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
0.19UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.5LIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.53LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.73LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.5UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.59LIKELY
Extraversion
0.19UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.37UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.76LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
The Unremarkable Evangelists
It’s not merely the facts of Christ’s death and the theological realities of the gospel that the world finds offensive.
As Paul explains, sinners are just as likely to be offended by the messengers of God’s truth— what we’ll call the shameful society.
He writes,
Not only do we have a message that is hard to believe, but we also have a message that is delivered by people the world can fins hard to respect.
The Lord didn’t put His gospel into the hands of the most famous, the most notable, or even the most well spoken.
He didn’t leverage social influencers or pop culture icons to proclaim His truth.
He chose us.
And that lack of star power and name recognition can be offensive to the world.
Paul delineates just how unimpressive God’s people are in the world’s eyes.
He says there are “not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble”— that is, not many intellectuals, not many who wield power and influence, and not many highborn aristocrats.
Rather, God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of the world.
The Lord is pleased to use the nonintellectuals, the unimpressive and insignificant, the unremarkable, and the forgettable to spread His truth.
Paul even says He chose “the things that are not”— literally, the nobodies.
Why wouldn’t God use famous people as His spokesmen?
Why wouldn’t He employ royals and monarchs, political heavyweights, or the most popular talking heads and taste-makers to promote His gospel?
Paul tells us in verse 29:
What does this verse tell us as to why God chose who he chose?
Salvation isn’t accomplished through the force of personality, and the gospel isn’t made more powerful by clever words or a silver tongue.
God specifically chose His unremarkable evangelists so that they would never be the explanation for the work of the gospel.
He doesn’t want His people to get confused about who is performing the transforming work of salvation in sinners’ lives.
Again, we see that God wants to glorify Himself.
There will never be a human explanation for any effective advance of the gospel.
There cannot be a human explanation because we are nothing but “jars of clay.”
What do you think of when you think about Clay Pots?
What are the characteristics of Clay Pots?
Clay pots were cheap, unrefined, breakable, ugly, replaceable, and valueless.
We are clay pots.
The glory of the gospel is indicated in verse 6 as light shining out of darkness— the light of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
And we carry this gospel revelation to the world.
God has determined to put the glorious message of salvation in a dingy, nondescript pot.
That idea is extended in 2 Timothy 2: 20 where Paul says,
Gold and silver vessels were those on which food was served— they’re the honorable vessels.
On the other hand, clay pots were used to dispose of garbage and excrement.
The Apostle Paul is essentially saying, “We have the glory of God in a privy pot.”
Why did Paul use such language?
What message was he trying to get us to understand?
Paul understood that messengers of the gospel must never overestimate their importance.
From the founding of the church, it was never God’s plan to leverage worldly influence for the work of the gospel.
The early preachers of the gospel were not the elite intellectuals of Egypt, Greece, Rome, or even Israel.
The greatest scholars of the day were in Egypt, the most distinguished philosophers were in Athens, the powerful were in Rome, and the biblical scholars were in Jerusalem.
Lets think about who Jesus chose to carry his message.
What do we know about the disciples?
By comparison, the disciples were painfully ordinary men.
Not one was a priest; not one was a scribe; not one was a ruler of a synagogue.
Not one was a Pharisee, and none of them had any educational credentials or occupied a position of influence.
Up to seven of them may have been fishermen who made their living with their hands.
One was a terrorist; another was a tax collector.
From the world’s perspective, it was not an impressive group.
But for the true servant of God, the esteem of the world is unimportant.
Paul’s priority was preaching Christ, and the progress of His kingdom depended on the Holy Spirit’s implanting the gospel in hearts.
It is a wonder of God’s sovereignty that He uses those that the world views as the scum and the dregs to deliver His gospel of grace.
And we can preach His truth with confidence, knowing that no one’s salvation depends on us.
We cannot empower anyone to new life.
We are just the clay pots who enjoy the immense privilege of a high calling in the household of God.
The Humbling Truth
Finally, Paul identifies one last source of offense that the world cannot tolerate— the shameful sovereignty of the gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 1: 30, he writes,
There’s no room in God’s plan of salvation for man’s effort or merit.
It’s not about a decision the sinner makes or a change he initiates.
Paul says God’s people are saved “And because of him.”
The NASB says “by His doing” alone.
The Lord’s sovereign work of salvation is on display throughout His Word.
Paul puts it succinctly in his second letter to the Thessalonians when he writes,
He expands on the same reality in his epistle to the Ephesians.
But the heart bent by sin and rebellion cannot tolerate a sovereign Savior.
Sinners can’t stomach the idea that
Their false sense of autonomy demands that they have some say in their eternal destiny and that they get some of the credit for “inviting Christ into their lives.”
That’s why it’s so easy for people to reject the fundamental truth of the gospel— that
Instead man chooses a false religion of works-righteousness, one that soothes their burning consciences by stroking their egos.
Ultimately, the unrepentant heart will not accept what the Bible says about its lost condition.
Sinners refuse to believe that they are truly
They want to believe there is still some life in the wretched corpse, that they still possess the means to reach out to God whenever they decide to.
More than that, they want God to grade all mankind on a curve.
Sinners excel at favorably comparing themselves to one another— they can always find a worse, more egregious example to point to, as though the righteous and holy Judge was moved by excuses and exemptions.
And when they finally realize that they can’t plead down their sentence, they make a vain attempt for a mistrial by questioning God’s right to judge them in the first place.
The Apostle Paul has an answer for that rebellious gripe too:
The tragedy is that the eyes blinded by sin cannot see the all-sufficient grace and mercy in God’s sovereign work of salvation.
The only hope for any sinner is the pride-slaughtering, paradoxical shame of the gospel.
He must embrace the shameful stigma of the cross and the ignoble horrors of Christ’s death on his behalf.
He must accept the shameful simplicity of the gospel and his inability to reason his way into heaven.
He must acknowledge the shameful singularity of the gospel— that there are no other options for the salvation of his soul.
He must agree with the gospel’s shameful sentence, acknowledging the dire consequences of his sin.
He must embrace the shameful society of the gospel, that they are the lowly and those whom society does not respect.
And he must submit to the shameful sovereignty of the gospel, surrendering his self-righteous works and clinging to the Lord Jesus for justification by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.
Why are sinners irrevocably offended by the gospel?
Why aren’t the church’s attempts to accommodate and curry favor with the world leading more people into God’s kingdom?
How do we know the myth of influence is really a myth?
Paul’s testimony to his own gospel ministry gives us the answer:
If we truly want to be instruments God uses to bring sinners to salvation, we must follow the Word of God and pray for the Spirit of God to give repentance, faith, and eternal blessing to those who hear the truth.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9