We return once again to our study of the Gospel of Luke, so if you will take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter two, we are going to be looking at verses 39 through 52 under the heading "Young Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God." A very fascinating look into what it was like to be around him, who he was, and certainly many practical insights and applications that we can glean from this text. So let me read it to you, Luke two, beginning in verse 39,

“When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

“Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 

“And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast;

“and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it,

“but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 

“When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him.

“Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.

“And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. 

“When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, 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?” 

“But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. 

“And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

“And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

I've always been fascinated by people with extremely high IQs, especially children, and we've all seen them before, child prodigies that can do things that are astounding. I think of the composer, Wolfgang Mozart, he began playing the keyboard by ear at the age of three. By the time he was six, he had begun composing his own pieces and touring Europe, giving both private concerts for the nobility and also public concerts. And at eight years old, he composed his first symphony. You can read similar feats by other great musicians like Frederick Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Felix Mendelssohn and so forth. Blaise Pascal in the 1600s was a French mathematician and physicist and religious philosopher who wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at the age of nine. He wrote his first proof on a wall with a piece of coal at the age of 11 years and a theorem by the age of 16 years. And he is famous for Pascal's theorem and many other contributions in mathematics, philosophy and physics. John von Neumann, who lived from 1903 to 1957 was a mental calculator by the age of six years. He could tell jokes in classical Greek at six years old, at eight, he mastered calculus, and at 12, could comprehend a text written for professional mathematicians. He made his first original contribution to mathematics at age 20, with a rigorous definition of ordinal numbers. He earned his diploma in chemical engineering and his doctoral degree in mathematics three years later, writing his dissertation on axiomatic set theory. If you want to know more about axiomatic set theory, don't ask me.

Early in the 18th century, Jean Louis Cardiac known as "the wonder child" was said to have recited the alphabet at the age of three months. By the age of four, he read Latin, Greek and Hebrew and translated Latin into English and French. A couple more, William James Sidis lived from 1898 to 1944 he was regarded as one of the most intelligent people that has ever lived with an IQ estimated to have been well over 200. Sidis was reading the New York Times at the age of 18 months, and had taught himself Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish and Armenian by the time he was eight. At 11, he entered Harvard, where he lectured the Harvard Mathematical Society on four-dimensional bodies. And one of the most noted contemporary child prodigies is Kim Ung-yon, born in South Korea in 1963. It is said that by the time he was four, he was able to read Korean, Japanese, German and English, and at the same age, solved complicated calculus problems on Japanese television. Kim came to the United States at the age of seven, and at the invitation of NASA, and he earned a PhD in physics before he turned 16. Folks, these are examples of an unfallen mind, just a little glimpse of an unfallen mind, and sometimes we see the same types of things in a person with the savant syndrome. Perhaps you've heard of that a person with extraordinary mental abilities in specific areas like music or mathematics or memory, and frequently it's co-occurring with other developmental or intellectual disabilities such as autism.

But folks, no child prodigy, no genius, no savant ever came close to the mental abilities of the unfallen mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Son of God, which I will discuss in a moment, has nothing to do with origin, but everything to do with the fact that he was of the same essence, the same nature. He had the same rights and prerogatives of God because He was God. God, very God. And this is demonstrated here in Luke's historical narrative. I've divided this section into two simple categories. We're going to look at Jesus' childhood, and then secondly, Jesus' early adulthood. And as we examine the Word of God on this issue, we'll soon discover some great insights, and as I say, some practical applications that we can glean from this passage.

Now first of all, notice in verse 39, "When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth." Now folks, when it says, "according to the Law of the Lord, and then they return to Galilee," there's a whole lot of history that happened between those two statements. What Luke doesn't tell us is what happened between the time he was presented to the temple as an infant, and after the completion of Mary's 40 days of purification, and then his return with his mother and father to Nazareth; he says nothing about Matthew's account of the visit of the Magi, the Persian king makers that came to pay homage to Jesus, and that would have happened when Jesus was somewhere between one and two years old. It says nothing about Jesus going with Mary and Joseph to Egypt for a period of time, rather than turning returning directly to Nazareth, returning to Nazareth in Galilee to avoid somehow Herod's slaughter of the innocent little boys in the region of Bethlehem says nothing about that. They were probably in Egypt maybe a few months, we don't know for sure, nothing is said about Jesus temporary residence there in Egypt. And you might ask the question, "Well, why didn't Luke talk about this?" Well, you want to bear in mind that that was not the focus of Luke's Gospel. Luke really presents two accounts of Jesus and his ministry. You have the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, and as we look at it, and the Gospel of Luke, Luke focuses primarily on Jesus' ministry and the Jewish territory there in Israel. And in his Acts of the Apostles, he focuses more on the Gentiles and the expansion of God's kingdom among the Gentiles. And there, he describes Jesus' ministry from Jerusalem and Samaria and to the uttermost parts the ends of the earth according to Acts 1:8. So Luke didn't mention these things because that really wasn't his focus. But I want you to be aware that those things occurred, and this is why it's important to have a harmony of the Gospels so that you get the full picture.

Now let's look more specifically at Jesus' childhood, beginning in verse 40, "The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him." So here we see that as a human - because he was both God and fully man - as a human, he developed physically like any other child, except he developed in an unfallen state. There were no genetic deficiencies here. He was not limited by any kind of inherited weaknesses or abnormalities. He was a physical specimen with unique physical strength. He was perfect in every way; however, you must bear in mind, he was not omniscient in his humanity. He didn't know everything; he had to learn like other children.

Now, if I can digress for a moment to make sure you understand this. Remember, according to Philippians two beginning in verse six, we read that, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself..." This is known as the "kenosis," and that's drawn from the Greek word for "emptied Himself", "kenoō," and this speaks of Christ's voluntary surrender of his independent use of his divine attributes. The text goes on to say, "...taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Notice, it says he existed in "the form"; in Greek it's "morphē" - in the form of God. Our English word "form" often conveys the outward appearance of something, but that's not what it conveys in the original language, rather, it speaks of the inner substance or of the very nature of something. That's what "morphē" expresses. So Jesus didn't exist merely in the outward form of God, in the appearance of God, he existed "in the form of God," and it says he "did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped," he was therefore fully God. If you drop down to verse seven, notice "morphē" is used again, and it says he took, "the form," there it is again, "of a bond servant." This does not merely mean that he decided to look like a human being, look like a servant; he didn't merely look like or act like one. He wasn't just pretending to be something that he wasn't in his heart. Just the opposite is true. What it means here with that term "morphē" is that he took on the very essence of a slave's nature, the inner substance of a servant, the continuous and highest expression of the state or the condition of a human being. And though Christ is the coequal, consubstantial and coeternal God with the Father, he laid aside his right to the full prerogatives and benefits of his coexistence and equality with God. But you must bear in mind, when this happened, he surrendered none of his divine essence. The Scripture does not speak of that.

Furthermore, he took on human flesh, and it says when he did that he did not "grasp"; in other words, he did not try to hang on to all the privileges and rights which were his, rather again, Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a bondservant. And I might also add, when it says, "He emptied Himself," this does not mean that he divested something from himself or out of himself, thereby, in some way becoming less than God. No, it means that he emptied himself, he poured out himself. And what this means again, when we look at the verb "kenoō," which means "to empty," it's used exclusively in a metaphorical sense in the New Testament, and it never means to pour out, as if Jesus poured out some of his divine attributes from himself, that's not what it means. Instead, the inspired apostle is using the term "kenoō" here to mean "to make void" or "to nullify" or "to make of no effect." In Philippians 2:7, we read, Christ "Himself"is therefore the object of this emptying. He made himself void. He nullified himself. I believe the King James said, "He made Himself of no reputation." How did he do this? Well, he did this by taking on the human nature, by adding to himself full and true humanity. So this is addition, not subtraction. That's what I want you to understand. He lost nothing of his divine essence, nothing of his divine nature, nothing of his divine qualities. He remained fully God. He was still omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, etc, but he chose not to exercise the full limit of those attributes. So therefore, he emptied himself by refusing access to his divine rights and privileges. He made void certain aspects, you might say, of those divine prerogatives; although it's interesting, he did not forsake his divine power, because at times he performed miracles, at times he forgave sins, and he could know the minds of people and so forth. So technically, there is nothing subtracted here.

I want to digress here for a moment, because I don't want you to misunderstand. I want to be as clear as I possibly can, so that you don't fall into some heresy here. But rather, he poured out himself by adding to himself the nature of man - a created, limited, finite human being - and as a result, the full manifestation of his deity was restricted, shall we say, it was limited because of his human nature. His divine glory was veiled, therefore, in his humanity, and he voluntarily refused to exercise some of those divine attributes.

Now with all of that, let's go back to the text. A little theology there on the kenosis. Verse, 40, "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom." He continued to grow and become strong; present tense participle here, indicating that his development in wisdom was a gradual, ongoing process more than mere intellectual knowledge here, but he's growing in wisdom. And you must understand that wisdom is one's ability to apply knowledge to ultimately fulfill the supreme commandment: to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and the second, to love your neighbor as yourself. It's one thing to have knowledge is something altogether different to have wisdom, to apply that knowledge properly. I have known men who were great intellectual giants, but they had no wisdom. And when you have no wisdom, I don't care how smart you are or how much you know, God calls you a fool. Proverbs one and verse seven, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction." So if you don't begin with the fear of the Lord, then all the rest of it is just superfluous. Proverbs nine and verse 10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding," and Job said in chapter 28 verse 28, "'Behold, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.'" I'm also reminded of James chapter three, verse 17, "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy." So what we see in the text here is the child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom. So he developed perfectly in every way - physically, intellectually, morally, spiritually - he was unimpaired by inherited sin. He was unhindered by its temptations or its effects in the environment in which he lived.

However, we also need to remember, according to Hebrews four and verse 15, he has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Moreover, Luke tells us, "...and the grace of God was upon Him." This isn't obviously saving grace, but this is divine favor. This is the outworking of the Father and the Spirit's boundless love that guided and comforted and taught him and protected him and so forth.

So we move from Jesus' childhood to his early adulthood. Notice in verse 41 this is where it really gets interesting. "Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover." Let me pause there and give you some background. Every male Israelite of a mature age, they would call it, was required by law to go to Jerusalem three times a year to attend the three great feasts: the Passover, the feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. But after the dispersion, this became impossible, because people lived so far away, great distances, so most would attend once per year, and they would choose to go to Passover. And every Israelite was required to be there, except for those who were unable to make the journey. And they also had a special exclusion for the blind, the deaf and those that are mentally disabled, but also boys that were under the age of 12. Not sure why? Probably because they just caused too much trouble. But they didn't have to go. They were permitted to stay home. And early in the month of Nissan, messengers were sent to all of the regions to remind the people of the approaching festival, so that nobody could say, "oh my, I'm sorry, I forgot." There's no excuse here. Everybody knew, but all Jewish 12-year-old males were expected to come and to take part of that sacred festival. They were considered, quote, "The son of the Law" - "Bar Mitzvah" in Hebrew - You've heard of that, and they typically attain that around the age of 13, the age of maturity, when a young man should and could take responsibility for his conduct. I know that's rather foreign in our culture, but it should be that way. You know, look, there were no mama's boys and sissy boys back in those days. They were trained to be men at a young age, and they were expected to act like men, responsible men, by the time they were in their early teens. And there was no such thing back then as gender dysphoria or any of the other perversions and all that type of stuff that you see. In fact, defying parental authority was a capital offense. So this was the cultural the religious background of that day.

Now back to the historical flow here. By this time, it was safe for Mary and Joseph and Jesus to return to Judea, because Caesar Augustus had banished Herod Archelaus after his 10 year reign of brutality and insanity, mainly because the Jewish and Samaritan leaders hated him. It reminds me of what's going on in Iran today, But his leading subjects, in fact, petitioned Rome to somehow have him removed, because he was a vicious and he was an incompetent tyrant, especially, after you may recall, that the cruel massacre of 3000 citizens in the temple. So now Judea was under direct Roman administration, so it was safe for them to go back. So again, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover,

"And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast;

" and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it,

"but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances."

Now, so what happened here? Well, at the appropriate time, Mary and Joseph got on the caravan, shall we say the north bound caravan to Nazareth. They probably had their own community, their own people; and you must bear in mind that there would have been lots of caravans, hundreds of caravans. In fact, Josephus tells us that Galilee at that time contained more than 4 million inhabitants, and so most of them would have been there at that feast, even if half of them were there imagine the amount of people in the caravan. So it was a bit chaotic, lots of people, numerous caravans, and, you know, there was no cell phones, right? There's no Amber Alert. There's no such thing as filing a missing person’s report. So anyway, probably what happened is, is Mary thinks Jesus is with Joseph. You know how parents are? Joseph thinks, well, I guess he's with Mama. And so they get going on the caravan. Everybody's having a wonderful time. They've had a great time in Jerusalem. They're going home. And they began looking around. It's like, "Have you seen Jesus?" "No, I thought he was with you." "Well, I thought he was with you." Well, they don't know where he is.

Verse 45, "When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him." Now I can see how this goes. They're probably in a panic, mama, more so than daddy. Daddy's typically say, "Ah, he's fine, you know he'll be fine. You know he's got to learn; he'll be fine. He's a fine young man. He's smart, he'll be good." And you know, Mama's hyperventilating here, and she's imagining every imaginable worst-case scenario. By the way, it doesn't say all of that, but I'm just thinking, you know when you get my age, you've been around enough to kind of know how these things work, right?

And so, they didn't find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him." Verse 46, "Then, after three days they found Him in the temple." Now we don't know how the days are, how all of that happened. Remember, just a part of a day, even late in the evening, that would be considered a full day to the Jews. And you know, if they got ready to go on Tuesday afternoon, and they traveled till dark, and they traveled all day Wednesday, and they found him on Thursday, that would have been three days, we don't know. The point is, it was a bit of a hike and a bit of a reconnoiter to try to find out where in the world he is. And where did they find him, "...sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions." Now, if you know anything about the Temple of that day, you would know that there were beautiful porches all around the Court of the Women, where people would congregate, where they would sit down with rabbis, and the rabbis would teach them the Law. But you got to get the picture here, you've got a 12-year-old boy dialoguing with the greatest minds in Israel there at the temple. And some of those men may have been among the remnant of the elect. We don't know. Some of them perhaps could have been looking for the consolation of Israel, as Zacharias was and so forth. We don't know. But there's Jesus, and I might add, if you think about it, this was not an opportunity that would have been available to him in Nazareth. I mean, to have highly educated, religiously sophisticated men in Nazareth would have been unheard of. I mean, that was just an obscure little hamlet, and that day it would have had no more than 400 people, 500 at the most. It was an obscure agricultural hamlet with a tiny little synagogue, so he wouldn't have had that opportunity there.

And verse 47 says, "And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers." Folks, you know why they were amazed? Because they had encountered an unfallen mind, a sinless mind. A mind that is genetically perfect in every way, one completely informed by the indwelling Spirit, which I might add, is available to each of us as well.

Now, practically again, this is beyond a child prodigy, what they're seeing here. But as I was thinking about this, I was thinking, you know, this is so important for we as parents to expose our children to great teaching. I mean, practically, we're told in Ephesians 6:4 that parents, you're supposed to, "bring up your children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord." I might ask you, is that a priority in your life? Dear parents, who's training your kids in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord? Are you merely leaving it up to people in the church, or are you actively, intentionally engaged in that process, as you are told to do. If you don't train them, social media and the godless fools of this world will train them. They will train them up in the discipline and the instruction of the devil.

I was reading a Gallup study, US teenagers, ages 13 to 18, spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on social media platforms. That's just incomprehensible. Talk about idolatry. Studies indicate that 55% of teens spend four or more hours daily on social media, with usage increasing from age from 4.1 hours for 13-year-olds to 5.8 hours for 17-year-olds, and they said the top platforms include YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. That's who's training our children. And key findings on teen social media usage say that the total screen time, including nonsocial media teens average over eight hours of daily screentime, unbelievable. And the impact it says, 58% of teens say social media, again, let me repeat that, 58% of teens say social media makes them feel sad or poor about themselves, and 32% spend five to six hours on it daily. How sad. You're aware of the landmark trial that began in January in Los Angeles, where Meta and Google with YouTube, are defending against allegations that they designed addictive features like infinite scroll and "like" buttons that fueled a mental health crisis among minors. I mean, folks, it's no wonder you have so many people that are woke. Utter idiocy, depravity on full display. Liberals today protesting. They're teaching our kids. They're in pulpits. You see, Satan uses these platforms to poison the minds of our children. And parents are equally at fault, and I might add, churches are as well. So parents get serious about training up your children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. You might say, Well, how do I do that? Well, just disciple them. Come up with a plan. Read to them, discuss things with them, be intentional in their lives and routinely, and this back to Jesus here, routinely expose them to men and even women who know the word, especially pastor/teachers who are called and who are gifted by God, which I might say, rules out, frankly, most evangelical pastors today and all women pastors. You need to find men of the word, not men of the world. Men who are defined by the word of God, not the word of man, whose authority is scripture, not culture. Men who fear God rather than man; men who have been given to the church by God according to Ephesians, four, beginning in verse 12, "...for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith..."  referring to doctrinal unity,

"...and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

"As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming;

"but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,

"from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."

You ask the average 14-year-old, "Who is your favorite Bible expositor? Who's your favorite theologian? What godly man or woman has had the greatest impact on your life? Who do you read in that regard?" And most of them will look at you like you have three heads. You ask them, "Who's your favorite athlete or your favorite rap artist or your favorite influencer?" Boom, just like that. They've got it. Sadly, most youth, and I might even add, most adults, live as if there is no God, and they love it that way. How sad.

Back to the text, verse 47, "All who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers." In other words, what we see here is he's not just asking questions, he's answering questions. He's providing for them insights into theological issues and various passages that they are discussing. Can you imagine the average Bible study or average Sunday school class, where, in many cases, you have poorly trained people that really know nothing of Scripture, and everyone's sharing what that verse means to them, and then suddenly, you take a godly, humble, trained theologian and put him in the midst of that, and you see the difference at some level? That's what was going on here. They, "were amazed at His understanding and His answers."

By the way, you see this playing out in his life. Let me give you a couple of examples. Later on in Nazareth, in Luke 4:22 we read, "All were speaking well of Him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips; and they were saying, 'Is this not Joseph's son?'" What? Who is this guy? Isn't that Joseph's son that's saying all of that? I mean, I can't believe this. Where did he learn all of this? In Luke 4:31 and following, "And He came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority." You see, the scribes and the rabbis would just quote other scribes and rabbis in order to establish their own authority. But Jesus didn't do any of that. He was his own authority, and that was astounding to the people. Moreover, it was an insult to many of them, because it challenged their authority.

So back to the text, verse 48, "When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, 'Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.' He was Jesus' father in a legal sense. So in her fear and in her frustration, we can see how Mary, you might say, forgot what the angel Gabriel had told her earlier about her son, that which is recorded in Luke one verse 32 that, "He will be great and He will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David." You see, by now, Jesus was fully aware of who he was and the unique relationship that he had with his heavenly Father: what he had been called to do, the role he was to play in redemption. He was fully aware of all of that, how he came to do the will of his Father. Mary and Joseph weren't fully aware of all of that. How could they have been? In John 6:38, Jesus says,

"'For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

"'This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

"'For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.'"

And in Luke 10, verse 22, "'All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.'" John 10, verse 30, "'I and the Father are one,'"  and I could go on and on with these passages.

So in verse 49 he says to them, "Why is it that you...'" by the way, "you," in the Greek is plural here, so, you, Mom and Dad, "'Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?'" Important statement here; this is the first time in Scripture - the first recorded statement - of Jesus' deity. You see, this should have been no surprise to them, again, the angel Gabriel had told Mary that, "He shall be called the Son of God," which was a common designation that Jesus used of himself. And as I mentioned earlier, the term "son" does not refer to origin, but to nature. Remember, Judas and the Antichrist are called "sons of perdition, sons of destruction," denoting their eternal destiny. Unbelievers are called "sons of disobedience" in Ephesians two and verse two, believers are called "sons of life," in John 12:36, and "sons of the resurrection" in Luke 20 and verse 36. So when we read the phrase "Jesus, the Son of God," it refers to Jesus having the same the same essence and the same nature as God. Again, he is coequal. He is coeternal. He is consubstantial, meaning he is of the same essence as the Father, as his Father; and therefore, he has the same rights and the same privileges as God.

You know, this is why the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him, because he made that claim. Remember, in John five verse 17, the context there is he's healed the man, the sick man, on the Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders are all torqued off, and they're going medieval on him, because you're not supposed to do this on the Sabbath, and blah, blah, blah, a guy that, as I recall, he hadn't been able to walk for like, 38 years, now he's walking, but the big issue is, you healed him on the Sabbath. You know, it's just insane, this type of stuff we see in Congress all the time, and just stuff that's like, you can't make this stuff up. Well, that's what was going on. And it says,

"For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

"But he answered them, 'My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.'"

Then it says, "For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." By the way, there are cults out there today that say that Jesus was a created being. You've probably heard that, and they argue this because of the terms "first born" and "only begotten." They're used in Scripture, and they think, well, because of those terms, it means that he was a created being. They will, for example, argue, out of John 3:16 it says that, "He gave His only begotten Son.' Well, there it is. See, you know he was begotten. You know he originated from the father. But the term "begotten" in the original language, "monogenēs" means "one of a kind." It has nothing to do with origin. Jesus, therefore, is a one of the kind Son of God. He is the unique Son of God. He is different from all believers. That's what that is saying, it has nothing to do with origin. In fact, Isaac was called Abraham's "only begotten son." Again, the same, the same Greek term, "monogenēs" (Hebrews 11:17). Even though Isaac was neither Abraham's oldest son, nor was he his only son. Rather, he was his unique son, because he alone was the son of the Covenant, as we read in Genesis chapter 21, I believe it is. They also will use Romans 8:29, it says he is, "...the first born among many brethren." There it is, see he was born. He wasn't eternally the Son of God. God the Father, you know, created him. But what they don't understand is, "first born" in the original language, "prōtotokos," refers to preeminence. It doesn't refer to chronology. In fact, in Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5 Jesus is described as "the first born from the dead" - the "prōtotokos" from the dead - meaning he is the preeminent one, that will be resurrected. He is preeminent over all the rest. He's not first chronologically, he is the preeminent one. That's what the term means. So to argue that because Scripture uses the terms "firstborn" and "only begotten," that that means he is a created being, is just demonstrably false, and it betrays an ignorance of the original language. Not to mention it contradicts so many other passages of Scripture. And I might add, I mean, yeah, it's unbiblical, but it's also absurd. How could Jesus be both the "only begotten" and the "first begotten?" Makes no sense. Moreover, he couldn't be the creator of the universe, as we read in Colossians one and verse 16, if he himself had been created; and on and on  the refutation can go.

So again, verse 49,

"'Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?'

"But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them."

You see, and I can certainly appreciate this with Mary and Joseph, the implications of who he was in relation to his Father would have been so hard to grasp, wouldn't it? The same was true of his only own family members, as you recall, and his disciples. But we see that Jesus is obviously sympathetic and patient with their concerns and their ignorance and he remains obedient to his parents. So in verse 51 we read that, "He went down with them and came to Nazareth," and it says, "down", Jerusalem is up high, and you go down, even though you're going north, you go down off of the mountain. And it says, "And He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart."

Obviously, this is a learning process for Mary. I try to put myself in her place, and Joseph; I mean, how could you even begin to comprehend what was going on here? And I might add that there's no further mention of Joseph in the gospel accounts after this scenario. We believe that he probably died when Jesus was in his early adult years, certainly prior to the beginning of his earthly ministry. And then we read that, "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." What an amazing historical narrative of what happened. Beloved we can be thankful that Jesus was and is the perfect sinless sacrifice, and that qualified him to be the only acceptable sacrifice for our sin, and in this we can rejoice. So may I challenge you to examine these great truths that we've looked at today and especially be sensitive to those areas, perhaps with you parents in how you're training your children. Be sensitive to those things and act upon them in a way that would bring honor to the Lord and certainly bring joy and blessing to you and your children, or whatever it is that the Spirit of God would use from our examination of his word this morning.

Let's pray together,

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that can speak so directly to each of our lives and certainly we thank you for the Lord Jesus. What an amazing reality, it is so far beyond us. And were it not for your word, we would have no idea, we would just make up stuff, like most people do, and so we bow before you in utmost reverence and adoration for what you have done for us in revealing these truths to us. May we take them, apply them to our life that we might enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ and Father, if there be one here today that knows nothing what it means to be united to you, because they're united to Christ in saving faith, won't you bring overwhelming conviction to them even today, give them no rest until they fall before you in humility and repentance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they might be saved. I ask this for the glory of Christ and in his name, Amen.