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
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.09UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.21UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.52LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.08UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.96LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.84LIKELY
Extraversion
0.14UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.61LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.74LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Over two Thousand Years ago a child was born that changed the course of history.
This is literally why we have dates like 2021.
When was year zero?
Though the math was off by a few years when this calendar system was started, the intent was for year zero to be the year the Jesus Christ was born.
BC is before Christ.
AD is latin “anno Domini” meaning “In the year of our Lord”.
Of course, modern scholarship is attempting to erase that by using the letters BCE and CE, which I’m just as happy to accept as “Before Christ’s Era” and “Christ’s Era”.
The shift to BCE and CE (before common era, common era) reminds me of Psalm 2:1-3
Even though the secular world attempts to get away from things that point us to Jesus Christ, they still cannot escape the reality that we are in the year 2021 because Jesus Christ came into the world.
He is Lord even of time.
As we conclude our mini series on the nature of who Christ is, we are once again going to be taking the words of the angels to the shepherds in Luke 2 as our launching point.
The last two weeks we have looked at Jesus as savior and Jesus as the Christ.
Today, we see him as Lord.
But What does it mean for someone to be a Lord? at base level, the idea of Lord is pretty straight forward.
If you were to look up the word Lord in an English dictionary and a Greek lexicon, you would find similar definitions.
The concept of lord can pertain to ownership: One is a Lord over something by virtue of being the owner.
This can be true of physical property.
You are lord over your own home.
In biblical times, this could be true of a master/slave relationship.
The Lord owned the slaves, thus he was their lord.
This could pertain to the concept of having authority by virtue of holding a position.
In biblical times, it was common to refer to individuals who were in positions of authority and power as “lord”.
So government officials, teachers, religious leaders, patriarchs, etc, were all often refereed to as “lord”.
But in the Angel’s declaration about the arrival of Jesus, the grammar of the sentence makes it clear that this was not a generic lord who was born.
They identified him as the Christ.
They identified him as The Lord.
For unto you is born this day... a savior.
Who is that savior?
He is the Christ.
He is The Lord.
We’ve seen what it means for him to be savior.
We’ve examined what it means that He is the Christ.
But what does it mean that Jesus is Lord?
That is what I want us to take into consideration today, and to do that I’d like to take us to Psalm 110.
Psalm 110 is considered one of the great Messianic Psalms.
It is a Psalm of David.
We know nothing of the background surrounding this text, the occasion for writing or any other details.
This psalm gets quoted a few times in the NT, and Jesus actually says that David penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
This Psalm is very clearly about the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ.
It is prophetic.
And it minces no words.
The language this Psalm is not the kind of language we often use when we talk about the nature of who our God is.
But these are true words, and a true description and prediction of who Christ is and what he will do.
This Psalm breaks down essentially into two sections, though I have three headings, which we will examine in order.
First,
The Lord is Ruler.
In this verse alone we see incredible truth about our Lord.
First, we see the divinity of Christ, in that The Lord calls him Lord.
Right away we have ask what is going on here?
How is it that the Lord is speaking to another Lord?
This text is quoted a few times in the NT.
The first is in Matthew 22 when Jesus seems to present a riddle to the religious leaders.
He asks them in Matthew 22:42-46
What Jesus was getting at is that the Messiah, the Christ, yes, he is the son of David, but there were hints in the OT that He would be much more than merely a physical descendent of David.
David calls him Lord!
There is a clue latent in this text about the divine nature of the Christ!
Some say, sure he was more than a mere man, but that’s doesn’t make him God!
He was merely the chief angel.
Hebrews uses this same text to demonstrate that the Messiah is more superior than an angel:
What Jesus and the author of the Hebrews helps us to see is that within the OT text itself were the clues that the Christ would be more than a mere man.
He would be more than an angel.
He would be more than a physical descendant of David.
He is LORD!
He is divine!
And God has given him rulership over all things.
Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Seated implies authority.
Seated implies a finished work.
Hebrews again speaks of Christ as having passed through the heavens and is seated a the right hand of God.
Peter stated that God exalted Christ to his right hand in Acts 5:30.
This is a privileged position of authority, power, and rulership.
And he is to remain seated until “I make your enemies your footstool”
There is going to come a day when all of creation will bow before our king.
Notice verses 2-3:
This Lord carries the mighty scepter.
The scepter, of course, is the symbol of kingship and authority.
Kings would wield a scepter and use it to render verdicts about various matters.
The one who holds the scepter holds the power.
This calls to mind the prophecy that Jacob gave to his sons concerning the tribe of Judah in Gen 49:10
The Lord wields the scepter and he will Rule.
That word for rule is interesting.
It has the idea of ruling, yes, but can mean subdue, trample, have dominion, or dominate.
One commentator put it this way:
The word used for Rule has a certain sternness, which suits the contrast between the enforced obedience of enemies in this verse and the glad response of volunteers in the next.
Yes, Jesus will conquer his enemies and they will bow before him and they will serve him, but not everyone will be subjected to conquering.
Those who recognize him for who he is will come and offer themselves freely.
The offing of ourselves willingly is a concept found a few times in Scripture.
Perhaps the most recognizable one is Rom 12:1
We willingly offer ourselves up to the Lord, recognizing that he is exactly that: Lord.
Worthy of our devotion.
worship of our worship.
worthy of our servitude.
Clothed in holiness, which we know from the NT is not our own but the righteousness given to us by Christ himself, we come before him to serve him.
That last phrase “from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours” is a difficult Hebrew phrase, but it seems to be an idiom of sorts that carries the idea that the Christ will never grow old.
His reign will never lose its vitality.
As soon as the day dawns on this kingdom, the dew will remain in perpetuity.
It has been said that “the sun never sets on the British empire”.
This was a phrase uttered at one of the high points of British control in the world.
The British had established colonies and trade routes, they dominated the seas, and they had ports all over the world.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9