Naylor Community Christian Church
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Luke 2:41-52
Luke
2:41 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.
-- I
read about this single mother who had two young sons -- she was having a
difficult time with them, and they were getting into all kinds of trouble --
one day, after they had been caught taking something that didn't belong to
them, the mother went to talk to her pastor -- "Leave it to me," he
said. "I'll make sure and put the fear of God in them and make sure they
know that they need Jesus in their lives"
--
so, on Sunday morning, the preacher started in on one of those hellfire and
brimstone sermons -- at one point, he turned and pointed his finger right at
the oldest boy and shouted, "Do you know where Jesus is? Do you know where Jesus is?" -- the oldest boy jumped up from the pew and
took off running for the back of the church with his little brother hot on his
heels
--
when they made it outside the church, the older brother turned to his little
brother and said, "We're in trouble now." His brother said, "What do you
mean?" -- the older brother said, "Jesus is missing and they think we
did it."
-- this
morning, we are looking at the passage from Luke where Jesus really does go
missing -- it’s a familiar passage -- it’s a passage we’ve looked at before,
but as we know from Hebrews 4:12, “the Word of God is alive and active -- Sharper
than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow -- it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” -- that
means that God can and will speak to us in passages that we’ve studied before
or heard taught before -- such as the passage before us today
-- in
case you haven’t realized it yet, since Advent, we have been progressing
through the life of Christ in our messages for the last several weeks -- we
began in Advent by looking at the miracle of the incarnation -- at how God
prepared the world to receive His Son by first gracing Zechariah and Elizabeth
with a child, who would grow up to be John the Baptist and who was sent to
prepare the way for the Lord
-- we
then looked at the announcement to Mary and Joseph that they, too, would have a
child -- only their child would come through the power and presence of the Holy
Spirit and He would be the Son of God -- and then we moved through Christmas
and the birth of Jesus to the Epiphany -- the revealing of Jesus as the King of
the Jews to the world through the visit of the Magi -- and then on to the story
last week of Simeon and Anna’s prophecy about Jesus when He was presented in
the temple at 41 days of age
-- the
story this morning is the next chapter in Jesus’ life -- it occurs twelve years
after Simeon and Anna prophesied about Him and proclaimed Him the long-awaited
Messiah
-- my
plan is to continue following the life and ministry of Jesus through Ash
Wednesday and the Season of Lent, right up to Easter, when we celebrate the
victory of Christ over sin and death through His resurrection
-- with
everything going on in the world today -- with wars and rumors of war in the
news -- with plagues and pestilence and disease affecting people worldwide --
with natural disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis to excessive heat and cold
affecting us -- to the political, social, and cultural conflicts in our country
and beyond -- I thought it was a good idea to take our eyes off the world -- to
silence the voices of discontent and discord -- and put our attention back on
the One we should be paying attention to and focusing on in our lives here on
earth
-- so, as
we look at the life and ministry of Christ over the next few months, we will
definitely be looking at passages that we are familiar with -- passages that we
have heard before
-- but I
want us to approach them with open eyes and open hearts and open minds -- without
thinking that we have already heard this and know everything about these
stories and messages from the Bible -- so that we can see these passages in
light of what God is doing in our lives and in this world today -- and hear His
message for us today -- so that we can grow closer to God as we begin to give
Jesus all our attention and focus again and begin to love Him again with all
our hearts, minds, soul, and strength
-- so,
with that long introduction, let’s begin our study for this morning
II. Scripture Lesson (Luke 2:41-52)
-- if you would, look back with me
at verse 41-44
Luke
2:41 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.
-- so, as we come to the end of
Chapter 2, Luke closes his account of the early years of Jesus’ life -- we don’t
know a lot about the early life of Jesus -- we have records of His birth in
Bethlehem and the Magi coming to visit -- we know that He was taken to Egypt by
Mary and Joseph to protect Him from the wrath of Herod -- and we know that He
came back to live in Nazareth with His parents
-- but we hear nothing more about
Jesus’ childhood until Luke gives us this story of Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem
for the Feast of the Passover when He was twelve years old -- as far as we
know, this is the first time that Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem with His
parents to celebrate this feast and to worship with them and the other
believers in the temple
-- after reading
this passage one morning, a Sunday school teacher asked her class why they
thought Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem at this time -- 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, was on the
precipice of becoming an adult according to Jewish customs -- when a child
turned 13 years of age, they were considered adults and were now responsible
for their own actions -- before, they had been under the protection and
education of their parents -- but now, they were to move on into adulthood by
taking responsibility for their religious, social, and cultural lives
-- Jewish communities today still
recognize this transition into adulthood -- that’s what a Bar Mitzva or Bat
Mitzva celebrates -- when a Jewish boy or girl turns 13, this ceremony
signifies the leaving behind of their childhood and childish ways and the start
of their adult life and all the responsibilities therein
-- so, that’s where we find Jesus -- up to
this point, Jesus would have been under the guardianship and tutelage of His
parents -- He would have received the normal education that all Jewish boys
received -- every Jewish boy was taught the Torah -- the Jewish scriptures -- in
their synagogues and by their father until they were around twelve or thirteen years
old -- they were given a basic education in Jewish life, especially in the
religious traditions and practices of God’s chosen people
-- after they turned 13, 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 -- they
would go live with the Rabbi and be trained to be a Rabbi or scholar or scribe
-- you can think of it as starting higher education with a focus on religious
training
-- the rest of the Jewish children
would begin vocational training -- apprenticing with either their father or
another craftsman to learn a trade that they would carry on in their adult life
-- so now at the age of twelve, we
see Jesus coming up from Nazareth with His parents to Jerusalem to celebrate
the Feast as an adult for the first time, according to the custom of the Jews
-- and I want to pause here for just
a second to make a statement -- it’s common for us to see people post on social
media or ask friends for church recommendations -- and, invariably, they will
always make the statement, “We’re looking for a church with children’s programs”
-- and the implication here is that if a church doesn’t have a program for
children, then they’re not going to attend
-- we’ve all been in churches that
had programs like that -- usually, the kids sit in the church until after the
singing is over -- and then there might be a children’s sermon taught up front at
the altar -- but at some point, the children will be taken out of the church
and into the back for the children’s program -- some churches have similar
programs for kids during the week where they are separated from the adults
-- but I want you to know that this
is not a biblical practice -- not as part of the church or the Jewish religious
communities -- and I have to question whether this is a good thing
-- statistics show that there is a
vast falling away of young people from the faith after they leave home -- there
are certainly many reasons for this, but one reason has to be that they were
not taught how to worship God as adults -- they were not given the foundations
of the faith and were not taught by the example of their parents -- they were
separated from the main life of the church -- ushered into the back and into
separate programs just for them -- and, as a result, when they become adults
and leave home for the first time, they do not have the foundation or the
established practice of worship in their lives -- and it's easy for them to
fall away
-- I know that this is not an issue
for us here today -- we don’t have any kids in our church -- but we will -- and
when they come -- when we start to get kids coming to the church -- we need to
keep this in mind and we need to consider whether setting up alternative children’s
programs is the best thing or not, because it doesn’t appear to be preparing
our children and young people for a life with Christ as adults
-- I want to encourage you to take
some time and think about this and consider it and explain this to people when
they ask if we have children’s programs -- in my mind, it may be best to not
have alternative children’s programs, but to follow the example we see here in
the Scripture -- where young children are taught by their parents and other
people in their community and are involved in worship as a family and not
shunted off into the back, so that they can learn how to worship and live for
Christ through the example of the adults around them
-- that’s what happened in the life
of Jesus -- and that’s what happened to all young boys in Jesus’ day -- they would
be trained in the Scriptures until they reached the age of 12 or 13, at which
point they were expected to take up the responsibility for their own spiritual
lives and begin participating in the faith community as adults -- just as we
see Jesus doing here in this passage
-- let’s move on
-- 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 [Jesus] or their faith -- they just lost Him”
-- now understand this: Mary and
Joseph loved Jesus -- they believed in Him -- they knew the circumstances of
His conception and birth like no one else -- more so than anyone else on earth,
they knew Jesus was the promised Messiah -- that had been confirmed to them by
Gabriel at the time of Jesus’ conception -- by the angels in the field the
night of His birth -- by the shepherds who visited them in the stable -- and by
Simeon and Anna when Jesus was presented in the temple at 41 days of age
-- 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 still lost Him -- and we can, too
-- I have no doubt that everybody
here loves Jesus just as Mary and Joseph did -- but I can tell you, from my own
personal experience, it is all too easy to lose Jesus in our lives, especially
when things get busy -- especially when we’re occupied with doing life -- with
just getting by -- with doing all that we have to do
-- think about Jesus’ parable of the
sower who goes out and scatters the seed -- Jesus said some of that seed fell
among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants -- He told His disciples that
these are the people who hear His word -- who receive His word -- who love Him
-- but who lose Him because of the worries of life and chasing after wealth
-- the thing to know is that this
parable was given to the disciples -- the message was for them -- not for the
lost -- and what He’s saying there is that we can lose Him, if we’re not
careful -- we can be in a relationship with Him -- we can love Him -- we can
know that our sins are forgiven -- but we can let the thorns and weeds of life choke
us out and we can end up leaving Jesus behind,
just like Mary and Joseph did
-- they were busy -- they were
packing up -- they were worried about getting back and Joseph was probably
thinking about all the carpentry jobs he had ahead of him and how he was
getting behind in his job and he was worried and anxious -- and they lost Jesus
-- they just left Him behind
-- so, let’s say we realize that we
have done the same -- we’ve lost Jesus -- we’ve forgotten Him somewhere along
the way, just like Joseph and Mary -- how do you find what is lost?
-- look at verse 45-52
Luke
2:45 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?
-- you do what Mary and Joseph did
-- you go back to where you were -- you go back to the last place you remember
seeing the thing you lost
-- when they realized they had left Jesus,
Mary and Joseph immediately headed back to Jerusalem, the last place they had
seen Him, and started looking for Him everywhere -- they probably went back to
the place where they had stayed -- they checked with friends and family -- searched
the market -- they looked everywhere -- for three days, they searched for Him
-- and, finally, they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the
teachers, listening to them and asking them questions
-- that’s
what we do if we lose something -- we go back to where we last had it -- the
place we last knew it was with us -- and begin our search there
-- one of my favorite passages in
the Bible is from the letter to the Church in Ephesus from Revelation 2 -- in
verses 4 and 5 of this chapter, Jesus counsels the church in Ephesus -- He
tells them to look around at what they are doing and what they have -- He tells
them that they are doing a lot -- they are busy -- they have lots of programs
and ministries going on -- they are busy serving the Lord
-- but they have forgotten something --
they have lost Jesus -- He tells them that they have forsaken their first love
-- they had lost their first love -- and it doesn’t matter how much they do or
how busy they are -- even being busy serving Him -- without Him, they are
nothing -- and they need to find Him again
-- 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 works for us, too
-- Friedrich Justus Knecht wrote the
following: “Mary lost Jesus through no fault of her own; but with what sorrow
she sought Him -- with what joy she found Him! -- He to whom this misfortune
has happened -- [to those of us who have lost Jesus in our lives] -- they must
seek Jesus with sorrow and tears of penance, and he will find Him again in the
Temple (His church)”
-- what do we do when we lose something?
-- what do we do when we lose Jesus and leave Him behind?
-- we go back to where we last had
Him -- we go back to the place we last knew Him -- we go back and begin doing
the things we did when we were last with Him
-- for some of us, that means coming
back to church -- coming back to prayer -- to reading and studying the Bible --
to quiet times with God -- to setting aside the things of the world that are distracting
us and intentionally seeking God throughout our day
-- if we find that the reason for
losing Jesus is the result of sin in our lives, we confess and repent of our
sins -- we turn back to Him -- for, as John wrote in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us
from unrighteousness” -- in other words, when we get right in our relationship
with Him again, we will find Him there with us again
-- and keep in mind that this
restoration doesn’t come quickly -- it took Mary and Joseph three days to find
Jesus -- it took the disciples three days to find Jesus again after His death
on the cross -- it takes time for us to find that which was lost
-- don’t lose heart if you begin praying
and reading the Bible and setting aside time with God only to not hear from Him
or not feel Him near -- it takes time to get your heart back in alignment with
His -- it takes time for you to get back to the place where you can find Him
again
III. Closing
-- Mary and Joseph searched diligently for
Jesus for three days -- and then found Him in the place they should have gone
to first -- they found Him in the temple -- astounding the teachers with His questions
and His knowledge -- knowing more than someone at His age and His social status
should know
-- when Mary finally found Jesus and exclaimed,
“Why have you treated us like this? -- We’ve been searching for you night and
day for three days!”, Jesus responded: “Why were you searching for Me? -- Didn’t
you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
-- and it’s with that statement we realize
that Jesus wasn’t the one who was truly lost in this story -- He was where He
had always been -- He was where He should have been -- in His Father’s house --
doing the Father’s work
-- so, we come to realize here at the end
of this story, that this is not a story about Mary and Joseph losing Jesus --
but about them leaving Him behind when they should have done what was necessary
to keep Him close
-- in the same way, when we feel like we have lost Jesus
in our lives, it is not Him who is missing -- His absence is because we went on
in life and just left Him behind
-- it’s like the story of the married couple driving in a
pickup truck -- one day, the wife mentioned how far away from her husband she
was -- she told him, “when we first started dating, we always sat side by side
and you would put your arm around me and just hug me while we rode around --
but now, I’m all the way over here by the window, and you can’t even touch me”
-- to which her husband replied, “I’m not the one who moved”
--
so, to keep that from happening, we have to be intentional about where we are
in relation to Jesus -- we have to be intentional about staying close to Him --
we have to be intentional about doing the things that keep us close to Him
-- we
can’t let the busyness of life make us forget about Him -- we can’t let the
worries of this world cause us to leave Him behind -- we have to be living for
God -- we have to be in a right relationship with Him -- living holy and devout
lives of faithfulness -- doing the things we need to do to keep Jesus by our
side
--
Jesus didn’t leave Mary and Joseph -- they left Him -- and if you’re missing
Him in your life this morning, then it’s probably because you did the same
-- so, as we close this morning and leave this place and
go back into the world, don’t forget to take Jesus with you -- look around --
make sure He’s with you
-- slide
over into the middle seat again so you’re sitting right next to Him -- and don’t
leave Him behind in your life
-- let us pray
[Modified from 12
December 2021]
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