Certainly, Father, we give you thanks and praise this day. We come before your word. We ask that you would enable us to hear you. Father, that we would find that we love your law, that we find you as a hiding place, as a shield, and as our hope. Lord, that the evil might depart from us, and we would keep your Commandments that that you would uphold us with your promise, that we would live, that you might put us not to shame, but that we would hope in you, that you would hold us up, that your word would help us to be safe, and you would work in us a regard for all your statutes. Father, you need to do this work in our life, and we pray that as we come before your word this morning, you might do just that. We pray this in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen. Well, this morning in our text, we’re looking at Luke 2. We’ll be reading verses 39 to 52. These short verses describe Jesus from the time in which he was born to the time in which his public ministry started. Roughly 30 years of his life are condensed in these short verses.
At least this is what we have been told. With your Bibles in hand, let’s look at Luke 2: 39-52. This is the word of God. ‘And when they, that’s Mary and Joseph, had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. 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 the custom. When the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the group, they went today’s journey. But they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him. After three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All who heard him were 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 so?
Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he, that is Jesus, went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. The word of the Lord. You may Be seated. Let me pray. Father, the grass withers and the flower fades, but your word stands forever. You We pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Every parent wants their child to grow. From the earliest days, the efforts and the prayers to get a newborn back to its birth weight takes some toil on many parents. It’s a great relief and joy that a parent feels when they know their child is finally really growing. Sometimes the growth itself is tremendous, and parents then wonder, Will I even ever be able to keep my kid’s clothes? What fit in the morning is outgrown by dinner.
And yet even in those days, even with those challenges, it’s a joy to see growth in children. Luke gives us two such glorious statements in our text, statements that would serve as a true benediction that is a good word to Mary and to Joseph about their son, that their son, Jesus, was growing. It also gives us opportunities to consider our own growth. These two verses essentially form bookends to our text this morning. There are verses 40 and verses 52. With minor differences, they attest to the same reality that Jesus grew. He grew physically, he grew spiritually, he grew in favor with God and with man. As we look at Jesus’s growth, we might notice the intentionality of the parents’ commitment first to observe the religious laws and customs. We’ll also see Jesus His own intentional behavior, especially with regards to his curiosity, to his investigation of the pursuits of God’s word and God’s will, and also his own determination to submission to those God-given structures in his life. Our first observation of Mary and Joseph’s intention comes straight from the text in verse 39, when they, that is Mary and Joseph, when they performed everything according to the law, they returned home.
Joseph and Mary were intentional about obeying God’s commands to corporate worship and to the practices. They had already presented Jesus for circumcision on the eighth day, we see that earlier in Luke, and also for purification and consecration on the fortieth day of his life. And once all of that was accomplished, verse 39 tells us they returned back to Joseph’s town of Nazareth. This is a 75-mile trip. It would have taken roughly three to four days each way. The caravans of those days would cover about 20 miles a day. So this trip took some time, some energy, and some effort. And then verse 40 gives us this summary. The next 12 years of Jesus’s life is summarized in verse 40. He grew, he became strong, and he was filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was on Jesus grew. He grew physically, which isn’t surprising for the son of a carpenter. It would be expected that he was helping out his father, Joseph, in the shop and on projects at a very early age. Who hasn’t heard their father say, Hold this or hand me that? Don’t miss the simple amazing fact that Jesus grew.
As a babe, he needed to be fed. He needed to be changed. As a toddler, he needed a helping hand when he walked. As a young boy in a Carpenter’s shop, he needed to be taught the difference between an all and an ax or an ax. He grew and he learned just as each of us have. Now, this is important to consider because throughout history of Christianity, there have been some groups that have denied the humanity of our savior. Behavior. But Luke, or Philippians, rather, chapter 2, verses 6 through 8, make it very clear to us that Jesus did not consider his equality with God something he had to hold on to, but rather he emptied himself, and he was poured, if you will, into the form of a man, humbled, even to the point of death on the cross. There are other scriptures that affirm that Jesus was fully human. That’s why in our confessions, we confess Jesus to be very God and very man. Our Westminster Confession, in fact, while affirming that Jesus is of one substance with the Father, with equal to the Father, that he took upon him man’s nature with all its essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin.
That’s what the confession states. Then it goes to tell us that these two whole, perfect and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, are inseparately joined in one person without conversion or confusion. You may wonder, why does this language help me? What does it mean for me? The beauty of this reality is that in recognizing that Jesus Christ is truly a man, you can understand that he truly understands all of the challenges and struggles that you experience, that I experience. As God, not only can he understand us as man, but as God, he can rescue and redeem us from that. Hebrews 4: 15, for instance, tells us that Christ can sympathize with our weakness because He’s been a man. He has known hunger. He has known loneliness. He has known betrayal, he has known temptation. He has known homelessness. He has known the death of a father in Joseph. He has known the death of a close friend in Lazarus. He’s also seen some of the joys of life. He’s seen lives changed. He’s seen people restored. He’s seen crowds gathering. He’s seen himself lifted up and praised. And in both those desperate and those glorious times, Christ has experienced them.
And so as our high priest, he can care for us well. In our desperate and glorious times, whatever we’re struggling with, Christ Jesus has experienced that. And he is ready to hear your request, to listen to your lament, to share in your struggles, to encourage perseverance in your temptation, and to rejoice with you in your celebrations. And he learned all these lessons the same way we learn them. Albeit with Christ, there was no sin, and that would undoubtedly have helped his learning process. But the point is that Jesus learned them from growing up, and he learned them from his godly and earthly parents. In Mary and Joseph, we see a dedicated piety. Verse 41 continues to make this point. Verse 42, specifically mentions that the family travels to Jerusalem to observe the Passover when Jesus was 12 years old. This was an annual pilgrimage for them. The Jewish families were supposed to make three such pilgrimages each year, but For poor families, Passover was the one that they had to make. We understand that Mary and Joseph would have likely fit in that category. Here we went. Scholars also tell us that most families leave after the second or third day of the week.
But verse 43 tells us that they didn’t leave until the feast was accomplished, noting the piety of Joseph and Mary. This This is a regular pattern that Mary and Joseph seem to demonstrate of the good and right customs and observance of God’s law, and it makes a difference in their lives. Of course, you could say this is simply a matter of Jesus obeying. One ought to attend a worship service weekly. One ought to pray regularly as an individual and as families and with your whole church. One ought to read and study the scriptures. One ought to sit, or rather to sing of God’s praises. One ought to give means to help the poor, to provide for ministry, to care for the sick. There are a myriad of verses that command each of these practices. And so, yes, our lives ought to reflect these practices. But God hasn’t randomly given us these laws. He gives them for our growth, and they become a natural expression for us. In the same way that an otter has to play, a beaver has to work, an eagle has to soar, man was created to worship. As we are healthy and as we grow, we find that we express our lives and our joy in worship.
As we do that, we find that these practices help us to grow. You could pick any of these on our list that I’ve mentioned, and you can see how they’ll begin to change you and mature you in your own growth. Regular prayer grows a dependency upon God. Regular service softens your hearts towards others. I would submit, chief of all, regular worship likely does the most good in our lives because it employs so many of these elements of our practice. And so there’s wisdom in the regular customary observance of these commands. And Jesus grew during these regular and repeated worship services, and he grew both physically and spiritually. And in this one, as a 12-year-old boy, he now displays for us another practice that can help us in our growth. Verse 43 specifically tells us that the boy, Jesus, stayed behind as the parents left, and they didn’t know It. Verse 44 develops this as we learn that they didn’t even notice it for an entire day. You may say, That’s hard to believe. But consider the context. Joseph and Mary would have been likely traveling in a large group. Our text says they searched for him in the group.
If he was traveling with a traditional large caravan that would have consisted of many cousins, aunts and uncles, neighbors, as well as a myriad of livestock, these were large groups traveling. They were much safer from raiders. Often the men would navigate into one section, the women and young children would be in another section, and the older kids would go back and forth, playing with friends, helping out with all of the care that would have to take place. Each parent could have easily assumed that Jesus was with the other one until evening when they would have pitched camp and reunited. That’s when Mary and Joseph noticed they searched among the rest of the group and it was fruitless, and so back to Jerusalem, they We read in verse 46 that after the three days they found him in the temple, one day out, one day back, and they found him the next day seated with the teachers. Try for a moment to consider what Mary may have been thinking right then. She’ll reveal her thoughts to us in a moment, but consider the anxiety she would have felt traveling back on that day. Consider also how both Mary and Joseph would likely have been berating themselves by telling themselves again and again what bad parents they were.
How could they have let this happen? You may hear your own voice in that. Imagining the worst case scenario and then perhaps even adding to it, making it worse. And then they find him, and he’s sitting with the teachers. This 12-year-old boy was listening and asking them questions. In Jewish custom, a 13-year-old boy becomes a man, and the 12th year is to be one of preparation. But this was clearly more than that. As verse 47 tells us, all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and at his answers. If you are wondering as you hear this story, what is the focal point? What is the central feature of this story? This scene would be a great candidate for that. There’s an incredible drama. There’s the anxiety of the parents wondering their coming into the temple, and then they find to their relief and surprise, dismay, delight, that their son is seated with the teachers. Furthermore, several scholars note that this phrase He’s sitting with the teachers is in the exact center of the 170 words of the story. In the Jewish tradition, counting words and counting letters is significant. Perhaps this is the central feature of the story, Jesus sitting among the teachers.
He’s seated with them, he’s listening to them, he’s asking them questions questions, and he’s showing us in that another key feature, which is contributing to his increase in wisdom and in stature in favor with both God and man. Jesus was, by his own choice, interested in and investigating God, in studying about him, in understanding his ways, his word and his will. And his approach, which was one of the only ways available in his day. He didn’t have the luxury that you and I have with copies of the scriptures in a handy leather volume in the color and the version of our choice, with or without study notes, with or without cross-references, our preference towards red-letter additions, indexes, concordances, maps. We’ve got it all. Not to mention the digital access and the search engines. If somebody has a religious question today, we don’t need anyone. At least we think we don’t need anyone. In Jesus’s day, that was not the case. He could ask his mom or his dad, But the copy of the text which held its answer was likely only found in the synagogue in a large city. And so Jesus was where he needed to be to learn.
He wanted to learn, and he was in the the best place possible for that to happen. Many years ago at a mission’s conference, our speaker was the Reverend Cortés Cooper, and he repeatedly said, If you want to know the will of God, get to know the God whose will it is. As a young lad, I thought that was a little too simple and clever, but over the years, its wisdom has grown. I realized the real truth of that. Jesus is demonstrating that right here. If you want to know the will of God, get to know the God whose will it is. Here was Jesus getting to know the God whose will he was following. If we go back to our dramatic scene, Mary and Joseph, they enter into the temple and there is their son, the little boy, sitting with the teachers, amazing them with his understanding. In verse 48, we read, In astonishment, Mary asks her question, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Perhaps you would have rather read that she hugged Jesus with joy, that she rejoiced to see him in his Father’s house. But that’s not what was on her mind at this point.
She was upset, and her question flowed It goes from it. In fact, she follows up her question with a second charge, if you will, the second barrel of her gun, your Father and I are both in great distress. That reminds me of, you wait till your father gets home. Philip Graham-Reichen comments that this was one of those times in which Mary, quote, faced the temptation that all parents face to raise a child more out of fear of what could go wrong than by faith in what God will do, end quote. Sometimes parents fear for the child’s safety. Sometimes, to our shame, we fear for our own embarrassment. We might want good behavior because we think it makes us look good. Sometimes we parent out of fear. And then these times of parenting or perhaps simply living in fear, we need to consider how that shifts the focus off of God’s glorious interactions and on to ourselves. Mary demonstrates this. Why did you do this to us? We were in in great distress. At that moment, she isn’t actually thinking about Jesus. She’s thinking about herself, and fear does that. But Jesus’s response in verse 47 refocuses Mary, refocuses us.
Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? Here, Jesus shows us one more way to grow in wisdom and in favor, and that’s through submission to the God-given authorities and structures. Jesus shows us that first among all authorities is God himself and his will. These are actually the first recorded words of Jesus. Mary invokes her husband as the authority, your father and I. And that is met with Jesus’s reminder of his real Father, of all of our first and highest authority, our heavenly Father. There are several quick points to make here. First, this is a salve to our fears. Because of who our heavenly Father is, we need not fear life’s affairs. Our heavenly Father is a good Father, and he loves us, and he has promised that for all his children, everything will actually work for our good. Secondly, Jesus shows us that it is of necessity. He must be in his Father’s house. Or to use an alternate translation, he must be about his Father’s business. God’s business, God’s house, God’s will comes first. We see this principle demonstrated several times in the Book of Acts.
For instance, in Acts 5, Peter and the Apostles are told by the local leaders that they are no longer allowed to preach the gospel. They respond, We must obey God rather than man. There are several places in the world where this is literally the case, where individuals are legally forbidden to speak about the true God, forbidden to publicly share of the gospel. In those places, the Christians are regularly be tempted with that question, do I obey God or man? But closer to home, there are times and situations in which similar temptations arise. We find we may be guilty more like Paul or Saul, rather, King Saul in 1 Samuel 15: 21, where he says, I feared the people, and so I obeyed their voice. There’s not an easy checklist or a flowchart to memorize to determine who you might be obeying. But if you work through those patterns of worship and prayer and time in the word, getting to know the God whose will it is, then you will find that our heavenly Father will faithfully send his spirit to both strengthen us, to serve well, and/or to convict us when we err in sin, as well as restore us with his gracious forgiveness.
When we think of this phrase of Jesus, thirdly and most significantly, as he answers his parents, he declares his own sonship. In Jesus’s first words, he tells us who he is, who his father actually is. New Testament scholar Darryl Bach comments on why Jesus was discussing with religious leaders. He says, His sonship demanded it. Then when you look at verse 50, the recognition that Mary and Joseph didn’t understand, Bach remarks that his parents wrest with Jesus’s first words, So too all will have to wrestle with Jesus’s identity and decide exactly who Jesus is. This is the great truth that each of us must decide. And if you’ve not yet come to that place of decision and understanding, I urge you to do so. What’s holding you back from seeing Jesus as the Son of God, from seeing Jesus as the perfect man, the loving God who has taken your sin on himself to the cross and has purchased your forgiveness. What’s holding you back from seeing Jesus as the savior of sinners? Finally, and in closing, we see that Jesus, after declaring his sonship, after learning from the teachers, willingly submits to his parents’ authority.
Of course, all children are to obey their parents. This is one of the Ten Commandments, and Jesus has perfectly kept them all. Notice, again, the beautiful reflection and the contemplation that Mary has. She who was anxious, she who was in fear, she who rebuked her son out of that fear has now also heard his divine claim to sonship. She notices his perfect submission. She sees Jesus us more fully. This perfect submission, this coupled with an investigation of God’s will, coupled with the regular practice of worship, results in our final verse. It’s every parent’s dream. Every parent would love to hear this of their child. Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for Jesus and for his life lived, but even more than simply lived, willingly offered up for us. Father, Jesus perfectly kept all of your righteous requirements so that he could be that spotless sacrifice to pay for our sins. Lord, we thank you now for your word. As we prepare to transition from this word preached to the gospel visibly demonstrated at the Lord’s table, we ask that you would remind us again of your perfect love, of the gifts that you have given us through these practices and these patterns, your law, your word, your authorities.
Father, you have given us these things for our good. A good God. And you have created us to respond to you in worship. And we ask that we might do just that this morning. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.