We in our culture are increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of authority aren’t we? 
We don’t trust those in authority over us. Politicians, the police, church leaders. In too many places they have been shown up to be flawed or corrupt. Using power not for public service but for personal gain And so we have lost trust. So perhaps we are uncomfortable with the authority of Jesus.. 

And yet… 

Recognise the way that Jesus exercises his authority. It is always actually as a servant. It is always to set the captive free. To heal the suffering.

At the heart of what it means to be a Christian is active obedience to Jesus Christ. Willing submission to his rule. Jesus is not just Saviour, He is Lord. 
I wonder how we instinctively feel about that? because obedience and submission, even authority are dirty words in our culture. 
[David Cameron’s dressing down this week by astudent. “I’m an English literature student. I know waffling when i see it’’ she said.]
The supreme values of our culture now are self-determination and personal freedom. Why would you ever do what somebody else says? No-one else has the right to tell you how to live your life. Why would you obey or willingly be mastered by someone else? You’re not a dog! At best it’s demeaning at worst it’s sinister! 

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. 

Our culture is 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 

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. 

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..

The disciples had 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!

"Follow me." 

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. 

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.. 

The leper is all of us.  For we are all unclean and we need Jesus Christ. And he can make us clean.. 

...what about you?  has Jesus come for you? Are you there yet? Are you ready to leave everything behind for him. A real disciple.. 

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? 

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. 

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....

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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!

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.