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
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.43UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.52LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.54LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.55LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.9LIKELY
Extraversion
0.49UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.63LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.88LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
INTRODUCTION...
Are you a fan of football?
I wish I could say that I am.
I do like high school football, but college and professional football, not so much.
I might watch the Super Bowl but usually that is because I’m part of a church Super Bowl party.
This year, I was at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles (with 73 other evangelists) but never got to go into the stadium because I was sharing the gospel with the people.
In football, they have what is called the huddle.
The team playing offense will be seen gathering into the huddle so that the Quarterback can call plays and give instructions to the other team members.
Huddles serve a great purpose but they only last a few moments - 30 seconds at the most.
Then the team breaks the huddle and takes position to run the next play on the field.
As comfortable as it might be to stay in that huddle, the team can’t remain there and win the game.
They have to get out of the huddle and onto the playing field.
The fans in the stands didn’t pay their way into the game to see the team huddle.
They want to see some action!
The fans would understand 30 seconds in the huddle, but what if it stretched into 3 minutes, or 30 minutes.
There would be rebellion in the stadium.
How much are we as the church like that?
This is the Huddle.
We come here together on Sunday Morning, Evening, and Wednesday Evening, Etc. to hear the quarterback call the plays.
Then it’s time to break and get onto the playing field and snap the ball.
Get in the game.
Pastor Tony Evans used this illustration at a church growth conference once.
This is what he said, “Now what Christians often do is get high on their huddles.
We gather together on Sunday morning and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and we go nuts over the huddle!
We say, “Boy did we have a huddle!! My quarterback can call plays better than your quarterback.
And boy do we go off on the huddle.
But what people don’t seem to understand is, that the huddle is so that we can play the game.
The effectiveness of your church cannot be measured by how well you do on Sunday morning.
… The test of the church is what it does in the marketplace.
What we need today is churches that are representative of Jesus Christ not only when gathered but when disseminated.”
In today’s text, we see the what happens when the church in Jerusalem breaks out of the huddle and steps into action.
At this point, they had been in existence for about a year.
Perhaps they had gotten a little too comfortable in the huddle.
The coach had to nudge them back into play.
So, he used this persecution to move them to be on the mission of taking the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Utter most parts of the earth.
The Reasons for their Gathering
They gathered to be empowered.
I can tell you from personal experience that the proclamation of the gospel requires the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
We dare not attempt to share the message of Jesus in our own strength.
Up until this point, they had been learners on how to share their faith.
They had spent time with Jesus observing how he ministered and being trained.
Once Pentecost came, the Holy Spirit filled them with His power and they were now supposed to be doers.
With some of the type of ministry that God has allowed me to do, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity.
You don’t dare step foot onto Bourbon Street in New Orleans if you have not prepared your heart and received his power.
The devil will eat your lunch!
But the empowerment of the Spirit is just as needed when you are talking to your next door neighbor about Jesus!
They also gathered to be equipped.
The local church is the huddle.
Your pastor is the quarterback.
His job is to call the plays from the playbook which is the Word of God.
Once you break from the huddle, he is going to put the ball into someone else’s hands and they are going to run the touchdown.
Every person on that team makes it possible for the effective hand off of the ball so that the running back or wide receiver can make the touchdown.
By the way, you deacons are they lineman.
Your job is to keep your quarterback from getting sacked!
By the way, I’ve known your quarterback for a long time.
He is going call from the playbook!
He ain’t gonna make it up as he goes!
He knows that the playbook is the only thing that will make this team successful.
The quarterback is not the only player on the team either.
Have you devoted yourself to being equipped with the Word?
Part of that is to take what you are learning from the playbook and use it on the field.
What kind of team would you have if you only every studied the playbook?
Yet some think that the only responsibility they have on the team is to learn the playbook.
How many games would y’all win if you stayed in the huddle?
ZERO!
Their Response to their Scattering
They didn’t go into hiding for fear of persecution.
They didn’t just go back to what life was like before meeting Jesus either.
They went on their way evangelizing!
The reason for their scattering was persecution.
With the martyrdom of Stephen, a new wave of persecution began.
Saul, who later became Paul, was ravaging the church going from house to house and dragging Christians off to prison.
The word used here for ravaging is one that could be used to describe an army destroying a city or a wild animal tearing at its meat.
Did you ever seen a dog pick up a toy in his mouth and shake it?
We have yet to experience this kind of persecution here in the United States.
Someone might hurt our feelings by calling us bad names but nothing like the early church experienced.
BUT, it is coming.
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!
God used these trying circumstances to shake the church out of their comfortable state and moved them into doing His will.
The text says they were scattered.
It is a picture of someone sowing seeds.
When you sow seed, what do you expect?
Illus.
Hold up seed package: I have in my hands some flowers.
Now, if I open this package and look inside, will I see flowers?
No.
I will see seed which have the potential of becoming flowers.
If I take the package and set it on a shelf somewhere, will I get flowers?
No.
These seed have to be removed from the package and be planted in order to get flowers.
Now when you leave this church building today, you are going to be scattered.
Not because of persecution but that scattering is really what happens each and every Sunday.
God is going to plant you somewhere.
In your neighborhood.
In your school.
At your job.
Etc.
He is going to plant you there with the expectation of seeing a harvest.
You have to die to self in order to bear fruit for Jesus.
That means putting your will side and surrendering to his will.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9