11 December 2016
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Luke 2:41-52
Luke 2:41-52 [New
International Version (NIV)]
41 Every year
Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he
was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43
After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy
Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he
was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for
him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went
back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the
temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his
answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to
him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been
anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you
searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s
house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went
down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured
all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and man.
-- about
halfway through December one year, this family was at home in the midst of
getting ready for Christmas -- they were wrapping packages and putting out
decorations, when they heard a knock on the door -- when they went to the door,
no one was there -- but somebody had left a package on the porch -- they opened
up the package and inside was a beautiful ceramic lamb
-- well,
the next night, the same thing happened -- there was a knock on the door -- and
when they opened it, no one was there -- but there was another package on the
porch -- this time the package was a ceramic shepherd that matched the lamb -- and
they realized that these were all part of a nativity set
-- they
looked at the calendar, and found out that the mysterious packages started
arriving when there were only 12 days left until Christmas
-- every
night they'd wait to see whether they'd get another package and what piece they
would get -- by Christmas Eve, all the pieces of the nativity were in place,
except for the baby Jesus
-- by
this time, the kids in the family really wanted to find out who was leaving the
packages -- so on Christmas Eve, the 12-year old son hid out in the minivan to
watch and see who was bringing the gifts, but no one ever came -- they waited
all night for the mysterious knock on the door, but no knock ever came
-- they
worried that maybe the person had seen their son in the van and gotten scared
off -- the husband suggested that maybe whoever it was had dropped the baby
Jesus and broken Him and that there wouldn't be anything else coming this year
-- they
checked the porch again right before they went to bed, but still no package --
the next morning, when the kids got up -- even before they opened their
presents -- they went to the door to see if the baby Jesus might have shown up
-- still nothing
-- so
with a glance at the incomplete nativity set, they began opening up their gifts
from under the tree -- but this year, something seemed different -- the mother
said that the event had changed her focus -- she knew that there were presents
under the tree for her, and that it was exciting to watch the children open
their gifts, but the main thing on her mind was the feeling of missing Jesus --
of anxiously waiting for the ceramic baby Jesus to complete their Christmas set
-- when
they were almost through opening the presents, they came to one small package shoved
way up under the tree -- it had been given to the mother by a lady in church
whom she had helped earlier in the year -- the woman said it was just a token
of her love and appreciation
-- the
mother started unwrapping the present and as the paper fell away, she began to
tremble and cry -- there in the small brown box was the baby Jesus for their
nativity set -- what they had been missing and longing for had been with them
the whole time -- they had just lost Him in the hustle and bustle of Christmas
II. Scripture Lesson (Luke 2:41-52)
-- this morning, I want us to look
at a familiar passage in the Bible about the time Jesus was lost -- we find it
here in the second chapter of the gospel of Luke
-- if you would, look back with me
at verse 41
41 Every year
Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he
was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43
After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy
Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he
was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for
him among their relatives and friends.
-- this is the only place in the
Bible where we find this story of Jesus getting lost -- it’s interesting that
we find it here in this second chapter of Luke -- because this is the chapter
of Jesus’ life before His ministry
-- this chapter opens with the birth
of Jesus -- angels show up in the fields outside of Bethlehem and announce to
the shepherds there that the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for had finally
come -- the long wait was over -- the Messiah had been born -- and it follows
the shepherds into Bethlehem right into the stable, where they see the newborn
Christ and then go out and spread the word that the Savior had been found
-- then we read of Jesus’
presentation in the Temple as part of the purification rites -- and there we
are introduced to Simeon and Anna -- who have been waiting and hoping and
longing for the Christ to come -- who joyfully take the Christ-child into their
arms and announce to those around them the ministry to which this child was
born
-- then twelve years later, we read
here of Jesus coming back to the Temple with His parents for the celebration of
the Feast of the Passover -- according to the Torah, all Jewish males were to
visit Jerusalem to celebrate three feasts: the Passover -- Pentecost, also known
as the Feast of Weeks -- and the Feast of Tabernacles, which was also known as
Booths -- if they lived distant from Jerusalem, they were only required to go up
annually for the Passover feast
-- after reading
this passage, a Sunday school teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took
Jesus with them to Jerusalem -- one little kid had a great answer, "They probably
couldn't get a baby sitter."
-- now that’s not the real reason,
but it’s funny, none-the-less -- Jesus, at twelve years of age, would have been
at the point in His life when His basic rabbinic teachings were coming to an
end -- all young Jewish boys were taught the Torah in their synagogues or by
their father until they were around twelve years old -- and then those who were
most promising and who had the means to do so would seek additional training
under a Rabbi, who would carry them deeper into the teachings of God -- you can
think of it as starting seminary
-- so now at twelve, we see Jesus
coming up from Nazareth with His parents to Jerusalem -- back to the Temple --
to celebrate the Feast according to the custom of the Jews
-- after the Passover had ended, Mary
and Joseph headed back home with their caravan of friends and family -- even
though the Romans controlled the province of Israel, it was probably safer to
travel in a group -- and so family and friends would travel together to and
from Jerusalem, especially for the major feasts
-- but something interesting
happened as they headed home -- they lost Jesus -- after about a day of
traveling, they realized that they didn’t know where Jesus was -- in the hustle
and bustle of getting everything loaded up and hitting the road, they just
forgot Him -- they just assumed that He was walking with somebody else in their
caravan and would show up at some point -- but He didn’t and so they started
looking for Him among their relatives and their friends
-- Greg Laurie points out something
important about this passage -- he wrote that Mary and Joseph hadn’t “lost
their love for Him or their faith -- they just lost Him”
-- and he goes on to say something
quite profound that’s important for us this time of the year -- this can happen
to us, too -- we can lose Jesus if we’re not careful -- as Laurie point out, “we
are so busy celebrating the birth of Christ that we can forget about Christ --
God’s only begotten Son can become God’s only forgotten Son” at Christmas
-- Mary and Joseph loved Jesus --
they believed in Him -- they knew the circumstances of His conception and birth
like no one else -- they knew He was the promised Messiah -- that had been
confirmed by the angels and shepherds and Simeon and Anna -- out of all the
people in the world that you would have expected to not lose Jesus, it would
have been them -- but, yet they lost Him
-- I have no doubt that everybody
here loves Jesus just as Mary and Joseph did -- these Advent and Christmas
seasons that we are getting ready for are celebrated because of our love for
Jesus -- for who He is and what He has done -- for the promises we have in Him
-- as the cliche goes, “Jesus is the reason for the season”
-- but all too often, we can get so
caught up in the preparations and the celebrations, that we forget what it’s
all about in the first place -- we lose Jesus under our trees, just like the
family in my opening illustration -- just like Mary and Joseph on the way back
from Jerusalem after Passover -- this is something that we have to be aware of
and guard against in our lives
-- but let’s say we realize that we
have forgotten Jesus -- we’ve lost Him somewhere along the way -- how do you
find what is lost?
-- look at verse 45
45 When they did
not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days
they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to
them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his
understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished.
His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father
and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you
searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s
house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went
down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured
all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and man.
-- what do you do when you lose
something? -- I am all the time losing something important -- it’s like I lay
stuff down and then can’t find it again
-- we were out at the agility trial
at Reed Bingham this weekend, and I had been using my headlamp to find stuff in
the back of the truck and pick up limbs for the fire after dark -- I had used
it all weekend -- but yesterday, when I was getting ready to come home for the
night, I looked in my backpack, and it wasn’t where it was supposed to be -- I
couldn’t find it -- I had lost it
-- so what do you do when you can’t
find something -- what I do is try to retrace my steps and go back to where I
was at to see if I can find it there -- usually, that works -- so I rechecked
the pocket of the shirt was wearing -- I looked on the picnic table by the fire
-- looked in the bus where I sometimes lay it -- and finally, I remembered I
had been wearing my heavy jacket, so I grabbed it from the truck, and there was
my headlight, right there in the pocket of the jacket
-- the same is true for finding
Jesus when He’s lost, too -- in Revelation 2:4-5, Jesus counsels the church in
Ephesus -- He tells them that they have forsaken their first love -- they had
lost their first love -- they had forgotten Jesus
-- and so Jesus tells them to go
back to where they were before -- to retrace their steps -- He tells them to
remember and repent -- to do the things they did at first if they want to find
their first love again -- if they want to find Jesus again
-- that’s what Mary and Joseph did
-- they retraced their steps -- they went back to Jerusalem -- back to the
Temple -- back to the place where you would expect to find the Savior -- and
there they found Jesus, sitting at the feet of the Rabbis and the teachers
III. Closing
-- one day this church was having a
baptismal service down at the baptizing hole in the river -- an old drunk was
wandering by and saw the preacher standing out in the water and waded out and
stood beside him -- the preacher looked over and saw the drunk standing there
and asked, "Are you ready to find Jesus?" -- the drunk said,
"Yes" -- so the preacher grabbed him and plunged him under the water
-- the drunk came up from the water and
the preacher asked him, "Have you found Jesus?" -- the drunk said,
"No" -- so the preacher plunged him back under again -- he brought
him back up and asked him again, "Have you found Jesus?" -- the drunk
answered again, "No"
-- thoroughly disgusted by this time, the
minister grabbed the drunk, plunged him under the water, and held him there for
a good thirty seconds -- the drunk came back up, gasping for air, spitting and
sputtering -- the preacher yelled at the drunk this time, "Have you found
Jesus?" -- the drunk replied, "No, but before you put me back under
again, are you sure this is where He fell in?"
-- what do we need to do to find
Jesus again at Christmas? -- we need to retrace our steps -- we need to go back
to the place where we last saw Him -- to the places where we would expect to
find Jesus hanging out
-- church is always a good place to
start -- and I’m glad to see all of you here this morning -- but one day out of
seven won’t keep you from losing Jesus the rest of the week -- we need to go to
the places where Jesus can be found every day -- if we want to find Jesus and
keep from losing Him again this Christmas season, we need to be diligent and
committed to seeking Him daily in His word -- in our prayers -- in our
conversation and fellowship with others
-- the daily disciplines -- the
means of grace by which we find Jesus and experience Him in our lives
-- this isn’t rocket science, but it
might as well be if we aren’t using the tools at our disposal -- you’ve heard
the old adage, “if you don’t use it, you lose it” -- there’s a lot of truth to
that
-- to keep from losing Jesus, we have to be intentional
about keeping Him close -- we have to be intentional about doing the things
that keep Him close -- we can’t let the busyness of life make us forget about
Him -- we can’t let the worries of life cause us to misplace Him -- we have to
be living for God -- we have to be sure that He is with us
-- this means we have to be in a right relationship with
Him -- living holy and devout lives of faithfulness -- ready for His coming and
sure that He will never leave us or forsake us -- but we have to be careful
that we don’t walk away or leave Him behind because we get too busy or caught
up with other things
-- as we close and leave here to continue getting ready
for Christmas, don’t forget to take Jesus with you when you leave -- look
around -- make sure He’s with you -- and keep Him close this holiday season
-- let us pray
