Sermon Tone Analysis
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After Christmas, Now What?
Yesterday we celebrated Christmas.
All the excitement leading up to Christmas is now over.
All the gifts have been unwrapped.
We’ve eaten way to much junk food and now we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to lose those extra pounds that we’ve put on.
After Christmas morning is over there can almost seem to be a letdown.
We know that the long cold days are ahead of us.
It’s almost time to take down the tree and all the decorations.
For a lot of people there is a period of discouragement and even depression after all the excitement of Christmas day.
That letdown or discouragement can be a natural response.
After every high point in a person’s life there always seems to be a valley that we go through where life gets back to normal and we get back into the routine of just everyday life.
Christmas day has come and gone, now what?
Vacations will be over this week, school will start again for our kids, it’s time to get back into the old routines.
I was thinking about that this week.
Does it have to be that way?
Think about the shepherds that were out with their sheep that holy night when the angels burst into their world.
They had just been told the greatest news ever.
They went and found the newborn Messiah just as the angels said.
Do you think they went back thinking now what?
I want to think that maybe they did.
What were they to do with that news?
What about the Magi from the east?
They set out on a journey to see this newborn king.
What happened when they had finished their adoration?
I have talked with people who grew up in church but have never really known God.
I’ve challenged them to read the Bible and learn what it has to say.
I have had several say that it was through reading the Bible that that they came to true saving faith in Jesus Christ.
No longer was it just ritual and practices, but it was reality in their lives.
I have talked with many people of my years in ministry about how much God loved us that He sent Jesus.
Even today, 15 or 20 years after coming to faith in Christ there is still that excitement when they talk about God’s love for them.
There are Nazarene’s that lived like those people who for many years were just going through the motions but not knowing anything about their faith.
The church has failed them in not discipling them.
Even with Christmas day being over with, there still should be an excitement about the fact that God has come to us in the person of Jesus.
Now that He has come, it’s right and appropriate to ask the question, now what?
Now that you’re a Christian, now what?
Let’s take a look at our scripture this morning and see if we can come to some answers to that question.
Did you ever lose one of your kids?
Now, I’m not asking if you hoped you would lose one of your kids.
Did one of your kids wander off on you and you couldn’t locate them?
I had a niece do that to my one sister.
I was with her and we were in a store and my niece wandered off.
When we realized she was gone my sister was frantic.
Pretty soon over the PA system my sister’s name was called to come to the customer service desk.
There was my niece.
My sister’s emotions went between being angry at her for wandering off and happiness that she was safe.
Fast Forward 12 Years
In the life of Jesus, our Scripture jumps ahead 12 years.
Jesus is now 12 years old.
Mary and Joseph are good parents, ensuring that Jesus participates in the community practices.
They’ve traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
Before we moved her to Boswell, we had to drive from Johnstown to here for Church.
When we came to the church for the Christmas Eve service, we often noted how full the parking lots were at the churches we passed.
They were packed out.
We call them two-fers.
They are the people that come for two church services a year, Christmas and Easter.
That tradition started with God in the Old Testament.
God in Deuteronomy 16:16
Those three times were for the Feast of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.
In church today we still have three, Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day.
I don’t know when Mother’s Day replaced Pentecost as an important Sunday in the church, but if you look at those three Sundays, they have the highest attendance for the year.
Passover
Joseph and Mary and Jesus and their family travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Once it was over with they packed up to head back to Nazareth.
It wasn’t like jumping in the car driving there, they had to take everything that they’d need for the journey with them.
They traveled with extended family and friends so it was quite a group of people.
Somehow a day into that journey they realized that Jesus wasn’t with them.
Think about that, they went an entire day thinking that Jesus was with this large group someplace and that he’d show up.
After a day’s journey they looked for him in that group and didn’t find him and Luke says they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
Think about that for a moment, they in reality lost God.
I wonder, do we in all our business of life ever lose God? Do we ever get so busy and distracted that we forget to pray, that we forget to read His word, that we forget to attend church?
We might be tempted to criticize Joseph and Mary for not paying attention and keeping track of Jesus.
It’s always easy to play armchair quarterback and criticize someone else, but sometimes we need to go look in the mirror and ask ourselves; Have I neglected my relationship with the Father?
Have I allowed the business of life to crowd out God in my life?
Can you imagine just for a moment how frantic Joseph and Mary must have been?
They knew who Jesus was; they knew that he wasn’t just an ordinary kid.
They knew that he was to be the Messiah, they didn’t understand all about it, but they knew.
They were a day’s journey away from Jerusalem when they turned around to head back.
Luke says that after 3 days they found him in the Temple.
He wasn’t just hanging out in the Temple wondering how he was going to get home.
Luke writes that he was:
Luke 2:46–48 (CEB)
46 After three days they found him in the temple.
He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and putting questions to them.
47 Everyone who heard him was amazed by his understanding and his answers.
48 When his parents saw him, they were shocked.
He was sitting with the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions, answering their questions.
Luke says they were amazed.
Little did they realize that they were talking to God Himself, the Messiah, the one who came to save them.
The dialogue between Mary and Jesus next is really important.
Mary says to Jesus:
Luke 2:48 (CEB)
48 His mother said, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Listen!
Your father and I have been worried.
We’ve been looking for you!”
Jesus replied to Mary with these words:
Mary said to him: your father, meaning Joseph and I were searching for you.
Joseph his earthly father, his legal father and Mary were looking for him.
Jesus said in response: “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Jesus wasn’t referring to Joseph, the Temple belonged to God.
Jesus is referring to God, His Heavenly Father.
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