“What do you do when you lose the Son of God?”
Luke 2:41-52
Mary and Joseph had a wonderful celebration of their first Christmas. The Bible says that when Mary received the news that she began to ponder the words that Gabriel had spoken to her. Now she has given birth and she and Joseph would now take on the incredible job of raising the Son of God. So here’s the question…how exactly do you do that? How do you raise God’s Son? The Bible teaches clearly that Jesus was born without sin. How do you raise a child like that…a child that you will perhaps learn more from than they will learn from you. Let’s look at what they do.
Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the temple when he was 8 days old. We then do not have any record of anything in his life until he was 12 years of age. I wish we did. I would really like to know more about his childhood. But we don’t have those records.
We then move to a familiar story of when Jesus was 12. The setting is that every year Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover. That was the custom and Mary and Joseph followed it. Jesus was 12 years of age at the time. When the feast was over his parents left and were returning home—what they didn’t know was that Jesus wasn’t with them.
Our first question is this, what kind of parents are they—they are raising the Son of God and they left to make the journey home and he is nowhere to be found. The Bible tells us in v. 44 “thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day.” Now as hard as that is to imagine it is actually easily explained. Men walk faster usually than women. So it was a tradition that when families were traveling together the women would leave earlier than the men. The men would then start the journey later but would eventually catch up and they would all arrive home at the same time. That is apparently what happened in this case. Also I think that Mary thought Jesus was with Joseph and Joseph thought Jesus was with her. You know, it happens. When they realized it the Bible tells us they did what every good parent would do at this point---they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. Seems like the best place to start looking. When they didn’t find him they went back to Jerusalem to look.
They looked for 3 days. That’s a long time. Just two weeks ago a young boy came walking past our house---we were working in the garage---he looked panic stricken and he said he was looking for his 4 year old brother. He had apparently gone outside and no one could locate him. So my wife and I immediately joined in the search. There are several lakes in our neighborhood. We went right away to look at two of those. Others got involved in the neighborhood. Driving around. 15-20 minutes later I talked to the parents—they had just found him in his BR. They had looked there but had missed him. He was sound asleep. Everyone was relieved. A child was missing for nearly 30 minutes. But 3 days. That’s a long time. No one wants a child to be lost for any length of time but certainly not overnight. Then it happens.
After 3 days of frantic searching they walk into the temple and there is Jesus sitting among the teachers listening and asking questions. The Bible says that all who heard him were amazed. As for Mary and Joseph they were astonished. Look at verses 48-49. Jesus seems surprised. It’s like where else do you think I would be? Verse 50 is very interesting. This tells me they did not fully understand what his future held for him even though they had already been told this was the Messiah.
We then come to another silent period in the life of Christ. From the time He was 12 until He was about 30 when He entered into public ministry. 18 years—silence. All of it summed up in this verse: Luke 2:52. I use this as my life verse. A life verse is a passage from the Bible that really speaks to you and as a result you claim that passage for how you will live your life. I have two actually. Isaiah 40:28-31 used to start the church. Then Luke 2:52.
This passage tells us how Jesus grew—how he balanced His life and tells us where His priorities were.
Priority one. Jesus grew in wisdom. The book of James tells us that if we want wisdom all we need to do is ask. So there are apparently a lot of people who never ask. Would you agree? Because I don’t see a lot of wisdom in this world. Do you? James tells us that the source of all wisdom is heaven. Jesus had it and there are several things we need to know about wisdom.
(1) Wisdom has a beginning. There is a specific time when it begins to enter our lives. The psalmist said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear often means respect and that is what as it does here. If you respect someone you tend to do what they tell you. We “disrespect” someone when we disobey. The first step to get wisdom is to fear/respect God by doing what He says. That shows that we are wise. When we disobey it shows that we are foolish.
(2) The world offers many paths to find wisdom but they will not get you to your destination. If wisdom is your goal and you take the path the world offers, you will not make it. The world promises it but the world cannot deliver. The world will tell you do this or do that and you will have success. We see this early in the scripture that God says to Adam and Eve… you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, except one. And of course that’s the one they ate from. Why? Genesis says that they believed that by eating from that tree that they would gain wisdom. God says don’t do it, it won’t work. Satan says that’s not what He means…. so they do it. And 2000 years later we still have not learned to listen to God instead of listening to the world.
(3) The greatest source of wisdom is the Bible. 2nd Timothy 3:15 says that “the holy scriptures are able to give you wisdom.” All true wisdom comes from this book. Period.
(4) Wisdom also has an end. God has the power to destroy wisdom if we use it for the wrong purpose. He says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.” Ever known someone who just seemed so smart but they then do something that’s not so smart? Or you grew up with someone who was so intelligent and you talk to them years later and you think what happened? They had wisdom they lost it. If you misuse it God takes it away.
Priority one. Jesus grew in wisdom. He grew wiser.
Priority two. Jesus grew in stature. He grew physically. He was fit. The scripture tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We house God in our bodies. We need to take care of them. We need to be in the best physical shape possible. They key is balance. We don’t spend our life at the gym/CLC but we do need to take care of ourselves. Think about the lifestyle of Jesus.
• He worked in the carpenter’s shop with His father. It was hard physical work. Different tools then.
• He walked constantly. From town to town teaching and doing ministry.
• He stopped to rest. He got away.
• He endured the cross. No man could have endured what Jesus went through if he was not in good shape physically.
Priority three. Jesus grew in favor with God. Jesus grew spiritually. That is hard for us to grasp but that means He was at this level and then moved to this level. As a child He was not fully developed spiritually. He prayed, He read and memorized scripture, He went to the temple every week, He taught, He learned all He could by asking questions of the teachers in the temple. And it was his purpose every day to do the will of God and nothing else. And so He was constantly growing in favor with God.
Priority four. Jesus grew in favor with man. He grew in relationships. Until the final week of His life Jesus was very popular. People loved Him. Everyone wanted to be friends with Him. He is described as the friend of sinners. The tax collectors and sinners were in a class all by themselves and they were not well thought of. But Jesus was their friend. He never overlooked anyone. What about you? Listen, the majority of the people you will lead to Jesus will be people you are friends with. Because they must accept you many times before they will let you talk about Him.
This is what God wants us to know about those 18 years. Jesus grew. Henry Blackaby says you cannot stay where you are and go with God. We must grow.
For me I have found that one of the most important things in life is balance. I see too many believers who get involved in just one thing and never branch out and grow. I have seen believers who read every book that comes out on things in the era f the demonic. Yes we fight spiritual battles and yes we need to know who the enemy is and how to defend ourselves. But a constant focus on the demonic will lead you down a dangerous path. Balance matters. People focus on just their physical bodies and they become vain. Focus only on social relationshihps and you will leave God completely out of your life. All of us know what it feels like when life gets out of balance. Ever feel that way? Let me ask you something. What do you plan to do with the next, say 5 years of your life? No matter who you are, your life will change. For some, dramatically. What will be the summary statement for you for the next 5 years? I want the next 5
5 years of my life to count for something. I don’t want to waste it. And the time to start is today. Right now.
Don’t know Christ? Come to Him today. Need a church home? Join this one today. Need to start over? Come and pray with the pastor. Whatever God tells you to do, don’t put it off. Today.
Prayer.
