Are You amazed?
Sometimes I think it is hard to amaze me any more. I wonder if it is the same for you. We can see so much on TV and movies. Magical things and places and they look pretty real.
I am seeing the commercial for Ghost rider on TV and whenever the star cranks his motorcycle he looks like he burst into flames…It looks strangely real.
As a kid, I always watched the magician’s hands. Occasionally, I caught them reaching in a pocket or flipping the platter over before the audience could see the bowl was glued to the surface. And once I got the chance to learn that the levitating lady was actually connected to a firm platform supported behind the curtain.
As a kid I always wanted to know the trick.
To be honest though was fooled by most magicians. I never figured out the trick.
In a way I wanted magic to be real. I wanted to be amazed. I wanted to be surprised and wow-ed.
This week, I decided to look on the internet and see if I could find any pictures that raised a since of amazement in me.
I have a few pictures to show you of things that caught my attention.
Slides ----
Today I am asking the question, Are You Amazed?
Not by the pictures I showed.
But are you really amazed by anything anymore?
I did some more research, this time in the Bible, and looked at the passages where the people were amazed or astonished in meetings with Jesus. There are 41 events in the Gospels where those words are used to describe people’s responses to Jesus.
I tried my best to fit all of them into today’s message…..you may be relieved to know that I failed to be able to find a way to make that process amazing. I decided to choose just a few. And offer some brief observations about the situations.
We will start with:
Slide - Boy Jesus - Luke 2:47-52
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.”
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
According to Luke, the boy Jesus ends up in the temple instead of heading home with his family after the Passover. For us this is the one boyhood story about 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.
I don’t think that we can automatically assume that He was there teaching an interpretation of the scriptures. I don’t think the was expanding the understanding of the educated men of the temple. As highly educated men they would never have been amazed at the teaching of a child. But, they could have been impressed at how much this boy from a distant village, with a high mixture of Jew and Gentile residents knew of the Law and Prophets. Perhaps, he was able to quote blocks of scripture in response to the teachers questions about what Isaiah said or details about Solomon’s wisdom.
For the teachers in the temple to be ASTONISHED, I do wonder if His answers to their questions were too good. Too grownup. Too well thought out for a boy of 12.
I wonder if he was able to explain the meanings and usage of words like atonement, or maybe how animal sacrifices worked to cover sins and/or other difficult concepts.
It is easy for us to think about Jesus growing physically, from a child to a young man but, it is difficult for us to imagine Jesus growing spiritually. The idea that he would learn the existing understanding of God and the Law as regular people did.
Doesn’t it seem likely that the son of God needed to experience a human existence and limitations if he were to understand the human condition?
Perhaps the reason he stayed in the temple was to learn things in the scriptures about himself. Maybe, He needs teachers, who were objective and who would not avoid interpreting the text for him to explain about the teaching of the prophet’s description of the suffering messiah.
I would suspect that Jesus could not get a clear description about that kind of scriptures at home.
So, the amazement of the crowd is connected to his dialog with the scribes and Pharisees.
But, I am amazed by something else in the scripture. The last half describes a 12 year old boy going home and being obedient to his parents….
God being obedient to earthly parents, with normal worries and concerns, Normal people that have to get their work done in order to eat. Normal parents that would never want anything bad to happen to their son.
Slide
The next scripture I want to look at is Luke 5:1-11
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."
Simon answered, "Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
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, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Jesus had asked the men that were repairing their nets, to let him speak to the crowd from the boat.
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. I can understand the hesitation of a tired man.
However, they do as instructed and they catch not one boat load of fish but two.
A catch like this had never been seen on the Lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee.
An amazing fish story. A fish story that will never really be believed except by the people that were there.
Pretty amazing right? Peter is astonished not because there were so many fish or that a rabbi would be able to tell him how to fish but, because he recognizes that the divine, someone that represents the power of God, has entered his boat. He is a sinful man, unclean by the nature of his work.
Because of his observation, his life is changed. Because of the presence of God he and his partners will walk away from their fishing business and follow Jesus.
Slide - Mark 1:21-22
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Jesus had no formal training, no seminary or rabbinical school.
He was about 33 and what was different about his preaching was that he spoke with authority……
He talked as if He understood the deeper meanings of the scriptures. He did not quote famous rabbis that were considered to be experts in the scriptures and the law.
He explained the scriptures directly. This was unusual, as most of the rabbis never proclaimed their own understanding of scripture.
They were lay people and they were afraid to offend God by misinterpretation so they quoted others without using their own judgment…
I suppose so they could explain to God, well that is what they taught me….
For the Jews of the day, to have a preacher speak with personal authority was pretty amazing. It was a bit pushy. It was on the edge of being blasphemous.
SLIDE
Matthew 8:23-27
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!"
He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
Jesus demonstrates two things in this passage. The first one is that he can sleep when there is a storm. He is at peace when experienced boat operators are scared of sinking. And second, he has the ability to control nature.
His disciples are amazed not with his ability to stay calm but with his control over a real life storm.
Matthew 15:29-34 - SLIDE
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way."
His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?"
"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."
The specific detail that is amazing to us in this scripture is the last line. And they praised the God if Israel. As you read this scripture we learn that this event happens in the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is a gentile area.
These people, primarilary gentile, Had been listening to Jesus teaching for three days. Crowds of people came out with the sick and lame and Jesus healed them.
The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking; the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Can you imagine, pagan gentiles praising the God of the Jews.
All kinds of people are drawn to the Jesus and amazingly touched by Jesus. Jew and Gentile alike receive healing of the physical body and teaching of the grace of God. Jesus amazes all the crowds with his availability.
Just four simple events where Jesus amazes people.
Educated religions people
Simple fishermen
Disciples
Gentile Crowds
Do you think that people that witnessed these events sat around wondering,
What was the trick....?
How did he do that?
I am sure that in reality that most people did. It was something neat to experience.
• Some found Jesus to be intellectually stimulating. And were impressed with his knowledge of God.
• Some were called to spend more time with this amazing man.
• Some liked what they heard but they were busy people. They were ecstatic over receiving a healing or other blessings, and a free meal but life moves on.
In our situation I would guess that each of us in familiar with the snapshots in Jesus life that we have glanced at this morning.
But are we amazed by any of them?
Are we amazed by any of the stories of the Bible any more?
Has familiarity with the stories made them to be like old game show reruns?
The outcomes happened a long time ago and don’t impress us at all any more?
When we want to be amazed or astonished we can watch a movie, a TV show and even the news and see things that just a few years ago were not possible.
-People regularly go into outer space to work.
-We can have light when ever we want it with a flip of a switch.
-We can see people that are healed after horrible accidents and illnesses.
So how in the world can the story of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel- God with us ever get the attention of mankind again?
Folks, it has to start with US. If we are not astonished and amazed by what God did….
If we are not ecstatic over what was done my the actions of Jesus Christ for you and me….
Then No one else that hears the story will consider it to be anything more that JUST A STORY!
Real Amazement comes for the realization that not a one of us can qualify to enter into to the presence of God and nothing we do short of recognizing the actions of Jesus can even fix us.
But there is always the worry that it is some sort of magic trick. Some sort of catch.
That some how we have been fooled and we sit back and look for the flaws in the plan the loop holes in the awards program.
And when we do, we are giving up on faith. We are failing to trust God.
We start to unconsciously believe that our relationship with God allows us to make all the choices. Over time we get to focus what we will and won’t do based on our personal preferences.
I understand that this is somewhere close to what Gean preached on last week.
Let me make my point simply as I can.
When we think we are mature in our faith, when we think this is our church, when we decide your needs and desires are most important then we are no longer impressed with Jesus.
When we are not amazed at what he has already done and is doing in our lives then we start to live earthly …selfish lives.
We stop sharing the Good news.
We stop having visitors.
We stop going to any “special trouble: to glorify God.
In the Gospels the biggest things that amazes me are the numbers of people that Jesus touched, healed, blessed the number of people that are faithful enough to face hardship and risk death because of what they witnessed was only around 150.
What happened to the ones that were walking on their own two legs for the first time, or the ones that could see after years of darkness?
What has happened to you?
Have you lost your amazement?
Have you lost the astonishment of being in the presence of God?
If you answer yes, then you need to remember that God did not change.
Folks, We are fast approaching a time when we as individuals and as a church are going to have to make choices. Life and death choices.
The only way we will do that the right is to renew our understanding of God and the things he has called us to be and do.
All Glory be to God!
Have Thine Own Way 72
