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
0.11UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.65LIKELY
Sadness
0.19UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.73LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.43UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.98LIKELY
Extraversion
0.39UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.89LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.8LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction to the Reading
We turn now to our Bibles and Helen is going to come up and read to us from .
As you will hear this is a passage that gives us details of a letter that was written by the prophet Jeremiah and sent to the people of Israel who had been taken into exile in Babylon.
The letter is telling them how they are to live as God’s people during the time of the exile.
Let’s hear what it says:
to live Before she begins reading though, I just want to give you a little context.
The passage we’re looking at is a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah who lived in Jerusalem.
The letter is sent to exiles, to people from Jerusalem who have been taken captive by the Babylonians.
This was a strategy of the Babylonian empire.
Whenever they conquered a land or a city, they would take the leaders, the powerful and influential people, and instead of oppressing them, they would educate them.
The goal of this was assimilation, so that the people, and ultimately the nation, lose their cultural identity and their own distinctive understanding of the world.
Introduction
This morning we are continuing to think about our Vision Statement, and we come to the one word that we have yet to look at, “serving”.
In the context of our statement it reads, “serving the good news of Jesus”.
Now straight away we might say that doesn’t sound quite right.
How can you serve news?
You can serve a person, or an organisation, or a nation, you can serve God, but how can you serve news?
Well we’re actually borrowing the phrase from the Apostle Paul.
In his letters to the Ephesians (3:7) and the Colossians (1:23), he describes himself as a servant of the gospel.
‘Gospel’ of course means ‘Good News’ and so Paul in effect, describes himself as a servant of the Good News of Jesus.
So what does it mean to be a servant of the Good News?
In both Ephesians and Colossians Paul makes it clear that it is to do with mission, with making known what God has done.
When we looked at the word ‘Living’ a couple of weeks ago we said it was about discipleship, about how we grow in the Christian life.
Then last week, when we were looking at ‘Sharing’, we said it was about fellowship, about how we love and care for one another as we share together in what Jesus has done for us.
And today we are thinking about mission, about how we make known what God has done, how we make known the Good News of Jesus.
Now, each of these topics, as Hunter said last week, is one that we could spend weeks unpacking.
Discipleship, mission and fellowship are also three things that are closely related.
In Jesus tells his disciples to love one another - he’s talking about fellowship.
But then he says, ‘by this the world will know that you are my disciples’.
That’s mission.
A couple of weeks ago we looked at the great commission, that passage at the end of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus sends his disciples into the world in mission to make disciples.
Christian growth, Christian living, is therefore part of mission.
So we need to hold these three things in our vision statement together.
We cannot have one or two without the other - it is all three together.
So what does our passage today tell us about mission, what does it tell us about serving the Good News of Jesus?
It actually gives us quite a lot.
It tells us where we are to serve and why we are to serve.
And then it tells us what we do to serve and finally how we do it.
Where we serve
First of all we see where we are to serve.
The people this letter is written to are living in exile.
They are strangers living in a foreign land.
And several New Testament writers describe Christians in this way.
Peter describes us as ‘exiles’ and foreigners’, Paul describes us as ‘citizens of heaven’, and the writer of Hebrews, describes Christians as ‘foreigners and strangers on earth’.
There is a sense then that every Christian is living in exile, living in a country not our own.
And that is true in a general sense.
But this passage also gives us something more specific.
It tells us firstly that wherever we are, wherever we live, wherever we work, God is at work and God has brought us to these places and the people around us for his mission.
It also tells us that regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in we are to be a people of mission.
The image of exile is one that should be helpful to us.
You’ll see that in verse 1 we are told that the people were carried off into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.
Then in verse 4 God says the people ‘I carried into exile’.
What is this saying?
It’s telling us that God is at work through Nebuchadnezzar.
As in the story of Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar has evil intentions but God takes what he does and uses it for his own ends.
The people living in exile know therefore, that they are not there by accident.
God is working his purposes out.
In this case he is judging the people of Israel for their disobedience, but even in that judgement, they are still to be a people of mission.
Chris Wright puts it like this, ‘God’s people, even under judgement, remain God’s people for God’s mission.’
You’ll see that in verse 1 we are told that the people were carried off into exile by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.
Then in verse 4 God says, ‘the people I carried into exile’.
This is not a contradiction.
It’s telling us that God is at work through Nebuchadnezzar.
As in the story of Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar has evil intentions but God takes what he does and uses it for his own ends.
The people living in exile know therefore, that they are not there by accident.
God is working his purposes out.
The same is true for us.
Wherever we find ourselves we have been placed there by God for mission.
Now, it may be that we would actually rather be somewhere else.
Another place, or even another time.
I heard a preacher last year who said, “If we wake up tomorrow and discover that it’s 1950, then there are churches up and down the land who are primed and ready to go!”
There is perhaps a longing within the church for different days, for more fruitful times.
But God calls each of us to serve in the various places we find ourselves day by day.
Closely related to this is the fact that we are called to serve regardless of our present circumstances.
In the case of this passage the people of Israel find themselves in exile.
They have been decimated by siege, famine, disease, sword and captivity.
And yet they are called to mission, to serve the city that has done all of this to them.
The exile was God’s judgement upon them, but even in that judgement, they are still to be a people of mission.
God’s people, even under judgement, remain God’s people for God’s mission.
In this case he is judging the people of Israel for their disobedience, but even in that judgement, they are still to be a people of mission.
Chris Wright puts it like this, ‘God’s people, even under judgement, remain God’s people for God’s mission.’
Why we serve
This brings us to our second thought, ‘Why we serve’.
Jeremiah is quite subtle about this, but in verse 6, as he is encouraging the exiles to build houses and settle down, to marry and have children he uses a strange turn of phrase.
He says, “Increase in number there, and do not decrease.”
These words are an echo of God’s promise to Abraham, his covenant with Abraham in .
It is Jeremiah’s way of saying, “Remember the promises of God.
Remember what God has done.
Remember his covenant and remember that he is faithful and true.
And when you remember these things, then you will be spurred on in mission and service.”
The great fear for these people was that they would be wiped out and that nothing would come of the promises of God that were so foundational to their lives and their nation.
Jeremiah is telling them that they need not fear, for God would not abandon that promise.
Israel would not die out but prosper.
When he goes on in verse 7, to tell them to serve the city of their exile, he does so on the strength of this promise.
The same is true for us.
The only difference is we have a new covenant, one which Jeremiah actually goes on to mention in chapter 31.
And the new covenant is right there in our vision statement - it’s the Good News of Jesus.
When Jesus was instituting the Lord’s Supper, he said to his disciples, “‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
In other words, he is saying the new covenant is this, it’s my blood for you, it’s me dying in your place, it’s me buying your redemption, it’s me, bringing you back into the family of God.
The new covenant is the Good News of Jesus.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9