion, since there are little ears in the room.
I probably don’t need to remind you what it is they did and why they were punished anyhow.
But you might benefit from a reading of Genesis 19 and Ezekiel’s commentary of Sodom and Gomorrah in Ezekiel 16.
The bottom line is this: Sodom and Gomorrah, their rebellion, disobedience, and sinfulness and the resulting judgment bear witness to the warning of God.
The cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim were hit with a horrific fireball of destruction—this is an example to us of God’s final judgment, of what will happen in the future on a far greater scale.
Jude says, “They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
There is our reminder: for those who rebel against and ignore the Lord, there is punishment—eternal, and beyond what you can begin to imagine.
>We’re only three verses in to our text for this morning, and it is grim; not real bright and cheery, I know.
It makes me want to sing, “Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad; take a sad song and make it better.”
But I know: this is what Jude’s readers need to hear.
There needs to be this warning, this reminder, this caution as we contend for the faith.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9