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
0.14UNLIKELY
Fear
0.17UNLIKELY
Joy
0.56LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.64LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.47UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.86LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.47UNLIKELY
Extraversion
0.02UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.59LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.26UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Scripture reading
Jesus always talks about opening the spiritual eyes, and seeing with the heart.
Right before today’s passage, Jesus feeds the four thousand.
Jesus relates seeing to understanding.
One who sees is one who understands the will of God.
In the Bible, there are three kinds of eyes.
There are the physical eyes, the eyes that discern good and evil, and the spiritual eyes that understand the Word of God.
When we have the eyes to see the Word of God, we will have the eyes to see what God is doing.
It is very difficult when we cannot see clearly.
Simeon believed that he would see the Lord’s Christ.
This is talking about seeing with his physical eyes.
And then he exclaims, “My eyes have seen your salvation.”
This is the spiritual sight.
Simeon saw the Messiah and saw the salvation of the Lord.
In the garden of Eden, after eating the fruit, Adam and Eve had their eyes opened to their shame.
Before this, their spiritual eyes were opened to see God.
But after the fall, their spiritual eyes were shut and they saw the sin.
When people are bitten by venemous snakes, the first thing that happens is that their hearing and sight is blocked.
The two disciples going to Emmaus had their eyes blocked from recognizing Jesus.
The eyes of their heart were closed shut.
It is only God who can open our spiritual eyes.
Redemption work is the work of opening our spiritual eyes and ears.
Saul’s eyes were open, but he saw nothing.
The light from heaven was so bright that his physical eyes were blinded.
May God close our sinful eyes like he did to Saul, and open our spiritual eyes.
The Pharisees saw the wrong things and claimed to see.
We have to mature in order to appreciate solid food.
When the spiritual eyes are opened, the physical seeing goes away.
These disciples thought they had seen Jesus already, but they did not recognize him, and only when their spiritual eyes were opened to Jesus, the physical Jesus vanished from their sight.
If we are spiritual infants, we cannot eat solid food.
We would choke, or have indigestion.
Do we see clearly the truth about Jesus?
The result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a self determining system of morality, in which humans decided what was good or evil.
The blind man who came to see clearly through two tries
Jesus healed the centurion’s daughter from a distance, but this time he took two tries.
It seems weird.
But he did this to teach something.
He’s showing us how our eyes are opened.
Our eyes are opened when we come to Jesus and receive whatever comes out of his mouth.
The water, the spit that comes out of his mouth is the water of life.
The Word that proceeds out of his mouth will open our eyes.
When we first come to Jesus, we don’t see clearly just yet.
We see vaguely, and we start following.
The problem when we can only see vaguely is that we’re prone to falling, to accidents, and so on.
And the problem is that many are satisfied with just this vague sight.
And so we follow because we want the blessings.
There are two levels of understanding the Word of God, and two levels of sight.
When we don’t see clearly, our life of faith becomes difficult.
We start doubting because we cannot see clearly.
We start wondering if this is the right thing.
As a result of not being able to see clearly, we start grumbling.
There were twelve spies sent out to see the land of Canaan, but only two of them saw the land with spiritual eyes, that God would deliver the land to them.
The rest saw only with their physical eyes, and came back grumbling.
Only Joshua and Caleb entered into the promised land without dying.
May we see clearly with our spiritual eyes.
If there’s an abstract image before you, you see the same thing as other people, but you won’t understand it unless someone explains it to you.
But once you gain understanding, you will never see it the same thing again.
Are we seeing the right things, or the wrong things?
When we taste the sweetness of God’s Word, our spiritual eyes will be opened.
This is why we do biblestudy and continue to read the Word of God.
The Pharisees were seeing the wrong thing, and claimed to see.
We need to check if we are seeing the right things.
Are we placing the right things in front of our eyes?
Conclusion
We need the blessing of the Lord lifting what covers our eyes, ears, and mouth.
Circumcision is about taking off the covering foreskin, and also bears some symbolic significance for uncovering our spiritual eyes.
The blind man Bartimaeus was healed by his faith.
But he didn’t do anything.
The Gospel of Mark emphasizes the faith that comes from hearing.
All the people who came to Jesus heard of Jesus first.
Bartimaeus heard of Jesus and began to cry out.
He called Jesus the son of David, which meant that he saw Jesus as the Messiah.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9