Realization!

By the way, in the 39 volumes of the Old Testament, God is only referred to as Father 14 times, and rather impersonally in reference to the nation. God is referred to in the Old Testament as Abraham's father, but Abraham never spoke that way. But from this moment on here, Jesus will nearly always address God as his Father, and he will use this expression more than 60 times. Nobody talked like this. How much do you know about Jesus' life from age 3 to 30?

It's really a trick question, isn't it? There's only one biblical story of Jesus' life for that entire period of time. For that 27 year period, we have only one story. The Gospel writer, Luke, is the only person to tell that story, and he tells it at the end of Luke 2. Here on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey is moving through Luke 1-3 in a series called Good News of Great Joy. Open your Bible to Luke 2 and join Stephen as he explores this remarkable story when Jesus discovered his true identity.

If you'll take your copy of Luke's Gospel, turn where we left off, we're now in chapter 2. We're told in verse 39 and 40 that Jesus grows up in Nazareth, and as he's growing up, he's growing in wisdom and grace. If you look down for just a moment at verse 52, we're told that Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. That is, he grew intellectually, he grew physically, he grew spiritually, he grew socially.

That's what verse 52 is referring to. He grew, he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Now, Luke highlights here that as Jesus grows up, his life is demonstrating wisdom and graciousness toward those around him. Had you met Jesus as a little boy, as a teenager, as a young adult male, you would have been struck by his gracious demeanor, his wisdom beyond his years.

You would have left his company saying to yourself something like, you know, there's really something different about that young man. There's something pure and unique about him. Now, with that as a backdrop, let's get into the event where Luke happens, by the way, to be the only Gospel writer to include this event that we're given during the boyhood of Jesus. It happens, if you're old enough in the faith, you probably know, when he was 12 years of age and it's loaded with truth about who he is.

Look at verse 41. Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. Now, let me just stop here for a moment and point out the spiritual devotion of Joseph and Mary. Now, we know from the Old Testament that every male was required to attend three festivals, or at least one of the three, held in Jerusalem from the time they're 13 through their adulthood. As a 13-year-old boy, Jesus would have become officially what they call a son of the law, or a son of the commandment.

He would have been inducted as a full member into his local synagogue. The Mishnah, which is a collection of laws, oral traditions, and commentary, it encouraged fathers to take their sons to Jerusalem a year or two before they turned 13 in order to sort of inspire them by celebrating these festivals in Jerusalem. By the time Jesus was born, however, any Jewish male living more than 15 miles away from Jerusalem wasn't required to attend the festivals in Jerusalem.

It would be a lengthy and costly journey. They could celebrate Passover back in their own home village. Well, Nazareth is 65 miles away from Jerusalem. So, in a sense, Joseph has a free pass. He doesn't have to go.

He doesn't have to take two weeks off from work. But notice here, they're determined to go to Jerusalem, verse 42 says, this was their custom. They go every year all the way to Jerusalem. One more thing to add here, women were not required to go at all. In fact, in this culture, they would have typically remained behind to care for the household more than likely to care for other children. So, for a woman to go along, this reveals her own devotion, her own commitment, her own determination to take this tremendous effort in organizing the homestead in their absence to make preparations for the entire family to take a difficult and even a dangerous journey through unfriendly territory known for highway robbers. This was why they typically traveled in caravans. So, when you read here in verse 41, now his parents went to Jerusalem every year.

That's a mouthful. It's telling us a lot about Mary and Joseph. They're not going just because Jesus is going to turn 13.

And, you know, this would be a great year to go along and take him with us. No, this poor peasant couple is deeply devoted to God and thankful for his redemption. And they want to be right in the middle of this grand celebration taking place in Jerusalem. Now, when they got to Jerusalem, if I can just sort of set the scene for you from what historians have told us, the streets would have been packed. Historians tell us that nearly one million people by the first century were cramming into Jerusalem to celebrate the high moment that would be Passover.

The streets and alleys would be lined with merchants selling their supplies, their wares. The most intense activity would have been at the sheep stalls where the pilgrims are bartering for sheep to sacrifice at the temple. Historians record for us that by this time more than 200,000 sheep are being herded into Jerusalem for Passover. They would be guided by shepherds on the temple payroll. These were sheep destined for this annual sacrifice and they had arrived from all around the region including the fields of Bethlehem. It only makes me wonder if some of these shepherds driving sheep into Jerusalem were the same ones 12 years earlier, the angel had announced the Savior had been born. Each family would choose a lamb, offer it. The priest would take its life, splatter some of its blood at the base of the altar, give it back to the family. They would roast it and then eat it together as a family that evening, remembering their deliverance from Egypt centuries earlier.

This was the high point for Israel of celebration and joy. Now look at verse 43. When the feast was ended as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it but supposed him to be in the minivan. Well, caravan group, same idea. Now typically, the women and children traveled in the front of the caravan and the men brought up the rear. Luke tells us in verse 44 that they had traveled one day before realizing Jesus wasn't among them. In other words, when they stopped to make camp, Joseph thought Mary had Jesus and Mary thought Joseph had Jesus and they realized neither one of them had Jesus. So verse 44 implies they're racing around the caravan, hollering for him.

None of his relatives or friends have seen him and they finally realize we've left him back in Jerusalem. This is terribly encouraging by the way. Have you ever left your child somewhere? You know, you get home from church or the mall or school and you're one kid short and this isn't any kid here. So just imagine you've got this hubbub. You have a million people packed in and around here. You've got this large caravan now heading home.

This is understandable but we're laughing now. We know the end of the story which is why we can but this is terrifying for them. Verse 46 says after three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding of his answers. According to Jewish custom during Passover, leading teachers, even members of the Sanhedrin, Israel's Supreme Court, would come out into the public, into the temple and mill around, sit around with the people and this was their annual opportunity to ask questions.

And this was an opportunity to get direction. This would be welcomed by Israel and Luke says here, notice that Jesus is sitting among them, giving his own insights, asking his own questions and we're told here they are amazed at his understanding and answers. The word amazed, woodenly translated means to be removed from oneself. We would say they were out of their minds.

Their minds were completely blown away by his insight. They're stunned by this 12-year-old kid who had a grasp on scripture like they have never seen before. And into this scene, here they are in the temple seated, Jesus is seated and around them are Supreme Court justices and into this scene comes Mary and Joseph. After traveling one day out, they travel another day back and in the third day is what this means, they find him surrounded by these leading men who are sitting here with Jesus. And never mind all of that, I love this, Mary is a typical mother.

Look at the middle part of verse 48. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, look, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. She just kind of wades right into the middle of these men. There's no excuse me your honor, I'm sorry your eminence, just Jesus, what in the world are you thinking?

You have put your father and I through terrible anguish. I don't know how you put the Messiah in timeout, but she was headed there. She actually assigns to him sinful actions, which is typical. He's not doing anything sinful. She assumes he's disrespectful.

Look what you did to us. It's a good reminder, by the way, as parents not to discipline our children for being children. Jesus is fully God, fully human. He's growing in his awareness of his divinity. By virtue of the Holy Spirit, it is a mystery to our minds. The Spirit has been guiding him, protecting him from sin, watching him.

But Jesus is still 12 years old. He is, well think about it, is it possible to be naive and sinless? Is it possible to be immature and sinless? Is it possible to do something dangerous?

I think I can jump from here to there. Is that sin? It's an immature young boy. He's frankly, as I thought about this, he's like a kid who got left behind at the state fair and that's fine with him. I mean he gets to do whatever he wants to do. And that's where he gets interesting because for him it wasn't, you know, more rides and cotton candy.

Look at what he wants to do. By the way, in the 39 volumes of the Old Testament, God is only referred to his father 14 times and rather impersonally in reference to the nation. God is referred to in the Old Testament as Abraham's father, but Abraham never spoke that way. But from this moment on here, Jesus will nearly always address God as his father and he will use this expression more than 60 times.

Nobody talked like this. Now this is where the religions of the world, by the way, stumble over the deity, the person of Christ. So let's take a few minutes and deal with this.

I want to deal and I think this is the perfect time to do it. When you hear the terms father and son, you think of biology. You think of a biological relationship, a father having or begetting children. I'm the father of four children. I begat them, which means I existed before they did, right? I was here first. I was around here before you were.

I reminded them of that periodically. So if God is the father and Jesus is the son, that means God the father was here first before God the son. Then you read a verse like Colossians chapter one and verse 15 or verse 17 that says Jesus was before all things and existed prior to creation. But if Jesus came into existence 2,000 years ago when he was born and he did not exist prior to creation. Well, a big part of the problem is that we don't understand this terminology of father and son.

So follow me here. In the New Testament, there are many times where son does not refer to biology but priority. It refers to nature or personality or essence.

And I know in your mind, if you're racing, okay, where might that be? Well, Barnabas was called the son of what? Encouragement. That doesn't mean his father was encouragement. It meant that was his disposition, his personality, Acts chapter 36. James and John were called the sons of thunder. That's because they were bombastic in their personality and they were given that nickname, Mark chapter three verse 17. Jesus described unbelievers as sons of hell. The apostle Paul called unbelievers sons of disobedience, Ephesians 2 too. Luke will call believers sons of light. The term son does not necessarily refer to origin or chronology but to essence and nature.

So as the son of God, that expression means he is of the same essence and of the nature of God the Father. And let me tell you, beloved, the Jewish leaders understood this concept. They got it. They knew it. In fact, when they demanded later on that Pilate crucify him and Pilate wanted to know why, well, they knew what he was claiming. In fact, their response to Pilate in John 19 verse 7 is this, according to the law, he, Jesus, ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. He was claiming to be equal in essence with God. That's blasphemy. They knew that Jesus was claiming full equality with God.

They got it. Paul would tell the Philippians in chapter 2 that Jesus didn't grasp. He didn't hang on to equality with the Father. He was willing to humbly set that divine prerogative aside and become a man. Now, there are two passages that the world of religions like to use.

Maybe they have brought this up to you before in this regard to cause doubt. So I want to address them very quickly. The first text is John 3.16. You know that one by heart. You might turn there and write a word into the margin of your Bible if you haven't. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That must mean he begat him. He was here before Jesus was.

So that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. If Jesus was begotten, it seems to imply that the Father existed before the son and that the Father biologically produced Jesus. That's Mormonism, by the way, that Elohim, God the Father, had a sexual relationship with Mary and begat Jesus.

That's how he got his physical form. Which, by the way, makes God the Father and an adulterer because she was betrothed to Joseph but that's another sermon. The term begotten, monogones, means one of a kind. It means unique.

It means the only one like him. God sent the only one like Jesus to die so that those who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Well, let me give you another verse most often used by religions, cults to deny that Jesus is eternally pre-existent, equally divine. That's the text in Colossians 1.

You might turn there. Colossians 1 verse 15, it's one of the favorite texts brought up. It says that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. The firstborn of all creation. That means he had a beginning and it was sometime before the rest of creation.

Well, firstborn is not necessarily referring to biology or chronology. In fact, the original word translated firstborn, or tatakas, literally refers to first place, protah, first place. And we use it as an expression to mean supremacy or preeminence.

So you could write that word in the margin. That's what it means. He is the preeminent one over all that is, creation. In fact, in the Old Testament, Israel wasn't the first nation on the planet and yet God calls them, in Exodus chapter 4 and verse 22, his firstborn son or the firstborn nation. King David is called the firstborn son of Jesse, even though we know he's the lastborn. The same expression to mean that David is the preeminent son of Jesse.

That Israel is the preeminent nation, a specially called chosen nation. So you might write in the margin of your Bible, Colossians 1.15, the word preeminent. Jesus wasn't the first created creature. In fact, all you have to do is keep reading in Colossians 1, the next verse. He is the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth. All things were created through him and for him. This means Jesus is over all of creation with a divine right to rule over all of creation because he actually created everything.

So take that back to Genesis chapter 1 when we're told that God said, let there be light. We now know because of Colossians that it was actually God the Son doing the speaking. He is the Word. He was the one saying on behalf of the triune God, let there be light.

He spoke it into existence. All right, now back here in Luke chapter 2. We don't know how much God the Spirit revealed to the young heart and mind of this 12-year-old lad, but he now knew that he was eternally God the Son related to God as Father born through Mary in time to die. And I love verse 51. It's actually a surprising verse. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. I would expect it to read this way. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and they were submissive to him.

No. For the next 18 years, we don't even have a whisper of what happened other than the fact that Jesus will submit to them as an obedient Son, kind, honest, pure, growing more and more in his understanding of his nature and his work and his life's mission. There's 18 years between that verse and the first verse of chapter 3 where he is introduced.

So this is the uniqueness of Biblical Christianity to the rest of the world's religions. He is more than a compassionate, nonviolent, enlightened, wise, revered, teacher, prophet, leader. Theophilus, I want you to have certainty concerning the identity of Jesus. Who is Jesus? That's still the question of the ages, the one that matters most.

So, have you answered that question? Who is Jesus to you? Thanks for joining us today as we've explored the reality that Jesus Christ is God incarnate.

This is wisdom for the heart. Our Bible teacher is Stephen Davey and he's in a series from Luke 1 through 3 called Good News of Great Joy. We post each and every message to our website so you can always get caught up. Our website is wisdomonline.org. Stephen has been faithfully teaching God's Word for 35 years and the archive of all those messages are posted to the website and you can listen on demand to any of them. In addition, you can read the printed manuscript for each message.

That allows you to either follow along as you listen or use it as a resource for teaching a class or Bible study. All of this is available in our archives at wisdomonline.org. It's such a joy for us to hear from you and learn how God uses the teaching of His Word to encourage you in your faith. If you have a story to share about what God's doing in your life, we'd love to hear it. Write to us at Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. Thanks again for joining us today. Stephen will continue through this series next time, so join us then here on Wisdom for the Heart.