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
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.59LIKELY
Sadness
0.25UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.66LIKELY
Confident
0.55LIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.74LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.94LIKELY
Extraversion
0.09UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.75LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.79LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Appetiser
Let me ask you again: what are your expectations this Christmas?
And let me repeat what I said in the family talk: you will get the most out of the season if your expectation matches what God wants to deliver to you.
And so I want to remind you again what that is.
At Christmas, in Christ Jesus:
Main Course
God visited His people
They are slaves, v68
Exodus language again, cf.
Genesis 50:24-25; Exodus 3:16, where the same word is used in the LXX:
“come to your aid”
“I have watched over you”
The time has come for God to act; that’s why He came.
Zechariah is not a free man: Israel is under Roman rule.
They have not really been free for hundreds of years, going back to the Exile.
They are still:
They live darkness, v78-79
Allusion to various texts from the OT, including chiefly Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
In context, this speaks of the end of the Exile, the restoration of God’s people under their King from David’s line, cf.
Luke 1:69-70.
But if we understand this purely politically, we would be seriously mistaken...
God saves His people from their sins
Who and what are they saved from?
v71 — “all who hate us”
Many in Zechariah’s time would’ve thought of the Romans.
Previous generations would think of the Greeks, the Babylonians, the Egyptians.
Who do you think of?
But there is a person behind all evil who oppose God’s people, John 8:42, 44
If you don’t love God but oppose Him, His message, His people, it shows you are one of those enemies God comes against, to rescue those who love Him.
His visitation is not good news to you—unless you realise what you’re doing and repent of your sin.
But to those of you who realise that the greatest oppression is in your breast, and wish to be free; those who feel this on your skin, Satan tempting you, or people giving you a hard time for your faith in God: rejoice!
God has seen you and has come to your aid.
v77 — “salvation through the forgiveness of their sins”
This is what salvation consists of.
The reason Israel went to Exile was because they sinned, and kept on sinning.
The reason Adam and his wife were Exiled from God’s Garden was because they sinned against Him.
The reason we are not right with God is because we have the same sin in us.
Sin is the problem Jesus came to deal with—the slavery He has come to set us free from, John 8:34, 36:
He is the One raised by God for our Salvation, v69.
Paul writes in Colossians 1:13-14
Do you wish to be free from sin and be made right with God? Turn to Him for salvation today.
They are saved to serve God, v74-75
The freedom offered is not what Satan offered to Eve: “you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:4) Nobody is like God; only God.
Satan sold the woman a lie, and since then, that’s how we tend to think of freedom: to be my own master, to be independent of everything, especially God.
But nobody is independent of God—as the Creator, He sustains us.
A God-less, sinful life is slavery.
To want to do my own thing is to be a slave to my passions.
To be truly free is to serve God
“without fear”—because we know Him as our God, and we know Him that He is good;
“in holiness”—because we know we belong to Him, whatever happens; to seek to do His will above all;
“[in] righteousness”—because our lives have been made right with Him, and He is transforming our lives daily;
“before Him”—aware of His presence always with us;
“all our days”—all the time and forever; this is our life.
Notice how Zechariah praises God for this!
He wants to be God’s servant.
Paul even calls himself the Lord’s slave.
Why is this?
Because their eyes have been opened by the Spirit of God (cf.
Luke 1:67) to see things clearly.
It takes God to do this, because of the state of our heart.
But once awakened by the Spirit, we begin to desire the God we were made for, and see slavery to Him as the true freedom it is.
Cyril of Alexandria writes:
“For the world was wandering in error, serving the creation in the place of the Creator and was darkened over by the blackness of ignorance.
Night, as it were, that had fallen upon the minds of all, permitted them not to see him, who is truly and by nature God.
But the Lord of all rose for the Israelites, like a light and a sun.”
This is what all God’s people have been looking forward to, v72-73.
Jesus said in John 8:56
Mercy to all God’s people was dependent on the Saviour’s coming.
Now, He has arrived, v78.
Just as Malachi prophesied in Malachi 4:2
God’s salvation is to be proclaimed
John is one of the “holy prophets”, v70, 76.
He is set apart for this task, in this special time of history.
He is “the prophet of the Most High”, v76—in the service of God.
But notice that he goes on to prepare the way of the Lord, whom we know to be Jesus.
Therefore, v77 is what he does.
This is what God’s people need.
And therefore
Preachers today stand in his shoes, making Christ known to His people.
The Church is entrusted with the Gospel of God’s salvation in Jesus—it is our duty to make Him known, and God’s people will respond.
We follow Paul, who stood in John’s shoes, and said in Acts 13:47-48
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9