Sermon Tone Analysis
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The 12 Disciples
Could you name the 12 disciples of Jesus?
Peter
James
John
Andrew
Bartholomew
James (the younger)
Jude
Matthew
Philip
Simon the Zealot
Thomas
Judas
My guess is that you were able to name some but not all.
Some of you, thinking carefully could name all from memory.
But regardless one of the names that is usually remembered from the list is Judas.
Tonight, we will try to put ourselves in the shoes of Judas.
I realize that’s not a particularly appealing idea, but what I suggest is that there is value in understanding Judas a little more thoroughly than the fact that he is the one who betrayed Jesus.
To be sure, that’s important, but I want us to attempt to understand why.
Now, up front I want to make clear that the Bible never explicitly tells us why Judas did what he did, so our ability to understand the why of his betrayal will be somewhat limited.
But the reason I will suggest we see in Scripture is very much in play today.
In fact, every one of us here this evening have been guilty of this very thing.
It is serious.
In fact, there is nothing more serious than this.
Though it may not be obvious at first, the reason to which I refer is contained in the text we will read together.
It depicts the end of Judas’ life.
It’s a sobering text.
A sad text.
It’s a disturbing text, but the reason Judas betrayed Jesus is contained in this text.
This is what will happen now.
We will read this text.
Then I will work us through a brief overview of the life of Judas.
I will do this from the first person perspective, in other words as if I am Judas.
I say this now, so you don’t get confused.
I did this in the past from the perspective of Peter, and I heard that someone got confused and thought my name was Peter instead of Andy.
It is not my aim to impress you with my acting skills.
I do not they are impressive.
It is my hope that this will not distract us from God’s word or what He may be doing in and among us tonight.
It is my hope however, that by putting ourselves in he shoes of Judas, as unappealing as that may be, will prove to be helpful in understanding Good Friday better and most importantly, knowing and loving Jesus more.
Let’s read that text I mentioned before:
Let me introduce myself
mentioned 20 times in the gospels and twice in the book of Acts
met Jesus and some of His followers while they were returning from Bethany.
Knew of Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist, but everyone was talking about Jesus.
As much as anyone, I wanted to see what the big deal was for myself.
He invited me to follow Him, and I was made treasurer for the group
I had a way with money… I liked money
Illusions to my true colors
Along the way, Jesus frequently issued us disciples warnings.
Sometimes, none of us understood what He was talking about or why He felt the need to warn us in the first place.
I remember one of the warnings had to do with treasures and that somehow we shouldn’t be concerned with treasures on earth but treasures in heaven.
I never really understood that.
Who knows what heaven treasures are like.
I know for sure, those kinds of treasures don’t pay the bills here now.
We all knew what it was to struggle.
Jesus knew what it was to struggle.
I never understood why he didn’t pay more attention to our earthly struggles.
I remember what he said once:
And then there was that time that Jesus suggested that what we say in private would somehow become known publically.
That whatever hypocrisy may exist in us, would be exposed.
As far as I was concerned, we were all hypocrites.
The Pharisees and all of us.
Jesus was always having run-ins with the Pharisee and the Scribes.
I remember one time:
All of this.
Heavenly treasures and not earthly treasures.
Worrying about what we say in private that somehow it would become known publically.
It seemed He wanted us to be poor and care way too much about being hypocrites.
I wanted to be in the.
I had access to some decent money and a lot of exciting things were happening.
And like many, I held out that maybe Jesus was going to make my life better.... but as time went on, that didn’t seem likely.
I just didn’t believe Him.
The Mary Incident
We were at Martha, Mary & Lazarus’ house.
Reclining at the table
Martha was busy serving the meal
Mary… crying and making a scene
took a lb our expensive ointment and put all over Jesus’ feet
you have my response in
I was poor.
I deserved that money.
Jesus wasn’t turning out to be the guy I hoped He would be.
He didn’t match the vision of the Messiah I had.
I didn’t believe Him.
What a waste.
What good did that do?
But right after that and after some of us protested what Mary was doing, Jesus said something that none of us understood.
What was He talking about?
I made a deal
After the Mary incident, I was convinced that this situation was no longer advantageous for me.
Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah, but the Chief priests seemed to be more powerful than Him.
And I know they hated Jesus, so maybe I could work with them.
When that was all happening, its as if there was a voice in my head saying, is Jesus really the Messiah?
Are you really going to put your faith in Him? Are you really going to entrust your life to Him?
Is He for real?
The amount of money they gave me to give up Jesus was 30 pieces of silver (not that much)
It turns out, the fact that I did this didn’t catch Jesus off guard
Was I really going to be the one to do this?
Part of me knew this was wrong, but as wrong as it felt, it came naturally.
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