The way things are now

Intro

We were on vacation a couple of years back at Myrtle beach. And one evening we decided to go to this one area where they had a number shops and various vendors selling all kinds of things.

And one of the first places we went by was what I thought to be an information center. We were asking about where something was located, I can’t even remember what it was at this point.

And on the other side of the window was a very friendly gentleman who was quick to help. He was making small talk with me about where we were from and things like that.

Somehow the conversation turned to him wanting to give a free tickets to something. I think it was a Carolina Panthers game or something like that.

But it was what seemed to me to be a very kind gesture. And I was asking him questions about why he was giving them away and why he was offering them to us.

He made it sound like it was a promotional thing because we were a family on vacation and he just wanted to do something nice for us.

I kept saying things like what’s the catch? Or, what do I have to do get these tickets? He kept saying, there are no strings attached.

Well, as it turned out, there were strings attached. You see after wasting at least 15 minutes with this guy, we realized that this “information” booth was sponsored by a time-share company.

Now I don’t know if many of you have any experiences with time-shares, mine is limited. But I do know that for some people they are a great thing. However, once you buy into one, they are almost impossible to get out of.

And one of the tactics that these salesmen use is to give you free stuff, but in exchange you have to go to a time-share presentation.

Well, once we realized what was actually going on, we simply said no thanks and walked away.

but you know. At first, what he was presenting was very attractive. It seemed like something I would want to take advantage of. It wasn’t until I realized what it would cost me that I was no longer interested.

Ultimately, what I wanted, and what this guy was expecting of me were not the same thing and I became frustrated and angry that I wasted my time as I walked away.

Welcome to our final message in our Christmas Series: The Line. If you have been following along you know that we have been looking at the line that was drawn on that first Christmas 2,000 years ago.

How the birth of Jesus changed everything. That nothing would be the same on this side of that line.

Today we are going to look at that line one last time as we explore its significance.

Power in the Text

Now back to my time-share story. Maybe you have a similar experience where you were attracted or intrigued by something, maybe even bought into it only to find that it didn’t work exactly like you thought it would. Or it ended up costing you something you didn’t want to pay and so you abandon it.

This couldn’t have been truer for many who heard the teachings of Jesus during his Earthly ministry.

If you remember, I spoke in my first message in the series about the age of promise and how the Old Testament and its prophets spoke of a time when God would send his Messiah to fix everything that sin had destroyed.

So the Jews of the day were living with a certain level of anticipation and with that anticipation, a level of expectation.

In our text this morning we will be diving into the Luke 4, starting in verse 16.

Note that just before this we read about Jesus being tempted for 40 days in the desert by Satan himself

He has returned from that temptation victoriously and just before verse 16 we read that Jesus has begun his ministry. It says he started in Galilee and reports of his teachings and miracles began to spread almost overnight.

This is where we pick up.

Luke 4:16-20 NLT 16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Okay, so I want you to imagine now what this would have been like for those listening this day.

Here you have Jesus in his hometown with people who knew him. They know his parents, they knew him when he was a little boy. They would have watched him grow up. He was one of them.

And so now he returns home, not only to teach, but to make claim that was generations in the making.

These listeners have just been told that the promise they had been waiting for was sitting in front of them. Not only was he sitting in front of them, but they had been rubbing shoulders with him for the last 30 years.

At first, they were amazed.

Luke 4:22 NLT 22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

They were speaking well of him and amazed. They were excited for a moment at the fact that the one claiming to be the Messiah was one of their own.

It is is like whenever someone wins the lottery and then everyone comes out the woodwork trying to be a best friend in hopes that their connections my gain them something.

Well, Jesus being God in the flesh could read their thoughts and knew what was truly in their hearts.

Luke 4:23-27 NLT 23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ” 24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.

27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

In other words Jesus was exposing their motivation here. He knew that they were only interested in him for what they believed he would do for them since he was in fact one of them.

He shatters their expectations and essentially says no. He knew that he could do all these things, the healings, the miracles, but at the end of the day because he was from there, they would never acknowledge him as having the authority he truly had. They would never see him as their Lord.

Well, as you can imagine this did not go over well. They went from speaking highly of him to wanting to kill him in a matter of minutes.

Luke 4:28-30 NLT 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

The truth is, they didn’t want the Messiah that was promised. They wanted a Messiah in their own image who would do things they way they wanted them done. Jesus knew this. They rejected him, and in turn, He rejected them.

What is my point? How is this a Christmas message. This is a Christmas message because I believe at Christmas more than any other time of the year people tend to act like these Nazarenes.

We like all that Christmas has to offer and may even go to Church and participate in other Christian traditions. We put on a Christmas faith.

Christmas faith is one where Jesus stays eternally a baby who never got out of that manger.

A Christmas faith is where we speak of God’s peace and goodwill without mentioning that his peace and goodwill are reserved for those on whom Gods favor rests.

A Christmas faith is one that speaks of forgiveness and love, yet ignores the cross and God’s holy wrath that was poured out on Jesus over our sin.

A Christmas faith is one that for a few weeks out of the year we get a little more spiritual than normal, but come January 2, life goes back to normal and we pack that Christmas faith up with all our Christmas decorations and put it away until next year.

Often, we don't have a problem imagining Jesus as a sweet, small baby. The Christmas-only baby Jesus is easy to admire one day a year. It's the grown-up Jesus who calls us to lay down our lives and follow Him whom many have trouble accepting.

The breaking between B.C. and A.D. wasn't just about a birth so we could have a new holiday; it was about a new way of life. We should not have a "Christmas faith,” but a transformed life that shows Jesus’ Lordship every day of the year.

Jesus left Nazareth because he knew what they really wanted and it wasn’t what he was offering.

Like my time-share experience. They were attracted to what he was saying. What they had heard. That is until they realized what it was going to cost them.

Application/Closing

So many today have similar experiences with Jesus.

We like what we hear about love, peace, forgiveness, hope, and heaven. But when we realize what it will cost to follow Jesus...

When we realize that being a disciple is more than just saying we agree or believe something intellectually...

When we come to the place where Jesus expects our lives to change so that we more accurately bare his image...

That is when we walk away disappointed, if we even care enough to be disappointed.

A “watershed moment” is a defining moment, one that marks a drastic change in the course of someone’s life.

This metaphor is based on a physical watershed, a ridge-like land formation that divides water runoff to go one direction or another.

Our life in Christ should be marked by a watershed moment, a division in the direction of our lives or hearts based on a personal conviction of sin and the Lordship of Jesus.

History is divided into B.C. and A.D., and each life of a believer should be marked into B.C. and A.D. as well! God can change our history and our future when we become followers of Christ.

2,000 years ago God changed everything at that first Christmas.

This Christmas I challenge you to draw a line in your life.

A line that says this is who I used to be and what I used to care about and what used to motivate me and what used to be the standard that I measure my life against.

A line that says, now that I know Jesus, everything from this point forward has changed. Nothing will stay the same because everything about who I am and why I am here has changed.

Don’t let another Christmas go by and not be changed by it.