Pastor Steve Bauer

This is the sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas. The sermon text is: Luke 2:41-52. The sermon theme is: Hold On To What You Need!. Here is the Written Sermon

Hold On To What You Need!

Inquiring minds want to know. This was the advertisement for a magazine from years ago. And the point was very clear. Why did they publish this magazine? They published it because people wanted to know. They wanted to know more. They wanted to know the details. Humans are curious, inquisitive creatures, aren’t we? We carry this curiosity with us everywhere we go. And not surprisingly we carry it with us as we approach God’s word. A couple days ago on Christmas Day we learned what happened as Jesus was born. And we want—we thirst to know what happened next. And the Holy Spirit, in writing his word, does something very unexpected. We want to know what happened next. And instead we fast forward twelve years to this event in the book of Luke. And then, after this one event, we fast forward to Jesus when he is almost thirty years old. If we ask the question: “what happened in all of those middle twenty seven years”, the final verse in this section answers our question. We read: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” ¹

Jesus grew. We could spend hours pondering this mystery. How is it that the unchanging God changes as he is joined with an ever-changing human? Instead, I will save that thought for another sermon. But, in these words, we focus on what it meant that Jesus grew. What did it mean for Jesus? What did it mean for his parents? What did it mean for the world?

And so we travel with Mary and Joseph. They are going back home after celebrating the Passover. They did this year after year. They travelled with not just their family, but with their aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family. And as they travel back home they asked themselves a question: “Where is our son? Where is Jesus?” They assumed he was with one of their extended family in this large caravan traveling back to their home town. But, after they had traveled that day, they came to a stop to rest for the night. And Jesus wasn’t there. So they went back to Jerusalem. And after three days, they found him.

And when they found him they saw the strangest sight. They saw Jesus sitting in the middle of the bible teachers. Now, if you know anything about Jewish culture, this is a bizarre sight. The one sitting in the middle was always the teacher, not the student. How did it happen that their son had this group of teachers straining to hear every word that came from his childish voice?

We talked with Joseph and Mary for three days. But what was it like to walk in Jesus’ shoes for those three days? As Luke tells us, Jesus grew. He grew in wisdom and grace. Above all, he hungered to grow in God’s word. He grew up in Nazareth hearing God’s word week by week and day by day. But, he wanted to challenge his wisdom. He wanted to show his wisdom. He wanted to flex his muscles to keep on growing. So, he went to the temple where the teachers were. And there we find a strange and wonderful event take place. Jesus starts asking questions. And, the sort of questions he asked were the sort of questions experts and teachers loved to wrestle with and answer. And the more he asks his challenging questions, the more teachers gather around him. Finally, there are so many teachers around him he takes a seat, and through his questions teaches the teachers. And finally then, notice what happens: “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” ²

You see, at first the teachers were amazed at his questions. Then, they were amazed at his answers. The teachers were the ones who were being taught. This boy was the one who was doing the teaching.

Jesus needed to grow in God’s word. And very quickly, the teachers discovered that they need to grow in God’s word. Finally then, Mary and Joseph found that they too need to grow. They found him and Mary said to him: “Look at how much pain you have caused us as we were looking for you.³” And the answer that Jesus gives to her is amazing. He says two sentences. First he says: “What happened that you are looking for me?⁴”. He was acting as if it were strange that they were looking for him. And then he makes his reason for being there all that much more clear in the next sentence. He says “You know that I have to be in my Father’s [word], don’t you?” ⁵

Now, you’ll notice that my translation is a little different than the words we have here in the NIV. The NIV here says that Jesus had to be in his Father’s house. The word ‘house’ is not in the greek. In fact there is no word here. It says that he had to be in his Father’s…..and we have to fill in the blank by context. Mary ponders Jesus’ words. The teacher’s ponder his words. I conclude that this is his explanation to his parents. They should not have been shocked or surprised. They should not have been angry or frustrated. This was where he belonged. He needed to grow. He needed to be in God’s word.

Mary and Joseph learned a very powerful lesson in this temple. For four days they had thought that Jesus was the one who needed them. They thought that this child would be hungry or helpless or harmed. They thought that he needed them. And as they saw their child teaching the teachers not-hungry, not-hurt, not-harmed, they realized that they were the ones who needed him.

My brothers and sisters, take note of the trap that Mary and Joseph fell into. For it is the same trap we fall into. Just think about the ways we teach our children. A child asks his parent: “Mommy, why do we go to church?” And the Mom answers: “We go to church to make God happy.” What a horrible answer. We do not come to church because God needs us. We come to church because we need him. And we find that same sort of answer in so many other answers parents give to children: Why do we give money to our church? Because God needs it. Why is that child being baptized? Because God tells us to. Why are all those people going up there for the Lord’s Supper. Because God tells us to remember him. How horrible. God doesn’t need our money. Everything belongs to him already. We are the ones who have the need to give. God doesn’t need us to be baptized or to come forward for the Lord’s Supper. No, we are the ones who need. We need the forgiveness which God gives to us in these great gifts. Now arrogant and sinful we are to think we are doing God a favor for receiving the gifts he gives to us.

My brothers and sisters, take note of the trap that Mary and Joseph fell into. Take note of how Mary dealt with this trap: “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.” ⁶

Mary, in her great humility realized how great her sin was. And she humbly guarded every word Jesus spoke to her. The NIV here says ‘treasured’. But, literally the word here⁷ means to continually guard. She guarded his words. You can just see her walking silently home trying to memorize every word which came out of his mouth so that she would not forget. You can just see her memorizing every sight, every sound every application of God’s word which her son spoke.

But why? Why would she guard his words so closely and continually? Because in them she saw her sin. And in them she saw the solution to her sin. She could never obey her heavenly perfectly. But her son could. This child could and did obey Our Father perfectly. And it is that perfection which he gave to her. It is that perfection he gives to us all by faith, so that when Our Father looks at us, he does not see a band of arrogant beggars who think that we are doing him a favor by taking everything he has to offer. Instead, he sees his Son. He sees a glorious group of Christians who strain to hear every breath and word which comes from the voice of his Son—just as those teachers did. Instead, he sees a group of Christians who humbly obey his word as Mary and Joseph did.

My brothers and sisters, hold onto what you need. You need God’s Son just as much as Mary did. You need his word as much as his teachers did. Guard your Savior and his word all you have as long as you have life and breath. Amen.

¹ (Luke 2:52 NIV)

² (Luke 2:47 NIV)

³ “ἰδοὺ ὁ πατήρ σου κἀγὼ ὀδυνώμενοι ἐζητοῦμέν σε.” (Luke 2:48 GNT-T)

⁴ “τί ὅτι ἐζητεῖτέ με;” (Luke 2:49 GNT-T)

⁵ “οὐκ ᾔδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με;” (Luke 2:49 GNT-T)

⁶ (Luke 2:51 NIV)

⁷ “διετήρει” (Luke 2:51 GNT-T)

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This is our Christmas Eve service. Our theme was We Welcome Our Savior With Signs And Symbols. Our readings were: Isaiah 9:2-7; Micah 5:2-5; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20; 1 John 1:1-9.

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We have just completed our Midweek Advent Series here at Faith. If you pastors out there would like to make use of it for next year, you’re welcome to download the sermon series here: Midweek Advent 2009.

If you’d like to hear the audio versions of these sermons, you can download them from my website either as podcasts or direct downloads.

If you use Accordance and would like my user notes, please let me know and I’l get them to you to help in your text study preparation.

Enjoy.

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This is the sermon for the third of our Midweek Advent services. The sermon text is: Isaiah 40:25-31. The sermon theme is: Our Messiah Is Too Strong To Get Tired. Just a word of caution, Professor Strobel once said that you can’t save a soul after 20 minutes (in reference to the length of your sermon). This sermon breaks that rule by a bunch. It’s close to 30 minutes long. Here is the Written Sermon.

Our Messiah Is Too Strong To Get Tired

Sometimes the simplest proofs are the most humbling. Have you ever been talking to someone and he or she said: “So, you had spaghetti for lunch?” For a moment you are scared. Has he been watching me? Has she been stalking me? And when that other person sees the look on your face he points down to your shirt. You look down and see a big spot of spagetti sauce.

Sometimes the simplest proofs are the most humbling. And in the words we look at here in Isaiah 40, we find that same truth: ““To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” ¹

If you will remember from last week, Isaiah is in the middle of a great doxology. He is praising the Lord. And in these words, notice what it is he is praising him for. He is praising him for his strength, his power, his might. Isaiah’s song of praise leads him straight into the people’s complaint: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?” ²

Isaiah reminds them of the obvious: The Lord is strong. But, the Lord’s people have an objection. They cry out to heaven and to each other: ‘what about my problems? What about my pain? What about my sin? The Lord doesn’t see it. And maybe he can’t see my situation because he is unable to see it.’

Now, my brothers and sisters, realize that these are real objections from real people. Isaiah was writing to the people who came after him. He was writing to people who would see their city and their temple demolished. He was writing to people who had seen their loved ones killed. He was writing to people who had seen those that remained made into slaves and sent hundreds of miles away. And when all these horrible things happened they asked the question: ‘where is the Lord’s power?’

When they didn’t seem to find an answer to their prayer they grew too tired to be strong. They wanted to be strong. They wanted to follow the Lord and trust in him with their whole heart. But, when their situation didn’t change, they grew too tired to be strong.

These were real people with real objections. And so are we. We are ever-so-tempted to think: “where are your promises now, Lord? Where is your power? I am in pain on the outside. I am in pain on the inside. Where is your power now?” And when our pain is not taken away immediately, it is ever-so-easy for us to descend into spiritual exhaustion. We stop asking “Where is your power” and instead we sigh and moan those words: “I am too tired to be strong.”

The Israelites brought real objections to the Lord. In response, the Lord brought real answers to them: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” ³

In their exhaustion, the Israelites cried out: “we are too tired to be strong, O Lord.” In response, the Lord told them that he was too strong to ever get tired. Those Israelites could see their city and their temple burned to the ground. They could see their family or themselves sold into slavery. They could see their relatives die or even die themselves. And none of that would change the Lord’s promises and the Lord’s power. He had the power to settle them back into their own land again. He had the power to cause the Messiah to be born who would take their sins away.

And in our gospel for this evening we see this promise fulfilled. But we see even more than that. In these words we see a Messiah who is too strong to get tired. Just take a look at what happened in these 25 verses. First we find a dinner. Jesus calls Matthew to be his disciple. The Pharisees don’t like the fact that Jesus is hanging out with sinners. And so Jesus preaches the truth to them. After the dinner we find desperation. The synagogue ruler is desperate because his daughter is dying. And as he is on his way to the ruler’s house he finds another desperate woman. She has been bleeding for twelve years. Jesus heals her body. Jesus heals her soul. Then Jesus raises the ruler’s daughter from the dead. After the desperation we find darkness. There are two blind men. Jesus brings them out of physical darkness. Jesus brings them out of spiritual darkness. Finally then we find a demon. Jesus drives out the demon and brings the healed man into his kingdom of faith–even while the Pharisees use his miracle against him. Do you see all the amazing events which happened in these verses? There’s a dinner, desperation, delivering from darkness and then a driving out of demons.

All this is what happened in these verses. But, just as important as what happened is when. When did all this take place? How long did it take? Did Jesus do these amazing things over a couple days or weeks? No, all of this took place on one day–the day that Jesus chose Matthew to be his disciple.

Our Messiah is too strong to get tired. Now, can you begin to understand some of the statements Jesus’ disciples say to him? They send women and children away from Jesus not because he is exhausted, but because they are exhausted.

Now, this is an amazing truth to think about. But what does it have to do our dilemma? How does it deal with the fact that there are many times that I am too tired to be strong? Isaiah tells us: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” ⁴

Isaiah gave a beautiful promise to the Lord’s People. Now, notice what the promise was and what it was not. The promise was not to necessarily take away their suffering. No, it was a promise to give them his strength. And he follows up the promise with some beautiful pictures. The strength that he will give them will be far better than that best that man can muster. The word Isaiah uses here, ‏בָּחוּר⁵ describes an unmarried young man. These were the strongest and most energetic men to put into a battle. When armies would go out to battle these are the ones they would put in the front ranks. But even the strongest men still get tired.

The Lord promised to them that when he gave them his strength, they would never get tired. And to illustrate that thought, he gives them the picture of an eagle. Have you ever seen an eagle fly? When I was in school, every year we would drive up north to a place where the salmon spawned and then died. And there the eagles gathered. And it wasn’t just fascinating seeing them swoop down to get their food. It was fascinating seeing them hover for hours in the air. As a child I asked my teacher: “when are they going to get tired and come down?” And he said: “I don’t know.”

Their complaint was: “O Lord, don’t you see my pain, my misery, my situation.” And his answer is: “I will give you my strength.” It was a beautiful promise to them. And today it is a beautiful promise to us. For there have been times that our sin has weighed us down. There have been times that we have said: ‘where is your power and might, O Lord?’ And there have been times that we have been too tired to be strong. How thankful we are that Jesus was too strong to get tired. Our Father commands us to trust in follow him fully, forever. And our Messiah is the only one who could do this. We need a solution to our sin and the pain that it brings. And this little child in the manger was the only one who was strong enough to take away our sin by enduring its punishment.

So then, my brothers and sisters, since our Messiah is too strong to get tired, find your strength in him. Several years ago, there was a woman whose husband died. She was in her late 20’s with a small boy to take care of. And at the funeral of her husband, the pastor told her: “Don’t be strong. There are going to be many people telling you to be strong for yourself and for your family. Don’t be strong. No, instead, let Jesus be your strength.”

His advice to her is my advice to you. Find your strength not in your abilities or in your friends or family. Do not find it in what you were or what your are. Find your strength in the promises from God’s word. Grow in God’s word here in worship and in bible study. Find your strength in the fact that you have taken your cares and concerns to your Lord in prayer. And he will give you his strength. For our Messiah is too strong to get tired. And he gives his strength to you. Amen.

¹ (Isaiah 40:25–26 NIV)

² (Isaiah 40:27 NIV)

³ (Isaiah 40:28 NIV)

⁴ (Isaiah 40:29–31 NIV)

⁵ (Isaiah 40:30 BHS-W4)

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