Untitled Sermon (4)

Good Morning Church! Happy New Year!

If you have a Bible, find your way to the gospel of Luke chapter 2. We will be in verses 21-24 this morning.

If you are new, My name is Ryan, I’m the lead pastor here. I want to thank you for joining us this morning either here in person or online.

I want to thank our worship and production team for working hard to getting the band back together this morning. Starting the year out with a bang!

I’m going to preach and then we are going to turn them lose again.

We are going to dive right back into our sermon series, Jesus For All. Looking at Luke’s gospel....learning about the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Last week we looked at the Christmas story…the birth of Christ....and this morning we are continuing right on with the story.

The Gospel of Luke belongs to the Synoptic Gospels along with Matthew and Mark.

Exalting Jesus in Luke A Growing Boy (Luke 2:21–52)

the term synoptic means to “see together.” These three Gospels tell the story of our Lord’s earthly life from largely the same perspective.

In these gospels we see much of the life of Christ as a newborn and an adult. Details of his childhood, teenage, and early adult years are pretty silent.

However, in Luke chapter 2 we are given THREE distinct encounters of Christ’s early life.

We see his circumcision, his presentation in the temple, and Jesus hanging in the temple as his parents forget about him.

Over the next three weeks we are going to look at each of these events in detail.

I think we will learn a lot from these short snippets....we will learn about Christ but I also think we as parents can learn some things as well.

So if you are a parent (kids at home or grown)....these next three sermons are for you. If you’re not a parent…these sermons are still for you as well.

In the commentary Exalting Jesus in Luke, the author says....

Exalting Jesus in Luke A Growing Boy (Luke 2:21–52)

The opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel reveal nearly everything we know about our Lord’s first twelve years on earth. Luke tells us “the boy grew up and became strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was on him” (v. 40), and “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people” (v. 52).

Three factors contributed to Jesus’s wisdom and stature before God and man. I trust our children need these three factors as well.

So for the next three weeks I am going to tell you THREE THINGS YOUR KIDS NEED THIS YEAR.

Here’s the first thing your kids need this year. If you are taking notes I encourage you to write this down.

YOUR KIDS NEED RIGHTEOUS PARENTS.

Your kids need parents who strive to do whats right and live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord according to His word.

Notice I didn't say your kids need perfect parents. They need righteous ones.

Maybe you are like me and as 2022 comes to a close you look back and see all the ways you failed your kids.

The missed opportunities, anger and frustration aimed toward them. Apathy. Laziness.

Here is the good news in Christ. He makes all things new. 2023 is a new year. Today make a commitment not to be a perfect parent, but a righteous one.

Let’s read our passage for this morning....

English Standard Version Chapter 2

21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Jesus Presented at the Temple

22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

PRAY

As believers, we believe in a God that we can not see. We believe in a crucifixion and resurrection that we were not there for. We read all of what we believe from a book that was written thousands of years ago, handed down from age to age....not even having the original copy.

All of this required ONE thing. Faith.

At the foundation of righteous living is one thing. FAITH

Living a life for Christ, in accordance to HIs word and will takes FAITH.

You can not be a righteous parent, let alone a righteous person without faith.

We saw from the book of Hebrews that it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith.

In this passage we see two ways that Jesus had righteous parents.

ONE. They took God at his word when it came to naming their son.

Look at verse 21, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

God had the authority so he got to name the baby. Mary and Joseph responded with faith in what God had said.

Mary and Jospeh obeyed by calling their son, Jesus.

Jesus was a common name back in the day just like John was.

This is interesting. God gave Jesus a common name so that he could relate with his brothers. He could relate with us.

God didn't give Jesus a crazy name that no one had ever heard of before. No, jesus was a common name.

Jesus in Hebrew would be the same as Joshua. Joshua and Jesus are the same.

The name Jesus means ‘The Lord is Salvation.’

PREACH ABOUT THAT. JESUS IS SALVATION TODAY. HE IS YOUR ONLY HOPE.

Notice not just the name, but also see the timing of the name...

“before he was in the womb.”

Talk about Gods timing

Talk about how God is outside of time.

Mary and Joseph were righteous in the way they named christ. They took God at his word and named their son Jesus.

Next we see that Mary and Joseph were righteous because they read and observed God’s word.

God’s word was the authority in their life and they passed that down to their son. We see this lived out in the beginning of verse 21.

‘At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised....’