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
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Tone of specific sentences
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I am the Bread of Life
● The stakes are getting higher…
Miracles, crowd following, momentum building.
● What had been happening leading up to this passage?
They had witnessed Jesus;
- feed 5000 with 5 loaves and two fishes
- Walk on water
- Heal people
The crowd is literally waiting around for the next encounter with Jesus
● Difficult to understand
Some of his closest followers stopped following him even though they had just seen what they had seen.
Why was it such a big word for the time, for the disciples and let's be honest for us today…
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
What does this claim mean to them: God the provider (manna to the Israelites in the OT)
Bread as sustenance of life
Jesus introducing a new spiritual meaning of life ie relationship with Jesus.
That we can have life, not just existence though Jesus.
-The restless soul is at rest and the hungry heart is satisfied.
Jesus says in order to gain these that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood…
And for us today… eating the flesh and drinking the blood?
The translated word implies an almost carnal eating of the flesh.
Devouring and ripping apart…
It’s getting weirder right?
What does it mean for them, us and me?
The image Jesus uses of bread implies that there is a hunger in all of us...
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
Theory of what drives human motivation… ie we are motivated firstly byt the bottom level ideas and works our way up.
Best example- teachers in the room: have you ever tried to teach a child that is hungry or tired?
Have you ever sat through a lecture and been lacking in sleep (not just bored) or skipped breakfast.
Very hard to stay motivated on lecture or the lesson.
Uses this image of something that is at our very core, the very basis of our survival is centred on what Jesus is claiming… to be bread, the sustenance is to meet the very basic and foundational needs that we have.
Jesus in this passage speaks to three needs that exist in every person for all time;
Salvation
Acceptance
Fulfillment
● Salvation:
The people needed saving.
Their actions showed this, their need showed this.
There was a far greater need in the people that could not be met by anything that they had encountered to this point.
And they were waiting for a saviour to rescue them from them.
We need a saviour.
Without one we are ensnared, tangled and weighed down by the burden of our sin and the consequences that follow this.
The bible says that the consequence of sin is death.
Which means we carry not only the weight of eternity without God but we carry the burden of a God-less life with no way to ease this or fix this.
We need a saviour.
Without one we are ensnared, tangled and weighed down by the burden of our sin and the consequences that follow this.
The bible says that the consequence of sin is death.
Which means we carry not only the weight of eternity without God but we carry the burden of a Godless life with no way to ease this or fix this.
We need saving from it.
We need a saviour.
Jesus is beginning to tell the people that He is the saviour they’ve been waiting for.
He’s beginning to lay down the heavy so their eyes can be open to their need of him.
● Acceptance:
There was a hunger in them to be apart of something…
Jewish people were the ‘chosen people’.
Doesn’t get more set apart then that.
Except that there was something not quite finished.
They wanted more.
Jesus in his words in this passage is trying to re-shape their image of God.
V35 Jesus replied to them, “[g]I am the Bread of Life.
The one who comes to Me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in Me [as Savior] will never be thirsty [for that one will be sustained spiritually].
Accepted by the Father v39-40
No one can come to me except by God’s hand.
Reshaping their image of a distant vengeful God that they had believed in.
Jesus was trying to show his disciples that God was the loving father that sacrificed his greatest gift for them.
We too desire to be accepted.
To be part of something, seen by someone, accepted as part of or into something bigger then just us.
It can drive pretty much everything we do on a relational level.
Have you ever been a visitor somewhere?
Been new to something?
Felt like you were outside the click?
Its our fundamental need to be part of something, accepted.
And its how God made us so he knows that we need it.
● Fulfillment:
They had come wanting more… more food v26, more miracles v30, more knowledge v28.
Roman culture was about consuming
Often feasts and banquets that today would have been thousands of dollars
So excessive that people would take a drug to make them vomit between meals so that the next course might taste better than the previous.
Extravagant food, clothing
Deep emptiness and dissatisfaction that was trying to be filled
Not so different from today where we look for something, anything to fill the need each of us have for something more.
Without Jesus we are either sitting in a place of dissatisfaction or seeking to have it fulfilled.
Empty Full
Physical- empty bellies, focus on clothing
Emotional- need to fulfill emotional emptiness ie hopelessness, despair
Spiritual- deeper need in each of us that needs a saviour
There are varying degrees of need
Bread to a starving person is the most incredible sight, but bread to a person that has never had to fight for a meal is just wasted calories.
Disciples weren’t hung up on the words he was saying- their bellies were full, their appetite was temporarily fixed.
They were hung up on what the words he was saying meant.
It’s a hard word.
Jesus was saying I am all you need.
As soon as i say i need God, i lose 51% of the vote.
I am no longer in control.
Giving up control goes against the large strong part of us that longs to be in control.
It’s been around since the beginning of time.
We rearrange our lives to stay in control...
Adam and Eve: they wanted to be like God
Camden thinks they don’t need Jesus (our bellies are full in many ways) | Perhaps Camden doesn't want to need Jesus.
Jesus warns the disciples of becoming full on the temporary.
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