Rev. David Holwick ZQ "A FRESH LOOK AT JESUS" sermon series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 20, 1998
Luke 2:8-18
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SERMON SUMMARY: Jesus' ministry attracted the outcasts and sinners. His
concern for "little people" began at Christmas. Followers of Jesus
also need compassion for others and a humble heart for ourselves.
I. The Visitor.
A. Dramatic experience a few weeks ago.
1) A man came to our Sunday School - falling-down drunk.
a) We gave him donuts and coffee.
b) He had a bowl, and wanted to appeal for an offering.
c) I thought it best to let the authorities deal with him.
d) They did - dropping him off at end of Main Street.
2) Lots of concern by members, guilt for me.
a) I first met him years ago.
b) He had been released from prison, where he had found God.
c) He showed up with his Bible a few times, then disappeared.
d) After that, when I encountered him he was always drunk.
B. He comes again, wanting help.
1) Phone calls showed no one would.
a) Mission requires them to be sober first.
b) Detox won't take him because he is violent during
withdrawal.
c) Police don't want to deal with him because they usually
take drunks to detox.
2) His bargain - I'll go to a Rescue Mission, if you get me
one last bottle.
a) He then falls across my plants in the office.
C. What would Jesus do?
1) His mission focused on such people.
a) Or maybe we should say they were attracted to him.
2) Just like today, the religious establishment aimed at
normal people. Decent people. People like us.
3) Jesus came for those who needed help, and knew it.
II. It began at Christmas.
A. Gospels mention two groups who came to see Jesus.
1) Matthew mentions Magi, what we call the Three Kings.
a) More likely followers of Asian religion.
b) They are foreigners, and the Jewish religion did not
have much concern for them.
c) They came to Jesus with gifts.
2) Luke mentions the shepherds.
a) In the first century this was a typical blue-collar job.
b) Religious people saw them as spiritually unclean
because they grubbed around with animals and
sneaked into other people's fields.
c) They came to Jesus with a sense of awe.
B. Jesus called them the "little ones." Matthew 10:42
1) Simple - shepherds, children.
a) It is appropriate that Christmas has a special appeal
for kids.
b) Goes beyond presents.
c) Jesus took time for children in an age when few
adults did. Not even his disciples.
2) Outcasts - lepers, beggars, the sick.
a) They were socially and spiritually unclean.
b) Jesus touched them, healed them, and loved them.
3) Sinners - prostitutes, greedy tax collectors.
a) Sinners is a strong term of contempt, probably coined
by Jesus's enemies.
b) Jesus responded that it was the sick who needed a
doctor, not the healthy. Luke 5:31-32
III. Salvation appeals to the bottom.
A. Most early Christians were on bottom of social ladder.
1) This scandalized the elite in society.
Remarks of anti-Christian philosopher Celsus:
What Christians seem to say is this:
"Let no one educated, no one wise, no one sensible
draw near.
For these abilities are thought by us to be evils.
But as for anyone ignorant, anyone stupid, anyone
uneducated, anyone who is a child, let him come boldly."
By the fact that they themselves admit that these
people are worthy of their God,
They show that they want and are able to convince only
the foolish, dishonourable and stupid, and only
slaves, women, and children.
Origen, "Contra Celsum" 3.44
#1182
2) Even today, religious people are considered "simple."
3) Jesus doesn't so much attract the best, as the neediest.
B. In God's eyes, all of us are "little people."
1) Little people tend to be "other people" to us.
a) We are above average in our own eyes.
In a General Electric survey some years ago, the average
person surveyed placed themselves in the 77th percentile.
That is, their view was that their performance on the job
exceeded that of 76 percent of their associates.
In fact, only 2 percent of the respondents placed themselves
as below average.
Everybody is in the top half of the class.
Everyone is a star!
#2253
2) We must all admit our inner need before God.
The English writer G. K. Chesterton said:
"The one spiritual disease is thinking that one is
quite well."
#4390
IV. What it means to be a follower of Jesus.
A. Acquire an attitude of humility.
1) We are all sinners before God.
2) "There but for the grace of God..."
B. Develop a spirit of compassion.
1) It is not enough to raise consciousness.
a) School ethics teacher - give money to beggars.
b) But our "visitor" would only buy booze.
2) Show compassion intelligently.
a) Our church has adopted a needy family this Christmas.
1> Many have bought gifts, made donations.
b) One family is anonymously paying a utility bill for
a single parent.
c) Others have offered food and assistance.
1> Our needy family may end up with 15 turkeys!
d) One member of the church has offered help to the
"visitor."
C. Realize that "man does not live by bread alone."
1) Poor people don't just need food and money.
a) Outer needs often reflect an inner problem.
b) Governments have discovered this as well.
1> We cannot make people happy and rich.
2> They must make some personal decisions.
3> The Visitor - only he can turn his life around.
2) Our greatest need is a relationship with God.
a) Be healed from the inside out.
b) Spread the Good News of Jesus.
[Update on the "visitor" - he shows up Christmas Eve at the conclusion of
the candlelighting service and says he is ready to go to the mission.
He is relatively sober. A member and the pastor make multiple phone
calls only to find out that every detox center and gospel mission in the
county has banned him. We take him to two hospitals and wait hours in
emergency rooms. The last hospital says they will check him out, and we
insist they call us if they will not admit him. The pastor crawls into
bed at 3:00 a.m. only to hear the phone ring. They are discharging him
because he is not drunk nor sick (we told them that at midnight). There
is a detox center one mile away but they will not transfer him there, so
the youth pastor and the senior pastor drive back to the hospital, pick
him up, and let him sleep in the Education Building. The next four
nights he is put up in a local motel with meals and regular visits
provided by church members, one of whom has him over for Christmas dinner.
Finally a Salvation Army detox center is contacted which will consider
taking him. The morning we are to go there the "visitor" shows up
drunk. He is currently bumming around the township.
Final update: Our visitor continued drinking and was warned by his doctor
that he would not survive two more years if he did not stop. He didn't,
and died in a motel room the next year.]
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This series was inspired by Issue 56 of Discipleship Journal, March 1990,
and this sermon is modelled on the article "The Corner of His Eye," by
Larry Libby, page 16.
#1182, "1 Corinthians," commentary by Gordon Fee, 1987
#2253, "Jesus And The Lake Wobegon Effect," Dynamic Preaching Disk,
Winter 1992
#4390, "Achan," online sermon by Rev. Jonathan Pryke, Jesmond Parish
Church, September 14, 1997
These and 4,300 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Used on other side of sermon handout:
"Little Ones" in Luke
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LUKE 9:47-48 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him
stand beside him. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child
in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent
me. For he who is least among you all--he is the greatest."
LUKE 10:21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I
praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these
things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes,
Father, for this was your good pleasure.
LUKE 18:16-17 But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little
children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs
to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the
kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
"Sinners" in Luke
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LUKE 5:30,32 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to
their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax
collectors and 'sinners'?" "I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance."
LUKE 6:32-34 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are
good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you
lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?
Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full.
LUKE 7:34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."'
LUKE 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
"If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind
of woman she is--that she is a sinner."
LUKE 15:1-2 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to
hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man
welcomes sinners and eats with them." [also 19:7]
LUKE 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in
heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons
who do not need to repent.
LUKE 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
LUKE 18:13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look
up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.'
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