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
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.67LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.55LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.8LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.29UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.13UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.91LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.53LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Those of you have heard me share before how much dislike I have for pessimism.
I want to look at the positive.
When you focus on the negative it does not encourage, exhort, or uplift does it?
I am not saying live with your head in the clouds.
I am saying try to find the good rather than the bad.
Don’t always jump on the negativity bandwagon.
To get your mind in that way of thinking I have to share a couple of humorous stories I came accross:
I read about a schoolboy who brought home his report card.
It was heavy with poor grades.
"What have you to say about this?" asked his father.
"One thing for sure," the boy replied, "Dad, you can be proud.
You know I haven't been cheating!"
Two boys who were twins, one an incurable optimist, one a pessimist.
The parents were worried about the extremes of behavior and attitude and finally took the boys in to see a psychologist.
The psychologist observed them a while and then said that they could be easily helped.
He said that they had a room filled with all the toys a boy could want.
They would put the pessimist in that room and allow him to enjoy life.
They also had another room that they filled with horse manure.
They put the optimist in that room.
They observed both boys through one way mirrors.
The pessimist continued to be a pessimist, stating that he had no one to play with.
They went to look in on the optimist, and were astounded to find him digging through the manure.
The psychologist ran into the room and asked what on earth the boy was doing.
He replied that with all that manure, he was sure there had to be a pony in the room somewhere.
Two shoe salesmen arrived on an island.
The first one looked around and saw that the natives wore no shoes.
He thought, "Why'd they send me here?
There's no market for shoes here!"
The second one looked around and saw that the natives wore no shoes, and thought, "Wow!
Everybody needs shoes - and the whole market is mine."
These illustrations show the power of perspective.
Tonight we will look at Thomas.
He was a pessimist.
He is probably more well known by his nickname “Doubting Thomas”.
It is fair to say that Thomas was somewhat negative, he was a worrywart, a brooder, tended to be anxious and angst-ridden.
He was like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, anticipating the worst at all times.
Pessimism seems to be his besetting sin.
He was also known as Didymus which means “the twin”.
He did have a twin brother or twin sister which was never identified in scripture.
Like Nathanael Thomas is mentioned only once in each of the three synoptic gospels and is only named due to listing the apostles.
No details about him are given by Matthew, Mark or Luke.
We learn everything we know about him from John’s gospel.
Thomas had a tendency to look into the darkest corners of life, anticipating the worst of everything.
He did have some redeeming elements of character according to John’s account of Him.
In verse 16 we see his first account, this is John describing the prelude to the raising of Lazarus.
Jesus left Jerusalem because his life was in jeopardy there and he went away beyong the Jordan to the plae where John was baptizing at first and then stayed there.
Great crowd came to hear him speak and many believed in him there.
This may have been the most fruitful time of His ministry that the disciples witnessed in their time following Jesus.
People were responding and souls were being converted.
Jesus was able to minister freely without opposition of religious rulers of Jerusalem.
But something happened that interupted their time in the wilderness.
We will talk in reference to John 11.
Heroic Pessimism
Bethany was on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Jesus had a close loving relationship with a little family who lived there.
He loved them with a special kind of affection.
He stayed with them and they provided for His needs.
Now His dear friend Lazarus was sick.
Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, they knew if He came He could heal him.
This presented a problem if Jesus went that close to Jerusalem He would be very close to the worst kind of trouble.
The Jewish leaders were seeking to seize Him and determined to kill Him.
Jesus knew the timing of this was wrong.
Jesus love Lazarus and his family, so he stayed put while Lazarus was dying.
He did this deliberately to give him time to die.
This was an act of love, because the blessing they received when Lazarus was raised from the dead was a greater blessing than the gift of being healed from his sickness.
It glorified Jesus in a greater way.
When Jesus arrived he had been dead four days.
Jesus knew this due to His supernatural knowledge and that is why he waited.
The disciples thought Jesus was crazy to go there because of the danger that awaited nearby Bethany.
They did not want to go back to Jerusalem.
Things were going well in the wilderness and ministry was amazing.
They were on a spiritual high and did not want to leave it especially for the danger that they would be walking into.
Jesus answerd them and told them there was no need for Him to hide like a common criminal.
He was determined to do His work in the light of day because that is what you do in order not to stumble.
He said this to calm the disciples and reassure them.
They had nothing to fear.
Jesus knew the time of His death was in God’s timing not in the timing of His enemies.
The disciples missed the meaning of scripture here.
They could not see the urgency of the situation here.
Jesus was speaking about death but they thought it to be sleep.
But He further explained Himself and then they understood.
Jesus had to go and there would be no changing His mind.
Then we meet Thomas
How pessimistic he is hey?
He could see nothing but disaster ahead.
He was convinced that Jesus was headed towards certain death.
But if that was what the Lord was determined to do Thomas was going with Him.
He was willing to die with Jesus.
You have to admire his courage.
It is not easy to be a pessimist.
It is a miserable way to live.
The optimist in this situation may have said “Let’s go everything will work out.
The Lord knows what He is doing.
He says we won’t stumble.
We will be fine”.
The pessimist says “He’s going to die and we are going to die with Him.
Thomas at least had the courage to be loyal even in the face of death/pessimism.
It is hard for a pessimist to be loyal because he is convinced the worst is going to happen but this is heroic pessimism and real courage.
Thomas was devoted to Christ.
He may have been equal to John in this regard.
When we think of someone who loved Jesus without question we think of John.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9