Learning to be Human

[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to everyone joining us on the line.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone in the parents room as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Merry Christmas to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last time we get together together in person for the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say it's been a huge privilege.

[SPEAKER_00]: What an honor it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: to be able to be part of this community to serve and worship together, to reach out to our region, of Mount Evelyn, to the region of Frankenstein, and to see the Lord do incredible, and amazing things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 2 in the scriptures.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like to turn there or get ready, we're going to read that in just a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will be up on the screen as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I have played sport all of my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: from a very, very young age all the way through, a gymnastic, some baseball and rugby and Aussie rules, AFL football and all the way through, a touch football, every cricket and then in my 30s, I decided to try my hand at playing the round ball game.

[SPEAKER_00]: soccer, the beautiful game, the world game, whatever you'd like to call it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as a 35-year-old, young man, spritly, keen, excited.

[SPEAKER_00]: I decided to begin to, when I played sports with my hands, my entire life decides to try and play a sport that usually primarily your feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was playing in a team that was way too good for me in a division that was way too good for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the one thing I have is grit and I just try hard and I try to basically compensate for my lack of everything else by just sheer effort, determination and will.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they put me in defense, which is sometimes where you put people to hide them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was quite aware of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I played next to this guy called Lockie.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was brilliant.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Lockie taught me how to play this position by proximity.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he just said, come stand next to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And do what I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the entire game, he was my personal coach.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he told me where to go, and that first season lucky carried me through the season, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was a great, I was a good student, I listened, you know, I'm well aware that I don't know anything, and I was quite happy to be taught, but he was my on-field mentor.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't shout at me from the side, he stood with me and stood next to me and taught me through that entire actually two seasons for my first two seasons of playing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't just explain it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stood next to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He allowed me to slow down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me to fail.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when I messed up, he'd say it's all good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he entered into that process.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was actually formed, not by his words, but by his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: By staying next to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's something about Christmas, that's really important.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Lockhees was my Jesus on the field, it's a little bit like that for us because we're not formed just by words, we're formed by presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're formed by Jesus being with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't shout from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't yell instructions from the sideline, but Jesus entered into our world.

[SPEAKER_00]: God himself entered into our world in the person of Jesus Christ, and were formed by His presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even now, as we gather,

[SPEAKER_00]: And we sing as we worship, as we connect with one another, as we look at each other in the eye, we're formed by the presence of God in Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now with us, by the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're here, and we sense there's something different about this gathering because Jesus is here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're formed by His presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a strange idea at Christmas that we can be taught or formed by a child, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Usually we're formed and taught by teachers, by people with great authority or letters before or after their name, credentials.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God chooses dependence and vulnerability.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the scandal of the incarnation, not just that God became flesh, but that God submitted himself to time and to pain and to learning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we're going to read about, we have stories of Jesus' childhood of his birth.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have stories of Jesus' ministry, and then we have one story about Jesus' awkward teenage years.

[SPEAKER_00]: One story only.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, we're going to look at that today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke chapter 2,

Luke 2 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: First 41 teenage, that kind of age between 11 and 17, 18 is awkward.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's strange.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of things are changing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a liminal space in the human journey, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not a child, you're not an adult.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're kind of passing through this phase that you'll have, but you'll never have it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have one story.

[SPEAKER_00]: from Jesus' life in that phase.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens here is not a miracle or a sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a prophecy, but it's a question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he was 12 years old, so not quite a teenager, but very, very close.

[SPEAKER_00]: They went up according to the custom.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when the feast was ended, and as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey, but then began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, and searching for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers, and when his parents saw him, they were astonished, his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so?

[SPEAKER_00]: Behold your father, and I've been searching for you in great distress.

[SPEAKER_00]: He told them, why are you looking for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his mother treasured up all this things in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an interesting question that Jesus first asked here is his parents, the way as we're taught today by a child.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're learning how to be human.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you not know that I would be in my father's house?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now at first, this sounds a bit like Holy, so that kind of teenage rebellion doesn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever mum and dad, I'm gonna go do my own thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: They leave, they're in this big traveling troop of people who've come from Nazareth to Jerusalem at the Feast of Passover and they've, it's a day back.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've hitched up the van and they've made a whole day's journey and they're stopping for tea and biscuits and turn around and Jesus isn't there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They look through everyone, not, not, not, not.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it takes them another day to get back and then find him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it sounds a bit like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to do whatever I want.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is more rather than teenager-bellion, I want to put to you that this is more holy orientation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Jesus enjoyed the time in Jerusalem and wanted to stay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know I must be in my father's house?

[SPEAKER_00]: So long before Jesus preaches the kingdom,

[SPEAKER_00]: Long before he heals the sick, before he confronts demonic powers, Jesus knows where he belongs.

[SPEAKER_00]: He teaches us that intimacy proceeds impact.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not rushing to perform, not anxious to be seen,

[SPEAKER_00]: Listening, asking questions, sitting on the teachers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing, God in the flesh chooses to learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there's anyone who's able to skip grade four or grade five or grade six,

[SPEAKER_00]: We'd give Jesus a pass, wouldn't we?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all good.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, you've earned it.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, intimacy precedes impact.

[SPEAKER_00]: So guys, let's not confuse calling with visibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus isn't trying to be impressive here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to be faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, where do you go, some reflection questions?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I go when I'm confused?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I go when I don't understand what God is doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus rushes to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do I perform, try and make it up, or do I remain in His presence?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's carve out some unhurried time with God, not just to get answers, but just to be with the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's learn how to listen, not just to speak.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lots and lots and lots of words, but Jesus began as a 12 year old by listening, sitting among the teachers, trying to understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: because business at this time of year can be a chain, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Noise, and Jesus slows down to be with the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something else here that I noticed as I read through this passage,

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that line right at the end?

[SPEAKER_00]: They say, where have you been?

[SPEAKER_00]: You've gave us a real fright, Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been looking everywhere for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, why have you treated us so?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why have you treated us like this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why have you done this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't you know we'd be worried?

[SPEAKER_00]: Those kinds of things.

[SPEAKER_00]: They did not understand at verse 51.

[SPEAKER_00]: He went down with them, came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus teaches us by being present with the Father Firstly, but secondly, Jesus teaches us by submitting to ordinary obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can learn from this, submitting to ordinary obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just let that land for a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Son of God submits to human parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word made flesh submits to the slow rhythms of family life.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Redeemer of the World learns a trade, eats meals, and waits around.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the, I think, the most,

[SPEAKER_00]: subversive passage in this entire story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the eternal son, the God who was eternally with the father, the word became flesh, either one whom we've seen his glory, the glory of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth, goes back and unloads the dishwasher.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scows home and does his chores.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back to routine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back to obscurity, no fast track, no exemption clause.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, listen to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus saves the world without skipping the cue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please think about that when you're at Eastland this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have a look down at your little W.W.J.D.

[SPEAKER_00]: Respand and then just stand there and wait your turn.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the tyranny of Hari will get to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The addiction to significance will get to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The belief that holiness only happens when I perform.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the most holy thing that Jesus done in that moment is listen to his mom and said, okay, I'll come home with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you're an exhausted parent, this is good news for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you feel like unnoticed in your line of work or in your family, if you feel like nothing is spectacular as happening in your life, just know that if Jesus wasn't in a rush, you don't need to be either.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus redeems humanity by fully inhabiting it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think, oh, yeah, Jesus was fully like us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew our pain, he knew our struggles, but he knew how to listen to his mom and just go home.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the street lights are on, it's time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obedience in this way isn't a detour, it is the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those school drop-offs, which are just about done if not done already, congratulations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Meals running around all of the things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus isn't above this, he's the in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's in all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not delay, it's formation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So some reflection questions, where am I resisting the ordinary, because I'm waiting for the extraordinary?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the holiest thing that will happen to this Christmas is happening today, not that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: obscurity for insignificance, because not all ambition is sinful, absolutely not, but impatience is be ambitious, go after it, but also learn how to weigh, and leave the outcomes to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, thirdly and finally, Jesus teaches us by growing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's this last verse that we read here at

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in the faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Son of God surely is already in favor with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Surely, surely, gold star for Jesus, you are the son of God, you already have His favor, congratulations, gold medal from the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it says here, he increased in wisdom, we can get that, because he's, he increased in stature, I.e.

[SPEAKER_00]: he physically grew, but he grew in favor with God and men.

[SPEAKER_00]: So with people, people started to, they lacked him more as he grew up than they did when he was little.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pressing on something here, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I'm pressing on is sometimes we have this idea, which is actually a heretical idea that the early church had to fight for over and over and over again, which was this idea that it wasn't really God in the flesh, it was God wearing a suit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was God the whole time pretending to be a human.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was like a curtain or a veil over him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was God this whole time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this verse pushes back on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: and says, no, he was fully God, but he was fully, fully man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because God had to eat and have to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had to form, he's shaped, he's wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that Affinatious and the Council have chasted on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Way, way, way, way, way, way back.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking third and fourth century.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were fighting over this back then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they saw if God wasn't man, his sacrifice wasn't complete.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because how can God not know what we're going through if the sacrifice is complete?

[SPEAKER_00]: In order for His sacrifice to be effective, He has to be fully man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So He grew in wisdom and in stature in favor with God and man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So He wasn't instantly mature, there was process.

[SPEAKER_00]: So growth is failing along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm not saying Jesus sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying though, he had to grow and learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God's not threatened by progress or by process, by things taking you a little bit of time to learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if Jesus took time, you're not late.

[SPEAKER_00]: Slow faith is still real.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because some of you feel behind, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you feel behind spiritually or behind emotionally or behind vocationally, but Jesus would like a word with you here to say, it's okay, he grew and wisdom in stature in favor with God and man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So some questions, where am I more patient than I was?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where am I more honest than I was?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where am I more aware now of my need for grace than I was?

[SPEAKER_00]: I love it because Jesus here dignifies growth and shows us the growing is holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So all of this leads somewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: This all comes to something, because there's still something at the end of this that if it doesn't happen, all of this makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jesus here isn't learning for self-improvement.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not learning here so that he can be more effective or optimized.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's learning, he's listening, he's obeying, he's submitting, in preparation for self-giving, to give himself away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the child in the temple becomes the man on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one asking questions in the temple becomes the man crying out.

[SPEAKER_00]: The obedient son becomes the suffering servant.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus does not save us from the outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saves us from the inside.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't avoid suffering, he carries it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't stand above the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: He steps into the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine the author of the story becoming a character?

[SPEAKER_00]: and the climax of the entire narrative.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the deepest problem in Jesus' time isn't Rome, the deepest problem in Jesus' time wasn't culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't politics, the deepest problem in Jesus' time as it is now was sin and death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, the child grows up to face them both and face them he does.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't save us by avoiding suffering, but by carrying it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in order to break the chains that we spoke about yesterday, he carried them on his own wrists.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, this is not just a sentimental Christmas, it's confrontational because Jesus comes, grows, obeys, and learns to confront the damages of sin and death in our own life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And shows us what it looks like for God to come in the person of Jesus to carry it for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus is not just a teacher, he's not just an example, he's not just an inspiration, he's Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who teaches us how to live by giving his life.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who teaches us how to trust, by entrusting himself to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the one who teaches us how to die, by example.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that we might truly live.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's stand together, church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Team, you can come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a moment, church, to sit with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: and to allow the tort one to teach us to allow Jesus to be our teacher to be the one with our semaniual, to minister to us and to our hearts right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just stand for a moment, pause in silence, in reflection, in honor, in worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And thank Jesus for carrying the weight of sin and death for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's teaching us we're learning how to be human by looking at Jesus the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you for sending your son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, we thank you for carrying the weight of sin and death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Holy Spirit, we thank you right now that you would make that real confirm with our spirit today that we're children of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might not be gone, have begun a relationship with Jesus yet, or faith might not have started to rise up in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage you today's the day for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christmas time is the time for that, the time where we celebrate out of envy, a rival of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those disciples of Jesus in the room may we today continue to learn, continue to grow, continue to wait, be patient, continue to progress, continue to listen, to draw near to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: And may this season be a great celebration as we hold both hope and lament at the same time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But offer both to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, we thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We worship you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We honor you, we love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, come on, church, let's sing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you are?