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
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
0.61LIKELY
Sadness
0.64LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
0.91LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.59LIKELY
Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
0.38UNLIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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Context
~AD62-64 End of Paul’s life AD64-67 Emperor Nero, Great fire AD64 July 19-25 (Summer)
Has the feel of a last testament
Advice and pleading for a beloved son
Mixture of hope and soaring words of glory, and bitterness and disappointment
Feels deserted for so many, has grace for a few, pleads with Timothy to come to him before winter sets in.
What will I leave behind when I’m gone?
Curious mix that we see in the epistles - something written in a speicific time and place to specific people (or, in this case a specific person) but also with the subtext that it will be circulated and read by many.
Like one half of an intensely personal telephone conversation when you know that people will be listening in.
Doesn’t hold back, but is clearly thinking about who will be listening and paying attention
In prison, for the second time.
Not uin a comfortable house arrest this time, but in chains, in a common prison, and isolated from his friends and supporters.
Almost certainly dictated, possibly uner very trying conditions
Starts with Timothy’s spiritual whakapapa - I have this faith from my ancestors, Timothy has it from his grandmother, from his mother, and throughout his whole young life
Paul establishes Timothy’s authority to follow him as a leader and Apostle in the Church
Do not be ashamed of Paul as a prisoner, nor of the gospel - hints at persecution, possibly post fire?
Double Sandwich construction vv.
6-14, vv8b-12
Cheese Sandwich
Hamburger - Double sandwich
Meat in the Centre?
Grace
Salad around it?
Suffering
Bun? - The power, gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit
Burger without meat is pointless
Recognising our own need for grace.
Grace that was there before we were born
Grace that is revealed to us through Jesus
“The Elect” - will touch
Burger without bun won’t hold together
flame of the gift of God - Holy Spirit
sense that people are forsaking spiritual gifts - cf.
Power, love & self-discipline
Calls us to a holy life
Burger without salad is unhealthy
Plenty of people will tell you that giving your heart to Jesus means freedom from suffering - blessing and prosperity.
There is no question that we are richly blessed through God’s love and grace.
There is no question that we are given every good thing through the generosity of our loving Father.
But there is also no question that the Way of the Cross is a way that will not shy away from suffering
Often we believe that we are suffering because we have displeased God.
Paul wasn’t suffering because he had displeased God.
Paul was suffering because rich and greedy men had made a deathtrap from the world’s greatest city, and he was a convenient scapegoat.
Jesus didn’t suffer on the cross because he had displeased God.
He went to the cross because his dying and rising was the only way to break through the midden of sin and selfishness and hardness of heart that had walled off God’s children from their loving Father.
We don’t suffer because we have displeased God.
We suffer because we live in the reality of a beautiful world that is broken into treacherous and deadly shards.
Hope in the midst of suffering
Not suffering on its own - hemmed in by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit - we need both around us to help us through the darkest times in our lives
Paul is challenging - there’s a desperation
He’s also clear-sighted.
His suffering has hugely affected him - he feels lost, abandoned and alone, but he also sees a way through.
Not an escape from his own suffering - he sees that.
That’s why he sets up Timothy with his whakapapa, establishes his authority.
There is a clear sign here that Paul is inviting Timothy to take up his mantle, just as he invites us to take up the mantle of grace and faith and the anointing of God’s Spirit.
But that mantle isno easy thing.
Come quickly!
Join me in my suffering!
Grasp the nettle!
Know the Hope of the gospel of grace.
Not a hope to escap[e suffering, but the hope to come through suffering along the way of the cross into the fullness of life.
Through blood and through fire into the goodness of God.
Blood is the stuff of life, but also a symbol of pain and suffering - communion Lord you suffered for us.
You invite us into your suffering and your life.
May your blood pulse through our veins.
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