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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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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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
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Drowning man – saved but the savior drowns.
Attacked by a tiger – a man drowns in a well.
*Atonement*
§ Connection between Jesus’ death and our sins
§ Metaphors for Jesus’ death
o Law court – the judge takes the prisoner’s place
o Sacrificial altar – Christ is the paschal lamb
o Battlefield – victor over sin and death
o Prisoner exchange – negotiate for the redemption of a general
o Slave manumission – bought at a price
o Wisdom and power of God
o Canceling a bond – paid is stamped on the bonds of our sin
§ Does Jesus himself ever interpret His cross for us?
§ I believe he does
* *
*John 7:37-38*
§ Round One: Story opens here
§ Seven days of celebration called Succoth – Feast of Booths –Jesus attends
§ Jesus made this claim - very like Isaiah 55:1-3
/Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’
”/
§ Caused a bit of a stir
§ Officers were sent to arrest him
* *
*The Trap*
§ The next day: Jesus could have avoided the Temple – didn’t
§ The Temple complex
o Thirty-five acres
o Three sides had a long enclosed walkway
o North end was a fortress housing Roman soldiers who would regularly patrol the top of the walkway
o Temple was a place where social unrest often started
* *
For centuries Middle Eastern cultures understood the honor of the family to be attached to the sexual behavior of its women.
In conservative traditional villages women who violate the sexual code are still sometimes killed by their families.
\\ *John 7:53-8:11 *
\\ /7:53 [Everyone went to his home.
8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives./
/2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them./
§ Round two begins.
§ His courage.
A day after he was almost arrested - re-enters the arena - not intimidated by his opponents
§ A crowd gathers
§ Jesus sat down – established himself as a Rabbi – teacher
/3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,/
§ Pharisees make their move
o Not a hypothetical – brought a live woman
o On their turf - assumed that there was no way out for him
§ couldn’t be more dramatic
o The Pharisees, woman, the crowd, soldiers
/4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act./
§ How did they catch her?
§ Their real agenda?
o Male is not brought
o Law - both be put to death
Leviticus 20:10 \\ ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife ... the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
o Issue for them is not sin so much as it is trapping Jesus.
o Woman
§ is a pawn - used and thrown away.
§ no opportunity to tell her story or explain what happened.
\\ /5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”/
§ Issues.
o Jesus claimed to be the living water promised by God to His people
o The Law at that time meant - included the prophets and the Psalms
o Challenge was on Pharisee’s turf – the Temple
§ They had to respond
o If they could humiliate him in public
§ Pose a question - interpreting the Law - could not answer without destroying himself
§ His popularity would fade quickly
§ Assumed he had two options
o Romans had denied the Jews the right to put people to death
o Yes
§ Upholds the Law and contradicts his way of life – with sinners
§ stone her - an outcry triggering enough commotion that the Romans would arrest him for inciting a riot – Pax Romana
§ if not arrested and killed - at least very unpopular
o No.
§ If he denies Moses
· Breaks the Law
· setting aside God’s Law
· Must be brought to justice
§ Besides the Romans are watching
· If we stone her - probably arrested and killed.
§ He could say “I know what the Law of Moses says but the political realities are such that it would be unwise”
§ They got him – or so they think
§ Corrupting influences are always potential in organized religion
o He subtly debates the nature of justice
§ Is it a strict application of the Law
§ Is it the definition of justice found in the Servant Songs of Isaiah?
o Jesus fights for compassion
/6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him.
But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground./
§ According to Jewish law any day after a feast was to be observed as a Sabbath
o Eighth day of a festival – Sabbath
o Writing is work
o Writing in sand is OK – it’s not work – current interpretation of the Law
o I’m no fool
o What does he write?
Maybe “kill her”
/7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”/
§ With a stroke of genius he springs the trap.
o Not against the Law.
o Knows the written Law
o Familiar with the current interpretation
§ Having made the judgment in accordance with the Law he announces the means of execution
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