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Listen, because we belong to God through faith and His unique Son, it ought to profoundly mark our relationships with humility and deference and grace.

Because the truth has dawned in our own minds and hearts that God by faith in Christ is our Father, we should be better spouses, we should be more honest employees, we should be more diligent students, we should be more obedient children, we should be more gracious people. Our devotion to Jesus Christ should bring about change in us, just as Stephen described a moment ago. That's because there's more to Jesus than just the story of the nativity. In this current series called Beyond Bethlehem, Stephen Davey is looking at the boyhood of Jesus because the early years of his life set the stage for all that he would do for us. Today Stephen takes us to the well-known event in Luke 2 where Mary and Joseph didn't know where Jesus was. Jesus being in the temple was an early messianic demonstration that was pivotal to the gospel.

Stay with us as Stephen explains why here on Wisdom for the Heart. Well, there was a season of great travel for Jewish people. In fact, they would have their calendars marked for late March, early April. Every Jewish family would long for the opportunity to go to Jerusalem. The Jewish law actually required that all men from the age of 13 and up celebrate Passover in Jerusalem if they lived close enough, but they were to celebrate in fact three festivals, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

Of course, many of them couldn't and so they would celebrate in their village. This signature feast, the Passover feast, the ceremonies would last about seven days and it's at this moment where we rejoin our study in the boyhood of Jesus Christ. It's this moment where Luke will give us another snapshot of something that happened to young Jesus. So take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 2 and verse 41. Luke 2, 41.

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he became 12, they went up there according to the custom of the feast. Let me pause. Let me hit the pause button for a moment. This is a sermon.

All of itself is one sentence. I could preach this sermon on this alone. You're saying, I know you can't. Please don't.

I won't. But let me at least open the window for you to look through and get another picture of the devotion and piety and love for God evidenced in the lives of Joseph and Mary. You need to understand that according to the law, any Jewish male who lived beyond 15 miles of Jerusalem, outside of that 15-mile perimeter, they were not required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Passover. It would be a long and expensive journey for them, and you need to know then that Nazareth is 65 miles north of Jerusalem. So Joseph is well outside that 15-mile perimeter that would have required him. So he didn't have to, but he wanted to.

What insight into their dedication and to the worship that they wanted to exhibit to their living God every single year? We don't have to. The law doesn't mandate that we do, but we want to. We long to.

We live for this moment. Joseph and Mary have taken this expensive, time-consuming, several-day round-trip journey, and this year is especially significant. We're not told clearly that Jesus has not gone with them before, but we are told he's with them this time. It tells us here that he is 12 years of age. Now he's only a few months away from full membership into the synagogue. The modern custom would be called the bar mitzvah. The word bar means son. Mitzvah means law or commandment. So bar mitzvah means you become a son of the law.

They would require then the Jewish young man to then keep the law on his own volition and his own desire. So here's Jesus then, normal 12-year-old. He's brimming with curiosity and energy. His eyes are wide as he accompanies Joseph and Mary as they fulfill their annual custom of celebrating the atoning work of God through the Passover lamb, which, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, leads us again to great irony. They are bringing the eternal deliverer into Jerusalem to celebrate an earlier deliverance from bondage through the Passover lamb.

What a moment this is. Mary and Joseph are bringing the final Passover lamb to celebrate the feast of Passover lambs. Well, the night here in this scene would end late and many people would take to the streets for reunions with friends and acquaintances and family. Still others would wait for the opening of the doors at the Temple Mount to go in at midnight for further worship and prayer. And Jesus couldn't get enough either. Look at verse 43, the latter part of it. And the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of it but supposed him to be in the minivan.

That's not what it says, but that's the same idea. Supposed him to be in the caravan. They thought he was with him. It was the custom of the mothers and the children to go in front in the caravan and the men to bring up the rear so nobody would be left behind and then they'd gather at night, reunite where they would camp out.

Joseph thought Jesus was with Mary and Mary thought Jesus was with Joseph. Have you ever lost a child? Have you ever been lost?

You still have a nervous tick because of it? This is romantic. And this isn't just any kid. This is the Messiah. Honey, do you know where the Savior of the world is? No, I thought you had the Savior of the world.

We've lost the Messiah. CBS online ran a story not too long about a mother forgetting to take her son home after a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. You ever been there?

I can understand it. You can lose an elephant in Chuck E. Cheese, all right? What made it all the more dramatic was that it was his birthday party. You know, all the family and all the kids and they left in three minivans and didn't realize six-year-old Michael wasn't there among them. Employees found Michael wandering around the restaurant when they closed up at 10 p.m. Don't feel sorry for him. He's having a blast.

He's got Chuck E. Cheese to himself. She thought he was staying with his grandmother, didn't even know he was missing until the next morning. That's one thing to lose your child and not know it until he gets back. It's another thing to lose your child and know it and not know where he is. That's Mary and Joseph.

That's that panic stricken moment you feel in the mall or where you're supposed to pick them up and they're not there and your heart begins to race 130, 40 times a minute. The text tells us here that they go scurrying around to look among relatives and acquaintances verse 44. They didn't find them and then it hit them.

We left him behind in Jerusalem. They'd already traveled one day. It'll take them another day to get back and they spend most of that day looking for him.

Their hearts never stopped beating, panic stricken, fearful that the worst had happened in a city overflowing with more than a million visitors. Now there are some that think that this whole thing reflects on Joseph and Mary. In fact, look at verse 45. They didn't find him. They returned to Jerusalem looking for him.

Then after three days, they found him in the temple. Some, in fact, one commentator went on and on and on about what bad parents they were. I thought he needs about four kids to change his perspective.

I don't think it's that at all. I think Mary and Joseph had perfect confidence that this responsible little boy is going to be where he's supposed to be. This then leads others to a much more destructive conclusion that Jesus disobeyed.

And like a little boy, he ran away to join the circus, so to speak. Well, that would contradict the clear record of scripture. In fact, that would violate the incarnation, the character of the unblemished lamb, wouldn't it? Hebrews 4 15 says he was tempted in every way just as we are yet without what? Sin. Hebrews 7 26 speaks of him as holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners. He has a human nature, but not a sin nature. Peter wrote that our Lord committed no sin. 1 Peter 2 22. John wrote, and in him is no sin. 1 John 3 5. He didn't die on the cross for his sins. He died there for ours.

And because he's unblemished, he can pay the penalty as the final pascal lamb. You see, the point is Jesus is a 12-year-old. And he's a normal 12-year-old. And he gets focused on something and the world goes by him.

Nothing sinful in that. I had one father come up to me and he said, this kind of thing happened to me. I was at the mall. I had my two little girls, one in each hand and my son behind me. And I said, now follow me. And he said, yes, daddy, I will.

And he walks down this long stork. He turns around and his son's not there. Panic. He said, I began to call for him and I began to search for him. And I found him in a little area sitting there watching a television. No thought of what this had done to his dad.

The panic and the fear. Is it possible for a 12-year-old to not understand what he's doing to his parents? You did that at least once or twice when you were 12. Think about it. Jesus is fully God and yet he's fully here a 12-year-old boy.

The Holy Spirit in this mystery in concert with Christ's divine nature will protect him from sinning. But as a normal 12-year-old boy, he's able to fully embrace the human experience and emotion and learning curve which includes making mistakes, stubbing his toe, not thinking through consequences as 12-year-olds sometimes do not do. Think about it.

Let me ask you. Was Jesus ever as a boy silly? Was he ever immature before he became mature?

Did he ever do anything dangerous or was he ever unaware or naive? I don't think he's demonstrating anything other than what it means to be 12. But something is happening and we need to understand it and I'll show you in a moment. Something's happening to this pre-Bar Mitzvahed son of God. We have every reason as I'll show you to believe that it's during this Passover. So at least at this up to this point, perhaps this week, I believe, there was spiritual revelation provided to Jesus by the Spirit so that by the time Mary and Joseph finally catch up to him, he knew he knew he wasn't just any 12-year-old boy with a mom and a dad and a little house and a carpentry business.

And let me show you why. We'll work our way through here. Look at the latter part of verse 46. For starters, he's sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking him questions.

One author pointed out that the custom of Passover, this is when the Sanhedrin, the teachers, the grand leaders, the august lawyers of liturgy and law, these 70 with the high priest would come out in public and they would openly discuss with whoever wanted to discuss with them matters of liturgy and law which has led several scholars to believe this is what's happening. He will be seated or standing as a little boy around these leaders, the abbas, the fathers. And he's perceptive. He's quick in his thinking.

From the age of five to the age of 10, he's been immersed into the law. He knows now, by now, by the age of 12, that there are inconsistencies between the law of Moses and the way we're living. And now, as a 12-year-old will do, he'll say, why are we doing that? Why do we go there? Who told us we had to do that?

Why do we believe this? And then act that way. He wasn't faking anything here. He wasn't demonstrating omniscience. Those attributes will be demonstrated when he's older. He has legitimate questions, but he has a quick, well-studied mind and his perspective in this scene is unique. Luke says they were amazed at his understanding and his answers. You could render that they admired his insight and wisdom. In other words, Jesus is wise beyond his years. So what you have here in this scene is a sinless, intelligent, well-studied, perceptive, and what set him apart was a uniquely illuminated by revelation from God the Father 12-year-old boy. And right in the middle of this discussion with this august group of men, Mary and Joseph finally catch up to him. They've looked everywhere.

Look at verse 48. When they saw him, they were shocked. His mother said to him, son, why have you treated us this way? Look, behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. I love this. Thank God he put this part in. She is a normal mother.

Normal. Never mind that Jesus is surrounded by the highest-ranking officials in the nation. Never mind he's holding them spellbound. Never mind any of that. Mary says, what in the world are you doing? Get over here. What are you thinking? What you have put your father and I through? Oh, wait till I get you back to Nazareth. That's the idea.

Very normal. In fact, it sounds familiar, doesn't it? Mary did not have a halo around her head and with perfect composure say, oh, there you are, son. Where we expected you in the temple. When you finish your Q&A session, we'll go home. We would have done the same thing. They'd lost their son in who knows where, back in the city spilling over with people.

For three days they haven't slept or eaten a bite. Now, get ready for the very first recorded words of Jesus in Scripture. Back up to verse 48 where Mary rebukes him saying, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. And he said to them, why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my father's house literally? Didn't you know that I would be involved in the things of my father?

One author illustrated the growth of his understanding would be like the glowing rays of sunrise that spill out at the dawning of the day, a little bit by little bit. And here at Passover, what a perfect time. In the city of his father David, what a perfect time and place. God the father revealed to him that he was God the son.

We're not given any data or detail. All we know is that he says something he's never said to them before and that is, I've got to be involved in things related to my father. In this first recorded little speech of the Lord, he literally blows everybody's minds with this personally possessive reference to God as my father. He didn't get that out of the Old Testament. That was given to him by revelation. Nobody talked like this. God as father only appears 14 times in the entire Old Testament and never in relation from the lips of anybody as he's my father. My shepherd, yes.

My God, yes. Not my father. Nobody said that. But he is now at this moment conscious of his person. He's conscious of his relationship to his father and he is conscious of his mission. And they're confused. Look at verse 50. They did not understand the statement which he had made to them. And he innocently says, why are you looking for me? You could render that I thought you knew this already.

That's the idea. You of all people should have seen this coming, which means he had not said anything like this before. Mary and Joseph are confused.

Don't overlook that. The beauty of their testimonies is seen here as we look at it with reality. They have been to some degree confused since the very beginning. They didn't have the gospels as they're writing to Jerusalem if they wrote. They didn't have the epistles to explain the incarnation. The Trinity would be a mystery. The Holy Spirit, that title, that phrase only appeared three times in all of the Old Testament. So here you have an angel coming to Joseph saying, go ahead and take Mary to be your wife. The child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Thanks, that really explains everything.

I understand now. Comes to Mary. You're going to have a baby. How can that be?

I've never known a man. Here's how it's going to happen. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Shocking as it would be to their Jewish ears in the Old Covenant, Jesus says he's in the temple involved in the things of my father. You know what this tells us? It tells us that Mary and Joseph were obedient to God in spite of being for the most part in the dark.

How unlike me, I want two answers before I take the next step. If it's your will, it's clear. If it's not your will, it's confusing. They're going to remain confused by the way all the way up to and through most of his ministry. In fact, at one point in time his later born brothers and sisters, half brothers and half sisters to Mary and Joseph are going to come in Mark chapter three records for us. They're going to come to take him away because they think he's lost his mind until the resurrection of Christ from the grave. One of his half brothers writes a wonderful little book called James. Jesus Christ was 12 and at 12 he spoke with unbelievable determination. Go back.

Look. Did you not know that I had to be, I must be about my father's affairs or business, the things of my father. He'll talk like this throughout his ministry. He will say, I must preach the kingdom of God. Luke 4 43. I must go through Samaria.

There'll be a woman there waiting for him or will come to him at the well. He knew that the son of man must suffer. Luke 9 22.

Zacchaeus, come down out of that tree today. I must go to your house. Luke 10 five. I have other sheep.

I must bring them also. John 10 16. The son of man must be lifted up that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. He preached in John three. But Jesus, your father and I have been looking all over for you.

And in his gracious but mild rebuke, Jesus responded to her complaint by effectively saying, Joseph is not my father. I know now who my father is. And knowing that means for the rest of my life, I'm going to be occupied with thinking about the things of my father. Now, after all of that, you would never imagine reading verse 51. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them.

He would expect to read. They continued in subjection to him. Or maybe you'd expect to read a verse like and Jesus moved into the temple and became the youngest priest in the history of Israel.

I mean, that's what you expect. Not he went back to Nazareth and remained under their parental authority with obedience. See, knowing who he was didn't create pride or a condescending air toward his peasant parents. The dawning of the truth in his heart and his mind did not make him less obedient. It profoundly highlighted his obedience.

The tense of the verbs of verse 51 indicate Jesus continually responded to the authority of his parents. Listen, because we belong to God through faith and his unique son, it ought to profoundly mark our relationships with humility and deference and grace because the truth has dawned in our own minds and hearts that God by faith in Christ is our father. We should be better spouses. We should be more honest employees. We should be more diligent students. We should be more obedient children.

We should be more gracious people. See, in other words, his earthly relationships will bear the fruit of his primary relationship. He is the unique son of God and he becomes a model for us who are also the children of God. Our earthly relationships should bear the fruit of that truth dawning in our hearts that we happen to have a relationship with our father as sons and daughters. Who we belong to should affect everything that belongs to us and when it doesn't, we know it, don't we?

It bothers us to see how far from the model we can muddle through. The model remains and his life is set. I'm often reminded of what a Christian leader and older man once told me. He said, the Christian life is not a lot of decisions.

It's only one. And that decision, that one decision is I will live my life for the glory of God no matter when, no matter where, no matter what. One decision with ongoing determination.

One decision with daily application a thousand different ways. And here in the temple you have this life altering scene. Young Jesus makes a profound discovery by virtue of the Spirit's illumination and the godly decision that comes out of his mouth. I must give my life to the glory and pleasure of my father. And what does that mean for him?

Go back to Nazareth and obey your parents. That means chores. That means homework. That means growth experts. That means temptation.

That means difficulty in waiting, learning, growing. It's one decision. He'll have ongoing determination. He's not going to appear for another 18 years.

We have not one shred of revelation about what happened. But when he appeared, he was the unblemished lamb of God who was now capable, ready, and available to take away the sin of the world. Perhaps for us we can make a fresh commitment to the model.

He might be 6, 16, 26, 46, 76. Just one decision with daily application. I will devote myself to the things that would please the Father, even in chores, even in homework, even in relationships and everything. No matter when, no matter where, no matter what. No matter when, no matter where, and no matter what, we must be devoted to Jesus Christ. It's amazing to think that Jesus would humble himself and would live in submission to his early parents, Mary and Joseph. And in doing that, he modeled what you and I are to do.

There may be things that you should do, but you'd rather not do. The example of Jesus is to humbly submit. I'm so glad you joined us today. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Stephen pastors a church here in Cary, North Carolina. We've made it possible for you to get to know us better and access our many resources. The easiest way to do that is through our website, wisdomonline.org. If you ever miss one of these broadcasts or want to access any of Stephen's messages, we've posted them there so that you can keep caught up. Also note that our office is closed tomorrow and Christmas, so call us today at 866-48-BIBLE if you need assistance. And join us tomorrow for more wisdom for the hearts.