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
0.17UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.06UNLIKELY
Fear
0.06UNLIKELY
Joy
0.7LIKELY
Sadness
0.48UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.78LIKELY
Confident
0.02UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.64LIKELY
Extraversion
0.15UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.54LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.56LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
The Beauty of Christ
As Christians, it is our great duty and privileged to now seek the beauty of Christ in all of life
A few months back I was watching the sun come up across the field and was struck with its beauty as always.
I turned away from the sunrise and was struck once more with the golden hue that the sun was emitting onto the field
And it was a profound beauty to me that not only is the sun explicitly beautiful of itself but even when I look away from it, its beauty can be seen in the things it touches
And this is the joy of the Christian, that we see Christ and his beauty in all he has done in his ministry to us on earth
And we also see the beauty of all that it has influenced as he sits on his throne
His righteous life, his sacrificial death, his victorious resurrection are all the beauties of the sunrise itself
And the pagan turned godly man, leading his home into righteousness, being a light to the wicked world is the golden hue of grace that it is our joy to behold as well
And in this short time I have with you, I am tasked to show you that the judgments of Christ are both beautiful in and of itself and also in the effect it has on the landscape all around
And this is important because God’s judgement has fallen on hard times as of late
If it is tolerable at all it is hardly looked at as something that is beautiful
Thus, we lose out on the worship that is to be found in its golden hues as our eyes cannot handle its brilliance
In a generation before this one, it was common for fat Baptist pastors with a nasty, sweat-filled handkerchief to pound and scream of the judgement of Christ to come
This is known as fire and brimstone preaching
Being in a time in which speaking of Christ’s judgement is avoided, we may think this other side of the ditch is somewhere to be again
But both sides get the beauty of Christ’s judgement wrong
An earlier ministry I had after several sermons an older man asked to speak with me in my office about my preaching
There, he asked me where I learned to preach and told me he was looking for preaching of the old kind, one of fire and brimstone
After listening to him for awhile, I got more information on his life to see that he had a divorce because his wife treated him without gratitude.
When I asked if he sought forgiveness from God for such a godless divorce he narrowed his eyes on me and said no.
I said it nicer than this, but I said something a long the lines of “perhaps the fire and brimstone preaching should begin within your own soul.”
After pleading to meet with me for counseling he said he think about it, but I never saw him again.
He wrote a note though a few weeks later in which he argued for a salvation of saying a prayer once and never having to think about the genuineness of the confession, no matter how much you may be living in sin.
Christ’s judgement is just as ugly to this (fire and brimstone) guy, as it is to those who refuse to see and celebrate its beauty today
What is the middle road that causes us to have the joy of experiencing this aspect of Christ’s beauty?
Both in its essential glow and the hue it provides in its outworking?
Before answering the question outright, I want to spend a few extra minutes adding to the confusion of finding Christ’s judgement beautiful yet doing all we can do to not see it happen in people
On the one hand judgement is something we are trying to get people out of Christ’s judgement
Jesus himself saying he came not to judge but to save
Jonah is set up to us as the most successful yet worst evangelist
He runs away from saving Nineveh from judgement
through running away saves the crew on the boat he used to run from
Then in little time he saves the whole city by his preaching
Then complains to God that he ran away initially for this reason
After a plant grants needed shade to Jonah then quickly dies and he is bitter over that God says:
When the disciples of Jesus were anxious for judgement to fall on a Samaritan city since it rejected Jesus since he was set to go to Jerusalem
Perhaps we should let God’s judgement be something that we tolerate but not celebrate?
But yet the other side of it is the time in which we are longing for, and worshipping Christ in light of his judgement
The Revelation to John has many times in which the saints and angels break out into songs of worship....have you ever noticed that most of the time it has to do with his judgement?
We love the song by Andrew Peterson, Is He Worthy, which is describing Revelation 5 and how Jesus is the only one worthy to open the seals of the scroll
And what do those seals represent?
Judgement upon the world and salvation to his people
So what’s the middle road here: not being embarrassed by Christ’s judgement but not being a fire and brimstone guy?
How can we not miss out on seeing the beauty of Christ’s judgement
While also wishing to see people saved from Christ’s judgement?
By seeing that Christ’s salvation, and Christ’s judgement are both driven by the same locomotive that makes Christ eternally beautiful
Righteousness: A state of moral perfection that adheres to God’s law which is an extension of his very nature
Reflecting God
Sin is ugly since it missing the mark of such perfection
So the judgement of God is his authoritative decree of guilt from which his wrath extends to do away with the source of unrighteousness
So that righteousness reigns in all its beauty
What makes Jesus so beautiful is his righteousness, lack of sin, and his doing away with sin through Judgement
Christians today blush at Christ’s judgement because they lack a full appreciation for his righteousness
Christians in the past have been obsessed with fire and brimstone preaching because they were obsessed with their own standard of righteousness
But we stay in the middle, with a growing appreciation for the beauty of Christ’s judgement when the beauty of Christ’s righteousness is the fuel that starts and maintains the fire
Let us look at the beauty of Christ’s righteousness on display through judgement in both the believer and unbeliever in this life and in the one to come
This life:
Believer
God’s judgement in justification
God declares Jesus guilty in our stead for unrighteousness and takes it upon himself and thus making us stand righteous before God
God’s judgement in sanctification
Thus the sanctification process is growing after the image of Christ through realizing the judgement of sin and new life that he has won for us on Calvary
Thus, judgement is found in the life of the believer in Jesus our mediator
What does judgement look like for the unbeliever in this life?
God gives them up in wrath to their unrighteousness
Thus in this life judgement in ridding sin is realized in the believer but judgement to the world in letting sin fester in his wrath
Behold the beautiful contrast of unrighteousness on display in the world and through judgement and grace righteousness displayed in the church
The first seals that Christ opens are full of God’s angry wrath on the sinners of the earth
But this is contrasted heavily with the sealing of God’s people
The wrath of Christ is beautiful today because it provides the contrast that displays the beauties of righteousness in light of unrighteousness
And in the eternal state, Christ’s judgement is beautiful because it rids creation of unrighteousness forever
Contrast with
And so, as the people of God we long for righteousness because we long for Jesus
The nature of him and his kingdom is one of righteousness
The Kingdom of Christ is one in which righteousness dwells and conquers
As we look upon the wicked world, we long to see their sins and unrighteousness judged in Jesus today
And to see them live in that reality as Jesus takes care of their sin in their practice through progressive sanctification
And so we declare the good news of the gospel
Repent for the kingdom of Christ is at hand!
But our love for Christ and his righteousness makes his judgment beautiful not just in salvation
But when he does away with sin forever…we long for the final judgement where all is made right
The sunrise itself in all its beauty is seen in Christ’s receiving the judgement of God for his people
And the golden hue it leaves on the field is the contrast of judgement through grace working in the believer as they are contrasted with those left in their sin
The sunrise itself in all its beauty is seen in Christ returning and finishing his work of judgement
When the golden hue of perfect righteousness is on display with no trace of unrighteousness anymore
Christ’s judgment is beautiful because it puts righteousness, who God is, on full display
To be enjoyed today and in eternity
Soli Deo Gloria
Judgement and salvation are so closely interwoven that you cannot enjoy the one without enjoying the other
You can not know the one without knowing the other
People of God we are not simply just to tolerate the fearful judgement of God, but being guarded by the hand of Jesus Christ our Lord we are to celebrate its eternal beauty!
Judgement is the prerequisite to enjoying grace
Out of Judgement comes Grace
The lifeblood of grace came at judging sins in the Son
A heart changed by grace loves God law and God’s judgement to create any disobedience to it
The believer is disciplined, the unbeliever is judged
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9