Luke 6:37-42

We love to judge.

The comedian George Carlin observes a universal rule of the road: Everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot.  And everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac.
To the speeding driver, everyone’s an idiot.  To the slow driver, everyone’s a maniac. But one rule applies to all:  My speed is always just right.

We love to judge. 

Do you remember the Internet Exporer hoax? It was about 5 years ago. The BBC, CNN, the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and many other news sites and blogs reported that Internet Explorer users are less intelligent than those using other web browsers. The report was based on a ‘supposed’ IQ survey of 100,000 internet users published on a Vancouver based website. It was quickly exposed as a hoax. But the real question is - why did this lie make such great news? Why did it find such instant and universal acceptance (amongst the web-savvy anyway)? Because we love to judge. I remember the warm glow i felt when i read the report! We love to feel superior. We love to judge. 

Jesus Christ says:
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Jesus says there are two realities you can buy into:
Judgement and condemnation or Giving and forgiving.
You can live in the law court - the realm of judgements, verdicts, condemnation. Or you can sit at the meal table - the realm of gifts and laughter and relationship. 
Jesus tells us where God lives; the currency that God deals in.  Verse 36: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 
He is in the forgiveness game.  What game are we in?

Ever since Adam, by nature humanity has been in the blame game.
As soon as sin entered in, man hid and sought to cover himself by his own efforts. The Lord came into the garden to expose him and, ultimately, to clothe him in acceptable coverings. Yet in his excruciating exposure man rejects the way of repentance and receiving. Instead he goes on the attack. Man blames the woman, the woman blames the serpent and (as the old joke goes) the serpent doesn’t have a leg to stand on. This has been the way of man ever since.
The blame game. Living in the realm of judgements and verdicts. Folding our arms, shaking our heads and saying ‘Shame on you.’ 
‘It’s Not me. It’s You.’ 

That’s what we’re like and Jesus says, v37:
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” 

Now, this isn’t about saying “Anything goes.”  Refusing all judgements. This isn’t about pretending you’re blind to everyone’s faults.  It can’t mean that because Jesus tells us at the end of v42 to see clearly and to seek to ‘remove (obviously very carefully) the speck from our brothers eye.’ And in the next few verses after today’s passage Jesus tells us to recognise what kinds of people we’re dealing with by their fruits.  So Jesus still wants us to be discerning.  But He wants us to stop feeling superior to other people.  If someone else is going wrong in their life, don’t use it as an opportunity to score points, don’t use it as an opportunity to feel superior, use it as an opportunity to examine your own heart and recognise your own sin.  Use it as an opportunity to pity them and show them mercy, to help them out of their sin.  But don’t live your life in the bitterness of the judgement game. 

Because If we play that game we will always lose. 
If you live in the realm of judgement and condemnation you basically assume that everything is about verdicts being passed on ‘him’ and ‘her’ and you!  And you feel like you’re in the dock and you don’t like being judged. So you fight back by pretending to be the Judge.  You point the finger at your co-accused around you hoping that everyone will forget that you’re guilty.  But there you are in the dock, feeling guilty and trying to shift the blame onto everyone else.  You’ve bought into the blame game and it’s your element now.

If you play the blame game you’ll lose. 
Jesus says these sobering words. doesn’t he, end of v38 “With the measure you use it will be measured to you.” . 
Imagine there’s a new phone app and rather than recording every kilometre you travel or every calorie you burn, this app records every moral judgement you ever make about another. Each time you hold another person to account, each time you tell someone they mustn’t, each time you bemoan a colleague or institution it records your judgement. Imagine how big the file is going to be!  Imagine the litany of judgements – dozens every month, hundreds every year, thousands in a whole life-time. 
And then imagine that on the last day Jesus retrieves these recordings and hits play. Imagine hearing back every single time you’ve judged someone else.  And then Jesus says to you: “Giles, I’m going to judge you by the standards you judged everyone else.”  Do you think you’d come out of that judgement as anything other than condemned? If we play the blame game we lose. 

Of course the real danger with judgementalism is when we don’t think that we’re judgemental. Everyone else is wrong. No-one else seems to care about the rules.  Everything’s unfair.  But I’m not judgemental.  It’s those people over there…
No, if you’re like that you know what you’re like?…  You are like, v41:
Someone who looks “at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pays no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother,`Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
It’s a crazy picture isn’t it? It’s the kind of the blindness that’s spoken of in verse 39.  It’s a famous saying “The blind leading the blind.”  But you know what makes these leaders blind?  It’s not lack of knowledge.  It’s judgementalism.  Judgementalism blinds the world.  And it stops you even making a right judgement.  You can’t correct other people’s mistakes, which you claim to be so keen on doing.  You can’t do it whileever you’ve got a plank in your eye.

But if you do understand your sinfulness, you can address your own sins in humility.  And then you can offer help from a place of humility and contrition. That’s the starting point for being able to do the delicate operation of seeing and pointing out and seeking to help remove that painful speck of sawdust from your brother or sisters’ eye. That’s the starting point of being able to pray for another - humbly and effectively. 

What will change our judgemental spirit? 
Let me give you 4 things
three things that can help.  But they won’t help unless you know the fourth thing.  The first 3 solutions are what we should do, but we won’t do them unless we understand the fourth thing.
Firstly, laugh.  Not at others, at yourself.  This is what Jesus encourages with His humourous word pictures.  This one - straight out of the carpenters shop where he spent so much of his early life. Jesus says, see the absurdity of your own smugness.  Bring to mind your over-inflated sense of self and burst that bubble with a sharp dose of self-ridicule.  What am I like? When i’m judgeing other people’s problems? I look like a human Dalek with a tree-trunk poking out of my eye-socket murmurring about the state of someone’s eye-grit.  I am ridiculous and need to stop taking myself so seriously. Laugh at your self importance. 
Secondly, get proportion! says Jesus.  I have the plank.  You have the speck. In every relationship that’s the proportion. The problem is 99% me, 1% you.  Of course from your perspective it’s 99% you, but I leave that for you to figure out.  My burden is the plank. Always.  That’s my priority. And then i might be able to help  with your speck. 

Therefore, thirdly, every time I feel a critical spirit rising it’s an opportunity, not for pride, but for self reflection.  When I see sin in others my response should not be “Phew, at least I’m not as bad as that!”  It should be to question: “How is my sin reflected in this?” Perhaps I do the same thing.  Perhaps I commit some equivalent sin – different action, same motive.  Or perhaps my superiority complex is what needs addressing.

But the Fourthly Finally – here’s the thing that i must do if i am to have any chance of thinking to do the first three things: 
Look at Jesus! Remember Jesus! 
When He came among us, He was the only one to see clearly. He has no plank or speck in his eye. Being sinless He is the only human who has ever truly seen the human condition for what it really is – depraved, distorted, dead.  And yet His response was not to fold His arms, shake His head and say “Shame on you.”  
Instead - He opened His arms, bowed His head and said “Shame on me.” It’s astonishing grace.  And it shatters our pride.

Jesus does not play the blame game with us.  Isn’t that incredible?  Here we are playing the blame game over trifling matters.  He comes to planet earth and is the one person who could really condemn us but John 3:17 says He did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world.  He came and opened His arms to us and said “I know that you’ve sinned, come close.”  He bowed His head to all the sins we’ve ever committed, He took them on Himself.  And He said “Shame on ME.”
No shame for you – the shame went to Jesus.

If you are judgemental it’s because you’ve forgotten the cross.  But if you remember the cross, how can you be judgemental?
Don’t live in the realm of condemnation and judgement any more.  Jesus has come down into the dock and He has pulled you out, taken your place, carried your shame, dealt with it and deposited you at the Father’s side.  Court is adjourned.  There is NO condemnation for you.  There is no heavenly finger pointing at you.  When you look to heaven you don’t see a frown, you see a smile.  You’re not in the dock.  You live somewhere different now. At the meal table. In the realm of Giving and Forgiving.  

Brewing beer begins with measuring out your different malts - different barleys and other grains that have been roasted and crushed and smell amazing. 
Jesus makes reference here in v38 to the established process of measuring grain. The seller fills the measure 3/4 full and gives it a good shake to with a rotatory motion to make the grains settle down. Then he fills the measure to the top and gives it another shake. Next he presses the grain down strongly with both hands. Finally he heaps it into a cone tapping it carefully to press the grains together, from time to time boring a hole in the cone and pouring a few more grains into it until there is literally no more room for a single grain. In this way the, the purchaser is guaranteed an absolutely full measure; it cannot hold more. She holds out her robe which acts like a big pocket and the full measure is poured into her lap. 

This is God’s giving and forgiving. A full measure! Everything that he could ever give - there’s no room for more. Poured out upon you. 
Your heavenly Father has mercy on you.  So now, deal in mercy.  It’s the only power to change hearts and change the world.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6v 27-36

One of the greatest Jewish scholars to write about Jesus in the modern age was David Flusser, who taught for many years at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem. But not everyone approved of his scholarship; and one of his most brilliant students visiting a university elsewhere, was once given a very low mark by the professor simply because of being associated with Flusser himself. Then, some time later a student of that professor came to study with Flusser. His work was not very good but Flusser insisted on grading it with an A. His teaching assistant protested: how could he do that? particularly after what the other professor had done? ‘Give him an A,’ insisted Flusser, ‘this i have learned from Jesus.’ 

The kingdom that Jesus preached and lived was all about a glorious, uproarious, absurd generosity. Think of the best thing you can do for the worst person and go ahead and do it. Think of what you’d really like someone to do for you, and do it for them. Think of the people to whom you are tempted to be nasty and lavish generosity on them instead. These instructions have a fresh spring like quality. They are all about new life bursting out energetically startling everyone with their colour and vigour. 

Are they possible?  Well yes and no. Jesus’ point was not to provide his folowers with a new rule book, a list of dos and don’ts that you could tick off one by one and sit back satisfied at the the end of a morally successful day. The point was to illustrate and inculcate an attitude of heart, a lightness of spirit in the face of all that the world can throw at you. And at the centre of it is the thing that motivates and gives colour to the whole: You are to be like this because that’s what God is like. You are to love like this because this is how God loves us!

Our culture - Big on love. Romantic love, sexual love; Family love - everyone likes the guy who loves his mum;  Friendship love;  Calvin Harris: Tell me how deep is your love? is it like the ocean?

christian love - is to be extraordinary in comparison to the way people usually love

1. love those who hate you 
2. love those who can’t pay you back 
3. love as God has loved you 

1. love those who hate you vv27-30 

4 exhortations followed by 4 illustrations 

Look at the 4 exhortations in vv27 and 28 

Love your enemies - 

but don’t just have that attitude put it into action

Do good to those who hate you 

and your actions include your words 

Bless those who curse you - father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing 

Pray for those who ill treat you 

Jesus is speaking into a context of imminent perscution for those who would follow him. And clearly this is deeply relevant to the millions of our christian brothers and sisters in places around the world where to be part of a christian minority is a harsh environment of physical violence, destruction of property, intimidation, prejudice, blackmail, accusations, imprisonment, restrcitive laws and hatred. there are many enemies.. What about us? Do we as christians really have enemies in our liberal, open society? Anyone who lives a godly life will be persecuted. If we are open about our faith and its implications we will be criticised, perhaps derided, avoided, we’ll lose friends, maybe be ostracised in our families, sidelined and overlooked in our work or even bullied. If they hated me says Jesus they will hate you. There will be enemies. But Jesus says of all people love, do good to, bless, pray for those who hate you. 

Very difficult to respond like this nonetheless the early Christian community clearly adopted this approach. Stephen the first Christian martyred for his faith in Acts 7 openly forgave his murderers. 

Paul writes in 1 Cor 4v12When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. …And Peter in 1 Peter 5v9 urges Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing..

Then come 4 illustrations in vv29-30 

here they are - 

when someone slaps you on the cheek offer your other cheek for them to do it again!

when someone nicks your coat let them take your shirt too!

give…. to everyone who asks 

and don’t demand back something that has been taken from you 

Jesus never shies away from hyperbole. The illustrations are expressed like commands in absolute terms in order to shock the listener by giving a vivid contrast to our usual modes of thinking. Our normal way is to be self protective, quick to give up on people and move away from then, quick to stand on our rights, quick to move to vengeance. We are not to be like that.. 

The love that Jesus is talking about involves not defending one’s rights and accepting wrongs committed against you by being willing to forgive. here is the theme of Perseverance in love. Where you’re willing to turn around a second time and still offer yourself even if it means being abused a second time. 

of course of course there are times to walk away from an abusive relationship. this is not talking about an absence of justice or law that can just be abused by persecutors. Governments, police and armies are affirmed in Scripture in their God given capacity to protect people and nations. This ethic is personal not governmental. There is recourse to the powers that be when we are mistreated and yet - we are to persevere deeply with those who mistreat us. 

“Love is available, vulnerable and subject to repeated abuse. Offering the other cheek is not so much an active pursuit as it is a natural exposure when one reaches out to those who have contempt. In the context of persecution offering the cheek means continuing to minister at the risk of further perscution” 

ill India, 2001 still reeling from the death of Graham Staines, an australian missionary who alongside his wife Gladys had been working among the tribal poor and lepers in the western state of Orissa for 35 years. He had met continued opposition and eventually he was murdred. Burned to death with his two young sons by a gang while sleeping in their car. 

Gladys his wife and their mother remarkably remained in India ministering to those communities who had killed her family. 

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who insult, pray for those who mistreat you. 

Living in Hackney, when someone has snatched your phone off you at the bus-stop and cycled off. When someone has laughed at you because of your faith. When no one shows the remotest interest. It can be easy to say - ‘I’m just fed up with the people round here - that’s it.. i’m going to the suburbs!’ No persevere. Don’t just stay here for the coffee, don’t just stay here for your friends.. Stay here for your enemies 

Love those that hate you. 

2. Love those who can’t pay you back vv31-34

Many moralists through the ages have uttered the so called “golden rule” of v31 

“Do to others as you would have them do to you”  Philo, Herodotus, Seneca .. Confucious 

But no one is as radical as Jesus as to what that looks like in practice. Jesus says imagine you were in a situation where you had nothing to give in return - how would you want people to treat you? Do that for others. 

Love those who cannot pay you back 

Again - 3 illustrations follow 

v32 

It’s not enough to only love those who love you. Where’s the credit in that? Big Deal. Nothing special. Everyone does that. Sinners do that. 

[New series - Peaky Blinders - criminal family in post first world war Birmingham led by the notorious Thomas Shelby. And the Shelbys are really going up in the world. Involved in the dangerous game of international espionage. Doing Winston Churchill’s dirty work for him. “The Russians see family as a weakness. But my family are my strength”]

Even sinners love those who love them

your tight family, your circle of friends on london fields, your church community 

But the Lord wants more of his people. A bursting generosity. the world’s standard of love is just not enough. That doesn’t begin to BE love 

v33 

It’s not enough to only do good to those who do good to you 

again jesus moves from the attitude of love to the visible expression of it. doing good to those who do good to you is no different to the love displayed by people in general. But that kind of limited love doesn’t get God out of his seat!

v34 

the third illustration involves the lending of money and the getting paid back bit could be the guarantee of getting your money back but it could also be the idea that I loan to a certain person because it’s a good investment. in the future i might need a loan or a favour from them.  

But Jesus is saying that this “ill scratch your back if you scratch mine” approach to meeting needs is not an example of a disciples love. if i meet the needs only for people who can meet my future needs, how do the real needs of the needy, who cannot repay, get met?

No - lend with no strings attached. In other words give. A bursting generosity. 

Love those who cannot pay you back 

why? and how? 

3. Love as God has loved you vv35-36 

Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 

The reward for loving your enemies and those who can’t pay you back is NOT relationship with God. As if our actions earn us salvation. NO! we are sinners - ungrateful and wicked and God’s kindness, his grace - the gift of his Son dying in our place, the flames of hell engulfing him instead of us. That gives us relationship with God as a gift. But the reward for loving our enemies is that it evidences to us and to God - our kinship with God our Father. You will be children of the most high. 

You’ll make your Father smile and there’s no greater reward than that. 

That’s why you love like this - to be a child of your father 

And it’s also how you love like this. The basis 

Because don’t we that we struggled to love those that loves us let alone those that hate us! We struggle to do good to those who do good to us, let alone those who mistreat us! We struggle to give to those who will give back, let alone those who cannot. So we need a supernatural energy tp inhabit out hearts to move us to love like this. 

And that energy is the abounding love and mercy and kindness of God towards us. Love as God has loved you. Be merciful, just as your father is merciful. 

Jesus himself is the embodiment of this astonishing, different love of God 

We saw in the passage we read last week that reason the crowds gathered was that powerwas flowing out of jesus and people were being healed. His whole life was one of exuberant generosity giving all he’d got to everyone who needed it. he was speaking of what he knew; the extravagant love of his father and the call to live a lavish human life in response and finally when they struck him on the cheek and ripped the coat and shirt off his back he went on loving and forgiving because he was there for us .. not his friends .. his enemies..

How wonderful to know that he is the God who perseveres with us when we mistreat him. Who dies for us, who will never let us go.  

Such love wins us over and changes us 

Love as God has loved you 

Luke 6v12-26

Jesus was an amazing teacher - his sermons were clearly amazing. Not at all boring. Huge crowds flocked to them they stayed so long hanging on his every word they didn’t even notice they’d missed their lunch and dinner! We saw a few weeks ago Jesus on a beach by Lake Galilee teaching and the crowds were so great he got into a boat pushed out onto the water forming this great amphitheatre from which he could speak to the crowds. And here in Luke’s gospel chapters 6-7 we come to Jesus’ greatest teaching - what has come to be known as the sermon on the mount. In Matthew’s gospel - it’s longer and slightly different. Luke includes less of the sermon and draws out certain different aspects of Jesus’ message. And this stuff is so life changing. What we get here is Jesus’ manifesto for his kingdom. His rule. It’s like he’s forming a whole new party or nation or people around him. Which is exactly what he’s doing actually.. Remember that Israel - the people of God in the OT - were made up of 12 Tribes - the sons of Jacob? Well look at what Jesus is doing here v13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostlesAnd remember when God rescued the 12 tribes of the Hebrews out of Egypt and made them a new people - Israel -  he took them up a mountain and gave them laws for living - blessings and woes? Well here is Jesus and he’s in the mountains and he now gives laws for living which will constitute a NEW people of God - the followers of Jesus Christ.. 

The mountains are also the place of revolution. If you’re a revolutionary you are a threat to the powers that be and so you have to hide out and the place to hide out is in the mountains. And Jesus’ kingdom is indeed a revolutionary kingdom. A kingdom of peace and of justice. I have come to proclaim, said Jesus in Luke chapter 4, Good news to the Poor

2 things we’re going to see in Jesus’ manifesto for his Kingdom 

1 AGreat Reversal 

2 A Present Joy 

A great reversal

20 Looking at his disciples, Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

    for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,

    for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

    for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when people hate you,

    when they exclude you and insult you

    and reject your name as evil,

        because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,

    for you have already received your comfort.

25 Woe to you who are well fed now,

    for you will go hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

    for you will mourn and weep.

26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,

    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

In Matthew’s account of the sermon on the mount he records Jesus beginning with the words. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger for righteousness - you will be filled. 

spiritual poverty - recognising we can do nothing, salvation must be received as a gift through the death of christ - is the absolutely necessary requirement for entering the kingdom of God. Becoming a disciple of Jesus. 

Luke, we’ve seen in his gospel so far ,totally agrees with that. Salvation is not for the spiritually strong and sorted (as if there were such people!) - it’s for bankrupt, hungry, weeping sinners. Luke agrees..

But notice Luke doesn’t record Jesus saying blessed are you who are poor in spirit; who hunger for righteousness. He records Jesus saying

Blessed are you who are poor. 

and woe to you who are rich 

Blessed are you who hunger 

and woe to you who are well fed 

Blessed are you who weep now 

and woe to you who laugh now 

Jesus’ kingdom is entered by grace alone. Crying out to Jesus. But it is also - Luke wants to tell us -  a physical kingdom overturning this present reality. A kingdom of justice and peace where the first now will be last and the last now will be first. It’s a revolution. A great reversal. 

Remember Jesus speaks these words to an oppressed people living under foreign unjust and cruel overlords - the Romans. And Jesus says one day my Kingdom will come and perfect justice will be established and the hungry will be lifted up and the rich oppressor will be sent away empty. 

I don’t know if you watch much weekend TV - some of it is fun. What is striking is our culture’s obessession with wealth, comfort, success and prestige. We’re probably not alone all human societies throughout history have valued these things. But our culture seems to idolise these things almost exclusively. The value of family or community or a job well done has been completly subsumed by the prizing of wealth and comfort and success and CELEBRITY. We envy the super rich and gorge on reality TV programmes about their lives and we idolise individuals for their fame even and often especially when it’s been dubiously achieved! Because we want to be them. We prize this. And poverty we hide and hunger we fear, and on our mourning and depression we paint a brave face.. don’t admit to it. and whoever bears these unwanted qualities we exclude, we reject, we hate. 

But Jesus says his Kingdom is the precise opposite. It is a great reversal. It is a completeoverturning of values. Blessed/Favoured/Happy are the Poor, the hungry, the mourning, the excluded. 

World Cup - Brazil - old street sweeper was caught on camera dancing samba immediately became this national treasure. 

Or did you ever see - Muhammed Nazir works on a fish stall Upton Park market was videoed singing his one pound fish song: 

Come on ladies, come on ladies

One pound fish

Have-a, have-a look

One pound fish

Very, very good, very, very cheap

One pound fish

immediatley elevated to celebrity. Nazir was immediatley on XFactor and given a recording contract 

In the Upside down Kingdom of Jesus. The paparazzi do follow the poor, the lowly, the servants.. They are our role models. They are who we want to be like. the humble are lifted up. the elderly are listened to. The oppressed are set free. There is a complete reversal of values. 

Our political processes seem utterly powerless to overturn the injustices and inequalities that we see in our world and in our nation and in our city. Of course it is complex: not all ‘rich’ people are exploitative and oppressive and not all ‘poor’ people are oppressed and deserving. The deep reason perhaps why we cannot change to a fairer kinde society is because whether we are rich or poor we are bound to the values of wealth, comfort, success and prestige. 

But one day Jesus will establish his kingdom of justice and peace and the humble poor will be lifted up and the self satisifed rich will be judged and sent away empty. 

The Bible assures that Jesus himself will return to raise the dead and bring perfect judgements and establish his new Kingdom on earth.. 

And we say - that’s so difficult to imagine. It’s so difficult to believe. This world just goes on and on - nothing really changes. You’re telling me one day the clocks will stop, time will be called. And Jesus will come - put all things right. Establish eternal peace and contentment. It does my head in to try and believe that. 

Well I know it’s hard and head stretching to imagine and raises all kinds of questions. And i believe that Jesus says - i know it’s hard so look - if you want to know that it’s true that i will one day right all wrongs and the future will be one of justice and peace - and you’ll be healed and you’ll be with me.. If you want to know enough that it’s true you don’t have to look into the future and imagine this cataclysmic event. Just look at me, says Jesus.. 

Look at me in v18 

coming down the mountainside onto the plain and the crowds are coming to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

Look at him. Look at the great reversal that happens in and through him

 The God of the universe stoops low. 

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,

All for love’s sake becamest poor;

Thrones for a manger didst surrender,

Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,

All for love’s sake becamest poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love’s sake becamest man;

Stooping so low, but sinners raising

Heavenward by thine eternal plan.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love’s sake becamest man.

Look at the Jesus who came, God of God - born in a manger, a child refugee, a working class carpenter, a homeless preacher, servant, who stooped to the cross and a borrowed tomb to then heal us and give us life by his mighty power. Look at the Jesus who came and it will be enough to know that the writing is on the wall for the old kingdom of wealth and greed and selfishness and selfcentredness.. The great reversal will come. He can do it. 

And sothe gospel is good news to the poor. 

the spiritual poor who know they need God 

the physical poor who long for justice and healing and peace 

and if God is a friend to the poor and the downtrodden and the mourning and the excluded… then God’s people will be too. The church will align herself with the poor. These are the values we will be aligning ourselves with - rejecting the idols of wealth and comfort and success and prestige. And these are the people we will be aligning oursleves withotherwise when the great reversal comes we will find ourslves on the wrong side of history. 

A great reversal 

A Present joy  

The values of our present Kingdom can seem so right. It is the right side up Kingdom. Just the way things are. 

Blessed are the rich, the comfortable, the successful (those who laugh not in regular sense but in sense of gloating when you win an election or something) the prestigious.. 

That is blessing isn’t it. New Hackney bookshop. Self Help section. Ekhart Tolle The power of Now - The now is most REAL the past is gone, the future is uncertain. Live in the Now. If the Now is really all there is then these values seem absolutely natural. Seek comfort. 

They are biologically natural. Heard of evolution? have you heard of the survival of the weak, the depressed, the excluded? forget it. resist those things 

These values are psychologically natural “The spirit that so permeates Christianity is in my opinion masochism. the strongest expression of masochism is to be found in Christ’s teaching in the sermon on the mount’ 

biologically, psychologically. iftheres no eternity - if the Now is the only real - this is the right way to live. 

But actually even in the short term, shortly after the Now -  this is actually a life full of woes. 

The comfort that possessions give quickly stagnates and you need more 

After a good meal you’re soon hungry again 

The pursuit of success and prestige leads to an endless cycle of woe

Woe to you who are rich, 

Woe to you who are successful, 

Woe to you when everybody loves you

WOE 

and just as actually the right side up kingdom is a life woe in the now 

so Jesus’ upside down kingom is the place of Blessing and joy NOW not just in the future when the great reversal comes. 

“Blessed are you who are poor,

    for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,

    for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

    for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when people hate you,

    when they exclude you and insult you

    and reject your name as evil,

        because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

In Jesus’ kingdom - which is a Kingdom of present poverty - spiritual and physical 

of hunger - spiritual and physical, of real mourning - spiritual and physical, of hatred and rejection sometimes. In these present states and only in them - there is real joy to be found. Why how? 

Because we are his disciples - Jesus was poor, Jesus was hungry, Jesus wept, Jesus was hated 

And when those things touch our lives - brutal as they are - we are also touched by the presence of Jesus. There is joy even to be found in those things because we are HIS disciples and that is enough. 

But Joy can also be found in these things because we are his disciples - we are the church, we are the body of Christ. we are the community of Jesus released from the woes of wealth and success and prestige we draw people in and we care for one another and in one another we find joy. 

Thou who art love beyond all telling,

Saviour and King, we worship thee.

Emmanuel, within us dwelling,

Make us what thou wouldst have us be.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,

Saviour and King, we worship thee.

Luke 6v1-11

Jesus Christ says,  The Son of Man - a title he used for himself - is Lord of the Sabbath 

Which was another way of Jesus Christ saying ‘I am the Lord of REST’ 

In another place Jesus says, “Come to me all you that labour and are heavy laden and i will give you REST’ 

Rest is our theme here. And it’s an important subject. 

Perhaps you’re like many in our city and you’re in desperate need of a rest - a holiday, a decent day off, a good night’s sleep!

But of course to Rest, to really Rest is not as simple as that because there is within us a Restlessness that often means that we cannot rest. The holiday becomes an added stress, we get to bed early but lie awake… A hunger for rest that causes us to work more not less. Because we’re trying to get something, prove something, achieve something.. Something that will give rest to our souls.. 

Jesus Christ is the Lord of Rest but we cannot rest because we’re so busy looking for rest for ourselves..

Let’s have a look at the passage and see what help it brings..

The first thing we learn is that it is the Sabbath day 

6v1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields …Jesus goes for a walk with his disciples through the cornfields on the sabbath. 

The sabbath as you know was Saturday -the Jewish day of rest. Enshrined in God’s law - in particular the 10 Cs - was God’s instruction that ‘6 days you should Labour and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on it you shall not do any work.” A day of rest. A day particularly for the Jews to remember how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the promised land. Giving them rest from all their enemies. Rescue and Rest. 

But the origins of the Sabbath are much older. In the account of the Creation of the world in genesis 1 God works for 6 days creating the world out of nothing and then satisifed that is was all good, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Not because God gets tired and needs a rest. God actually never ceases the work of sustaining life. But God teaches in the Creation that the goal of life is Rest. And promises that the world will not end in environmental or military tragedy because HE is the RESCUING God. At the end of all our labours there will be rest. 

So every week the Jews were reminded that toil and pain and labour will give way to perfect rest. 

{Incidentally. there’s a question about whether the Sabbath law applies to the Christian church. Some say, yes it still does it’s one of the 10 commandments! Others say the principle of rest now on the Lord’s Day - Sunday, the first day of the week - the day Jesus was raised from the dead - that’s what applies but the sabbath saturday has been fulfilled in Jesus. 

It’s still good to observe sabbath rest. God still says take a day off.  Because Sabbath is a beautiful thing. A reminder. It preached that God would remake the world – God would bring rest. The question remains how do we find the rest that enables us to rest?]

Because the people of Jesus’ day are just like us. 

They had turned Sabbath on its head. Sabbath was supposed to be about God showing them HIS goodness. They made it an occasion to show God their goodness.. 

God is the one who gives rest but we’re so busy trying to get rest for ourselves! 

Over the years the Jewish people had developed more and more things they refused to do on Saturday.  They weren’t in the bible, they were extra rules they made up to show God and the world just how obedient they were. And over a thousand years it got seriously twisted.  How twisted?  Just have a read of Verse 1: One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

So here are the Pharisees – these are the arch-religious do-gooders.  And they’re upset. Not because Jesus’ disciples were picking grain in someone else’s field.  That wasn’t unlawful.  In fact there’s a verse in Deuteronomy 23 that says, if you’re walking through a field, you can help yourself along the way.  (Use that one when you’re grazing on some grapes in sainsbury’s) But what was unlawful, according to the Pharisees, was doing it on the Sabbath.You see, according to these moral policemen.  This is work.  plucking is reaping, rubbing is threshing, throwing away the husks is winnowing!  It’s work!  Now the bible never outlaws this.  It never even comes close to it.  But the Pharisees are adamant:  Jesus, you are presiding over Sabbath-breaking, how could you!?

Jesus responds in a breathtaking way v3 

“Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Jesus cites an Incident in the OT. In 1 Samuel chapter 21.

where King David had been anointed by God as the true King of Israel.  But, King Saul was the one who sat on the throne and who everyone looked to.  Now Saul and his men were hunting down and trying to kill David.  So David is on the run along with his companions. They are hungry and they go to the temple. And the priest - recognising David’s kingly and priestly status gives David the holy bread that only priests are meant to eat. 

Jesus is drawing powerful parallels and making strong claims.. He is like David. The true King of the world, but not acknowledged to be so.  He’s travelling with his companions. And the Pharisees?  Who are the Pharisees here?  They are the enemy, they are like Saul’s men, hunting down God’s True Anointed King! This is a devastating Scripture for Jesus to wheel out.  And while they’re reeling from it, Jesus delivers the death blow.  Verse 5: Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” This is awesome and provocative. This Sabbath Law that the Pharisees honour. Jesus says I am the law. Jesus says I don’t bow to the law, the law bows to me.  Because I am LORD of the Sabbath. And if you only knew it .. I am the Lord of REST. I could give you rest..

The Pharisees it’s seem have no answer to this.  They are utterly silenced by Jesus.  And they have to regroup for another assault on Him.  So they wait for another Sabbath (because they’re obsessed).

So, verse 6:

6 On another Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled.  7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

So here are the Pharisees again and you might think there’s some hope for them because they’re in church.  But they’re not there to worship God.  They’re not there to listen to His word.  They’re certainly not there to help this disabled man.  Why are they there?  To accuse Jesus!  To catch out and accuse the LORD of the Sabbath. They seem sure Jesus will heal a man.  I wonder if even the disciples had that much faith.  They seemed to know that Jesus would heal – they’d obviously seen His powers many times before.  But instead of saying “Wow, Jesus calls Himself LORD and acts with all the power of the LORD, maybe He IS the LORD.”  Instead of concluding, “Hmm, I wonder if Jesus is God!?” All they can think of is their precious rules.  And whether the LORD might break them. So there they are in the synagogue, just waiting to be infuriated by a miracle.  

And of course you have to ask, How restful do they find their Sabbaths really!!?  With their binoculars and clipboards, and their constant frowning – isn’t that the most exhausting work actually?  It seems to me that all this moral policing is incredibly taxing, and yet they do it all in the name of Sabbath rest. Because they’re trying to show to God how good they are..

Think about yourself for a moment.. 

Maybe there are real temptations for you in this moralistic direction. Rules and rule keeping is tempting, because rules keep score.  And they show everyone that I’m better, and you’re worse.  They help you justify yourself.

But if you buy into rules they will end up ruling you.  You will find your identity in keeping them and suddenly they will become more important than anything.

Think of these Pharisees in that synagogue.  They were surrounded by such important things that should have had priority.  They were in a house of worship, they were listening to the word of God, there was a real hurting person in their midst and there was God in the flesh about to unleash the powers of heaven.  But they completely failed to respond to the needs around them appropriately.  All they could see was their little rules, and horror of horrors, they were about to be broken. 

Here’s the danger of trying to find rest for yourself. To prove yourself. You’re restless.. you think i’m not right but i can be if keep the rules. I can then say It’s finished. i can rest happy. But rules become exhausting rulers and you get closed down to the real needs around you.. Jesus stands opposed to that kind of living..

But it’s not just religious moralism that’s a problem. There’s a secular version of this self salvation; this self pursuit of rest. Through work, or being the perfect partner or friend. If i succeed in my work or if i give my kids the perfect holiday then i will find rest. 

Rocky - the only good Rocky film “if I can go that distance, ya see, and that bell rings, ya know, and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, ya see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.” Then i’ll know.. Working to justify yourself. To prove yourself. Working for your rest. ButIt’s exhausting, you can never stop and you never achieve it which is why Rocky 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are progressively such bad films..

One person puts it this way: ‘the attempt to justify our existence and prove our acceptability through achievement and activity …leads to an unending cycle of grief- unending because no achievement or amount of activity can fully satisfy our need for acceptance. We may talk about wanting to get off the bullet train of Western society, but the reality is that we are afraid – afraid of being a nobody.’ 

There is another way. 

The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. Lord of Rest 

8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”10 He looked round at them all, (how long did that take - and no answer) and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 

Here is the LORD of the Sabbath in action.  Here’s what Sabbath is all about. RESCUE AND REST. RESTORATONThat day it was a hand.  One day it’ll be all creation.  COMPLETELY RESTORED.  Here in the synagogue is a token of His cosmic powers of restoration.  A miracle.  A completely appropriate Sabbath miracle.  Surely this miracle will change the hearts and minds of the Pharisees.  Wouldn’t you think? I’m always hearing people say, “I’d believe if only I saw a miracle.”Really?Let’s see how they reacted in verse 11:

But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

How chilling.  

And by the end of the gospel of Luke these Pharisees get their way.  Jesus dies not at the hands of an angry pagan rabble. He dies at the hands of moralists.  

Jesus comes to bring life and peace and restoration to the world, and what does He get for His efforts?  Death.

But here’s the irony.  Through that death He would bring life.  Through His work on the cross, He would bring rest.

On the cross a great exchange takes place. An extraordinary swap. Jesus takes our unrighteousness and gives us his righteousness in return.. 

All our restless sense of not being right - which leads us to labour and work to try and pay for something. Jesus says you can never pay. i take it from you. I will pay with my death. From the cross Jesus cries out ‘It is finished’ 

And all his righteousness. That sense of being right, being acceptable, being loved that we long for - that deep rest - is given to you. It is finished. Be at peace.. 

Baptism is a sign of that gift - that Jesus in love joins his life to ours in such a way that he takes our unrightness and deals with it and gives us his rightness in return. And as Noah and we continue to walk with Jesus trusting in him. That rest deepens in our lives. Until RESTORATION finally comes

Take a day off says God. But how? What does it mean to really rest. To use our day of rest to bring life to others, to rejoice in his rescue. How to we even find rest in our work? Jesus says ‘I am Lord of the Sabbath …come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ Jesus says you know you don’t have to prove that you are somebody special. God your Creator has given you life, and when you were lost in your rejection of him, He gave up his only Son to death on a cross for you, for your forgiveness. And now you stand - a child of God clothed in his righteousness. That is the degree to which you are loved, accepted, approved of. So Come to me and rest. Rest Rest. 

Easter Day 2016 Luke 24v1-12

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen! Just as he told you he would."

Read the gospel texts and you will see that Jesus had told his disciples again and again that he would suffer and die but then after 3 days he would be raised from death to LIFE. 

Perhaps he put it like this: Christ will die, Christ will RISE, Christ will come again 

He had told them that he would be raised from death to life but here are the women rushing to the garden tomb early in the morning on the day after the sabbath and they are Here not to witness a resurrection but to embalm Jesus’ dead body. They are confused to find the stone rolled away and the body gone! 

When the women bring the news of resurrection to the 11 and all the other disciples the news is not met with joy it is discarded as nonsence. 

Peter ran to witness the empty tomb and grave clothes and he went away wondering what had happened. 

Jesus had told them THIS would happen!! 

Christ will die, Christ WILL RISE, Christ will come again 

Perhaps it’s a bit like when my wife, Fiona was pregnant for the first time and various dads offered this ‘dad to be’ advice about babies and fatherhood and nappies and i listened and i heard but i didn’t really hear, i couldn’t really hear. You can never be prepared for that. I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that there really were twin babies growing inside Fiona who would one day be in our arms and in the world - let alone taking nappies on board. I heard but i didn’t really hear

Is that what it was like with the disciples? they believed in Jesus, they had followed him, they had listened to him. But the words about his resurrection had not really …enteredthem; had not captured them, had not affected their hearts and their hopes. The words.. they had heard them but they hadn’t actually heard them. The words didn’t change their lives. 

And It’s only when the shining angels graciously visit the perplexed women and say, “What are you doing here looking for Jesus? He told you he’s not gonna be here.” It’s only then that they begin to re-member - put together - his words. 

I wonder if it’s the same for us when it comes to Easter? 

[Some of us struggle to believe this stuff at all and i’ll come to that in a moment]

Many of us believe in Jesus, we have followed him, we have listened to him. And we’re told by God in his word again and again that Jesus suffered and died and then after 3 days he was raised from death to life. Christ has died, CHRIST is RISEN, Christ will come again. We remind ourselves sunday after sunday. BUT these words about his resurrection .. they haven’t really enteredus; haven’t captured us, haven’t affected our hearts and our hopes. We’ve heard the words but we haven’t actually heard them. The words haven’t changed our lives. And we end up looking for the living among the dead and he is not there. HE IS RISEN 

we need a shining angel, the Holy Spirit of God - to redirect us and open our eyes to the significance of what we are being told!

before we do that let me speak briefly to those of us who have difficulty believing that these events could even have happened. dead men simply do not rise. it’s impossible. and therefore this text is a fabrication intended to promote a religion after it’s leader had died. it might have some universal themes but is not to be taken literally.. 

Well. I agree that dead men do not rise .. normally. But if there is a God who governs reality we cannot rule out the fact that God could raise a dead person. 

If these texts were fabrications written a generation after the events to promote Christianity then not only would Luke not have had women going first to the tomb (women were not considered credible witnesses in the ancient world, as this story itself bears out); he would surely also have had the 11 disciples believing in the resurrection gospel at once, ready to be models of faith to lead the church into God’s future. The only real explanation for why these events are written in such a real way is the same explanation for why from this feeble few the church exploded across the roman world: it really happened. there really was a resurrection. Jesus is Alive 

And what does it mean 

O spirit open our hearts 

Luke tells us that it was in the very early morning of the first day of the week that the stone was found to be rolled away and the body gone. Because of the resurrection of JC there is a new dawn, a new day, a new start, a new week, a new world. 

the overturning of death. 

When Adam - the father of humanity - sinned; when he pushed God aside - the consequence was death. Death came… to all : All Adam’s race (the human race) who sin just like him; and even to our planet - the earth was subjected to decay. Death. Death.

Until Good Friday when ‘Christ died for our sins.’ 

Astonishingly while we were the sinners, while we deserved our death penalty… 

Christ died…. For our sins.

Like the little boy who with his magnifying glass on a sunny day concentrates all the suns rays into one laser beam of light that can incinerate dry grass or small creatures or his sister’s hair…

So when Jesus hung on that cross it was as if some cosmic magnifying glass redirected and concentrated all of the destructive consequences of our sins and all God’s holy anger against sin onto him - bringing him death for the wages of sin is death and there dying on his cross jesus paid off the debt of sin once for all time. Sin and death were stripped of their power. And now here on the first Easter day we begin to see the results.. 

The day that death died. Like the first green shoot of spring forcing its way up through the frozen ground of an eternal winter. Like the golden light of the dawn ending the longest and darkest night. So Jesus bursts from the tomb of death. Not a ghost having entered some new mode of existence, notice the emphasis that Jesus’ body was gone. His body is raised. This islife returning to this world. Jesus - bodily alive and strong, complete forever. The resurrection marked the greatest turnaround in history. Death has lost its sting. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Death has been defeated!!!!

in another place in the NT the apostle Paul describes the risen Jesus as the firstfruits of those who have died

We are to Imagine a farmer toward the end of the growing season daily, anxiously looking over his crop. Watching the skies for sun and rain. His very life depends on the success of the crop. If it fails.. his family will die. 

And then.. early one morning… the thing he’s been watching for: in one corner of the field which receives the first sunlight of the day tiny ears of corn have begun to form and appear in the stalks of the crop. The first fruits!! The first fruits means the whole crop is successful! He tears it out of the ground and runs home to his wife.. Just a tiny part of the crop but proof that a harvest will follow.. 

Jesus is not raised alone. His resurrection is the firstfruits - the guarantee of a great harvest of people raised from the dead. Jesus is like a needle, he has pierced through the great shroud of death to life on the other side and those who are joined to Jesus, as the thread it connected to the needle shall surely follow him through. 

THEREFORE 

2 things 

1. We do not grieve as those who have no hope

Death. it’s horrible, it’s unnatural. It’s not the way the world is meant to be. To lose our lives. To lose the presence of a loved one. 

But Easter says that death has ultimately been defeated. Where o death is your victory? Where O death is your sting. Jesus is RISEN from the grave. 

Many reach out to Jesus as death approaches and we should long for all to know him because Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

ill. We’re going to live forever. 

Through Christ death is now merely a gardener and we are the seeds .

We will be raised and united eternally bodily with our loved ones. We will embrace. Our popular culture’s view of the afterlife is one, if any, of vague immateriality. Occasionally Harry Potter catches a glimpse of his deceased parents or Luke Skywalker glimpses a shimmering Obi Wan Kenobi. But these silent, transparent ghostly holograms what comfort do they provide - you can’t hug them. I want to hug. And the resurrection says - you will.

Jesus will wipe away every tear. he will reunite us on the day when death is no more.

In the face of defeated death we do not grieve as those who have no hope

and 

second thing 

We do not live as those who have no hope 

If Christ is not raised from the dead then we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die. If this is all there is then maximise your happiness now! What are you doing here?? See the world, realise your dreams. Make a list - a thousand things i need to do before I DIE. You only live ONCE. 

The problem of course is we don’t even know how to live well -with the one chance we have and time like sand is running through our fingers. If Christ is not raised from the dead we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die. But even this brief life does not go as we plan - i haven’t seen the world, i haven’t used my gifts, i haven’t realised my dreams…

But Christ has been raised from the dead. The tomb was empty. His Body was gone. The first fruits of the renewal of this world. This reality. The future is not some abstract ethereal heavenly existence. The future is this world restored forever. A new dawn, a new day, a new start a new ….CREATION.

And therefore - we do not despair 

You don’t have to explore the world now 

the world’s not going anywhere ..

You don’t have to realise all your dreams now 

plenty of time to develop your gifts 

You don’t have to maximise your happiness actually 

You have an eternity when all things shall be made new 

So how then should we live in the light of this glorious resurrection hope for this world? 

Trust Jesus and tell people about him? Yes, absolutely. 

But also, if the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ means that this world, every part of it that is good, has a future. Then everything matters. Everything

whether you eat or drink or whatever you do - work, play, rest, love, nurture, rebuke, study, create, comfort, learn, teach pray, weep, laugh - whatever you do. do it all to the glory of God. 

Do it all for others. cos you don’t have to cling to this life like it’s the only one you’ve got. 

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen! Just as he told you he would.

Luke 5v27-32

“You can tell a man by the company he keeps” – so the saying goes.  Well then, what do we make of Jesus?

Because in the early chapters of Luke, Jesus starts recruiting people for His kingdom.  And they are not the recruits you would expect.

It all began back in chapter 4 verses 18-19 where He unveils His recruitment policy.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

You can tell a man by the company he keeps.  What company does Jesus keep?

Well with this recruitment policy in place, Jesus goes out in chapter 5 as the original Man on a Mission.

[Recruiting PostersWW1 Lord Kitchener - - secretary of state for war. huge walrus moustache, pointing finger. Your counrty needs you! ]

Jesus walks around with total authority, the Commander in Chief, saying to people “I want YOU.”

First person he grabs, from v1, is Simon.  Simon is going to be the chief disciple, he’ll be renamed Peter, which means the Rock. In just a few year’s time Jesus is going back to heaven and Simon, the Rock, Peter will be spokesman. But Simon’s not a Rock.  He’s a fisherman.  Ordinary bloke.  No schooling. Wasn’t a rabbi.  Peter never got any prizes at Sunday School – or Saturday School as it would have been at the synagogue.  If Peter was any good at that bible teaching stuff, that’s what he’d have been doing.  They’d have identified him as a future rabbi and he would have gone into training.  Peter went into fishing.  Never made the cut.  He’s an establishment outsider.  Unschooled, ordinary Peter.  And Jesus says I want YOU.  Chief of the 12 disciples: I want YOU, v10, to fish for people.

And so he and his fishing partners James and John give it all up.  The whole fishing business shut down that most succesful day and they joined Jesus on His mission.

So we’ve got Jesus plus three now-unemployed fishermen.  Who’s next?

Verse 12 – a leper.  In the day, a total spiritual outsider.  ringing a bell and cry out “unclean”, they’d expel him from the cities.  Total spiritual outsider.

Jesus says “I’ll have you.”

So: Jesus plus 3 now-unemployed fisherman and a leper.  Who’s next?

Verse 18: a paralytic.  A physical outsider.  Remember, we’re in first century Middle East.  No social services, no disability allowance.  Life goes on without this guy and he has to look on from his mat.  And Jesus says: I’ll have you.

Jesus, 3 unemployed fishermen, a leper and a paralytic.

Who’s next?  Well here we are in our passage:

Verse 27:

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him.

Oh no. No, no, no, Jesus.  The fishermen thing was surprising, the leper addition was a nice touch.  Like what you did with the paralytic. this whole rag-tag outfit, rough around the edges, that’s refreshing, let’s go with that.  But a tax collector?  No!

Because in the first century a tax collector was a total scumbag.  Forget your experience with the inland revenue – this was a completely different league.  Because 1st century tax-collectors worked for the enemy – the Romans.  They were Rome’s go-betweens.  The Jewish face of the Roman oppression.  And they brought their own people under Roman domination, and stole shed loads of money off them in the process.  Think of World War Two and how the French felt about collaborators with the Nazis. That’s Levi.

in bed with the enemy, getting rich off the misery of his own people. And many people would have walked up to Levi and said “I’ve got two words for you mate.”  But Jesus’ two words were very different.

‘Follow me.’

You can tell a man by the company He keeps, so Jesus, what are you doing? It’s all very well helping out the establishment outsider and the spiritual outsider and the physical outsider, that’s nice.  But this social outsider, this man we all HATE and who IS HATEFUL.  This scumbag.  This sinner?  Jesus, are you really FOR sinners?

Have you ever heard the phrase “Jesus is the friend of sinners”?  It’s a nice saying.  It’s a true saying.  But so often we hear it and we think of sinners as rough diamonds, and loveable rogues.  Levi is not that.  He is a collaborator, a traitor, a white-collar criminal.  A scumbag.  And Jesus says: I WANT YOU.

Jesus really is the friend of sinners.  And I mean sinners.  And if we’re not ok with that, we’re not ok with Jesus.  As we’ll see…

Well how will Levi respond to this summons?

What would Levi do? (what does anyone do when jesus begins to call you for the first time to follow him?) On the one hand Levi had the life he knew, a life where he called the shots, a life that was financially secure.  On the other hand there was Jesus – a life with Him.  A life where Jesus called the shots.

Now there’s no guarantee here for Levi about the kind of future Jesus will bring him.  If you want Jesus, there’s no guarantee in this life of career, health, wealth, success, fame, prosperity.

In fact following Jesus might mean losing your job.  That’s what happened to Levi.  It’s what happened to Peter, James and John.  Jesus might pull the plug on all sorts of plans you’ve had – He’s the Commander!

There’s only one guarantee for the followers of Jesus.  If you follow Jesus, the one thing you’ll get is Jesus.  

But if we’ve got our heads screwed on right, He’s the one thing we want.  

He’s what Levi wanted:

Verse 28: ‘Levi got up, left everything and followed Him.’

Nothing else had made Levi give up the tax collecting game. (nothing else will make us give up anything)  Not his parents’ pleas, not his friends’ urgings, not the public taunts.  But two words from Jesus change the man.  Levi gives up everything.  Why?  To be with Jesus.  That’s enough to change a life. 

It changes Levi’s his life. Instantly.

Think of the change.  It’s stunning.

You know where the name Levi comes from?  Levi was the name of the tribe of priests in the Old Testament.  So Levi’s parents would have named him Levi with high hopes that he’d be a Levite – that he’d be a priest. The priests were God’s go-betweens.  Levi was meant to be the human face of a loving LORD.  He’s meant to bring people under the LORD’s influence.

But through his sin and greed, it’s all got so twisted.  As a tax-collector, he became Rome’s go-between.  He was the Jewish face of a tyrannical empire, bringing people under Rome’s influence.  His sin had made him the opposite of who he’s meant to be.

But now, following Jesus, he’s freed to become his true self.  Because what does Levi do when he follows Jesus?  Verse 29:

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

Here’s what Levi does.  He throws a massive dinner party, invites his co-workers and friends and he brings them in to meet Jesus.  You know what’s happened to Levi?  He’s become a true Levite.  Now he’s doing what he was born to do – he’s a go-between, drawing people under the influence of the LORD Jesus.

Levi becomes who he’s meant to be, when he follows Jesus.  That’s the experience of millions down through history.  Jesus doesn’t come into our lives to stifle and repress us.  He comes to release us from the junk that holds us back and to free us into who we’re meant to be!

And Jesus calls out again, today, in this room, “Follow me.  I’ve come to liberate you from that junk and to free you into who you’re meant to be.”

Don’t think that the Commander is a kill-joy.  Whatever He asks you to give up, it’s only to release you.  Look at Him at this banquet.  Does He look like a kill-joy?  He is the life and soul of the party.  He is the life and soul of every party He’s at, and He is at a LOT of parties.

You see He’s not just the Commander.  Second thing. He’s also the Host.

When Jesus came He was accused of being a party-animal.  (Luke 7:34)  All the religious types grumbled that He was always eating and drinking with friends.  But Jesus refused to cut down on the dinner parties, because He’s the ultimate Host.

[Who’s the greatest party host you know? Who organises just the best nights? Is it Devina?]

Lord Hailsham – the former Lord Chancellor – became a Christian when He saw this joyful side to Jesus. He wrote:

“The first thing we [should] learn about [Jesus] is that we should have been absolutely entranced by His company.  Jesus was irresistibly attractive as a man…  What they crucified was a young man, vital, full of life and the joy of it, the Lord of life itself, and even more the Lord of laughter.  Someone so utterly attractive that people followed Him for the sheer fun of it…”

Why did Levi leave everything?  One answer is – for the sheer fun of it.  If Jesus came into this room physically and said “Come follow me” would you follow?  We’d follow in a flash, and with great joy.  Just TO BE WITH JESUS!  That’s why we follow Him, because we love to be near Him.

Hailsham continues “…[We need] to recapture the vision of this glorious and happy man whose mere presence filled His companions with delight…” 

Jesus the life and soul of the party.  Do you see Jesus like that?  Unless you see the attractiveness of Jesus you won’t follow Him, no matter how commanding He happens to be.  But He’s not just the Commander, He’s also the Host.

And as the Host, Jesus invites us all to a Feast to end all feasts.

Jesus promises that when He returns He will host a cosmic banquet.  On that day we will celebrate creation renewed, death swallowed up, disease abolished, evil destroyed, sin cleansed, tears wiped away and an eternity of joy with Jesus, the Host of the Banquet.  You’re all invited.  It costs you NOTHING.  It cost HIM EVERYTHING.

For there was another meal Jesus hosted.  We re-enact it every week in church.  The night before Jesus died He broke bread and said “My body will be broken like bread to bring you the ultimate feast.”  He poured out wine and said “My blood will be poured out like wine to bring you the ultimate banquet.”  And on that cross Jesus was torn apart and poured out because it was the only way to bring sinners like us to the feast.  The Host really wants us at the Banquet.  It cost Him EVERYTHING to invite us.  But He offers us a place for free.

But there’s one kind of person Jesus does NOT call to His Banquet.  Only one.  This feast is for establishment outsiders, it’s for spiritual outsiders, it’s for physical outsiders, it’s for social outsiders.  It’s for sinners.  Anyone can come if they own up to being a SINNER.  But there’s one kind of person who cannot come (because they will not come): the righteous. They are not invited.

Look with me at v30:

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and`sinners’?”  31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

You see the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were the opposite of the outsiders.  They were the ‘holier than thou’ religious types.  They were the insiders; the cream of the crop.  And they’ve been looking on as the Commander has been recruiting for His Kingdom and picking ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE.

They are so mad about it that in v30 they gate-grash a party uninvited and then start complaining about the guest list.  Which is pretty strange when you think about it!  But they are mad.  “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?!”

Jesus replies, Because I’m a Doctor.

Commander, Host and now finally - Jesus is a doctor.

I’m a man, so I never go to the doctor.  I complain about every little cough and cold like its bubonic plague, but I don’t go to the doctor.  If I ever do, I like to save up all my little niggles and sicknesses so when I go I have a decent list of ailments.  Why?  Because you don’t want to go to a doctor when you’re healthy.

No-one sits down with their doctor and says, ‘I’m a picture of perfect health, I thought you’d be impressed.’  They won’t be impressed, you’re wasting their time. Doctors are for sick people.  And Jesus is for sinners.  Only for sinners.

Look at verse 31 again:

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Are you a sinner?  Or do you claim to be righteous like these Pharisees?

What is a sinner?  Jesus likens sin to sickness.  That’s a very good analogy to think about.  Because sin is not really about the individual bad stuff we’ve said or done.  I feel guilty for all sorts of things I’ve said and done in my past, but actually the problem goes deeper.

All those sins are like the spots you get when you have chicken pox. the real problem is not the spots.  The real problem is an underlying sickness.

And that’s what sin is like.  The bad stuff we do – that’s like the symptoms, the problem goes deeper.

my sins, my spots will look different to yours.  My sickness might show itself in pride and anger.  Yours might come out as greed and gossip.  And some will have really gross and obvious symptoms – like a tax collector.  But we all have the same disease.We’re all sick.

And here’s the problem with our sickness.  We can’t cure ourselves.  This sickness is not in our hair or we could shave it off.  It’s not a skin complaint or we could buy an ointment.  It’s not in our hand or our leg or we could amputate.  No we have a sickness in our bones, in our blood, in our brain and heart and soul.  a chronic, terminal illness called sin.  And if we never come to the Doctor, that sickness will go on forever.

You want to know what hell is?  Hell is simply our sick human condition that’s never taken to Jesus, never healed by the Doctor, just allowed to progress and deteriorate eternally. But here’s the shock about hell.  Hell is for the righteous.

A doctor can’t help you if you claim to be well.  And Jesus can’t help you if you claim to be righteous.

And the bible is clear that no-one is actually righteous.  But tragically, there are millions who fake it.  They cover up their spots and fake goodness.  And the Doctor passes them by.

Because Jesus is for sinners.  Only for sinners.  

Where are you today?  Not the person next to you.  What do you make of Jesus?

perhaps you think, “I couldn’t follow Jesus, I’m too bad for Jesus.”  But that’s like saying “I’m too sick for the doctor.”  No-one is too bad to follow Jesus.  Badness is your qualification.

The real problem is people thinking they’re too good.  Is that you?  You will not put yourself in the same boat as a Levi. You will not admit to REAL spiritual sickness.  But Jesus has only come for those who know their NEED and who come clean.

Drop the act.  Be a sinner.  Come to Christ. The commander, the host, the doctor. 

And what does this say to us about our church?

Does being a christian mean that you’re good and godly and morally pure? Is church a hotel for the righteous where we show the world how good we are and invite them to join if they can make the grade too? And we look down on each other when we mess up and spoil the picture of a perfect family.. 

Listen to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words about righteous pious people in church from his remarkable little book Life Together: “The pious fellowship permits no-one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is we are sinners.”

Church is a hospital for sinners not a hotel for the righteous. And hospitals are places where all kinds of mess comes into the open and it’s a place where people are getting healed. I’m not saying that we air all of our dirty laundry in public but i am saying that we expect and allow each other to be struggling and we have some people who we’re brutally open with and by so doing we do not remain alone in our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.. 

Jesus commands us to follow him. To leave all behind 

In order to have him. And he is all you need. 

So come to him and let him bear you sin and heal you life and set you free to be the person you were made to be. 

Luke 5v17-26

What would you say is your greatest need? You personally. Your top priority?

I don’t mean what’s top of your to do list at work tomorrow. I mean when the urgent things are not pressing in. What’s the most important thing in your life that plays on your mind? The thing that most needs to change. The thing that if you had one wish.. The personal longing for yourself or maybe it’s for someone close to you who is in great need. 

What is it for you? 

Perhaps you’re not aware of any need or perhaps it comes instantly to mind, …it’s often on your mind.Painfully so. 

It might be a relationship - that you long would exist or could be repaired. 

It might be to do with the way people see you .. or the way you see yourself. 

Perhaps it’s your health, your habits. Or the health of someone very close to you. 

Perhaps it’s your work. Right at the moment - achieving that goal at work - that’s got to be the priority; that’s the main thing What is it for you? 

If the opportunity arose to solve your deepest need right now, this afternoon. You would take it wouldn’t you. You’d excuse yourself from this meeting and you’d embrace it - It’s the thing that matters most to you…

Well listen, this afternoon, and I am being absolutely serious here, this afternoon right here - I am going to give you the solution to your deepest problem and your friend’s deepest problem; your deepest needs. 

The thing that matters most in the world for you - we can deal with it this afternoon. 

That is, if you want to deal with it. And surely you will. Surely when an opportunity like that arises you have to take it.. 

In the Bible this afternoon we meet a man with a massive problem, and this problem, his deepest need is solved forever. It’s a great story and in the story there are two shocks. 

shockwave number 1 

The first is a shock about this man’s needs and our needs - i won’t tell you what it is until the end of making this point because then it won’t really be a shock will it? But it’s a shockwave about this man’s needs and our needs and the true needs of those close to us. 

Let’s look at this story together, .  

Jesus is teaching v17 in the crowded house. Probably Peter’s house in Capernaum where Peter lived at least with his wife and mother in law and probably kids. In a large one room space with a flat roof. Pharisees and teachers of the law - the religious leaders - have come fro mall over the region to check out this man - Jesus who is causing with his teaching and healing -such a stir and the place is packed. It’s like the Piccadilly line at rush hour in this front room. Hot and sweaty, people crammed in; faces in armpits, sitting on laps. People came from everywhere - anything to be with Jesus - because Jesus could do the impossible - that is he could instantly meet peoples needs.. He could heal people with a word, from any sickness, affliction or torment. God’s King, restoring the world and that Kingdom continues to grow in our lifetime. Jesus is alive, Jesus is here, by his spirit.  - I wonder will Jesus meet my needs, your needs…. So many needs in that crowded room - so many needs in this one.  

And…Look at the end of v17 Luke makes a point of telling us that the power of the Lord was present for Jesus to heal the sick.

And yet for the time being - with all those needs in the room - Jesus is teaching.. (we’ll come back to that)

Well there’s an interruption to Jesus’ talk - a scratching noise over head - perhaps it’s pigeons or cats or whatever they had in those days,…But then, little bits of ceiling start raining down, a puff of plaster and there’s fingers poking through the roof! then hands clawing away a small hole - then ripping up big bits of ceiling. What’s going on?! Sunlight pours into the crowded room - illuminating a great shaft of dust - and through the sunlight descends a body - lowered on a mat. 

He is a paralysed man - Luke tells us v18 - He has no feeling or use in his body from the neck down. Remember the actor, Christopher Reevewho was most famous for playing the part of Superman with his square jaw and plastic hair - he became paralysed in a horse riding accident - what is that like? - how frightening. To lose the use of your body. It’s distressing enough in our day. But in the dusty sweltering heat of 1st C Palestine - no wheel chairs, no hospitals, none of the kind of treatments that have helped Christopher Reeve to walk again. No, what would life have been like for this man in Luke 5 ? How would he have eaten, survived? - probably people laid him at the beginning of each day by the side of the road to beg for money - unwashed, filthy, his back covered in pressure sores, helpless, vulnerable to being robbed. Terrible suffering… 

Everything in the story points to the depth of his need. 

I broke a bone in my foot once - same injury as David Beckham and Wayne Rooney - a tiny stress fracture in a little bone with a funny name and it really throbs - when i did it I thought I’d better go to A&E - so I limped to the hospital, waited like you do, and waited- and after a while… I left - cos there was Football on the telly. (And had to go back a few days later). But you see my level of effort to get help pointed to my level of need. Little metatarsal..

What about these men carrying this dead weight of a man up onto the roof, pulling the ceiling apart, knowing they’ll have to pay for it, ignoring the screams of the owner of the house? 

The level of effort these men go to to get the man to Jesus says something about the level of his need. 

Perhaps he was at the end of his rope, everything had been tried for this poor wretch. Perhaps he was close to death so decayed was his unused body, perhaps he wanted to die.

And yet now here he is being lowered into the arms of Jesus Christ.. This is what the crowd had come to see. All look to Jesus to meet this poor man’s desperate need.. the power of God was present for him to heal the sick…

Jesus looks up at the friends of the man v20 peering down through the fresh hole in the roof. he appreciates their faith in him, they have made a wise decision bringing this man to Jesus. Then eventually Jesus turns doesn’t he to the paralytic v20 and he says Friend, get up take your mat and go home - be healed.  How wonderful… What? Didn’t he? No, sorry have I made a mistake.?? 

It doesn’t say that?

v20 When Jesus saw the friends faith, he said to the paralytic, Friend your sins are forgiven.??

What? That can’t be right - To this paralysed man? Is that a typo? Does anyone have a different Bible translation? It’s the same in all of them? 

What’s the point of that? To offer a paralysed man forgiveness, when his obvious greatest need is physical healing seems about as useful as offering a starving man a cookery book. What is this?…

Well, by the time the story’s ended Jesus has healed the man - ..he walks home... It is not that Jesus cannot or will not heal the man but Jesus who knows everything looks upon that paralysed man and sees an even more urgent need. This he attends to first, of first importance. Friend  your sins are forgiven

We look at our world and we we see suffering - starvation, illness, oppression violence and we say surely people’s deepest need is to have suffering relieved. 

We look at our lives and we see suffering - loneliness, addictions, illness, weakness and we say surely our deepest need is to have our suffering relieved 

But Jesus says there is a deeperproblem than paralysis 

a deeper problem than poverty 

a deeper problem than abuse 

a deeper problem than oppression. 

a deeper problem than loneliness 

….The problem of sin 

Nothing matters more than forgiveness - that’s the shockwave here. To have our sins forgiven by God is our greatest need. Of first importance - Top of the list 

For us and for every person we look upon in our work, in the street, in the pub. 

Nothing is more important than forgiveness. 

Because of the nature of what sin is…

And that brings us to the second shockwave of the story. The nature of sin and therefore the need for forgiveness

Shockwave number 2 

Look at v 21 The pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, ‘who is this fellow that speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

How would you feel if you were at a party with friends from work and there was somebody at the party who was going around pronouncing forgiveness on people. ‘Friend, Your sins are forgiven.’ 

Your work friends will think he’s just a weirdo nutter. Butyou’re a church person you’d probably be offended by that person because you kinod of instincitvely know what the pharisees and teachers of the law knew that forgiveness is something God gives/does. So do around pronouncing is to play God. It’s blasphemy. But doesn’t it force you to think why is it that God has the authority to forgive sins? 

This is beginning to take us into the heart of what sin is.. 

Why does God presume to forgive us. 

I mean if i steal £20 from James May and Jo Briggs forgives me for it. That doesn’t mean very much. The offence - sin if you like - is between me and James. Only James can forgive me because the offence was against him. Only he has the authority to forgive in that sense. 

Presumably this paralysed man has dome things wrong against people - he suffers those regrets even while he sits powerless by the road side. But surely only these people wronged can forgive? why do the pharisees - who can forgive sins but God alone? 

What is this telling us about sin? 

That first and foremost sin is not the bad things that we do against people. though they are a reality and we should seek forgiveness from one another and to make amends. But first and foremost sin is not bad things we do that moral people tick us off for. Not at all - Sin can actually ook very morally respectable. It’s not about actions - it’s about an attitude towards God that will destroy us. That’s what needs forgiveness

Heard about this BBC guy - colleague - woman had been thrown out of her flat homeless. It so happened, he was going away for a year or so -sabbatical. Offered her his flat - with a few ground rules. Left her his keys and went. After a year - he returned to his flat to find the locks changed and Entry refused. It took him 2 years and three thousand pounds worth of legal fees to get his flat back. 

Imagine that…

How did that BBC guy feel? He’d given her the use of the flat then to arrive back to that- outrageous, he must have been speechless with rage - its so contemptuous 

But it’s actually nothing compared to what we all do by nature to God. This is God’s world. His flat he’s given us to live in. Our lives were made by him. All our gifts. So generous. And yet we change the locks on him. We don’t want him intefering. We don’t want his rules we want to determine how to live ‘our’ lives. And so we say

“Push off God, You’re not God. I’m God. I’m living my life my way.” Sin is effectively taking God’s place. I’m in charge. And that could look like a very moral upright life couldn’t it. But it’s just as contemptous to God as an immoral life. 

All of the pain and hurts of this world arise from our individual arrogance of taking God’s place You and I haven’t caused all of the problems of the world - we’ve just added our contribution..

How does God feel - when he comes looking for some fruit in our lives which he has graciously given us and he finds that we’ve changed the locks on him. That we deny even knowing him.

What do we deserve from God? Having ignored and rejected and kept him out we deserve to be ignored, rejected, thrown out. We don’t deserve heaven. We don’t deserve friendship with God..

We’re lost. 

This is why Nothing matters more than forgiveness.. because of the nature and danger of sin. 

And God comes and incredibly offers us a way out - he holds outforgiveness. and he does so at great personal cost to himself. 

look at v23 Why are you thinking these things in your hearts, Jesus knows their thoughts that - they’re offended at him claiming to be God Which is easier? Jesus continues To say your sins are forgiven or to say Get up and walk?

What do you think? you answer Jesus’ question: - Which is easier to say? 

On one level, obviously 

Plainly it’s easier to say to a paralytic your sins are forgiven than to say to a paralytic get up and walk - forgiveness cannot be seen- whereas healing: the evidence is immediately apparent - you stand to look a right wally if it doesn’t happen. 

It may seem therefore that making a paralysed man able to walk just by telling him to is a much harder thing to do than forgiving sins.. 

But actually - that’s not true. 

Forgiving our sins will cost God everything. 

It is not easy. it will come at the price of the suffering and death of Jesus. It will come with hatred, betrayal and rejection. It will come with whipping and nails, a crown of thorns, and the cross. It will come with separation from his Father as he bears our sin upon himself - all our rejection of God - Jesus pays for it that we might be forgiven. As Isaiah wrote 600 years before Jesus’ day

He was pierced for our transgressions 

He was crushed for our iniquities 

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him 

And by his wounds we are healed 

at the place where we most need healing 

‘Friend - your sins are forgiven’

And Jesus says v24, so That you may know (be certain, be assured) that the Son of Man (a title Jesus used for himself) has authority on earth to forgive sins …” he said to the paralysed man. “I tell you get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately, he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

Extraordinary report on the BBC news on Friday night about advances in physical therapy that is helping people suffering with paralysis to walk again. It’s really happening through a process of re-learning and buliding strength in unused muscles. a slow and painstaking process 

In the light of that this healing is utterly remarkable isn’t it? I’m no spring chicken anymore and i try and avoid sitting on the floor because it’s a bit of an effort getting up again. But i mean i can do it i’m not an old man..yet. But i sort of labour back up to my feet. 

This man is lying on the floor and in response to Jesus’ word to get up v25 he immediately stood up.. and this man hasn’t used his muscles for decades. he hasn’t moved anything but his eyes for decades! 

and yet Jesus speaks and everything comes toogether instantly - elecricity crackles from this mans brain to his unused and dead nervous system sparking his muscles back to new life energy and power. sinew returning bringing him to his feet. And he walks to everyone’s utter awe and amazement. 

Jesus does the impossible and He does it to demonstrate that he has authority to FORGIVE! 

Remember last week - the leper that Jesus cleansed and havingcleansed him of his uncleanness sends him to the Priests to conduct the ceremonies of cleansing. Baths an dnew closthes and all his hair removed and we said tha these cleansed lepers looking like new born babies were like walking parables of what Jesus has come to do - to cleans us from our sin. Well in exactly the same way. The paralytic leaping to his feet.. made new. he is a parable of forgiveness. God brings us to our feet. To stand forgiven in his presence. that’s why we stand after the confession for the declaration of God’s forgiveness. It’s real - God forgives completely. Jesus has the power and authority to do so because he died for us to make it so.

What do you think matters to God?

What’s top of his priority list? His greatest need?What might he even die for? 

Nothing matters more to God than our forgiveness? God wanted you - to repair the relationship so that you will be with him forever. 

Applications 

1. Be forgiven. nothing matters more than forgiveness. Jesus died that you might be. So call out for his forgiveness and start living with God as King now.

1. What of you are forgiven. Think back to what you were bringing to mind at the beginning of this sermon as your greatest felt need. that God hasn’t met has he.  And that’s deeply painful and it challenges your faith. I don’t what the reason is that he hasn’t yet provided that for you. But i know what the reason isn’t. It isn’t bevause he doesn’t love you; it isn’t because he doesn’t care because he has actually met your deepest need for forgiveness and eternal security. See areimmediate needs are exactly that - immediate. Affect our lives now. But God cares about our eternities.. which brings us to the third application 
2. The real need of those all around us, friends, family members, colleagues, locals - who have yet to be forgiven. To receive that gift. How can we share it this Easter? Invite services ‘you’ll be suprised’, easter story, CE group. God has met our greatest need. Amen.   

Luke 5v12-16

[Leprosy doctor. Christian charity.  A photograph. The smile of a healed leper. Filled his face. Filled the photograph. Came out and embraced you.]

Speaks something of this man healed by jesus.  

But that man - is all of us. he is all of us.  For we are all unclean and we need Jesus Christ. And he can make us clean.. 

Let’s go through each verse 

v12 The problem of uncleanness 

Jesus is in one of the towns of galilee where he has been proclaiming the kingdom of God in his teaching and healing. In Jesus Christ the rule of God has returned and is being established and a broken world is being restored.  This is the reality of the world today - the light of the rule of JC pushes back the darkness and will ond day remove the darkness completely when he returns.. 

And now here is this man. This needy man. It is not just that he is a leper. he is, we are told, covered with leprosy.  This is a serious disease. 

And this awful physical condition is only the beginning of his problems.. 

Because, as you may know, according to the Jewish OT law, leprosy and other skin diseases rendered a person unclean. And this had serious consequences for their life. Turn with me to Leviticus 13. The law given to the newly constituted nation of Israel after God’s people have been liberated from slavery in Egypt and are now a nomadic tent dwelling nation in the Sinai wilderness. And here we have Regulations about infectious skin diseases. Have a read sometime. But the summary is there in vv45-46 “…”

He must be identifiable - the appearance of someone bereaved; mourning. clothes torn, hair long - the walking dead 

He is excluded - if ever he comes near to others he must cover the lower part of his face and cry out Unclean Unclean to ward people off - keep people away. 

He must live alone and he must live outside the camp..  You know how the camp of Israel worked. All the tents of Israel and some kind of boundary for protection and at the centre of the camp God’s tent the tabernacle - at the centre.. God accessible to all ..

Ah but not the lepers - they are outside the camp - they cannot come in. Excluded from the communiy and distant from God - Unclean 

Now you can see in Leviticus 14 (and we’ll look at this closer in a minute) but there were protocols and provision for when someone recovered or was healed of an infectious skin disease. Provision for that to be verified and for them to be welcomed back in to the community but we know that that must have been very very rare. 

In the OT story of the healing from leprosy of Naaman the syrian general. he was a leper but a Syrian and their law and culture was different he was a high ranking soldier. And in the account of his remarkable healing we are told that the likelihood of a leper healing was the same as a dead man being raised from the dead. The rabbis had an identical saying: the likelihood of a leper healing was the same as a dead man being raised from the dead. It never happens.. This is a life sentence. Condemned. 

It seems very harsh. 

You can see public health reasons for why people with infectious skin diseases should be treated carefully. But why should they be excluded from God? 

And why is it Priests not doctors who examine them to see whether they should continue being excluded or be brought back in?

It seems that something deeper is goin gon here for God to make laws like this. 

And there are many laws about uncleanness and cleannessin Leviticus. 

It seems that God wanted to teach us something through the poor lepers. As if they are a living parable to us.. 

Luke our gospel he sees it. 

Because he has a leper - physically unclean - coming into the town to come to Jesus 

Directly after the story that we saw last week - 5v8 where simon Peter - after encountering the holy power of Jesus - tells Jesus ‘go away from me - I am a sinful man. 

the unclean man - comes to Jesus 

the clean man - pushes Jesus away 

what’s Luke want us to know. what are the strange Leviticus. They’re about this. That whatever we look like physical, whatever our state of health physically.. spiritually we are all unclean.  

Jesus teaches this absolutely clearlu in 

Mark 7v18. Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? …. [It is] What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

there is a spiritual uncleanness within every human heart which spews out thoughts and attitudes and behaviours that are evil - that is they fail to love God and others, in fact they are the opposite: self serving and destructive. These things defile us. They pollute our lives.. 

and they render us spiritual lepers - separated from God and his life - outside the camp, the walking dead. Unclean. 

Shame. Shame is the existential manifestation of our uncleanness. And it’s as old as the world. when Adam and Eve our human parents rejected God’s authority and ate the forbidden fruit.. choosing to do life their way… Shame entered their experience and they hid from God and they blamed one another and they broke the world.  And we continue in the same - when God comes towards with his healing and forgiveness, when others come towards us with love and intimacy - we say ‘Go away from me .. I am a sinful person’ 

these things of course are complex just as in leviticus sometimes the things that defile are not things of our own doing that we are responsible for so in part it will not be our sin that defiles us but the sins of others.. wrongs that have been done to us.. or the good that was withheld us.. 

sin, whether our own or not defiles us.. and it is very difficult to remove that sense of defilement of dirtiness..

Trevor Nunn the veteran theatre director (RSC and National Theatre) he famously said that Shakespeare had ‘more wisdom and insight about our lives’ than any religious tract. I would argue that the two are not mutually exclusive. Wasn’t Shakespeare reflecting on the Bible’s teaching of the stain of sin as Lady Macbeth scrubs and scrubs her hands to remove spots of blood that she can still see? ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean’ 

The problem of uncleanness 

But then v13 Jesus can make you clean 

the leper comes into the town - he shouldn’t be there. but he has heard something of Jesus and believes that Jesus can make him clean and so he came to him. It’s amazing. It’s suprising. Many people know much about jesus but they don’t come to Jesus to ask him to heal them. 

When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man I am willing he said be clean and immediately the leprosy left him 

Jesus touched the man. He didn’t need to. His word alone would be powerful enough. His word created the heavens and the earth and here his words are recreating the world. His miracles are not a suspension of nature they are the restoration of nature. But Jesus didn’t need to touch him to heal him. But he does. An dhe doesn;t just touch him - a stronger expression is used - he reached out his hand and touched the man. that is he wrapped his arms around the man’s shoulders. he hugs him. 

Do you remember the photos that shocked when Princess Diana visited AIDS patients and astonished the world ny shaking hands with them with no glove on the royal hand. There was no danger to her but most people weren’t prepared to do that. they were too frightened to do that. 

Well there was danger with Jesus. In all likelihood the man was infectious. But it wasn’t just that - he was unclean, he was excluded - touching a leper would render Jesus, a rabbi - unclean you wouldn’t do it but of course the moment Jesus embraces the leper.. the leper is no longer a leper. 

Jesus shows to the man what he must have craved, longed for. Had anyone touched him for years and years? But here was the Holy Son of God putting his arms around him and embracing him and loving him and showing him real compassion. Everyone else is stepping aside covering their faces saying to themselves ‘unclean..unclean’ Jesus comes to you and he holds you and he heals you. 

You knows there’s that thing it was a number of years ago when we British were very politely told by people from the Far East - Japan and so on - that to them we smell of milk. They because they at the time were not great milk drinkers and i guess we are - they could smell on us what we couldn’t smell on each other because we’re so used to the smell..

Now it’s never nice being told you’re smelly. But if you’re unclean spiritually then there must be a spiritual odour to us - a stench of death that we don’t really always notice though sometimes we do just as when someone enters a room and lights it up another can come in and the room freezes.. 

But what about Jesus. The Holy son of God. He comes down into the stench of our uncleanness and he embraces the unclean. That is unbelieveable. It is shocking and extraordinary. 

You know it is not such a big deal for you or I to embrace a leper because i share much of that lepers need. But for jesus to touch any of us! What are you doing Lord Jesus!

Well what Jesus is saying is - My child everything that is yours that has depraved and distorted you and rendered you unclean. I’m making you and it my own and i will die on a wooden cross for it that you might have me and everything that is mine.  That’s thegreat exchange that took place on the cross. 

He who knew no sin.. became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. 

You come to jesus and you say Lord if you’re willing you can make me clean 

and he says i am willing 

The saviour in his death and resurrection embraces the needy; embraces the odour of spiritual death and makes it his own he bears our burdens, he takes our shame, he tastes our death to bring us with him, connected to him through to resurrection life. 

v14 the cleansed life 

then jesus ordered him, Don’t tell anyone but go and show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. 

Leviticus 14 and see what this man had to do.. READ vv1-9 

Isn’t this extraordinary - the cleansed leper would have had to go down to jerusalem to the temple to make this happen.. 

offering these sacrifices - it is a cleansing bought by blood. the blood of Jesus 

where the man had been trapped in this living death. this condemnation. He is now set free, he is a captive released. 

where he was excluded from the community - he is now brought back in - and it’s demonstrated to the people as he lives outside for the first week. doing a lot of bathing 

where he was dressed in the clothes of death his hair grown long - he now shaves off all his hair even his eyebrows so that it is as if he is reborn. like a new born baby. Born again to new clean life!

and where he was excluded from God he is nor presented to God..

Isn’t it extraordinary - where before as an unclean leper he was a walking parable of us all - of life without God of spiritual uncleanness and death now having come to jesus embraced by jesus saved by Jesus death and resurrection as any of us can be - he is now a walking parable of cleansing, new life, restored relationship 

You know we said that these provisions were probably never used. Lepers never recovered, never got better. this was a lifelong sentence. the likelihood of a leper getting well was the same as a dead man rising from the dead. But Jesus is the man who conquers death, who dies and is raised from the dead.. And Jesus cleanses lepers.. 

I’m not sure how many lepers Jesus cleansed in his ministry - it wasn’t the focus was it Jesus’ phyiscal healings they were only illustrations of the spiritual healing he has come to bring through his deat and resurrection. But Jesus must have healed a bunch of lepers and so they must have been rocking up in Jerusalem and going through this process of bathing and shaving. These newborns all walking round the city because the Kingdom of God has come. 

3 brief applications 

1. Be cleansed. Jesus shed his blood for your cleansing. To remove the stain that separates you from God. That picture of the onetime leper smiling. he said I am glad that i had leprosy because if i hadn’t i would never have come to Jesus. It’s never nice to discover spiritually that you’re a leper. But if that knowledge drives you to Jesus and to his cleansing then how glad we should be. Do that. be cleansed. 
2. Be deeply cleansed. In Christ you are clean. But that cleansingthen needs to be applied to our hearts - to our fear, our shame, our sense of alienation from God and one another.  We are no longer to live in shame if we are Christ’s. We can be captive in our thoughts and behaviour to feelings of shame and dirt. We can continue to hide from God and others. But we are not to be like that. We need to know that in christ we are pure .. that we might live pure lives. Here’s how the apostle John speaks about it.. (we often use these words when we confess our sins). 1 John 1v7 ‘If we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from all sin.’ John is saying in the context that there’s a danger that we hide our ongoing sin - that perpetuates shame and it breaks our fellowship.. but if we confess our sins to God (and i think to others we trust) we are brought into the light of God’s forgiveness and cleansing and into real fellowship with one another. Take confession seriously, expose sin so that you can apply cleansing to your heart. 
3. Suffer shame now for Christ. The writer to the Hebrews tells us ‘Jesus suffered outside the city to make the people holy through his blood.’ Jesus went outside the camp that we might come inside. he became unclean on the cross that we might become and then it says, ‘Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore.’ Jesus suffered shame for us. Let us now not be ashamed of him. Let us offer our whole lives as an act of thanksgiving for what he has done for us. Live your cleansed life for him..  
4.  

Luke 5v1-11

In gospel of luke we have seen extraordinary occurences of jesus’ authoritative teaching, instant healings and exorcisms. luke told us right at the start of his book these events are not supernatural legends, they are not myth. Far from it they are eye witness accounts that he himself has taken pains to verify. these extraordinary acts are Jesus re-establishing the kingdom of God in a world which had been enslaved to dark powers. That kingdom, the loving, restoring rule of God is growing even now - light pushing back the darkness. Jesus is replanting his garden in the wilderness of this world. 

that’s Luke’s message and he also told us he has an aim with his book. Back in the very opening words of this gospel. 

the book is written to someone called Theophilus with the intention that Theophilus might become ‘certain’ about the things he is reading. Not meaning that he becomes arrogant and dogmatic about religion but that the love of God in Jesus becomes a self evident joy and pleasure that changes his life. Luke wants Theophilus to become a real disciple of Jesus. 

Now Theophilus - we don’t know who he was …he may have been 

• a Roman Official -hence his title ‘Most Excellent’- who was interested in Christianity and thus had commissioned Luke to write his gospel. Luke’s Patron. or
• the name could be a catch all term for anyone reading this book and coming to faith in Jesus because the name is a compound of two greek words Theos - God and Philos - Love. Theophilus means loved by God or lover of God. So most excellent theophilus is You, dear reader. 

Whichever the case, Luke is shaping his presentation of Jesus’ love and power to be a certainty making, disciple making gospel. God loves you.. and he wants you to love him in return. Love him back. Theophilus. 

and i think we see this going on with Luke’s inclusion of this episode in chapter 5 with Simon Peter. 

See Simon Peter has been around Jesus for a while he was there in the synagaogue in Capernaum where Jesus ministered to a man oppressed by darkness, in his mother in law’s house for sabbath lunch where Jesus instantly healed his very sick mother in law, he had been there in the bedlam of the evening when hundreds brought their sick to be healed one by one Jesus laid his hands upon them and healed them. Peter has been there in the shadows, amazed like everybody else - listening to Jesus, watching Jesus just as we have been on these sundays (maybe in our splinter groups) - listening to Jesus, watching Jesus.. and now here in chapter 5 this is the moment when Jesus comes for Peter, the moment when Peter becomes a real disciple.  It’s like Peter’s conversion. Peter has heard and seen and now he responds. And it is as if Luke is saying what about you Theophilus, what about you, dear reader, lover of God - has he come for you? Are you there yet? Are you ready to leave everything behind for him. A real disciple.. 

This passage, this book is not how to become the perfect christian (plenty of books on that! unhelpful dead end street). but is about how to be a real christian -  an imperfect christian, a christian who messes up (what a great thing peter is in the gospels) but a real disciple. how do you become a real disciple in a turbulent world? Let’s follow Peter and try and see: 

1. hear the word of christ 

people are gathering round Jesus as they aways do.  almost pushing him into the water of Lake Galilee so eager are they to hear Jesus preaching what Luke calls ‘the word of god’ 

peter, with two others who will become close disciples of Jesus, james and john runs a local fishing business and he was there nearby working in his boat, on is nets, as ever listening in. And Jesus does the sensible thing he jumps into peter’s boat. push us out Peter.. out the boat goes. Jesus sits and his voice is carried over the water… hundreds are able to hear him preaching and teaching. And Peter - well he has a frontrow seat doesn’t he. listening to the word of God, hearing the word of God from the voice of the Lord JC. 

it’s easy for us to be wowed by Jesus’ miracles.. his healings but Luke tells us again and again that it was his teaching that ‘amazed’ people, his words.. Isn’t that extraordinary? That’s what really took people’s breath away - the things Jesus said. When Jesus preached it was if God himself was preaching

Good isn’t it? because we can’t directly witness his miracles but we can listen to his word. If we would take the time and open our ears and our hearts. And if God in his grace opens our ears and our hearts and surrounds us with his word. 

i remember when i first started hearing the word of God. aged 12, 13,. I had heard about Jesus i’m sure in different contexts but i began to find myself in a place where the words of Jesus were landing upon my heart with a weighty glory. God speaking to me. Calling me. That’s how God draws us into discipleship.. 

that’s what’s happening to Peter.. he’d heard Jesus’ words from his place in the synagogue, from his seat at the other end of his Mother-in-law’s dining room, that sabbath evening from the shadows as the sunset - on the lakeside that very day. But now the word of God is in his own fishing boat. Peter sits at Jesus’ feet. The word pursues him. The hound of heaven. 

Well, do you know this, Theophilus? When the word of God seems to surround you, surprise you, pop up in all kinds of places. making inroads into our lives. 

Jesus’ words have authority and life giving power. He created the world by his word! 

If i am to be a real disciple i need to listen to his word. This lent.  

2. i need to see the power of christ 

i just said that it is the word of christ that is in a sense more amazing than his miracles. and it’s true that without Jesus’ word we won’t understand his miracles anyway. 

Lots of people say don’t they. 

‘if i saw a miracle with my own eyes then i would believe’ 

but you know that’s not the case in the gospels. most of the people who saw miracles did not believe. miracles don’t lead to true understanding and faith without the word of Jesus explaining he good news of HIS kingdom. 

but at the same time - as God draws us closer to himself. it is encountering his power that begins to work in tandem with his words to convince our hearts of his truth and reality. 

this is the next stage in God making us real disciple. 

We do come to face to face with something of the power of the gospel.  

It can be in a situation, and often in and through a person or people. A situation maybe of great trouble and suffering.. or of great kindness and blessing .. and things begin to be out together, the message about Jesus is not just words any more you see their power in the transformation of people’s lives. 

sometimes it’s suffering and difficulty. for peter its a situation of blessing: 

but which ever it is Jesus enters deeply into our world and he turns things upside down. 

Look at how he does it with Peter. one of the strangest demonstrations of Jesus’ power. 

Now you know Jesus must have been very shrewd. he must have noticed that here he was on a fishing boat but there weren’t any fish lying around or evidence of any fish anytime recently. They’d had a bad night and had caught nothing; absolutely nothing. and they were skilled fishermen. this was a properous fishing business there are little hints of that in the gospels. and they had caught nothing. and jesus says, Peter - push out a bit into the deep water let’s go and do some fishing boys.. 

and peter says, ‘Master we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught a thing - all night cos that’s when you fish ..at night and not in deep water during the day when the fish hide .. But ..since you say so .. I’ll let down the nets.” Peter humours Jesus. What does jesus know about fishing?

Jesus knows about theology and healing and forgiveness oh and carpentry but what does he know about fishing, or medicine, or art, or business start ups or economics. what does Jesus know about fishing?

They let the nets down… in the deep water… in the middle of the day … 

And suddenly the waters begin to erupt with fish - sparkling leaping fish ..filling the nets to breaking point .. there are shouts to the other boat to come and help and jesus’ laughter and filling the boats so that they are close to sinking with the groaning weight of fish. 

What does Jesus know about fishing?

What’s jesus doing here? What’s he saying to Peter? he’s saying:

I know you listen to me when i preach or when i exorcise demons and when i heal the sick because you’re a fisherman and you’re not capable of doing those things.

But if you’re going to be my disciple you’re going to follow me in the areas where you think you know better. 

You know there are lots of areas of our lives where we say, i need jesus to help me here because i can’t do this. But Jesus says to Simon Peter it’s not just in the areas where you think you are a weak but in the areas where you are strong that you will have to bow to my word

There’s a wonderful thing here. You know we’ve seen that in Luke’s gospel Jesus is being presented as the saviour who undoes what adam had done and who restores humanity and the world to what it ought to be. He enters the wilderness defeats Satan and starts to replant the garden - the kingdom of God. The perfect human, a new Adam restoring humanity! 

Well here’s a trivial pursuit question: what is the first thing that God made man to do? clearly stated in the bible? no peeking

: to have dominion over the fish

genesis 1 

see what’s happening here?  see what’s being communicated to Peter? to us? 

jesus isn’t just the one who puts things right in the areas where we can’t put things right but he puts things right in the areas where we think we are strongest. jesus is Lord over all of our lives 

there isn’t a square inch of reality over which the Lord Jesus Christ does not declare ‘mine’! 

I want in says Jesus. I’m bigger than you think

Don’t forget Theophilus 

Have you seen the power of Christ at work? Reached into your life? 

Then you’re ready for the next thing 

hearing the word of christ 

seeing the power of christ 

3. confessing your sin to christ 

again this story perhaps is so familiar we miss the point. 

what does peter do? he falls down on his knees and says to Jesus depart from me, i am a sinful man. It’s obvious what Peter does. 

Oh is it? 

what if i were say to you as you leave - i say ‘you’ve started a new business go to the ATM there’s £50,000 more in your bank account. than was there yesterday.” *wink

you say - he’s lost his mind! lost his marbles! but you’re persuaded to go and you look and it’s there! what are you going to do? rush back to church fall on your knees and say depart from me Fouhy, i am a sinful person. No! you’re going to say Fouhy, join the business! Fish means money! So there’s nothing practically logical about this.. But there’s something spiritually logical about it because it seems that with all this persuasion that has surrounded Peter - the word, the presence in his home, the way Jesus had healed his mother in law, everything that he has heard, this good news, this indication that in jesus humanity is being restored, the world put back together to the way things are meant to be. And now it is as if jesus is pressing in on his heart and saying Simon Peter don’t you see who i am? and it’s almost as though everything that has been going on beneath the surface just breaks through.  

it’s kind of surprising:

because this must have been glorious, thrilling - they nearly lose their boats - the stuff of fishermens dreams. this glorious catch of fish. and yet here is peter in this glorious moment and he’s overcome; inwardly weeping - what’s going on here?

when you’re grieving the loss of a loved one.  

coping mechanisms - people very kind.  stuff going on beneath the surface as we struggle to cope 

and sometimes it’s the happiest things that seem to break up the great deep and it all pours out 

now that can happen spiritually as well. Its what happens to peter. 

everything that he was trying to hold down and hold back as he had this sense that jesus was after him. the hound of heaven, pursuing him, graciously cornering him. 

and now there is this extraordinary outpouring of jesus’ amazing provision. and he breaks apart. 

isn’t that what the apostle Paul means in Ro2:4 when he says, it is the kindness of God that leads me to repentance. and his heart breaks and it just all comes out. i don’t deserve this. you’ve got me wrong. i’m a sinful man. i’m not worthy to be in your presence 

we’d almost forgotten about theophilus again 

do you know anything about this, theophilus?

this sense of sin. of being undeserving. when the gracious kindness of God.. expressed to you in a hundred different ways and supremely in giving you his son - to die on a cross because of you. because of your sin. because he so wants you, because he so loves you. 

you’ll never come to Jesus as your saviour ..

you’ll never grow in true discipleship 

without becoming conscious of your sin and your unworthiness so that you’ll come to him and say….. well Peter doesn’t know what he can say .. Peter doesn’t really know that there’s forgiveness .. he says depart from me Lord, i’m a sinner when really you can say and you should say Jesus you shouldn’t want to be with me, but you do! i’m not worthy but you don’t work like that. So don’t depart from me, come to me, put your arms around me, i need you, forgive me. 

are you anywhere near there theophilus? 

heard christ’s word 

seen christ’s hand 

confessing your sin 

4. responding to his call 

‘come and follow me’ as it is in other places in the gospels 

or as it is here ‘don’t be afraid, peter, from now on you will be catching people’

this is the moment of decision 

it’s interesting what Jesus says to Peter at this point - “don’t be afraid.” i guess i want Jesus to say to Peter, ‘Peter your sins are forgiven’  but Jesus is wiser still and he utters these words that he says again and again and again as recorded in the gospels. “Don’t be afraid.” We are so often afraid. Jesus says ‘don’t be’ 

There areso many reasons why Peter should be afraid here - not just an awareness of his sinfulness in the presence of the LORD - a fear that forgiveness can answer. but fear of his unworthiness to live for jesus, i’ll never be able to do it, fear of what others will think of him, what others will say- ‘the fisherman has got religion!’ 

terrified because he knows that this is the greatest challenge of his whole life. 

I wonder if that’s why the catch of fish was so great

Peter there’s nothing to be frightened about. i can supply all your needs according to the riches of my grace 

and so Peter begins, leaving his nets he goes with Jesus to catch people. That’s the mission of the church isn’t to proclaim the powerful word of God- on our lips and in our lives— the good news of Jesus’ love and forgiveness and so to see people pulled out of the miry dark depths of death. 

How’s your fishing? 

Peter begins and he often stumbles, he often fails, he often suffers and so he doubts and denies and he needs to be picked up to begin again. J needs to pray a great deal for simon peter. 

and so it is with you Theophilus. 

you’re called to follow Jesus and to this great mission of catching people. 

perhaps you are close to his word and aware of his kindness and ready to follow 

or perhaps you’ve been suffering and his word seems distant and his kindness abstract. 

whatever the case, he is close and he says ‘don’t be afraid, from now on we’re going fishing for people’  

The King of Glory standeth beside the heart of sin;

His mighty voice commandeth the raging waves within;

The floods of deepest anguish roll backward at His will,

As o’er the storm ariseth His mandate, “Peace, be still.”

At times, with sudden glory, He speaks, and all is done;

Without one stroke of battle the victory is won,

While we, with joy beholding, can scarce believe it true

That e’en our kingly Jesus can make such hearts anew.

Luke 4v31-44

Today is the first sunday of the season of Lent. 40 lengthening days leading up to Good Friday and Easter. We’re used to the idea of preparing for significant events - a special birthday or a wedding or a birth. There are things to get ready. Lent gives us an opportunity to address our lives; our hearts.. to re-calibrate things, to re-order things in the light of the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Some people seek to give up something - to fast through lent in order to be able to pursue God hungrily. Other’s might take up again the discipline of reading the Bible - our lifeblood, the words of God. Lent is a time supremely of penitence: Jesus died for you and rose again… now - as the words in the ash wednesday service go:  turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.

In our ash wednesday service 4 days ago Andrew Jones used this vivid illustration: 

Maybe over the last year we have befriended our sin, welcomed it into the home of our life and sat down to eat with it.  But the sin that you befriended and welcomed in has become a troublesome, eviction-resisting squatter.  You’re exhausted and weary. 

I don’t know what you think about sin? Perhaps you think it’s an unhelpful category altogether? The scriptures do not shy away from it. Sometimes we want to clarify that sin isn’t so much ‘bad things we do’ but an attitude towards God of unbelief and rejection that says ‘I’m going to live my life my way. Push off God, you’re not God, I’m God it’s my life.’ We’re all guilty of that attitude are we not? But the Bible seems to want to take our understanding of sin further. Like Andrew does in his illustration of sin being an eviction-resisting squatter in our lives. The Bible speaks of sin not just as an attitude but as a power in our lives and in our world. A dominating dark power.  Thereare dark powers in our world that can influence our lives. Jesus taught it. It’s logical if we’re going to believe in the existence of God to believe in the existence of the Devil and demons.  And furthermore the existence of dark powers makes sense of our experience of life - not only some of the awful and unexplainable things that happen in our world but also of our own deep struggles with ourselves - things we struggle to shift, habits and addictions… 

How do we change? How do we prepare for Good Friday and Easter? How do we turn away from sin to be faithful to Christ? 

Our passage in Luke today tells us we need Jesus. And our passage gives us great hope because the very reason Jesus came Luke is to destroy the Kingdom of darkness, to destroy the works of the evil one. As he said of himself in the synagogue in Nazareth quoting Isaiah 61’ The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.. to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, to release the oppressed,.

Jesus overcomes the Tempter in the wilderness and having made a bridge head into this fallen world he now proceeds to show that he is the Saviour who is able to undo all that sin and satan and evil have brought into our daily existence. 

And so he does 3 things 

1. He preaches that the Kingdom of God has now been established. The battle has been fought and i am God’s King and i have won the battle. Others have tried and lost but i have won the battle over the powers of darkness and now 
2. i begin to establish the power of my kingdom by undoing here and there what the powers of darkness have wrought in the lives of men and women.  And so He shows the power of that Kingdom - in exorcisms and healings 
3. he calls into existence a new community of his disciples where the powers of the kingdom of God have begun to be released. The church is the new community in which it becomes obvious that Jesus as the King is beginning to reverse in our lives all the effects of sin and beginning to restore that true humanity and fellowship and joy and power to live for the glory of God that sin has robbed our lives of. That’s why the church is such a different place when it is living up to its calling because we understand that in this family we together are actually citizens of a different nation, we’re members of a different kind of community. [places in the UK that do not belong to the UK. Embassies of foreign countries. Julian Assange the wikileaks is grateful for this. The land upon which foreign embassies are built belongs to that forerign country and they’re sacrosanct.] That’s what the church is. We live in a world that’s dominated by dark and sinister powers but the church is the place where those dark powers have lost their authority. In the church the powers of the age to come are experienced. Of course the church is not perfect - not yet! But things have begun to be different. People notice that. The atmosphere of the church is different to the atmosphere of the world because the King is here. [how would the atmosphere change in here if HM the Queen walked into the room? The atmosphere is different where Jesus is present. People become different where Jesus is present]

So that’s What jesus is doing (big picture): Making inroads into the kingdom of darkness; liberating people who’ve been held in bondage; creating this new community that he calls the church that is his embassy in the world.

And this is the meaning of Jesus’ miracles. 

They are not only works of power although they are certainly that 

They are not just deeds of compassion although they are certinly that. 

They are little indications (teaching aids) of how Jesus has begun to put things back together; to change things. 

[room = turn light switch - lights come on then immediately the bulb fuses and goes out. There’s just enough light that has been made for you to manoeuvre yourself because you’ve seen what’s in the room.] 

That’s what Jesus’ miracles are - little flashes of light that help us to see where things are going; what he is bringing. He is transforming lives so that in his final coming the world will be set free; gloriously transformed. 

Before we focus in on this 24 hours in the life of Jesus. Let me just say one thing about the prevalence of demons here. Here’s a suggestion of why we see so many demons here. It could be that what we now understand to be mental illness or physical conditions like epilepsy were ascribed then to the presence of demons. It could be something like that. But it’s interesting the bible is not full of demons. Some people say ‘Oh the Bible’s full of demons”  The Bible hardly ever mentions demons. The place where it does mention demons again and again are within these 3 years of Jesus’ ministry.  In the ministry - that ’s the place demons .. nowhere else. Why? Isn’t it because when your kingdom is under attack you move all possible resources to defend that kingdom. And that’s what was happening here. Jesus’ Kingdom was destroying the influence and power of the kingdom of darkness and so all the battallions of hell were mustering in this small land at this time in history inorder to resist Jesus. So in a sense of course we are seeing something utterly unique here. The Lord Jesus Christ establishing his kingdom in a dark world. I don’t think we should be identifying demons everywhere in one another and seeking to exorcise them just bcause we see that here. And yet nevertheless.. this passage will gives us such assurance of Jesus’ lordship over darkness that i pray we will want to come to him and ourselves be increasingly restored wherever darknesss touches us. 

24 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth 

a hectic busy mad 24 hours which spans the Sabbath day - the day of rest! Points to what the day of rest was really all about - restoration, healing, the renewal of all things. Jesus Christ says ‘If you really want rest, come to me and i will work for your rest.’

Each episode in turn 

The Morning 

When Jesus preaches in the synagogue in Capernaum he is accepted unlike in Nazareth. In Nazareth they wanted to throw him off the brow of the hill on which the town is built and he left them. In Capernaum they beg him not to leave. 

There is acceptance and yet during the morning service there is an outburst of ‘church-rage’

we’re familiar with ‘road rage’ - the uncontained irritation and anger at another drivers driving. 

well there is such a thing as church rage. as Jesus’ word begins to make inroads into a person’s life. I often wonder about this man. Was he there every sabbath day? presumably he was. was he a deeply troubled and troubling man or was he demon possessed but nobody really knew it ? or recently demon posessed as this confrontation approached? Did he usually just sit there quietly until the day Jesus comes to church. 

When Jesus comes to church is there sometimes church rage? Because jesus enters the church to be Lord of the church and sometimes the true state of our hearts is painfully exposed to us and the result is ..anger.. it begins to boil..

Most of us are more competent to hold this in. But here was a man who as the word of God penetrated deeply .. the kingdom of darkness determining to keep this man brought him to an uncontrollable rage against Jesus. 

there are many striking things to notice here but here’s one: 

any individual who is oppressed by satan at whatever level.. As Jesus begins to set that person free … As Jesus begins to claim this man do you see what the demon does? The demon ‘throws him down to theground.’ What does that tell us?: That satan and sin have no love for us. Even, although we may have a love for what they offer.. they have no real interest in us and once our usefulness to them is complete they will just throw us away. That’s what happened to this man. 

But jesus by his power released the man from the bondage in which he’d been living. from a cruel master and there is this horrific outburst. i’m no fan of conflict or confrontation but we should be grateful for outbursts and church rage - if Jesus is working on hearts to set us free. Listen to Jesus’ words - let them go deep into you painful and resisted as that might be.. His words will set you free. 

Jesus rebukes the demon and the man is set free. 

It’s interesting that when we come to the afternoon scene, Jesus is rebuking again.. this time with reference to Peter’s mother-in-law. She is in bed with a great fever. This isn’t just a cold. This a serious serious illness. Now note that Jesus does not rebuke Peter’s mother-in-law. He rebukes the fever.  Interesting isn’t it? This personalisation again But jesus understands that sickness in our world has the same source in sin and the powers of darkness. 

Jesus does what no doctor can do. Jesus speaks his authoritative word and raises the woman up. And it’s made very clear that Jesus is not just some very clever and gifted physician who’s been able to deliver some cure to this woman. No, When Jesus heals this woman she doesn’t feel how we all feel when we’ve had a week on anti-biotics. the infection’s gone but you’re still all of a wobble - recovering from the week in bed! No..Look at Peter’s mother in law. She is instantly renewed. She’s better.. and she’s not just sitting up in bed and now able to have some lunch. She’s up and making the lunch! She is totally restored. Another indication that when jesus touches you he makes a person TOTALLY well. 

Sometimes today Jesus does do this - he makes a person not just spiritually but also physically well. 

There’s that Instruction in the book of James for the sick to call the elders of the church to anoint with oil and pray for physical healing. Sometimes today Jesus does heal like that. Sometimes. It doesn’t mean Luke is saying forget about your doctor because he was a doctor. Luke travelled the ancient world with Paul on his missionary journeys - i should think Paul was very grateful many times to have a doctor present. When Paul writes to Timothy and speaks about Timothy’s stomach problems and frequent illnesses Paul doesn’t say just have faith he says treat it with a little wine. Go to the GP get a prescription. The natural healing of our bodies that sometimes needs to be assisted by the wonderful gift of medical science is the normal way that God heals us. 

But sometimes Jesus intervenes. And he intervenes here because he is showing us his kingdom. 

3rd scene as the sun is setting and the sick and demon possessed are brought to Jesus. 

this is interesting. J deserves a rest don’t you think at the end of such a busy day. i know how i feel at the end of a sunday. i can’t imagine what J must have felt like at the end of this day. Remember what he says later when a sick woman touches his cloak and is healed? - who touched me ? strength, power went out of me…

But you know here there is bedlam in the closing hours of the day in Capernaum. jesus is healing the sick and demon possessed. Did he stay up all night as they came to him?

Notice a couple of things. The first is deeply touching I believe. Receive it’s truth. end of v40 laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Jesus attends to each of the sick individually, an act that shows his concern and compassion - for you and for me. He also lays hands on them - not because he has to, he can heal with a word - he might have been able to just heal the whole crowd with a word. But Jesus’ care has a personal touch to it. Jesus is not just compassionate. he has compassion for you. He is not just loving - he loves you. 

When Jesus touches lives - the demons shriek. Outing Jesus, perhaps trying to discredit him. Something similar always happens when Jesus reaches deeper into our lives .. all the battalions of hell will rally round to stop us being set free from our addiction to dark influences, all the powers of men and demons to keep you in the grip of the evil one. 

and the thing you and I need most to hear is the voice of Jesus rebuking those voices and saying now child, come to me and i will make you well and i will give you rest 

turn away from sin and be faithful to christ.

Luke 4v14-30

This is an Amazing story. 

Jesus comes to his home town Nazareth - for church on a saturday morning 

And the morning begins with wonder which very quickly turns to anger 

The home town boy is welcomed in but by the end of the service the synagogue rises as one to lynch him!

An amazing story. From ecstasy to agony. From privilege to near tragedy 

All stories - 3 parts - Situation - Crisis - Resolution 

Begins with Jesus expounding God’s word in the synagogue in Nazareth. It’s clear from vv14-15 that having been tempted and overcome the powers ofdarkness (1-13) Jesus is now marching, in the power of the Holy Spirit, into that territory that was occupied by the powers of darkness and he’s bringing the Kingdom of God. he’s doing that by: preaching in the synagogues and by demonstrating that the kingdom of God had arrived by the way he gave sight to the blind, healing those who were sick, making the lame to walk. And the people are understandably agog. Not just by his miracles, his teaching is completely different - not discussion of the opinions of various rabbis - Jesus brings the living word of his Father, God. And the people are ‘amazed’. That word is repeated again and again. And the kingdom of God begins to bring restoration to broken lives and a broken world. It’s a foreshadow of the future. 

You can imagine then the expectations when Jesus arrives in Nazareth. This is his hometown. They must have been so excited. (Matthew e white Roundhouse. From Richmond Virginia raised in an evangelical household. His parents were missionaries in the Philipines. Hespecializes in a meticulously crafted blend of reggae-infused folk-gospel, tropicalia, swirling indie pop, and Stax-era R&B. London is like a homecoming. This is where we were discovered. Love London - audience were purring.) 

So it must have been in Nazareth when their famous son comes home. Receives the scroll for the reading. Don’t know if it was the set reading for the day or if Jesus specifically asks for the Isaiah scroll. he stands up. An amazing, dramatic moment. Minister ascending the pulpit opening the huge Bible. The son of God unrolls the scroll. It was the passage (Is 61) that spoke about the way that the Spirit anointed Messiah would bring about the restoration of the world. the poor would hear good news; the captives would receive liberty; the blind would receive sight; the oppressed would be set free and the day of the Lord’s favour would come. 

This was the passage in the OT that said that when Messiah comes it would be the day of Jubilee to end all jubilees. (Royal occasions- my silver jubilee coin from 1977) Jubilee was something enshrined in the Jewish Law. The year of Jubilee was meant to occur every 50 years - so once in a lifetime. It was a year when when everything returned to the way it should be. Alll debts were cancelled. Land was returned. It meant restoration.What a wonderful law incidentally. What an amazing God. The year of the Lord’s favour. But the coming of the Messiah is the Jubilee of Jubilees. Not just the cancelling of debt but the forgiveness of sin. Not just the restoration of property and land - when the kingdom of God fully arrives all things will be restored. There will be no more tears, or suffering, or brokenness or death. What an amazing Saviour

Isaiah 61 denotes the inauguration the beginning of the kingdom coming and look what jesus does having delivered the reading. v20 He rolled up the scroll gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Not because he’s finished, no he’s only getting started - the rabbis would stand to read and then sit to teach. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. Extraordinary isn’t it? You could have heard a pin drop. this collective holding of breath. and he began v21 by saying to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” 

We’re not told the rest of the sermon. Bet it was good. We’re just told how it began. these opening words. That’s all we need to know. Something has happened here in Nazareth, on earth that means that the restoring plans of God are underway. And what is it that has happened? He is here. Jesus. That’s what’s happened. 

But you know it’s possible to get really excited about what Jesus can do at the expense of jesus himself. 

v22 All spoke well of him and were amazed (there’s that word again) at the gracious words that came from his lips. The grace of God -debts cancelled, captives released, the oppressed set free. Jubilee. the grace of God. Isn’t this Joseph’s son? they asked. 

There’s great enthusiasm for jesus’ message. And yet.. for all that

Jesus senses that they have totally misunderstood the passage that he has read to them. 

See why were they so encouraged? Jesus, i think, realised what they were really interested in was a political messiah. What they were really interested in was the GOOD TIME COMING. 

Remember that even though Israel were in their own land - they were still in Exile really under the oppressive Roman regime. Ah give us that freedom. They said.. That liberty, Let the good times roll.

But they were misunderstanding Isaiah 61. wrenching it out of it’s context. Because Isaiah 61 before it is ever about freedom or restoration, it is principally about a person. the same person spoken about in Is 42 and 49 and 50 and 53. 4 poems that point us to The servant who is going to bring about the restoration of his people BY being wounded for our transgressions; BY being bruised for our iniquities. And the liberation that he would bring would be. in the first instance, not the secondary liberation from physical oppression; political domination but the spiritual liberation from bondage to sin. 

You see it was the same in Isaiah’s day when Israel were in Exile in Babylon. The real liberation needed was the liberation from spiritual darkness and rebellion and bondage - that’s what had put them in Exile. But like typical people all they really wanted was their land back. 

We can be like this. 

It is our native disposition. To care about the physical before the spiritual. To care about what we can see and touch and feel. To care about the present rather than an eternal future. We want it here and now. To care about that which is temporary instead of that which is eternal. 

So we don’t rejoice in forgiveness and the hope of eternal security which we have in Christ instead we’re depressed and angry because we don’t have what we want now. CS Lewis - mud pies when a trip to the beach is on offer. 

The only salvation that we want is a salvation that will die when we die!

But Jesus is not that kind of saviour. Primarliy he cares about our souls and our holiness. Secondarily he cares about our financial position or career happiness. 

It’s painful when Jesus pushes his finger into our sore points

When Jesus begins to expose their hearts there is a communal explosion in the synagogue in Nazareth.. 

See how he applies God’s word to them v23 “…”

He says, all you’re interested in is that i’d show you works of power when you should be crowning me in your hearts as your king. No prophet is received in his home town..

[imagine if Matthew E white at the concert last night instead of bigging up London had started criticising London. How bad our music scene is. We’ve got no taste. How rubbish London audiences are. How terrible the weather, How rude the people. I’d rather be anywhere than here. I’d rather be in Belgium. Well the audience would have quickly turned, booing, leaving. I hate it when people are negative about London, especially Hackney, even when they’re right. I hope you do too. Nothing pushes my buttons more and i have to work very hard at not being very rude back to them.]

Well Jesus here does something very similar. He points his congregation to these 2 historical illustrations from when Israel were under judgement. 

In the time of elijah and famine when there were many widows in Israel Elijah was sent outside Israel to a widow in Zarapheth who fed him her last meal. 

In the time of Elisha there were many lepers in Israel and yet it was Naaman who was cleansed - the enemy - a Syrian 

These were episodes of immense national embarassment to Israel. Times when no faithfulness could be found in the entire nation and Jesus holds these events up to his own hometown. His relatives and friends. Showing them how distant they are from ever meeting the real Messiah. The grace of God. The real Jesus. How far their hearts are from God. 

And look at how they respond. v28. with collective fury. as one they take massive offence. the synagogue rises as one to lynch him. Imagine us reenacting that here. Shouting and accusations and the children are crying and the men are dragging me to the Kingsland road to throw me under a bus. Now Ok what happens there would never happen here. That’s is the middle east. We know what they’re like. Outwardly Demonstrative. It’s a very different culture and ethnicity. But we’re just as human. We Brits we just do anger and contempt and murder inwardly. We do the same with jesus. When the word of God enters me. God’s severe grace calling me away from the allurements of this world. That’s the time when i might well shut up shop to Jesus. He comes close and presses on something sore and i say ‘No!”

A similar form of fury appears in my heart as i seek to keep the calling of the Lord Jesus out of the deepest recesses of my life. Anger. Rejection. Murder. Tramplng the word of God under my feet. Sinning against the light. Crucifying the son of God all over again - Hebrews 6 calls it. 

Oh the way way in which we resist the Lord Jesus! We want the salvation but we don’t want him. Out of my life Jesus 

Of course they fail to fully get rid of Jesus 

The third part. The tragic resolution of the story. You could say that the story doesn’t end in tragedy. They don’t manage to throw Jesus off the cliff. His time has not yet come. Jesus just passes through their midst - supernaturally presumably. jesus says elsewhere ‘no-one takes my life from me. when the time is right i will lay my life down.’ they don’t kill him. his blood is not on their hands. But the episode does end in tragedy because of the sobering last words of the passage, “he went away”

he went away 

and he never came back. look through the rest of gospel, look through all the gospels there is no record of jesus ever returning to Nazareth. Where there is no faith the prophets go elsewehre. Jesus expounds, applies and then removes the Scriptures. he never ever came back to speak the words of salvation in Nazareth. It’s haunting. That Jesus should leave. Not to come back..

I’m haunted by the thought that one day as i preach Jesus will not be there and i’ll not know it but everybody else will know it and say “he’s resisted Jesus and Jesus has just gone from his ministry.’ 

But you see this happened to a whole congregation and it does happen to whole congregations. churches where the gospel has not been preached for years and years and years. towns and villages all over the UK where there are church buildings but where the gospel of the saving grace of God in jesus Christ has not been heard for decades and where people who love that gospel cannot find a place where they can hear that gospel. so this is not just something in a book - an episode about a place 2000 miles away, 2000 years ago. It’s a very solemn thought that when a people say to Jesus - leave us. Jesus may take us at our word. 

And It can happen to me as an individual.Perhaps i can put it like this very pointedly. When did you last sit in this room and think to yourself the Lord Jesus is really speaking to me today? Do you know if you were to say, ‘It’s been a long time.’ or if you were even to say ‘i have no idea what you’re talking about.’ could it possibly be that you’ve said to Jesus, just leave me thank you. and he’s said ‘i’ll take you at your word’ 

the very thought of that…

every time i’m listening to a sermon or reading the bible for myself and i think O Jesus, i’ve failed you so much, rejected you.. I’m so grateful to you that you’re still speaking to me, Lord Jesus i want to embrace you all over again and to respond to what you’re saying to me.  

If you haven’t heard his voice for a long time. Cry out to him ‘Lord Jesus don’t leave me. I know i must have said at some point to you ‘leave me’. But please don’t leave me. Come to me and stay with me and keep me and grow me and be my saviour.’

Oh how grateful i am to be here and believe that he is here and that he’s still among us. And that he’s calling us to ever deeper consecration to him and to love him and serve him and praise him with all our lives. If that’s something you know nothing about.. Oh do cry out to him with all of your heart because he is here with us and say, Oh Jesus let me hear you speaking to me again through your word.That’s a prayer he loves to hear. 

what a passage. this exposes me and crushes me have mercy on me - that is it’s purpose 

we come to you in all ur need all our failures all the ways in which we’ve rejected you 

to thank you that you speak to us and we want to come to you and to give ourselves to you with faith and repentance without reservation and to pray that the blessings of your kingodm will be showered upon us as a church and as individuals. 

Luke 4v1-13

David Blaine in his glass box suspended over the thames eating no food cut off from everyone else. 44 days. He said that it was modelled on Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness fasting. Does Blaine think he bettered Jesus? During his 44 day fast he faced a variety of temptations. Number of things thrown at box including a full English breakfast, and one very bright spark flew a miniature remote-controlled helicopter alongside the box carrying a freshly cooked cheese burger. But he resisted the temptation, he was strong he stayed in the box and made himself ill in the process. He said he thought that such an experience could help them achieve a higher spiritual state. I guess he proved that some people have great willpower and self-control. But really thistime of not eating and exclusion doesn't seem particularly useful. In sharp contrast Jesus's exclusion and fasting and temptation in the desert actually achieves a great deal and has a very particular purpose.

Let’s clear some problems out of the way before we proceed further. 

Tempted by the devil? 

Are we to assume the guy with the horns and the pitchfork confronting Jesus? Literally taking him to stand on the roof of Jerusalem’s temple. (Child’s Bible). Can’t we assume that the temptation take place in Jesus’ mind; in his imagination.? I think that’s normally how temptation works doesn’t it - in your imaginings. 

So can we then dispense with this talk of the devil? “I mean really - we now know that the negative personal and societal problems which primitive peoples attributed to the devil and demons are caused by mental illness and social problems and the like not the devil..” 

Let me ask some questions of that assumption.

First - Jesus taught that Satan exists. What was the basis of Jesus’ authority in his teaching? Was it the expertise and knowledge of his day, his vantage point? In which case we can say that we are more enlightened than Jesus. Or was Jesus’ authority his identity - as the eternal Son of God? If you believe Jesus is God.. listen to him.. Theological argument. 

What about an argument from logic: Do you believe in God? Do you believe in some personal supernatural good? most people do. Sure there are some who are total materialists believe in nothing beyond what can be seen. But most of us, while we might be irreligious, we believe in some spiritual reality, some spiritual intelligence that is good. Now, If that’s the case then why do we not also believe in the possibility of some spiritual intelligence that is evil? It’s illogical to believe in one but to refuse to believe in the other. And in some respects there is greater evidence in our world is there not for a spiritual intelligence that is evil?

Which brings us to the empirical argument.. How are we to explain the unthinkable, unspeakable atrocities that happen in our world daily? How do we understand evil? Many secular psychologists and anthropologists studying the idea of evil as it affects human beings speak about what they call ‘the unexplainable residue’. That is - raw brazen evil that humanly cannot be accounted for. The sheer depths to which humans can fall. How do you explain it? (Andrew DelBanco,  Secular Liberal, teaches Columbia University in his book The death of Satan) 

There are reasons to believe in personal, intelligent evil. The devil. 

Now CS Lewis said that there are two opposite and equal errors when it comes to ‘devils’. The first is fascination and fear - that is to ascribe too much power to Satan - the horror movie approach. Satan is not equal in power to God - he is like a dog on a leash. But he is influential. 

Therefore the second error is to ascribe too little power to him. To ignore him completely. That’s like wandering unprotected into a warzone. The devil claims to rule this world - he offers to share his rule with Jesus in the second temptation, a kind of coalition government. Jesus calls Satan the prince of this world. Satan rules and controls people through temptation. He whispers lies in our ears. Lies about God, lies about reality. He entices us to satisfy our desires apart from God and then he accuses us before God. That’s his power. He lures us .. as we will see .. to disobey God, mistrust God and worship other things. Because that places us under God’s condemnation. The devil seeks to destroy us through temptation. 

Isn’t that something like our experience of life? 

We are tempted towards selfish independence. 

I follow my desires down a certain path - I make choices, behave in certain ways. I live life my way, I trust no-one and I’m seeking life and joy and security in this job or that possession or that dream but it turns to ash.. Missed opportunities, wasted years. Regrets 

And I long to back in time to do it differently. Rub out my past. Start again. Re-live it. Put it right. 

But even if I could go back - would i get it right? Would it be any better? any different? 

We know that we would make the same mistakes again. 

We cannot beat the devil on this one. 

Oscar wilde ‘I can resist anything but temptation’ 

We are enticed, we sin, we’re accused, we stand condemned. 

The devil wins. We cannot destroy the works of the devil. 

But there is a man who can. 

God himself comes into the world in the person of Jesus Christ and, as we saw last week when we looked at his baptism, Jesus joins himself to broken humanity. He stands in line with the sinners. 

He is baptized into our name in order to live life on our behalf as our champion. In his baptism he steps into our shoes to live the life that we should have lived and to to die the death that we deserve to die FOR US. So that we can be baptized into his name. Step into his shoes and enjoy the welcome with God that he has.  

Union with Jesus - start again with Jesus. He lives the life we should have lived. 

See it in his temptation

The devil coming and tempting the man - remind you of anything? Can you hear any echos of another event in the Bible If you’re really the son of God?… Did God really say ?…

Have you got it?

Adam - the first human. The first Son of God. Head of the human race. Tempted in the garden to disobey, distrust God, misworship God.. ‘Did God really say?” Tempted once and he Failed. He fell. And humanity fell with him. 

But Jesus - the second Adam, true Son of God. The head of a new humanity is tempted 3 times. He does not fail. 

Jesus is is led by the spirit Into the wilderness to confront the devil. he does not fail. 

Where Adam by his disobedience turned the garden into a wilderness 

Jesus has goneinto the wilderness inorder to start replanting the garden of God;  the kingdom of God in the world. To destroy the works of the devil. 

There’s another episode from the OT echoed here.. 

in the desert 40 days of tempting/testing (it’s the same word).. remind you of anything?Israel - the chosen people of God. Also called God’s son. God had rescued them from Egypt then they were tempted/tested in the desert for 40 years. (All of Jesus’ words here as he answers the devil are quotes from the OT from that period of wilderness testing where time and again Israel failed to obey God, trust God, even on their wedding night when the marriage covenant was being signed by God on top of mount Sinai - Israel committed spiritual adultery - worshipping the golden calf!! Exodus 32

But Jesus is the true Israel. God’s Son. Jesus is is led by the spirit Into the wilderness to confront the devil. He does not fail.. 

So you see the history of the world is marked by people giving in to temptation. 

Enticed, ensnared, accused, condemned. 

But Jesus comes and he takes our place, he represents us and he does not give in. 

We can be summed up in Him rather than Adam’s hopeless fate. We can re-start with him. His successes are given to us. 

That is wonderful news. It means there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ He has come to destroy the works of the evil one. 

Well, let’s look at the temptations and revel in Jesus victory 

Then we’ll end by thinking very briefly about how Jesus’ victories can help us to make progress in resisting temptation in our daily lives.  

Temptation 1 vv3-4

Jesus perfectly obeys God 

Read v1-4 “…”

Jesus is hungry. 40 days fast. The temptation was real. In his humanity Jesus hungers. In his divinity he could turn a stone into bread. (later he will feeding 5000 people)

Why shouldn’t Jesus do it? He can. He’s hungry. 40 days. Why does he resist it as a temptation.  

Here’s why: this fasting, this weakness this denial of food is not something that satan has created. Nothe spirit led him into the desert, led him to fast; directed him in this kingdom work o confront the devil. and he will obey.

Back in the garden Adam and Eve were in a position of strength, surrounded by plenty and only given one command one thing not to do one Command to obey and of course they broke it straight away.

Israel in the desert sometimes hungered for a day but then God would feed them miraculously with special food from heaven to strengthen them and yet constantly they would disobey him. 

And we are no different, God gives us his strength and yet we disobey 

But Jesus here .. Jesus in a position of utter weakness succeeds 

He will not yield to the devil. And the devil is defeated

Jesus answers with some words of Moses concerning why God led Israel into the wilderness allowing them to hunger and then feeding them with bread. 

Deut 8v1-3where Moses is looking back on those events in the desert and saying remember God allowed you to hunger and then fed you with manna from heaven and the reason God did it was not just so that you would have something to eat the reason God did it was to teach you something; to teach you that people do not live on bread alone but on the words of God. as much as we need food we need God’s word to us. We are spiritual as well as Physical. We need to hear God and respond to God in obedience. Moses said this testing in the desert was intended to teach your ancestors obedience. 

Jesus icould have turned the stone into bread but there’s something more important. To obey God’s kingdom purposes. An obedience that will take him to the cross where the devil and sin and death will finally be defeated. 

He perfectly obeys God 

So should we.. But he has done it for us. Be assured. 

2. Jesus perfectly worships god v5-8 

devil led him to some high place Shows him the kingdoms of the earth. And says I will give you all this authority and splendour just bow the knee to me.

It might seem a bit odd this temptation. why would this be a temptation forJesus? Well Because in a sense this is exactly what he has come for. Not just your personal salvation.  Jesus has come to take back the nations of the world for his people. To restore the kingdom that adam lost; to replant the wilderness as a garden

The devil we have said does have real authority in this present world. He has authority to give. Does the devil really have this to give? It must be that this was a real temptation. Some kind of compromise is offered. And crucially Jesus could have the kingdom without the horrors and deriliction of the cross. Take the easier way, Jesus. Take it. 

exactly the kind of temptation that Adam fell for. The devil said, eat the fruit of the tree and you will be like God.. Adam knew that in a sense that was his destiny and instruction from God.. so he took it. the easy way.

But Jesus..

Jesus is not taken in. he again quotes from Deuteronomy.  This time 6. v13 where the people of God are exhorted to love God with all their hearts and mind and soul and strength and to be very aware of the danger of following other gods; giving their heart to anything or anyone other than God. Something of course which the people failed to do.. time and time again.. and which we fail in. we don't honour God as God we don't place him at the top and worship him alone, trusting him alone for our security and satisfaction and significance we put other things in his placeWe seek easy options. 

But not Jesus. I know, he says to the Devil .. that i have been promised the kingdoms of the earth. But insofar as how i will take back those kingdoms I will ‘worship the lord my God and serve him only’ Even if that means to worship him unto suffering and death.  

where we fail.. Jesus succeeds.. for us 

3. Jesus perfectly trusts god vv9-12

The devil led him to Jerusalem Highest point of the temple hundreds of feet above the kidron valley the devil suggests a celestial bungee jump. 

Throw yourself off. And God will catch you. 

The devil quotes the bible!! psalm 91 “don't you know it  Jesus? Doesn’t it say God will protect you. The ultimate leap of faith Jesus won't  you do it won't you trust God?”

The devil twists the scriptures! Psalm 91 Does speak of God's protection but in the context of being attacked when you're attacked he will protect you. Not about throwing yourself under a bus so that God can prove himself

Jesus sees straight through it and his reply tells us what he's being tempted to do. 

‘it is written do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

Again he's quoting from Deuteronomy 

Deuteronomy 6:16

‘Do not test the lord your God as you did at Massa’

Its referring back to an incident during the40 years of wandering in the desert in a place called massah where the Israelites did not trust that God would provide for them. They grumbled and complained saying we're now going to die and they put God to the test. Have you ever done this? - They kind of acted like God was on probation like he needed to prove himself To them. You owe me God.. If you want me to keep trusting you.. They spoke against God. They assume the worst of him - he doesn't care, He won't do it, he hasn't got our best interests in mind. They didn't trust him, but tested him. 

Adam & eve.. they were the same. they didn’t trust God The serpent suggested that God was holding back on them, that he didn't care for them and they went along with this rather than trust God and his love. Mistrust of God - a stubbon root of sin and misery. 

Well Jesus trusts his father and even in the bewildering heat of the desert, hungry.. needing to come to terms with the fate that awaits him ..suffering , death.. 

He doesn't need to put God to the test. He refuses to. 

He succeeds where we fail. Be assured. 

v13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time

David blaine showed that people can set themselves some hard tasks; show some self control and succeed. But we all fail at the real task. The q is not what can we deny ourselves or what amount of good can we do the real task is will we live in god’s world with god as god? will we obey him, worship him and trust him and the answer is we won’t - we all fail just like adam, just like Israel we crumble under temptation and so we place ourselves under god’s condemnation. And so what we need is someone to come and obey, worship and trust on our behalf, someone to come and do what we would not and could not do. Jesus succeeds where we fail. He does so FOR US. 

When you put your trust in Jesus you’re united to him. Your condemnation is payed for by his death, your failures are covered over by his success. God counts people perfect and blameless in J. Every disobedience, every not trusting God every worshipping other godsgoes to him and all of his obeying God’s word and trusting God completely and worshipping God alone comes to you. So be reassured. Jesus has succeeded where we failed. 

Finally”

How does Jesus’ victory help me when I am tempted? (Remember Satan is real he constantly tempts us - he wants to destroy us) 

How does Jesus’ victory help me? In so many ways. The same Spirit who led Jesus’ into the wilderness is with us. How does he help us?

Key thing - keep looking at Jesus’ living and dying for you. See, If the root of sin is not trusting God to provide, so i’ll disobey him, i’ll worship something else.. 

Well then… when tempted, do i not need to look again to Jesus - living and dying for me, his devotion to us, his love his care - so that i’ll trust him, obey him, depend on him. Keep him in your sights and temptation’s power shrivels. [Meditating on and memorizing scripture clearly helps us.] 

When you fail. Don’t wallow in fear. I’ve blown it. No - My relationship with God does not depend on how well I live but on how well he lived. My failures can’t mess that up. So get up and get on. Rejoice in Jesus’ victories. Stand in them. 

Luke 3v1-22

Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin is both a brilliant and disturbing film. Science fiction meets Art House on the streets of Glasgow. Scarlet Johanssen plays an alien (stay with me) who has clothed herself in human skin in order to seduce and consume humans for energy. The interesting thing about the film is that it isn’t about aliens at all it’s about humanity. It’s about what’s under the skin. The alien - callous, devoid of emotion and weakness begins to encounter humanity - in it’s weakness - we get cold, we buy food, we eat, we sleep, we experience pain and tragedy; in it’s tenderness - we love, we sacrifice, we lay down our lives for others. but she also encounters the dark side of humanity when she is the victim of a horrific attempted rape. 

The film is asking questions we all ask about identity. Who are we as human beings? Capable of such great good and yet so dependent, so lost and so deeply deeply flawed. What is our future? What is our hope?

Christianity says there is a hope for humanity. 

Because God our creator, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth entered our humanity.  And this wasn’t just putting on skin. He became fully human. Everything that is under the skin. God entered our weakness, to share our joy and our pain and to bear our darkness for us. 

This is what the baptism is about. Jesus was baptised into our name so that we could be baptised into his name. Jesus unites himself to our humanity inorder to redeem it. He enters our hopeless situation inorder to lift us out. 

It’s quite a shocking passage we had read for us isn’t it? The preaching of John the Baptist. 

Imagine if you walked in here this evening and i began my sermon.. You brood of vipers - literally snake children - who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Judgement is coming, the axe is at the root of the trees, the unquenchable fire is being stoked and you haven’t got a leg to stand on, preaches John. And then Luke comes out with this extraordinary summary in v18 “And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them!” ??

But you see - it is good news - because John is not preaching that you are only a snake, he is not preaching that you are irreversibly unlean, he is not preaching that you have to change and be prefect - which we all know is impossible. No… look at v3 John is preaching a baptism of repentance for …the forgiveness of sins

Fundamentally - and we’ll at what baptism and repentance means in a bit - but fundamentally John is preaching - forgiveness. forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 

a gift that we must receive and hold and go on accepting. Jesus has entred our hopelessness inorder to lift us out. That’s Good news. But in order to see his salvation you have to realise the darkness of your predicament. That’s what John points out and that’s why his warnings, his exposure of the darkness while difficult to face is part of the good news.. because it leads us to turn to the saviour 

Warnings are loving aren’t they 

Children are young - shout - Stop! Don’t walk there!. Child bursts into tears - you shouted at me. To which i answered, yes but you were about to walk into the road! 

Warnings are loving. 

So First, let’s look at our hopeless situation out of which Jesus comes to redeem us. 

Why were the crowds coming to John the Baptist willing to hear these things? Because the word of God had come to him v2 and as he spoke they recognized our hopeless situation and they longed for rescue. 

Here are humanity’s deepest problems:

1. Lostness 

To be lost. To be outside. 

Are you familiar with the event in Israel’s history called the Exile? 

In around 597BC Israel were invaded by Babylon and taken into Exile.  Away from their home. 

The shock of it all was that God said he had caused this. He’d allowed it.  As a physical representation of a spiritual truth. That spiritually the people were far from God. They didn’t seek him or honour him. They rejected and ignored him and were not at home with him.  And so God sent them far from their home.

And when the l exile ended 70 years later. The people returned to Israel, to Jerusalem but everyone knew that actually the Exile somehow remained. That sense of lostness, of distance from God.  And the people who come to John the Baptist recognize that problem. John the Baptist is identified in v4 with a quote from the prophet Isaiah which speaks of a time when the spiritual Exile would end with the coming of the LORD.  And John goes to preach v3 in the region around the Jordan. the border lands of Israel. The people come to be baptised by him in the Jordan river - the crossing back into Israel. We want to come home, these people were effectively saying. We’re lost, rootless.

Do you know that human problem, that human longing? 

We can feel secure at times. When all is going right. Good job, nice house, stable family. But we don’t have to be alive very long to know the vulnerability of those things. Our roots are weak and we can quickly find ourselves adrift. a bewildering sense of helplessness and lostness. 

This is the experience that flows from a humanity that cuts itself free from its creator. We are lost. 

Unless the one who ends the Exile comes. 

2. we are unclean 

Here’s what people did as they came to John:

v7 they came to be washed by him. 

That’s what baptism means, it’s a washing.  A baptism for the forgiveness of sins. that’s what these people were saying, I need to wash my life clean. I feel dirty on the inside.

Do you ever feel that?  “I wish I could open up my heart and have it washed, cleaned out, rinsed out.” 

Tom Ripley is a fictional character in a series of crime novels by Patricia Highsmith. Ripley is a murderer and a criminal almost devoid of conscience. But at the end of the first novel, The Talented Mr Ripley. The character says this: 

Dont you just take the past and put it in a room in a basement and lock the door and never go in there? That’s what I do, And then you meet someone special and all you want to do is to toss them the key and say; open up, step inside, but you can’t, because it’s dark, There’s demons and if anybody saw how ugly it is… I keep wanting to do that, fling the door open just let light in and clean everything out.

crowds came to John to be washed because we feel unclean. Of course the baptism was only symbolic. water only washes the outside of the person. But John tells us v16 That someone is coming who will wash you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

I keep wanting to do that, fling the door open just let light in and clean everything out.

Jesus can do that.  Without Him we remain unclean. 

Lostness, Uncleanness, thirdly …unfruitfulness.

Notice all the fruit language from v8:

8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have abaham as our father, for i tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus speaks to people who are proudly relying on their spiritual heritage. We have Abraham as our father. No says Jesus. Your’e not children of Abraham, you’re snake children. See they’re proud in their status and goodness but there’s no fruit of love in their lives. 

Being a good person is deadly.. It’s just another way of keeping God at arms length. I don’t need God.  And so being good is just as God rejecting as being bad. It’s just another form of our darkness: Good works that are full of self righteousness and death. Look at v17, John the Baptist says all your good works are nothing but chaff - the husk around a grain of wheat, you couldn’t even use it as animal feed - they are insubstantial, weightless, worthless.

And why does fruitfulness matter? Because - the last of our human problems - there is going to be a judgement. a wrath to come v10 the axe is at the foot of the trees v17 the LORD will come with a winnowing fork to test us all.  unquenchable fire. 

This kind of language is very unpalatable to our modern ears. We recoil from this medieval God of judgement we want a God of love. But we need to stop and think because Love and justice go together. Imagine a high court judge who, in the name of love, refused to ever punish the guilty… just let them off.  A denial of justice is the opposite of love isn’t it. The fact that God will judge and bring perfect justice is great news. He is right to do so. The real reason that this is so uncomfortable is not to do with him but with us as the subjects of judgement. 

Because we are lost, unclean and unfruitful 

That’s the human predicament into which Jesus comes..

verse 21:

When all the people were being baptised JESUS…..was baptised too !!

This is a crucial verse in the whole bible 

This is a great shock and a mighty relief 

Because we’ve just had tthis great build up from John that the judge of all the earth is on the way his winnowing fork and axe are in his hands. And these people in stead of running for the hill are admitting their guilt, their lostness, uncleanness, unfruitfulness - that they are sinners 

and now - he’s here! the judge of the world and what does he do? 

He doesn’t judge. Not yet. He joins the sinners.  He is willingly “numbered among them” He joins the queue at the Jordan River.  In fact he jumps to the head of the queue and He gets baptised.

What is going on? The LORD sees us perishing in our lostness, our uncleanness, our unfruitfulness, and He doesn’t zap us with judgements.  And He doesn’t lecture us from the river bank.  He joins us.  And He goes through the waters at our Head.  Isn’t it stunning?

God the Father thinks so: v21 as Jesus was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven” You are my son whom i love; with you i am well pleased” Jesus according to his humanity, in his humanity growing in favour with God - as he submits himself to God’s plan. 

Jesus comes and in his baptism he joins/unites himself to sinful humanity he stands with us and then he goes out for us. The champion of humanity. Humanity summed up in him that he might turn our fortunes around. 

You know the story of David and Goliath? That is the model Biblical story that teaches us this principle of Jesus: humanity’s champion. Just like King David who was anointed as the peoples King (in a ceremony very like baptism) before he then went out as the peoples champion single handedly killing Goliath, winning their victory for them while they just stood and watched.. So Jesus is anointed (in his baptism) as our King before he goes out not as an example that we must then follow but as a gift to be received and trusted in; as our champion who does life and death for us. He lives the life we ought to live FOR US and he dies the death we deserve to die - he takes the judgement-  FOR US. And we only stand and watch and receive his victories.  

Jesus baptised into our name so that we might be baptised into his name. 

How wonderful this is…

it is a gift to be received daily and lived out in lives of thankfulness and worship 

john’s baptism is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins 

when John preaches the darkness of our situation 

people say to him v10 well what should we do?

and it’s strange - he doesn’t say simply come to Jesus and be forgiven 

he urges repentance 

a turning around (that’s what repentance means - an about turn) of our lives 

have a look

vv 10-14 “…”

what’s John saying to these people? 

he says 

turn away from the besetting sins of your situation. the patterns of selfishness and lovelessness that particularly affect you. instead ..learn to love, learn to be generous. 

i hope that we understand that the forgiveness of christ is offered to us absolutley freely 

it is not earned! it is free

but for a sinner to come and find that forgiveness. that sinner will have to find the things that we have clung to dropping out of our hands because we cannot get a firm grip on Jesus Christ when we are still firmly holding on to the characteristic patterns of our sinfulness 

we cannot receive from Christ if we are constantly turning and walking in a direction away from him. 

we need to turn back - daily..

all of life is repentance

a daily pattern of 

confessing our sin, turning away from it and endeavouring to live to please Jesus Christ 

receiving his bounteous forgiveness 

Luke 2v40-52

This incident of Jesus’ parents losing their 12 year old son and eventually finding him in the templein Jerusalem sitting at the feet of the teachers is unique to the gospel of Luke. He has a purpose in including it. It is one of the most amazing and intriguing incidents in Jesus’ life and ministry.  It contains some of the most important teaching in the whole of the Bible about Jesus Christ. 

Every year v41 his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover - when the Jews remembered God’s rescue of them from the oppression of slavery in Egypt. Every year - we get an insight here into the religious devotion of Mary and Joseph - committed to their faith, nurturing their children in the ways of God. And this particular year is very significant because v42 Jesus is 12 years old. This year’s passover will be a rite of passage into his 13th year - that period of life in the Jewish education of children when a boy is beginning to prepare for the special responsibilities of growing into adulthood. This event takes place in Jesus’ life just as he is going through that transition. And we, though we are in a very different culture, we recognise the significance of this transition don’t we? the big difference between being 12 and being 13 a teenager! It is particularly a transition in your relationship with your parents. For any of us parents facing this quite scary transition in our children it is wonderful that Luke has included this account of this incident. But what this incident reveals to us of Jesus Christ will be a great comfort for us all whatever our age or stage of life. 

v43 After the feast was over. They stayed the whole 7 days which was quite unusual - another sign of Mary and Joseph’s serious devotion. Maybe it was because Jesus was at this special point in his life. 

After the feast is over the 80 mile 3 day journey home to Nazareth begins but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem but they were not aware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they travelled on for a day. Then they began to look for him among their relatives and friends … and they could not find him. 

It might sound a bit shocking to our modern ears to make a whole days journey and only then realise your child is not with you. But it’s not too difficult to see how this could happen in that culture. The long journey back to nazareth is in a large caravan of people. Necessary for safety on relatively dangerous roads where you’re camping out at night. Many friends and relatives are there. All the kids playing with each other. It’s likely that the women and childern would walk up front the men would walk towards the back of the caravan. And i guess during the day Mary might have assumed the 12 year old Jesus was with Joseph and the men while Joseph might have assumed that Jesus preferred to be with Mary and the other kids. It’s only at the end of the first day’s travel when they’re pitching tents settling for the night calling for Jesus to come and sleep that they realise that Jesus is not with them..

Children lost on the southbank. Festival Hall to Borough Market - stop off in St Paul’s cathedral. Colourful coats. Scooters. 

Concerned. Looking. Jog ahead. Deeper concern. split up.. looking. retracing our steps. phoning. it’s getting darker. running. call the police. phone call. found! perfectly happy. anger and relief “how could you do this to us?!”

Our kids were gone for about 45 minutes. Jesus was gone for 3 days!

Whether those 3 days include the day of travelling or not - it’s a long time for parents to be v48 anxiously searching. There must have been tears each of those nights - where was their son sleeping? was anyone looking after him. Or had something terrible happened. Feelings of awful pain and dread. Surely they had checked the crowded temple courts? Maybe they had just missed Jesus’ comings and goings there because that’s where he had been and that’s where they eventually found him v46 sitting among the teachers and listening to them and asking them questions. And Jesus has been the cause of much interest for the devoted in the temple, there’s no shortage of people to look after him practically though i guess they must have wondered where his parents were! v47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished. Because he’s so unconcerned? His Mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching anxiously for you.” It rings so true, Luke’s account, this is exactly what a mother would say - grabbing and hugging her son - fear and anger mixed with total relief! 

and Jesus’ reply …is astonishing. This 12 year old boy. Almost could at first seem insensitive and a bit rude! 

“Why were you searching for me?… Didn’t you know i had to be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he was saying to them. 

There’s almost a sad moment here. Because Jesus hadn’t worried about his parents worrying because he had thought - oh well they’ll know where I have to be now. They’ll understand - oh .. he’s in the temple. But his parents didn’t understand. That’s why they’d searched frantically rather than returned to the temple and waited patiently. And so there’s a sadness in Jesus words. They didn’t need to be so worried and hurt. so the incident ends v51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. 

So why does Luke include this incident of Jesus’ boyhood at this significant stage in his gospel? 

What is it that is being said here about Jesus? 

The answer is there in the bookends of the passage in v40 and v52 

This is the Jesus at this point of transition who is v40 growing and becoming strong, filled with wisdom and the grace of God upon him. growing v52 in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men. 

did you take that in. Jesus is growing. Like children do. And he’s growing in wisdom, stature and he is growing in favour with men and amazingly he grows in favour with God.

That’s what Luke wants us to see 

Jesus who has come into the world and taken on our full humanity with all our infirmities and weaknesses, excepting sin over the course of his life grew in favour with God. 

That’s a provocative idea. God’s opinion of Jesus, his favour, his admiration, his love for Jesus grows. If it wasn’t there in the NT you might think that was a bit unorthodox 

Surely Jesus, the eternal son of God is eternally favoured by God. How can Jesus grow in God’s favour? 

He does so according to his humanity. As a growing human being. Fully human Jesus grows in favour with God. 

Theologians have found it helpful to distingush between Jesus’ full divinity - his divine nature and his full humanity his divine nature. So for example in answer to the question: If Jesus created and sustains the cosmos moment by moment by his powerful word (Hebrews 2) How was Jesus doing that when he was an embryo in Mary’s womb or a weak baby or even more so when he died and was buried? 

Well.. according to his divinity Jesus never ceases to uphold all things, he is never off the throne of the universe, he is One with the Father. But according to his humanity he is truly a weak baby, just as you and i once were, he lives and serves God in the power of the Holy spirit just as we must, he weeps and suffers and dies according to his humanity. And through his human life he grows in wisdom and stature and favour with God and men. 

This is what we are being told here. That Jesus’ humanity is exactly the same as ours apart from sin. 

[Jessica Jones. Netflix adaptation from marvel comics of lesser known superhero Jessica Jones. She’s a New York private investigator with a troubled past. she has superhuman strength and fights baddies with superhuman powers with the help of a man with unbreakable skin. They look just like anyone else.. More than human. Less than human. Something else in human skin] 

But that’s not Jesus. Jesus is not God hiding in a man suit. Looks the same on the surface but totally different underneath. No, Jesus’ humanity is exactly the same as our apart from sin. The road that we all must walk, he walks. 

And you see - that is absolutely crucial for our salvation 

Jesus saves us by uniting himself to our humanity and living the perfect human life that we should have lived for us and dying the death before that we deserve because we haven’t lived perfectly for us. 

So that when we are united to him by our faith - his perfect life for u becomes ours and his saving death for us becomes ours. 

In order to do all that. Jesus had to be fully human 

If Jesus had a different human nature to you or me he would never be qualified to be our saviour. 

But Luke tells us he IS human 

and He IS perfectly human for us 

Jesus grows in obedience and love for God and favour with God 

At aged 12, at every age and stage of life he covers and carries our humanity perfectly. He is able to be our saviour as he lives humanity for us. 

Briefly see 4 things about the 12 year old Jesus that already gives us deep confidence in and worship filled wonder for our Saviour 

1. Jesus’ desire to be taught by the word of God vv46-47

sitting at the feet of the best teachers of the day. day after day. saying ‘Please teach me from God’s word. I want to know God and his will and how to live for his glory” 

By this age Jesus would have memorised whole sections of the OT and he engages in this question and answer teaching of the rabbis and he so impressed the rabbis by the penetraton of his questions. 

That’s often true of youngsters isn’t it? It’s not just the answers they give but the questions they ask! How extraordinary it would have been to hear the growing wisdom of Jesus. “Everyone was astonished at his understanding and his answers” Remember his wisdom is not is because he is God, but bacuse he is perfect humanity for us. 

In the third servant song in the book of Isaiah which speaks of the Messiah, the servant says “Morning by morning as I am awakened i listen to your word and this is why i am able to speak a word in season t those who are weary” 

This is why Jesus’ teaching and his words were so marvellous because he had waited on God’s word to be taught by God’s word. 

2. Jesus’ growth in the knowledge of God. 

in wisdom 

Psalm 119 - the longest Psalm. But a Psalm that is designed for young people to memorise. Each section begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Right in the middle of the psalm vv99-100. 2 verses that would have delighted young people 

As i learn your word 

You make me wiser than all my teachers 

that’s what you want don’t you when you’re a kid?

and it’s true 

the boy and girl who really knows the word of God may well be wiser than their teachers because they are growing in the knowledge of God. To really know him. 

we’ve just appointed Nic as our children’s and families worker. 

we need to take the spiritual development of children very seriously. children everywhere have spiritual questions. it’s part of being a child. the opportunities that i have had to receive children’s questions in schools. they ask the most penetrating questions that can be asked. Who made God? How can God be everywhere? How can God be 3 in one? Why suffering? What happens when we die? How can i know God loves me? These are the questions that theologians pore over in their ivory towers! And in all the confusion of our age many parents say to their children in answer to their spiritually searching questions ‘you shouldn’t be interested in those things” which basically means ‘I don’t have any answers and i’m terrified to admit that to you and so i am going to squash your spiritual interest. It’s a very grown up thing isn;t it to say that children aren’t interested in spiritual things. Those grown ups are basically talking about themselves. Hiding. 

Jesus shows us the sheer joy of a youngster growing in the knowledge of God. He is true humanity increasing in favour with God and man. 

3. Jesus’ love for the presence of God. 

“Oh mum and dad” he says “why have you been anxiously searching all over Jerusalem You should have known i would be in my Father’s house” 

This is the place where you have brought me year on year. Where you devoted me to God as your firstborn son. This is what you’ve been preparing me for and now at this age of transition.. I’m here! 

But Mary and Joseph didn’t understand. They weren’t banking on this level of devotion. What is it like if your children are more zealous for God than you. This zealous! It gets in the way, rocks the family, challenges the status quo. Are you embarassed? Annoyed? How could you do this to us?

But Jesus is growing in true humanity which entails a deepening growing love for the presence of God. Seeking and enjoying God. 

Ps 27 One thing i ask of the Lord this is what i seek that i may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. …

where we fail to seek God, to be truly human 

jesus succeeds perfectly for us. on our behalf. to bring you to God 

So that you and i too with the Psalmist 

My hearts says of you “seek his face”. Your face, Lord, i will seek 

4. Jesus’ beautiful awareness that he was the Son of God 

My …. Father’s …. House 

Jew’s didn’t speak of the temple in those terms. These are Jesus’ words

In the midst of Luke emphaising that the Lord Jesus did not come into the world with some kind of superman humanity. He shared your humanity and mine apart from sin. and he grew in favour with God. 

however he did so as one who is the very Son of God. Living to please his Father. Obedient to death. Even death on a cross for us he came to save. 

And as he moves forward in his humanity he grows and grows in favour with God. 

just like a blessed friendship or marriage - you can’t imagine liking or loving or appreciating that person more than you already do and yet over the years of being together that love and bond of affection is deepened. 

So as Jesus grows in wisdom and obedience and devotion to his Father through his life so the Father’s favour grows. “This is my Jesus. This is my son whom i love. with him i am pleased. Listen to him.” Love him. Put your confidence in him. He is the saviour of humanity. 

Luke 2v1-20

Welcome to SBD for our Carols. A joy to see you here. 

My name is GF. I’m the vicar of the church. 

We’re going to spend a few minutes looking at those very familiar readings from Luke’s gospel. 

“There were shepherds watching over their flocks by night

An angel of the LORD appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone’

Light in the darkness. That’s what Christmas is about, according to the Bible. Light breaking into darkness. 

The world is a very dark place sometimes. Most of the time we don’t walk around saying ‘the world’s a dark place.’ we don’t look at it frontally all the time - we can’t. But then the next tragic event strikes - and the fact of the world’s darkness presses down on you. 

When tragedies happen - we take action, we seek solutions… and that’s right. That’s many people’s job. But JRR Tolkein’s words on the lips of Gandalf ring true: “Always after a defeat and a respite the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.” The Shadow: darkness; evil “after a defeat and a respite …takes another shape and grows again” 

But Christmas…

far from being intended as a temporary seasonal escape from the darkness. 

Christmas is about God’s plan to deal with the Darkness.

‘The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light!’ 

—

When most Londoners today hear these familiar readings - of the virgin birth, the child in the manger, the angels, the shepherds. they say, (you say) “Ah - lovely legend.” It’s a legend. But it’s a lovely legend because it symbolises the things we should be doing. For example it symbolises hope. We should always have hope. 

But Luke, when he wrote these things was clearly not intending to give us a lovely legend filled with symbolic language. Look at how Luke starts chapter 2.. He doesn’t start his account of the birth of Jesus Christ saying “Once upon a time” nor does he say ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.’ which we know is another way of saying: here is a wonderful story that is going to inspire you but of course it never really happened. No, that’s not what Luke says. Luke starts his account, “In the year that Caesar Augustus had his census of the entire Roman world, when Quirinius was governor of Syria? that’s the year when what I am telling you about happened.” At the beginning of chapter 1 - we don't have it printed, but - there, Luke tells us that he’s carefully researched what is written in this book. These are eyewitness accounts of true occurences!

Can we really know that? The gospels are the most attested documents that we have from antiquity - such are the number and prevalence of very early manuscripts that we have..

Does it really matter anyway? Why does it matter whether this is truth or myth? 

Here’s why it matters. Go back again to that statement of Tolkein. 

“Always after a defeat and a respite evil takes another shape and grows again.” Within the bounds of history that is absolutely true isn’t it? 

All of our medical and technological advancements bring us all kinds of good things and yet… far from making us more secure we know that those very advancements actually open us up to new fears, new threats. ‘the darkness takes another shape and grows again.’ 

Why? Why is it like this? 

It is like this, the Bible says, because the ultimate source of the darkness of this world is in here, it’s in us, it’s in our hearts. And all that progress does is it creates new shapes for the darkness and sometimes bigger shapes. It always comes back. It’s the darkness of the human heart that is the source of the whole spectrum of evil out there. From terrorist atrocities to unhappy marriages. 

And now you see why Luke is insisting this isn’t just a legend? 

See what do we really need? - we don’t need stories to inspire us to try a little harder. Because every time we do something about the darkness.. it just takes another shape and appears again because it’s in here. We do not need legends about the glory of God appearing.. we need the glory of God to appear - to break in from outside and intervene.. 

And Luke says:… It has. It did. 

God himself came into the world. An utterly unique event - marked by equally unique and unusual circumstances a virgin birth, angelic messengers. He has come says Luke. It really happened. He’s come to deal with the darkness. 

Well, How? How does he do it? 

The answer is most surprising. God deals with the darkness by making himself poor, making himself vulnerable, by submitting himself to the darkness. 

I was reading about a woman in Sussex who again this Christmas is renting out her stable as a hotel room. ‘bringing Bethlehem to Brighton' is the headline. 

The stable comes complete with a straw bed for two, a resident donkey and tea making facilities. 

They even have costumes if anybody wants to dress up as a shepherd or a king (which is where it starts to sound a little bit weird, i think). 

Mrs Turton is the landlady she says “this is back to basics providing guests with the authentic nativity experience - bath towels and wifi available at additional cost” 

Brilliant - no room at the inn is one thing but no internet access would be a proper disaster wouldn’t it?

the authentic nativity experience? Is that the nativity?

Every day at the moment we see images in our papers and on our screens of child refugees born into oppression fleeing violence, on the road, vulnerable, unwelcome. babies passed from rubber dinghies. 

These very contemporary scenes are more reflective of the authentic nativity. It is not just that God when he chose to enter our world entered our humanity …and at it’s weakest point - as a newborn baby. He is also born into an oppressive regime he is born on the road as Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem to register for taxation. There is no room for him. And then, if you know how the nativity unfolds, from Bethlehem the family have to flee the country to Egypt - a long dangerous journey - away from Herod’s death squads slaughtering male infants. 

God when he came… God became a child refugee. 

When you think of God think of this.. 

He submitted himself to the darkness. 

But why? 

How does becoming weak, submitting to the darkness.. how does thatdeal with the darkness?

when ever people talk about suffering and evil people say - if there’s a God why doesn’t he stop it? 

and if God came to earth into this darkness -  why in the world didn't he come to stop it? 

why did he come in weakness? why did he come human? why didn’t he come as a Divine king or general on a mighty warhorse with a sceptre and a spear to destroy all evil?  

well the reason is plain, you know we’ve actually already talked about it…

if JC had have come that first Christmas to destroy all of the sources of evil 

there wouldn't have been any of us left would there?

…

there wouldn't have been any of us left.

if you know your own heart at all you know that is not an exaggeration. 

therefore.. in mercy and love 

Jesus Christ came 

not to be accepted but to be rejected. 

not to be crowned but to be killed

he came not to bring judgement he came to bear judgement 

He, our Creator, the living God, assumed our humanity at its darkest point - Jesus the refugee - and he died on a wooden cross to bear the judgement that we deserve for our self centred-ness, for our wrongdoing, for our sin - to pay for it, to remove it. 

So that someday he can return - which he has promised to do - and he can end evil without ending us. 

Hidden away in the news a couple of weeks ago was the extraordinary story of the five Tanzanian gold miners who were finally rescued after spending 41 days trapped in total darkness 100m underground after the collapse of part of the mine. 

Weeks after the official rescue operation had been called off, surviving on cockroaches and frogs and collecting seeping water in their helmets the miners wandered desperately through the network of tunnels. Until there was a glimmer of hope atlast. "We saw a tiny crack in the rock where sun's rays shone through the darkness.” 

Wonderful story for Christmas 

Christmas is light breaking into the darkness. 

That our Creator God was pleased to dive down into our humanity, to take hold of us in our weakness, giving his life that we might live.

He takes hold of you.. grab him back. 

Find out more this Christmas.. It’s too important not to. Take a gospel to read. Discuss these things with the friends that brought you. Or come and discuss in the New year. 

Light breaking in to the darkness. 

After the choir sing we will sing our final carol. 

At the end of the service Mulled wine and Mince pies will be served here at the front of church and at the back. Please enjoy. 

If you have children in the crèche or Christmas party please collect them immediately at the end of the service and bring them in so you can have some refreshments. 

There will be a retiring collection for Refugee Support network. Read about them in your service sheet.  Please give generously to a worthy cause as you go. 

Luke 1v26-45

Christmas is often seen as a time when you get together with your family. For some of us that might well be something that we’re looking forward to - things are ok. For some of us it might be something we’re dreading. For some of us still.. it might be friends that constitute the only sense of family that we have. 

Whatever our situation. We have a deep human longing for family that really works. A healed family.  A place we know is home. 

This longing takes us to the heart of why Christmas is such good news and offers such hope. See,  we don’t really understand Christmas (and by that i don’t mean Christmas is about Jesus not presents) - even Christians - we think Christmas is just a vehicle for Easter, for getting Jesus into the world so that then he can die for our sins. But, no, the good news of Christmas, of the incarnation goes much deeper than that. 

This is the miracle of Christmas: 

That the son of God became human so that humans could become children of God. put another way. 

Jesus Christ came into our family to take us into His family. 

that’s Christmas. that’s what we’re going to think about for the next 15 mins or so. 

—

The virgin birth is really important for this. 

Is the virgin birth really important? it’s difficult to believe. does it really matter? Luke thinks so. 

Do you see how it’s emphasised in the passage? 

In v27 Mary is twice called a virgin before we even get her name.  

In verse 34 she says: "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"

and the angel answers “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

We are not really told how a virgin birth is possible. The Holy Spirit does it. 

But we are told why a virgin birth is essential. Because the Holy One to be born already has a Father. He is the Son of God. See in the womb of the virgin Mary and in the person of the saviour Jesus, there is the uniting of two families. From the Father and the Spirit, Jesus remains fully God and from his mother Mary he takes to himself a full and perfect humanity. 

Fully God, fully human. 

Two families united in the person of Jesus 

Jesus came into our family to take us into his family.  That’s Christmas. 

Well let’s think about those 2 families then.  

First we’ll think about our family that Jesus joins himself to - humanity 

Our humanity. 

Think about Mary for a sec. 

Jesus’ Mother is sometimes lauded as a sort of supreme human being. ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’ - so goes the RC prayer to Mary. Now while it is right to call her ‘the blessed virgin mary’ and it’s right to call her ‘the Mother of God’ - Elizabeth uses both those titles, and while it’s right to seek to imitate Mary’s godly faith (we’ll come to that later). The emphasis in the passage is not on a woman who we need to come to because she is full of grace, NO, the emphasis is on a very ordinary person who is graced by God (a better translation of v 28) ordinary humanity ‘highly favoured’ by God. 

See Mary’s name means ‘bitter myrrh’. She was the lowliest of a downtrodden people.  From a poor family. From backwards Nazareth - the butt of every placee-name joke.  A servant girl. Her age was probably between 13-15 years.  

God could have gone to Jerusalem picked out Caiaphas’s daughter who was fair, rich, clad in gold embroidered robes and attended by a retinue of maids in waiting. But God chose Mary because to come into our humanity is to come low. 

Turn over to Luke chapter 3 v23ff because there Luke gives us a summary of the human family - our humanity - as he traces the human ancestry of Jesus.  

It’s interesting how it starts in verse 23:Now Jesus Himself was about 30 years old when He began His ministry.  He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph. Luke again draws our attention to the virgin birth by letting us know that, although people thought Joseph was Jesus’ father, that was not the case. (we’ll come back to that). Nevertheless, born of Mary Jesus is fully human and part of the human family. 

I don’t know if any of you who are pregnant are looking for baby names, but there are some great ones here.  There’s Naggai and Zerubbabel and Er. And there’s famous people like David and Isaac and Abraham.  But crucially Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam. To say that Jesus is part of the One human family. 

Adam - the first person with whom God initiated relationship. The first human being.  Adam is the head, the father of the entire human race. (Now set aside biological questions for the time being. The scriptures are seeking to tell us something about the unity of our humanity. In Adam) He is the one that unites all humanity as one family. 

So imagine a vast family tree (Christmas tree shaped!) with every person in the entire world who has ever lived and somewhere in that tree (towards the bottom for now) is YOU and your father and his father and his father all the way back to ADAM. Just like Jesus’ lineage. All the way back to Adam …And Adam’s Father? v38 God. God ‘made Adam out of the dust of the ground.’ Adam is called the Son of God. 

That’s the human family. United In Adam. Can you see it? It’s remarkable …

But it’s also dysfunctional. ‘All families are psychotic’ so the canadian novelist Douglas Coupland reminds us.  And this is true of humanity. We are a dysfunctional family because Adam rejected God and we all do the same. That’s the family likeness. We all want to be in charge of our own lives - not God. we want to be god in God’s world. That’s the dysfunction of the big family that ruins all families and all lives.

So you see this (family) Tree is like a Christmas Tree in more ways than just it’s shape.  Christmas trees are weird aren’t they? we dress them up to look so nice - all glittery and sparkly. But cut from its roots it’s actually a dying thing in the corner of your room and one day very soon it will need to be thrown away. 

In the same way the human family can dress itself up, we put on a good show but having cut ourselves off from the life of God we are therefore dying and will one day be thrown away. It’s not just that we’re dying physically.. but spiritually we have no future. We are a broken family.. 

So that’s the human family - the poverty of Mary - ‘bitter Myrhh’ 

And yet there’s hope because there’s another family in this story 

An ancient family - as old as time itself. 

Jesus we see here is the Son of the Father in the unity of the Spirit. 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The bible consistently reveals that the one God is not a single solitary being but a community of loving persons. A family.  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So close in relationship that the 3 ARE 1. This is who God is a tri-unity. Trinity. Family. 

The trinity is all over this passage. The trinity is all over Christmas. Jesus v32 is the Son of the Most High, the Son of God v35;  The Lord God v33 is giving Jesus David’s throne forever and the Holy Spirit v35 is making it all happen. 

This is who God is.  A father loving his son in the joy of the Spirit.  

This is the God in whose image we are made. The kind of family you and I long for because it’s what we were created for.  This is HOME.

So you know when you glimpse, if ever, the joy of Christmas - round the dinner table, with loved relatives, with children or maybe it has to be with your friends. Those brief moments. The best Christmas ever gets is a hint of this love for which you were made. This family. Father Son and Holy Spirit.. This is what we long for.

Please forgive another family illustration. But it’s obviously appropriate. Sometimes Fiona and i have a hug in the kitchen and we’ll often feel one or two or three little people burrowing their way in - do you remember doing that with your parents? we want to be in don’t we? and we parents open up a bit and extend our arms to welcome a Rebecca or Hannah or Zac in. 

The foundation of reality is God - A Father loving his son in the joy of the holy Spirit. Trinity. The perfect family.. And the miracle ofChristmas is this: that God in his love, in the womb of Mary, in the incarnation of the Son of God, the stooping of Jesus to become flesh he extends his family to us to draw us in!! Right in. The Son of God became what we are so that we might become what he is. Jesus came into our family to take us into his family.

Remember that important verse: Jesus was not, as it was thought, the son of Joseph. Jesus was not just one more son of man perpetuating the old race of Adam.  No, In the virgin birth we have a NEW humanity being established.  A new family tree. A second Son of God to belong to.  The true and eternal Son of God becomes Man.  A Second Adam.

Where the first Adam failed Jesus succeeds. 

Jesus lived a perfect human life towards his Father God.. 

And then in his death, Jesus bore the brokenness of humanity; consequences for our rejection of God. 

And when we now like Mary, trust in Jesus we are like a branch that is snipped out of the Adam tree and grafted into the Jesus tree.  That’s a Christian.  We’re all born in Adam and share in His sin and curse.  But trust in Jesus and you are BORN AGAIN and come to share in His righteousness and blessings and his LIFE. As the carol says: Jesus was “Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.”

I look out and I know one thing about this congregation.  You’ve all been born once. That’s beyond dispute. Have you been born again?  Grafted by Jesus into his eternal family. Call out to him in your heart, ‘Jesus give me new birth into your family’ and see if you don’t feel differently about Jesus by the end of this sermon. 

And if by grace you are part of God’s family. How are you getting on knowing him and enjoying him and living for him and sharing this amazing news.  Use this advent to draw close to the God who has drawn close to you. 

Luke 1v5-25

Luke 1:5-25

if you weren’t here last week we began last week a study of luke’s gospel. we looked at the first 4 verses. this week we accelerate into chapter 1 

even though our reading was from the first part of the chapter. I want to do a wide scope overview of ths chapter. and then next week and the following we’ll look more at the detail. 

Cast your eye over the chapter as a whole and you’ll see its content. That is is a chapter of 2 angelic miraculous birth announcements, 

there’s the one we just had read to us - the promise of a son to this barren elderly couple.  

and that’s followed in v26 with the more familiar, extraordinary promise of a son to a virgin - Mary. and then those birth announcements are followed by 2 celebratory songs: the song of mary v46ff and then the song of zechariah in vv67ff. and those songs provide the key to what is happening with the arrival of these 2 miracle babies. 

what is happening? 

well, we will discover i hope that God is demonstrating that he is RICH IN MERCY 

i wonder if you believe that about God 

I wonder what you do believe about God? I don’t mean can you recite the creed with faith. I mean what do you believe deep down about God? Who is he to you?

a crucial question isn’t it because what we deep down believe about god will affect everything - our decisions, our behaviour, the way we pray or don’t pray. does god really care about the world? is he a god of mercy? does he care about me? 

we look at the suffering and the injustice of the world. where is he? perhaps when things go wrong in life personally - the loss of a job, or a relatonship, the pain of illness, prayers that for years seem to go unamswered. we are bound to ask: does god see me, does he know me? why doesn’t he help? sometimes a bitterness can grow up can’t it where we stop praying, stop expecting. become resigned to small thoughts about god. 

or perhaps we have got so bogged down in our moral struggles, failed so repeatedly that we believe that god must have given up on us; thrown his hands up in frustration and walked away.. 

well we saw last week that Luke has an aim with his gospel. he wants his reader/us to be certain. 

to be strengthened in faith.. 

and straight away as we enter chpt 1 the resounding message - the word occurs several times - is that god is a god of MERCY/ God cares about the world and he cares about you. you better believe it!

1. God’s mercy in his promises

In order to God’s mercy in fulfilling promises in this chapter. We need to go back and learn what the promised. History lessons can sometimes be a bit dry - so tune in especially hard if you will for the next couple of minutes as we do a brief history of time acc to the Bible.

In the beginning, the bible says, God created a perfect world. he didn’t have to. he did it because he wanted to - an overflow of his lifegiving love. But it didn’t last long. 

Human beings sowed the world’s troubles by rejecting God’s rule.  All of our problems are self inflicted wounds. 

Now at that early point God could have left us in our misery. 

BUT because of his great mercy he acted..

The bible says that right at the start God bound himself by a promise to one man - Abraham 

It was a promise to bless Abs descendents and through those descendents to bless the whole world. 

Well during the ensuing history of Abs descendents, the nation of Israel, that promise of world blessing is given progressive shape and definition. And in particular a key figure emerges - the Messiah - who would come and singlehandedly enact God’s rescue and restore God’s rule. He would be a mighty King born from the royal line of King David. Messiah. 

And, final thing, the sign that the Messiah was comingwould be the arrival of another key figure - a messenger. The prophet Isaiah calls him ‘a voice ..calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord’ and Malachi the last prophet of the OT calls this messenger “Elijah” and uses a stange phrase “he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children” 

Well now you see when we come to Luke chapter 1, the power and significance of this chapter is that here the fuse is finally lit; the countdown is started. the long promised rescue operation of God is underway. So look at the angel’s word in v13 to Zechariah “But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.” and look at v17 “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” Do you hear it? do you hear Isaiah? it’s almost a direct quote from Malachi - this baby! here is the promised messenger!

And then…. just as God had promised, hot on his heels comes the Messiah himself. So look over the page, v30 “But the angel said to [Mary], ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end.”

In our culture we’re so used to broken promises. Politicians who make pledges that they either do not or cannot keep. We just become cynical. 

But imagine someone who’s word was absoultely sure. Who is so pure of character that he will never go back on a promise.  And who is so able in his power that he can carry out exactly what he says. Well this is who God is. 

Just have a look at how his promise keeping, his ‘covenant faithfulness’ is celebrated in the songs in the second half of the chapter. Zechariah’s song from v67 

“67 John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

68 ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

    in the house of his servant David

70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

71 salvation from our enemies

    and from the hand of all who hate us –

72 to show mercy to our ancestors

    and to remember his holy covenant,

73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham” 

Mary expresses something similar at the end of her song v54 

“He [,God,]has helped his servant Israel,

    remembering to be merciful

55 to Abraham and his descendants for ever,

    just as he promised our ancestors.…” 

Normally when we talk about remembering something it’s something that we’ve previously forgotten. “oh no! wedding anniversary!”

But occasionally we talk about remembering as a stimulus to action: “I remembered my Grandmother’s death by going to her grave” or “my work is done in memory of her.”

And when the Bible talks about remembering it’s in this second sense. God doesn’t suddenly remember to be merciful because it had slipped his mind to do so. No, God’s promises are rooted in his mercy.  And when the time is ripe God acts to fulfil his promises.  he remembers. 

So listen, God has promised good things to those who trust him. he promised Jesus and he delivered. And now many of the promises of the full fruits of Jesus’ work are Future things:- that one day he will put all things to rights and give his people life eternal in a restored creation. These promises are absolutely sure. 

2. God's mercy in our need. 

What is the nature of the salvation that the messiah brings? 

Imp Q - what is christian salvation? Is it only spiritual? Forgiveness? the hope of heaven when we die? 

Look at Zs song again v71 “salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us” or v74 “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear…”

could be spiritual enemies? 

But then look at Mary’s song v51 

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones

    but has lifted up the humble.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things

    but has sent the rich away empty.

It’s remarkable. The Messiah’s birth has just been announced as coming soon. She speaks of the Messiah’s rescue, all these things as if they have already happened! It is as if in her mind they are as good as accomplished because the Messiah is now here.  Even though as yet he is barely a foetus in her womb! 

But here’s the thing: The salvation that Messiah brings… it’s not just a spiritual salvation is it? Not in Z and Mary’s minds. It’s not just forgiveness and eternal life..this sounds like political revolution doesn’t it? Bringing down rulers, lifting up the humble, filling thehungry with good things. This sounds like Practical down to earth help. Which is exactly what they needed. Ist C Jews living in grinding poverty under the brutal regime of their Roman overlords, their enemies. Because of course our needs are not just for forgiveness - primary as that is - we long for other things such as justice and peace and harmony! Is God’s salvation about those things too?

When Jesus grows up he heals the sick and demon possessed. To some extent he does feed the hungry. he even raises the dead. But of course he doesn’t overthrow the roman overlords, he doesn’t bring political restoration and justice to Israel .. let alone to the world

So had Mary and Zechariah got salvation wrong?

Well no, they hadn’t got it wrong. 

v67 Z was speaking directly under the leading of God the Holy Spirit

They hadn’t got it wrong. It’s only that their timing was a bit out. See the coming of the Messiah IS God putting the whole world to rights. It’s not just forgiveness. It’s turning back all the effects of sin. It was always going to be but there’s this small matter of ‘timing’. 

Salvation comes, if you like in 2 stages, 2 comings of Jesus. Jesus comes the first time as a baby, to die for the brokenness of the world and to rise again. He’s done it - everything is in place. 

But,  the writing of all wrongs will not be fully implemented until Jesus’ second coming. This is what advent waiting is all about. And Jesus’ feedings and healings which we’ll see as we look at Luke’s gospel are like the blue print of that fulfilment, that future kingdom that future world taht he is gonna bring. 

Z and Mary might have missed the timing but they haven’t missed the nature of the salvation that Jesus brings. and neither must we. it’s breathtaking in its scope. God’s mercy extends and will extend to every detail of brokenness and need. God feels for our suffering world and one day through Jesus he will put it completely right. He’s promised to do so. 

And if God cares, with deep mercy, about justice, about poverty, about suffering then the church, as his people now, cannot stand back from suffering and injustice and poverty. The church is to live out that blue print of the future kingdom of God. 

ill. so many people involved in HWNS - drop in the ocean, makes a difference and people give up their time and energy to show mercy. and often the motivation God is a God of mercy towards human need. he cares for the world. 

and now it follows that if God cares for the world it means that he cares for every individual in his world. 

This chapter contains a wonderful illustration of God’s personal mercy in the story of Z and Eliz. 

Let’s just look at them very briefly. Z and Eliz were this lovely godly older couple. the kind of couple in church that you love going round for a cup of tea to sit down with them. Godly and faithful. But of course there is this shadown of sorrow v7 they’d never been able to have any children because eliz was barren. No doubt they’d tried for children for years. They’d prayed we’re told in v13, they’d hoped; they’d wept and in v25 eliz calls her childlessness her disgrace. the stigma of childlessness in that culture presumably would have affected their relationships socially; with each other and i guess their rel w God. They’d lived for God, they’d prayed. They must have said does God see us? does God care for us? 

You kind of get a hint of that with Z when he’s in the temple. I mean ok any of us encountering an angel would be freaked out. But when God does turn up with the answer to Zs prayers, Z simply can’t believe it. Maybe his view of God had gotten small? 

But God acts and look at what he says again v13-15a “‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. …”

You know that lots of names have meanings don’t they. so people say “i’m Sarah, which means princess” or “I’m James which means loved of God” or even “I’m Giles which means young goat” (Cheers, mum and dad) 

Well Z is to call his miracle son, John. This son whom the angel says will be a joy and delight; who will perform this function of preparing the way for the Lord. The messenger of Isaiah and Malachi’s foretelling. This is Z and Elizs longed for son. His name will be John… which means?: God is gracious. 

You see God knows. God knows what he’s doing. he heard Z and Eliz’s prayers v13 every one of them, just as he hears yours. he wept with them in their pain, just as he does with us in ours. But he knew what he was doing. he had something better for them. Something worth waiting for. John. 

And of course when it came to it Z just couldn’t believe it! If only Z and Eliz had known how God cared for them in his mercy. How God saw them, every step. How he had plans for them. If you look over the page at v57 “When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.…”

You see God is a God of mercy in our needs. 

It doesn’t mean that he will always answer our prayers in exactly the way we think he should. he knows best for us. and perhaps the things that we most long for and deeply need will only be there for us when God puts all things to rights at the end of the age. And yet he is rich in mercy, he is with us, he knows, he knows what he is doing, his timing is perfect. 

3. God’s mercy for our sin

the salvation that Jesus brings is more than a spiritual salvation 

but it is certainly not less than a spiritual salvation. 

the salvation that Jesus brings encompasses the whole world put to rights

but at it’s heart is thegift of forgiveness. 

our greatest need, it doesn’t always feel like our greatest need, is for God’s forgiveness 

Z proclaims this in his song as he holds his 8 day old litle son in his arms 

look at v76-78a “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God,…” 

we sometimes speak of God’s hatred of sin. his anger towards our rebellion and his judgement on it. and we rightly speak about those things because the bible speaks about them. but there is also v78 God’s tender mercy as he looks upon us in our sin. It’s actually just one word in the original language and it’s the word for bowels; guts the greek word splachna. In the ancient world - the seat of your emotions was not the heart but the bowels, thats where you felt things. lit says ‘the forgiveness of sins ,because of the bowels of our God!!”

i don’t know what illicits in you your deepest feelings of pity, or outrage of longing, 

for me seeing that photograph of the body of that refugee child drowned in the mediterranean and washed up on the beach. so much need in our world  

but you know even though God looks upon those things and he sees them much more deeply than we do - he has mercy in our need. Even so above all the sufferings of the world, all the attrocities, nothing moves the heart of God, the bowels of God like human suffering in sin.  

Look at how Zs song describes that human plight in v79 “living in darkness and in the shadow of death” It is to be without direction, without peace. And yet in the tender mercy of God he must act . And so God acts in the person oh the Messiah, his recuer King to bring light into that darkness. Salvation in terms of sin being cancelled, it’s debt being paid; the barrier it creates being broken down to allow light to flood in. sin done away with so that we can have peace again with God. It’s like, Z says v78, the coming of the dawn. Think of someone who’s been in a dark place all night and it’s been a miserable night. campageddon - no electric light, no matches, no fire and the pitch darkness makes the agony in their hearts all the more painful and then the dawn at last comes and with the pink flecks on the horizon comes a rising in their hearts.. dispeling the darkness and then the sun itself is coming up pouring out rays of warmth and light. 

and that is what the coming of Jesus will do, says Zechariah ‘because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace.” 

God’s mercy for our sin 

So what do you really believe about God? 

That he isn’t involved. that he can’t be trusted? God keeps his promises unfailingly 

That he doesn’t care about the world; that he doesn’t care about you? God’s mercy in our need. He knows, he sees, he will one day right all wrongs and satisfy our hearts. 

Do you believe that he rejects you in your moral failures? Well no, God’s mercy for our sin is deep and everlasting because of jesus. 

So put your trust in him 

Like Mary in this chapter  

Blessed is the person who believes, rejoicing in being his, waiting for him, trusting. 

Pray 

Luke 1v1-4

Luke 1v1-4

We are embarking upon a new series in the gospel of Luke 

written by Luke a Gentile and a Doctor 

written to someone called Theophilus.. who may have been 

• a Roman Official hence his title Most Excellent who was interested in Christianity. 
• a lawyer who was defending Christians on trial - Paul? - Luke writes his gospel and his subsequent book, Acts, as a legal brief for a defence Lawyer. This is what’s been happening. 
• the name could be a catch all term for anyone reading this book and coming to faith in Jesus because the name is a compound of two greek words Theos - God and Philos - Love. Theophilus means loved by God or lover of God. 

and that’s one of the big purposes of Luke’s gospel you see. the book is all about the love of God on display in the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Saviour of the world. God loves you.. and he wants you to love him in return. Love him back. Theophilus. 

Well let’s have a look at Luke’s opening words with which he introduces his gospel

vv1-4  luke tells us straight up his aim in writing his gospel 

v4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. 

Certainty - that’s Luke’s aim 

and that’s immediately difficult 

certainty is a bit of a dirty word isn’t it in our culture. More so than anywhere i would say in Dalston, in Hackney. Certainty - at it’s best is arrogance - a kind of i’m right and everybody is wrong dogmatism. At it’s worst certainty is to blame for the terrible things that we have seen in Paris this weekend. 

There’s no place for certainty. 

And yet there’s a kind of certainty that we all embrace; engage in every day of our lives that i think is closer to the certainty that Luke is talking about here. We’re all certain about some things: that strawberries fresh in summertime taste wonderful; that a swim in the sea is exhilharating; that our babies in church are beautiful and worth fighting for. Lots of things that we’re certain about. they are self evident to us, to our hearts.. 

And that’s the certainty of faith that Luke I think is talking about when it comes to the person of Jesus and the truth of God and the love of God. 

he wants us to grow in that because it will make us people of love. 

and so 3 things from just these opening verese 

be certain about jesus 

be certain it’s true 

be certain about salvation  

1. Be certain about Jesus 

Strange phrase 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us. The reports that Luke is ordering are reports of historical events but historical events of a special character: these are not merelythings that have happened but ‘things that have been fulfilled[a] among us,’

London Acquatic centre yesterday. Reminded me of the London Olympics. gold rush. sports you’ve never heard of - clay pigeon shooting and tai kwondo and dominos. our gold medalists - virtual unknowns come from nowhere and become household names (for a few weeks anyway) for them of course the gold medal didn’t just happen from nowhere. it is the fulfilment of years and years of dreaming and training and competing. it’s only when you know something of that background that you understand the true significance of what they’ve fulfilled - what it really means. 

well luke here in his gospel describes the life of Jesus Christ as a fulfilment. Actually THE fulfilment. the fulfilment of human history.  JCs life and death and resn, luke tells us, is the proof and climax of God’s working in the world for centuries before it occurred. 

and this is really important 

our salvation, the salvation of our world - is rooted in ancient somehwat events - a man dying on a cross 2000 years ago, 2000 miles away. in the concrete streets of modern life it feels precisely that - very distant. how can these 1st Cobscure events make a difference to my life in the 21st C? make a difference to the future of this planet???

But you see these events were not just isolated occurences somewhere in distant history. they didn’t just happen. they were filfilment. Jesus didn’t just appear from nowhere; out of the blue. Luke will show us even as we read his gospel over the next few weeks how Jesus’ coming was the climax and fulfilment of the plan of GOD which itself stretches back 1000s of years before him. 

so luke’s gospel will bring us face to face with JC in all his meaning and significance 

and we all need that no matter where we are in our believing. we all need that if we are to establish any kind of certainty. we need to encounter JC as he truly is. 

Many people say something like this: ‘in order for me to believe in God i would require a watertight argument.’ Well God hasn’t given us a watertight argument. Actually he’s given us something far better. he has given us a person. JC- there are no holes on him, there’s no escaping him. He’s the watertight person against whom there ultimately can be no argument. And Millions have found that to be true. Just by looking at the life of JC they have found HIM intellectually inescapable and certain. …

—————-

what will we see as we look at JC as Luke portrays him?  

2 sides: 

on the one hand we will see his welcome. his inclusion of people who, in that culture, were total outsiders. we see him time and again reaching out to the poor, women, children, prostitutes, lepers, to colaborators with the enemy, to gentiles. He brings the outsider in. and we modern people we love that kind of thing. we love that openness. especially if we’re from hackney ‘isn’t this remarkable?’ we say. 

but you know it’s way more remarkable with Jesus. because this was utterly unheard of in his day. there was no 1stC children in need. Charity was seen as weakness. No, Jesus was utterly unique in this, in reaching out to the outcast. jesus literally turned his world upside down and his welcome it could be argued has shaped the kind of just society that we benefit from today..  

so that’s the one hand - his welcome. 

but on the other hand - a seeming contrast - his claims. you are gonna see Jesus on every page making the most self centred claims. Claims about himself.. which go beyond megalomania. Routinely Jesus says that He is going to judge the world at the end of human history; he says that he is the giver of life;  that He alone has authority to forgive sins; that he is equal with God the Father! Now we kind of get used to jesus saying these things, that’s what he does. but face it as it is. His claims go way beyond all of the megalomaniacs of history outside of mental instititions. Beyond the Hitlers, beyond the Stalins and yet of course the reason why we don’t lump Jesus in with these lunatics is because combined with his self centred claims is the moral beauty that we have just mentioned. Jesus is kind, Jesus is tender. He lays down his life in love. 

How do you explain him? 

How do you explain claims like that and a life like that? 

You see over the years millions of people have looked and looked and looked and come to the conclusion that this is inescapable. he must be who he said he is. 

So you see in a way it’s a dangerous thing to look at JC in Luke’s gospel because he himself engenders certainty. 

When the sun comes up in the morning (if it does! this is the summer or somewhere with decent weather) and it’s on your face you don’t need me to say let me prove to you that the sun is bright and hot. It’s self evident. Well in the same way how do you know that there is a glorious God?  Not an infallible argument but a person. 

As the apostle Paul writes ‘we are given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

So are you still waiting for a water tight argument? Well look, doesn’t God have the right to send you a water tight person instead? It is as we look at Jesus Christ that our certainty is deepened. 

Are you struggling to grow in joy and assurance and confidence as a Christian? Well It is as we look at Jesus Christ that our certainty is deepened. 

be certain about Jesus - the fulfilment 

2. Be certain that it’s true 

Face to Faith - Guardian. David Bradnack retd. teacher 

“My salvation finally came when well into adulthood i found that there was at least one intellectually acceptable way of explaining that whatever happened about AD33 was not a resurrection as understood by the pious and that the gospels are not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” And he finishes by saying “The creed makes christianity the religion of deception. Either you deceive yourself into believing in the virgin birth and the resn as literal fact and you know they’re metaphor or you mouth the words to deceive the gullible that they must believe them.” 

I think he’s capturing, perhaps in a bit of an extreme way, the prevailing mood in 21st C London about the gospels. These events really happened? Come on! These are legends. Wonderful legends. Metaphors of new life and love. Not something that we’re literally supposed to accept. 

The problem with that is that such an idea is completely foreign to Luke here in his first 4 verses. See Luke explains his method in composing his and it blasts this kind of call to uncertainty out of the water.

When it comes to the writing of his gospel, Luke tells us that he is acting as a journalist. He’s done careful research in order to give us an orderly account. In v1 he tells us about the existence of many accounts of the life of Jesus that he has studied and compared and used. Luke without doubt had the gospel of Mark open infront of him. Well over half of Mark is quoted verbatim in Luke’s gospel. So Luke has open on his desk all the other accounts.. But more than that v2 Luke says i not only checked on everything that has been written i also went and interviewed the eyewitnesses; people who were there,  to check and see if what is written in these accounts matches what these people really saw. Yes or no? 

You know one of the things that you occasionally get in Luke’s gospel is comment about how people felt about what they experienced about Jesus. In the next few weeks we’ll encounter Mary the mother of Jesus, receiving the news of her pregnancy, giving birth, bringing up her child - and we get a glimpse of her feelings, the internal working of her heart. How? Because Luke interviewed Mary. He asked her about these things. She told him. 

the life of jesus has fantastical elements to it, yes. but they are never presented as myth, legend or metaphor but as fact, history, true events. God in this world! historians date luke’s gospel somewhere between the late 50s to early 70s AD - that’s 25-40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. I guess the reason why Luke wanted to get his gospel into the public domain so early was so that it couldn’t be passed off as legend. You could go and speak to the eyewitnesses yourself. 

Now let me press on a little side bar here because there’s an obvious other problem for us. 

The text of Luke’s gospel that we have translated in our english Bibles is not directly from what Luke wrote down. What I mean is we do not have, sitting in a museum somewhere Luke’s own original of his gospel. The earliest copy that we have of Luke’s gospel is a fragment of the Lord’s prayer, it’s called papyrus 75, it’s in the Vatican and it’s dated 200 AD - about 130 years after Luke wrote his original. the earliest full copies of Luke that we have are the codex vaticanus and the codex siniaticus. Both of those full copies date around 330 AD so some 300 years after Luke’s original.

And of course it’s that gap which introduces doubt in our minds isn’t it? Because the codex sinaiticus which lives in the British Library down the road, ancient as it is, is still only a copy of a copy or a copy of a copy of Luke’s original. And we have to wonder has there been some funny business going on with the copyists whereby somewhere along the line the story was changed. That’s an argument you hear. That the real Jesus of Luke was not the fantastical Jesus of the gospels we have. Couldn’t it have been that the legends grew up during that gap. 

Well it’s a legitmate question.. 

However using the standards and science of historical scholarship the NT has strong credibility. 

See, we want to believe that the writings that we have from antiquity are the actual writings of Plato, Tacitus, Homer, Aristotle whoever it is. And the way we build that credibility is by comparing the earliest tangible copies that we have of those documents.. 

For example Plato was writing in 400BC the earliest fragment copies that we have of his writings are from 900AD - a gap of 1200 years. And the number of ancient manuscripts we have of Plato? 10. BUt because they’re discovered in different places we can compare them and if they are alike we can conclude that the copies through the ages have been accurate. 

Let’s do a better one Homer’s poem The Iliad - written 900BC, earliest fragment copy 400BC a gap of 500 years. Number of ancient manuscripts 643. We can be sure that the Iliad that we study at school is Homer’s 

What about the NT? I love this. This builds my certainty..

Written in it’s entirety between 40-100AD - the earliest fragment we have is a fragment of John’s gospel in the John Ryland museum in Manchester. it dates to 125AD - only 50 years after the writing of John.  We’ve already said that the earliest full copies we have are just 300 years after the original. But here’s the thing. Number of ancient manuscripts: Full copies in Greek 5,300; full copies in Latin:10,000 other early fragments of the NT 9, 300 of which more than a thousand are in languages other than Greek - Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic and Ethiopic. 24,000 manuscripts in total found all over the middle east representing hundreds of lines of passing down copy from copy from copy and when the manuscripts are compared to form the most uptodate versions of the greek NT from which our engish versions are translated. the differences in those far flung copies are minimal. 

The NT has been remarkably preserved for us! 

The scholar John Warwick Montgomery comments “To be sceptical of the resultant text of the NT is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the NT”  That’s an understatement!

Be certain it’s true!

we’re almost out of time but very briefly as we end 

3. be certain about salvation 

It’s a book about salvation. 

We all love stories don’t we. If you eat with friends or go for a walk in the country or a drink down the boozer. Conversation normally revolves around stories where you want others to know something and be affected by it to involve others in your experience.. And story follows story…

Luke here is not just a journalist, he’s a novelist 

He tells us right from the outset that while he’s not writing legend, he is writing ‘the story’ of Jesus Its actually there in v1 it’s the greek word diagesis meaning story or narrative and unfortunately it hasn’t been translated that way in NIV. What it actually reads is ‘Many have undertaken to draw up a story of the things that have been fulfilled among us. and luke said it seemed good for me to do the same. I think probably the NIV chooses a different word because of the connotations that story has with fiction? 

what luke is writing is true but a true story

what luke is emphasising is that his aim wasn’t to put together a compendium of jesus’ teachings or a collection of his sayings or vignettes of examples to follow from his life.  

no from the beginning Luke says i want to tell you the story of Jesus 

why? 

Luke writes story because it’s not the teachings, hte sayings or the example but the actions of Jesus that save you. 

When it comes to the salvation of the world he is the hero of the story not us 

In this respect Christianity is unique

In all other religions the focus is not so much on the story of their spiritual leader but on that leader’s teaching. And if there are events recorded of that leaders life they are primarily there as examples to be followed. And that’s becaus ein every other religious system you’re saved by the way you live. By following that inspirational teaching and example. 

But you see in xianity it’s the exact opposite. For a start the moral teachings of Jesus are not inspirational and uplifting. they are unachievable and humbling: Be perfect as God is perfect says the sermon on the mount. You’ve heard it said do not kill i say never become angry. You’ve heard it said don’t commit adultery, i say if you a look at someone lustfully you’ve committed adultery. Do not worry. Love your enemies. these teachings are not inspiring they’re impossible, they’re devastating - you can’t do them. nobody can. 

people say ‘oh i love the sermon on the mount - i try to live it” they’ve never read it. when you read it you end up saying “God save me from the sermon on the mount!” 

and that’s the point 

the Bible says we are fallen, spiritually broken people and so our great need is not for a teacher to tell us what to do but for a saviour to do for us what we cannot do our great need is not for an example to show us how to live but for a saviour to live the life that we should have lived and to die the death that we susequently deserve to die. 

we need one who will come and act on our behalf 

and luke says praise God he’s come 

this is why Luke gives us the story of Jesus because it is the actions of Jesus that we need. hsi actions for us. 

we cannot save ourselves. if it was down to us there would be no certainty about our salvation. have i done enough? 

But Jesus Christ is the saviour of the world. And here is the story of that great salvation he has enacted for us

That’s why we can be certain about salvation. It’s down to him. 

Certainity

certainty about Jesus 

certainty that it’s true 

certainty about salvation 

the certainty of heart makes us people of love

let’s pray