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
0.09UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.59LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.54LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.18UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.69LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.55LIKELY
Extraversion
0.05UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.52LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.47UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
This is Amazing Grace
Welcome (Jason Wells)
We Are Servants—save the date for our Ministry Fair on August 21!
TableTalk, tonight at 5:30 PM—Joel Whitcomb, don’t grumble with one another
Five Identities Sermon Series—beginning next Sunday
Scripture Reading (Matthew 9:14-17)
Prayer of Praise (God is relational), Louise Bright
The Reformation Song
Behold Our God
Prayer of Confession (Judgmentalism), Jeremy Collins
Blessed Assurance
PBC Catechism #30
How do we grow in practical holiness?
While this growth is a gift of grace, it also requires the believer to actively, intentionally, and persistently fight sin through means such as prayer, Bible intake, and meaningful involvement in a local church.
Pastoral Prayer (John Rogers)
SERMON
The story is told of a woman who lived in a cold-weather climate where good food was often scarce.
The woman suffered from poor health and in this part of the world it was not easy to get the type of nutrition she needed.
Her health continued to decrease, until her doctors eventually suggested she travel to the tropics.
Perhaps the warm weather and the better food would hasten her recovery.
A few weeks after arriving in a tropical paradise, the sick woman wrote to a friend saying, “This is a wonderful spot where I have access to all the good and nutritious food I could ever need.
If only I could find my appetite I’d be well in no time.”
Within a few weeks the woman passed away.
In the end, it wasn’t a lack of food that took her life, but a lack of hunger.
[1]
Many in this room are suffering from the same problem spiritually.
We are dying, not because we don’t have spiritual food, but because we’re not spiritually hungry.
Christians in America have access to more spiritual food than we could ever imagine...
Books, podcasts, commentaries, videos, online training, Christian music, etc.
You don’t even have to ever leave this church building to have access to more spiritual food than many of our brothers and sisters in the world will ever see in a lifetime.
Sunday School, sermons, TableTalk, bookstall, discipleship groups, fellowship groups, etc.
The problem is not a lack of spiritual food, but a lack of spiritual hunger.
So what do we do about it?
The best way to cultivate spiritual hunger is to remember who Jesus is and what He came to do.
Turn to Matthew 9:14
Last week, someone approached the disciples to criticize Jesus for eating with with the wrong people.
This week, someone approaches Jesus to criticize the disciples for eating too much.
But underneath the complaints about feasting and fasting, we see an amazing glimpse of who Jesus is and what He came to do.
Three Stunning Statements:
1) A Staggering CLAIM (14-15a)
9:14—Then the disciples of John came to [Jesus], saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
First met John the Baptist last September in Matthew 3
Since that time, John has been arrested (Matthew 4:12), but he still has followers
Like most good Jews, they included fasting as a regular spiritual discipline
But they’re concerned because Jesus’ disciples aren’t fasting
Jesus’ response includes a staggering claim...
9:15a—And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”
“Don’t fast when I’m around”
In the OT, fasting was usually associated with sadness and sorrow
Jesus says, “when I’m around it’s time to feast, not fast”
Can you imagine someone having the audacity to say, “there’s no need for anyone to be sad when I’m in the room!”
“What about cancer?
Wars?
Corruption?
Tornadoes and tsunamis?”
“Nah, wait until I leave and then you can be sad.”
This is absolutely staggering.
But even more staggering is the reason why the disciples shouldn’t fast around Jesus...
"I am the bridegroom”
Have you ever been to a wedding where people dressed in sackcloth and ashes, wept while the bride walked down the aisle, and fasted instead of feasted after the ceremony?
Sometimes you feel like you’re fasting when you’re waiting for the bridal party to finish their pictures, but you know food is on the way.
Jesus says, “I’m like the bridegroom at a wedding party.
Don’t fast when I’m around.
Feast!”
But why is Jesus calling Himself a bridegroom?
About 800 years earlier, God made a promise to His people...
Hosea 2:16-20—“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call Me ‘My Baal.’
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. . . .
And I will betroth you to Me forever.
I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
And you shall know the Lord.”
Jesus says, that day is NOW!!!
I am the Bridegroom who has come to capture the hearts of God’s people forever.
The best way to cultivate spiritual hunger is to remember who Jesus is and what He came to do.
Jesus is the Bridegroom who has come to captivate the hearts of God’s people.
2) A Surprising PREDICTION (15b)
9:15b— “…The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Look at these words carefully and you’ll see that Jesus makes two surprising predictions...
i) Jesus Predicts the Cross
"Taken away” carries the idea of sudden, violent removal [2]
Another form of the same word is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT) in...
Isaiah 53:7-8—He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
This is just one of many instances where Jesus predicted His death before it happened.
How could He know?
Because He was born to die!
Jesus didn’t die as a hapless victim of religious or Roman oppression.
He was sent by the Father to die as a substitute for the sins of His people.
EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL
ii) Jesus Predicts the Church Age
The Church Age is the period of time between the ascension of Jesus and the return of Jesus
“...and then they will fast.”
When?
Of course, Jesus would rise from death in victory!
But 40 days later He would ascend into heaven and be physically absent from His people.
That’s the then.
Who?
All of Jesus’ followers from the earliest disciples until the day He returns
Don’t move too quickly past this.
Can you imagine someone coming to PBC for membership, sitting down for a membership interview, and saying “I’m going to be here for a little while.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9