Are You Amazed?

Are You amazed?

Sometimes I think it is hard to amaze me any more. As a kid, I always watched the magician’s hands. Occasionally, I cause them reaching in a pocket or flipping the platter over before the Audience could see the bowl was glued to the surface or the levitating lady was on a firm platform supported behind the curtain.

As a kid I always wanted to know the trick. To be honest more times than not I was fooled by most magicians. In a way I wanted magic to be real. I wanted to be amazed, I wanted to be surprised and wow-ed. However, I spent a lot of tie trying to figure out the trick.

I guess I still am like that. I don’t like to be fooled or taken advantage of, and definitely don’t want to be tricked and made fun of. So I still spent a lot of time looking for the trick in amazing things.

I have a few pictures this morning of some amazing things. All of the images amaze me but I know the trick in every one of them. Some are natural beauty and the trick is that it is just there to be appreciated or ignored as each individual prefers. Some of the other images are based on skill and abilities which I don’t happen to have myself and I am amazed at what some people can do.

Slides

Today I am asking the question, Are You Amazed? Are you amazed about the person of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us? We are going to look at several scriptures where the description of the people involved were astonished or amazed at what they saw and heard from Jesus Christ.

We will start with:

Luke 2:47-48

Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 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.”

Slide - Boy Jesus

According to Luke the physician, the boy Jesus ends up in the temple instead of heading home. For us this is the one boyhood story about Jesus. This is the section of scripture that we read the first recorded words of Jesus.

In this snapshot of Jesus Life we hear how the scribes, the teachers and other the people present were AMAZED at his understanding of scripture. The depths of his questions were not what a normal boy should be asking. The depth of questions went beyond How and Why and must have sought to get the teachers to explain the deeper meaning of the scriptures. I imagine that he asked about the use and meaning of words.

It is easy for us to think about Jesus growing up and growing physically but, it is difficult for us to imagine Jesus growing spiritually.

Perhaps the reason he stayed in the temple was to learn things in the scriptures about him. Maybe he needs teachers who were objective and who would not avoid interpreting the text about their son’s suffering and death.

Jesus was fully human and grew apparently normal in all ways. He was unique in that his divinity came thought in his living a sinless life. He seems the have been able to surpass others of his age and comprehend more than many.

In a way this scripture gives us a glimpse of God on earth, and amazingly a god that submits to the authority of his parents. Our God lived a natural human life to truly show his understanding of the human condition. The physical, pain pleasure, limits, and emotions.

Slide - Luke 5:8-10

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 1and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Slide – Big Catch

This is the event before the fishermen were called to be fishers of Men. Jesus had asked the men repairing their nets to let him speak to the crowd from the boat, just a little off of shore. When the teaching was over, Jesus instructs them to put out to deep water and let down their nets for a catch.

Peter seemingly agrees only out of respect for the teacher. The words from Peter seem irritated and tested. Peter and the other are tired after a hard night of dropping and pulling in the nets, all by hand. By the time Jesus finished speaking the nets were cleaned of the little trash that would cause damage and rot. IF they drop the nets again they will have to do it all again. I can understand the hesitation of a tired man.