Well, let's open this morning to the Gospel of Luke. Luke 2.39, 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 they went a day's journey. 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. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When they saw him, they were astonished, amazed. 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, looking for you, seeking you sorrowfully. 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 about my father's business? 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. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that we can trust it is inerrant, infallible, given by You. And Lord, we pray that as we delve into the mysteries that we find here this morning, that You would open our eyes and our hearts. Lord, that You would increase our faith. That while we may not understand everything we read here this morning, we would treasure these things in our hearts. In Christ's name, Amen. Well there are many things we cannot comprehend concerning the Creator of all things. We call them mysteries. Things that remain unknowable to us on this side of glory at least. And this is at least partly as a result of our sin. Our minds have been affected by sin, not just our bodies. But these mysteries The eternal nature of God, His triune nature, His almighty power, His boundless love, His omniscience, taken into our hearts, are a source of great blessing to all of us who believe. We don't understand any of those things. And yet we believe and they are the greatest treasure to us. And this morning we're going to delve into one of those great blessed mysteries. The dual nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fully God and fully man. And when we come to the end of our time this morning, we're still not going to be able to comprehend these things. But we will be blessed, I trust. I want you to look in your Scripture sheet. All of the writers of the gospel start in different places. Luke, as we know, began with the conception of John the Baptist with Zacharias in the temple. Matthew began with the genealogy. John began way back before the foundation of the world. John 1-1, in the beginning was the Word, the logos. And the logos, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now all of that is long before the birth of Christ and the things of which we're going to read this morning. But John comes to verse 14 of chapter 1 and says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now I put in your Scripture sheet a modern rendering of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. A little easier to read than what was written 350 years ago. Chapter 8, verse 2, addresses this dual nature of Christ. The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is truly and eternally God. He's the brightness of the Father's glory. He's the same in substance and equal with Him, with the Father. He made the world. Now this is the 12-year-old boy we're going to be talking about today. He sustains and governs everything He has made. When the fullness of time came, He took upon Himself human nature, with all the essential properties and common weaknesses of it, but without sin. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit came upon her. The power of the Most High overshadowed her. And thus He was born of a woman from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham and King David. All this in fulfillment of the Scriptures. Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without converting one into the other or mixing them together to produce a different or blended nature. This person is truly God and truly man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and humanity. This is the Christian faith. This person died for our sins. That's the Christian faith. And he rose again. That's the Christian faith. Now it's impossible for us to penetrate the mystery of the two natures of Christ. He's the eternal God, yet made like us in everything except sin. So let us affirm, before we go into the remainder of Luke's narrative here, that the child born in Bethlehem to a virgin woman is the eternal God in human flesh. God has not given us the ability to comprehend these great truths. But He has, in His Word, and by His Spirit, shown us that this is true. We don't understand, but we know it's true. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man. He was born, Jesus the Messiah, in Bethlehem, as had been foretold 700 years earlier by the prophet Micah. And when he was born, his parents complied with all of the law given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. He was circumcised on the eighth day. And then his mother went through 33 more days of purification according to the same law. And then according to the same law, he was brought into the temple and presented to Yahweh. Again, in obedience to the law. And look at verse 39 here in our passage. When they performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they went back to Galilee. Went back to their own city of Nazareth. Every requirement of the law was kept by Mary and Joseph. Now it may seem strange, and you may have noticed here, that Luke, who had set out to set down everything in an orderly manner, omitted any reference to four events that Matthew recorded in his gospel. Visit of the Magi from the east, astrologers, perhaps of the same caste and group that Daniel was among. He omits the appearance of an angel to Joseph telling him to flee to Egypt. He omits the flight to Egypt of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. And he omits Herod's slaughter of the infant Jewish males that necessitated the flight to Egypt. Now, if you were hoping to find out why Luke did not record these things, you're not going to. We're not told. And again, as so often, when we're not told something in Scripture, the Lord probably doesn't feel a need for us to know. And those events, by the way, had already been recorded in Matthew's gospel. Luke knew that. So He chose not to record them. What He tells us is they complied with the law and went back to Galilee, to Nazareth. And He tells us the child continued to grow and become strong. And look at these words, which I find really amazing. Increasing in wisdom. Now in His divine nature, of course, He couldn't increase in wisdom. He's all-knowing. He's omniscient. But in His human nature, increasing in wisdom. Becoming strong. Now if you look back at chapter 1, verse 80, Luke described the growth of John the Baptist in pretty similar terms. He continued to grow and become strong in spirit. The development of Jesus was normal. His growth resembled the development of any other normal child. Look at these words. He continued to grow. This is speaking of a gradual process. So in his human nature though, Jesus was increasing in wisdom. In his humanity, he acquired knowledge. I told you we're going to have some trouble getting these things into our head this morning. He grew in the ability to use knowledge. That's what wisdom is. Hebrews 217, he had to be made like his brethren in all things. He was 415, yet without sin. And because He's fully man, all the things that pertain to people also pertained to Jesus when He became a man. In His human nature, He would grow and He would learn. And the present passage shows us that according to His human nature, there were things, initially at least, that Jesus did not know. In his humanity, he had to learn. He had to grow, not only physically, but mentally. I can't tell you how in over my head I always feel when I'm trying to preach on the dual nature of Christ. So we try to carefully stick with exactly what the Scripture tells us, and don't go beyond it. But Luke is showing us in these first two chapters, and particularly in verse 40 here, that the divine Son of God had indeed become human. You know in the early church there were those who denied He was really human. Those who denied He had a physical body. Those who denied He was divine. No. The divine became human. That's what Luke's telling us. He grew, became strong, increased in wisdom. None of those things could apply to His divine nature. Growth, only related to His human nature. In His divinity, what was He? He was, always has been, always will be, all-powerful. He couldn't grow in strength. He is, and always has been, all-knowing in His divine nature. There was nothing to learn. So when He came into the world that He had created, He didn't set aside His divine nature, but He did take on a fully human nature. Now there's something else here though about the mind of the Lord in His humanity. Because of the fall of Adam, all men are born the seed of man. And they suffer, we suffer, all of us do, not only from the physical effects of sin, we get sick and we die, but we also suffer from what are called the noetic effects of sin, things of the mind. Not only will our bodies suffer and die, our minds, our ability to think, our thinking processes have been damaged by sin. It's called the noetic effects of sin. Not a word we use very often. But Jesus wasn't born the seed of a man. Jesus became fully human, born the seed of the woman. Remember back to Genesis 3, 15. He was born the seed of a woman without a sin nature. And so even in his humanity, And this will explain a lot of things maybe as we read about the things Jesus said. Even in his humanity, his mind was unaffected by sin, as all of ours are. His development was unhindered by sin. For this reason, we see in his time on earth that in his human nature even, his mind and his thoughts are vastly beyond those of all other men. whose minds, as well as our bodies, have been seriously impaired by sin. Luke tells us something else in verse 40. Grace of God was upon him. Now the word grace here, what is grace for us? Well, we think of grace as God's undeserved kindness. It's something he extends to us despite our what? Despite our sin. Jesus didn't have any sin. So this word Horus in Greek has a different kind of meaning here when it comes to Christ. In the case of sinners saved by grace, this word is one thing, but in the case of Jesus, it's used in a broader sense. God's favor, not in the nature or in the sense of His undeserved kindness, but because He was sinless and didn't even have a sin nature, God's favor never turned away from Him. He didn't have to discipline Him. A grace of God. He didn't have to chastise Him. Another grace of God. Divine grace was upon Him. Now, beginning in verse 41, we get to our incident here. Luke relates this incident that occurred when Jesus was 12 years old. And this whole discussion we've just had is to help us try to understand what's going on in the temple when Jesus, as a boy of 12, is speaking with these people, these rabbis, and they are all astonished and amazed at Him. This incident isn't recorded anywhere else in the Gospels or anywhere else in Scripture. It's during the feast of the Passover when all of the Jews were required by God's law to come to Jerusalem. We don't know anything of Jesus' boyhood except this one incident. This is it. People like to fill in the blanks. But we really don't know anything. We know he was subject to his parents and obedient to them. And that's it. This event, we begin to see the growth of the human nature of Jesus. Parents came to Jerusalem every year to feast of the Passover. When He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the feast. The law God had given to Moses obligated every Jewish male of mature age which had come to be understood to be 13, the age of bar mitzvah, to come to Jerusalem three times a year, not once, to attend the three great feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. Now we're told in writings from the time that the dispersion of the Jews in 722 B.C. and then the exile to Babylon around 600 B.C. made it nearly impossible for many who lived a long distance from Jerusalem to travel maybe a couple hundred miles to Jerusalem three times a year and back. And even after the return of the exiles from Babylon, it was still a very difficult undertaking. And so what did they do? Well, they decided maybe once a year ought to be enough. And that once a year was usually the Passover. We see here, it says, parents went every year at the Passover. Now, that doesn't mean they didn't go to the other two feasts. But we do know that the Passover, one feast a year had become common. The law only commanded the males to appear, but Mary went as well. And many of the devout women of the sons of Jacob would also go. Now this feast, how long did it last? We had the feast of Passover and then the days of unleavened bread. This was eight days. Eight days. And we're told in verse 43, they spent the full number of days. Eight days. At the conclusion of the week-long celebration of Passover, Joseph and Mary got into the caravan to head back 70 miles north, roughly, to Galilee. And the way in which these caravans would be organized, they'd have the women and the small children in the front, and the men and the larger children or young men in the rear. Now at the age of 12, where would a 12-year-old boy fit? In the front with the small children or in the back? Well he could have fit in either group. And most infer that Mary and Joseph both believed Jesus was in the other group with the other parent. That's why they don't realize He's gone for a whole day. So they didn't miss Him at first. And of course, we know that unbeknownst to them, He had stayed behind in Jerusalem. And He'd gone into the temple, and there He's conversing with the rabbis, the doctors of things pertaining to God. Now this wasn't all that unusual that a boy at 12 would come in and listen to the teachers there. But look what we're told here. Those who heard him were astonished, amazed at the things he said. They were amazed at his understanding and answers. Again folks, this is a mind unaffected by sin. It was not at all unusual for this to be. This was how they taught in those days. Questions and answers. Discussion. He had not yet been called by his father into his public ministry. That was still 18 years away. And yet, in this incident, we see already there was something very special about this child. And those people could see it. Those rabbis could see it. Now while he's in the temple, Joseph and Mary have traveled a full day's journey. They realize he's not with them. They start searching among their relatives and acquaintances in the caravan. They don't find him. So they take a second day, another day, and head back to Jerusalem. Now it's the third day. They're looking in Jerusalem. In verse 46, they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, the doctors, both listening to them and asking them questions. they found him among the teachers in the temple." In one of what were many temple halls that were used for this purpose. They were open usually to anyone desiring to hear their teaching concerning the things of God. And here's Jesus listening to them, asking them questions, answering questions. Which indicates what? That He had a thirst to learn. A thirst for knowledge. And remember, this was Jerusalem. This was the center of the Jewish world. In Nazareth, He wouldn't have found this opportunity. So many teachers. So He's there making the most of this opportunity. Now who are these teachers? Well Luke doesn't tell us anything about it. Were they the scribes and Pharisees who would later oppose Jesus 20 years later? Well we can't be sure of that either. Richard Lenski says no, these were the ordinary rabbis who regularly taught in the temple. We don't really know. We don't know. What we do know is they were amazed, astonished at his understanding and his answers. at the degree to which his mind grasped their teaching and his answers. With which he replied to the questions that they asked him. So they're aware of him. They're asking him questions. His answers revealed his grasp of the truth. Now, it's very unlikely these rabbis had ever met such a boy as this. He appeared to have a mind, not only far advanced for a boy his age, but of a far higher quality, of a different kind almost. His was an unusually clear mind. Why? Because it was utterly and completely untouched by the effects of sin. That's one of the things that's wrong with us. Our minds are affected by sin. Well, Joseph and Mary come into the temple. When they saw him, they were also amazed. His mother said, Son, child, why have you treated us this way? Why have you thus dealt with us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. We have sought for you sorrowfully. They discovered their 12-year-old son in the middle of these rabbis, the rabbis listening and talking to him, and they didn't expect anything like this. Apparently they hadn't witnessed this kind of behavior in Jesus before this. So Mary addresses him, you know, it's a tender address, child or son, but yet she's reproaching him here. He shouldn't have treated them this way. So that they had to search for him, anxiously worried. So these words, why have you treated us like this? There's a combination of surprise, there's reproach, and there's anguish all mixed up here. Well, why should Mary and Joseph have been astonished at what was happening? Hadn't Gabriel told Mary this son would be great? He would be called the Son of the Most High? What did she expect? Hadn't Gabriel told Mary that the Lord would give him the throne of David? That he would be king of Israel? That he would reign forever? Had Mary forgotten these things? Shouldn't she have expected this? Well, let's remember, Mary was human too. And apparently 12 years had gone by without an incident such as this. But what could possibly have prepared her for all that was about to occur? What could possibly have prepared anyone to be the mother of a child from heaven? And she said, your father and I have been looking anxiously for you. He said, why is it that you were looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house? King James and a couple others translate, Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? I'm not sure the distinction is all that critical. Calvin translates, "...Did ye not know that I must be in those things which belong to my father?" Lenski translates, "...Were you not aware it is necessary that I be in connection with the things of my father?" Notice the contrast. Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. He says, I'm about the business of my father. His father. Look at his words. He expresses surprise. Didn't you know? In his mind, the natural place for him to be was in his father's house. It's clear from his words. He was deeply conscious of the unique relationship between himself and his father in heaven. Later he said, Matthew 11, 27, that it's he alone who truly knows the father, and the father alone who truly knows him. Matthew 11, 27, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Boy, is there a boatload of divine truth there. He was conscious of having been sent by His Father, and He always submitted to the will of His Father. John 8, 28, Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. Now the fact that He's being taught here in this passage means He's speaking in His humanity. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing with Him. He was conscious of having been sent by His Father. He was conscious of this unique relationship between Himself and His Father. And yet at the same time, John 10, 30, what's it say? I and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. No one can grasp these wonderful truths. But folks, let us treasure them. Let us hold them in our hearts. Jesus was conscious He stood in a special relationship to God. Remember, He never spoke of God, even to His disciples, as Our Father. In the disciples' prayer, He says, You say this, Our Father. He always spoke of My Father and Your Father. Never our Father. Because His relationship to the heavenly Father was unique. Even at the age of 12, Jesus declared He had been sent into the world to discharge the business of His heavenly Father. Now at this point, we've probably got a lot of questions floating around in our minds. How could Jesus be surprised that His parents were looking for Him and were worried? How could he expect that they would have known where he was or what he was doing? How did he learn of his most unique relationship with his heavenly Father? Had Mary told him of Gabriel's visit? Did the Father communicate these things to him? Did his divine nature communicate these things to his human nature? There are sermons where the whole idea is to try to explain some of these things. We're not going to do that. The Holy Spirit has answered none of these questions for us. None of them. So that being the case, what's the Holy Spirit showing us here? He's not inviting us to untangle these mysteries. The sum and substance of what Jesus said here is this. The duty which He owed to His heavenly Father stands far above all human duties, all human relationships. And this is true for us as well. His obedience to the Father, His relationship to His Father was more important than His relationship to His mother and His stepfather. So we should never take offense, ever, if our children, or our parents, or our spouse put the Lord ahead of ourselves. That's what He wants them to do. That's what He wants us to do. That He may be honored, glorified, and worshiped, and obeyed. That's one thing He's showing us here. And we may infer, Calvin says, This doctrine is true that whatever we owe to men, even to family, must yield to the first table of the law. That God's authority over us and our love and devotion to Him must be affirmed. He has to come first. We ought to obey our parents. We ought to obey kings and masters and all those in authority. But never in contradiction to, never ahead of, never in opposition to our duty to God. He is first. We must never, for the sake of men, lessen or take anything away from God, ever. And a high regard for His place doesn't imply any diminishment of our duties to our brethren, to our families, and to our neighbor. With all that we've just said, love your neighbor as yourself. Love the brethren. By this the world will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. But never at the expense of your love for God. Well, Mary and Joseph were human like us. Yes, they'd had some miraculous things happen, but so have you who've been born again. You've been given new spiritual life. We're not living without having happened miracles of God happen within us. And neither, of course, was she. Now, it may be that her inability to understand here may seem a little curious in view of the revelation that she and Joseph had received. He'd appeared to both of them, remember, from Gabriel. But there's an implication here that Jesus had never spoken or behaved in this way. And for Him to now do it was beyond their human comprehension, just as it is ours. They knew His origin was heavenly. They knew He was the Son of the Most High God. They knew He had no human father. But they did not yet comprehend in every respect Jesus' mission, why He was here, and how intent and focused He was in fulfilling every command of His Father. For His calling had not yet been expressly revealed to them. They didn't have it all laid out for them either, so they didn't understand. And even though she didn't understand, boy, does she give us a lesson here. She kept in her heart those things which she did not fully understand. Let's not elevate Mary above any other sister or brother in Christ, but let's also not diminish her. And let's celebrate her faith. She didn't understand, but she again, for the third time, treasured these things in her heart. Here's Jesus now. He's got a sense of His relationship to His Father. He knows Joseph and Mary don't understand, but what did He do? He went back to Nazareth with them and was subject to them. He rendered constant obedience to them. For their glory? No, for the glory of God so that He might be the perfect sacrifice. He had to live in compliance with the law of God. He knew that obedience to His parents was in harmony with His Father's will. He knew that obedience to His parents was part of His Father's business. His obedience, subjection to earthly parents, according to the fifth commandment, was far more important than the obedience of any of us. Because He had to be a perfect sinless offering. If He didn't, He couldn't have gone to the cross and saved anybody. So God's Son obeyed human parents, sinners. He was born under the law and He fulfilled that law in every respect to redeem those who were under the law that we, we might receive adoption as sons. It was after all for our salvation that this whole thing was happening. That Christ took upon Him this likeness of sinful man. that the Lord and head of the angels, the one whom the angels worshiped, came down here to be spit upon, rejected, beaten, and murdered. We don't hear about Joseph again in Luke's Gospel. As for Mary, as before with the shepherds, she did not forget, did not understand, but she remembered. She treasured all these things in her heart. She kept all these sayings in her heart. Mary reveals the attitude of a believing heart. These were mysteries beyond her comprehension as they were beyond ours. Yet she treasured them. She didn't try to penetrate their meaning, but she did draw the blessedness of them. Unlike the unbelievers out there who disbelieve and reject anything they can't understand. If I can't understand it, I reject it. No. For Mary, these same truths were her dearest treasures. Well Jesus, He kept increasing in wisdom and stature in favor with God and men. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 3, gives us a little instruction, if you want to increase and be in favor with God and men, don't let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Kindness and truth are the way of finding favor in the sight of God and man. The 12-year-old Jesus has shown us here something absolutely vital to the Christian life. That there is a relationship for Him and for us that is on an even higher level and of far greater importance than any earthly relationship. It's our relationship with our Creator and Redeemer. Matthew 10, 37, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Those are hard words. But look at Jesus in the temple. Didn't you know I'm about my father's business? That comes first. In our day and culture, many, many commit the grave sin of elevating not only family, but many things over Christ. And if there's time, Sunday morning, then maybe I'll get there. Jesus didn't do that. Though His parents were anxiously searching for Him. And He had to know that, even in His humanity. It's three days later. It was more important that He be in His Father's house and about His Father's business. And we're reminded in this passage this morning Back to where we started. You know, there are many things of the heavenly realm that we simply cannot grasp at this time. We have no answers to any of those questions that we posed earlier. None of them. But notice Mary, who'd been visited by an angel. Who'd heard she had found favor with God. Who had borne the Son of the Most High God, while still yet a virgin. Who raised the Savior. And yet 12 years after all of those things had come, she was still without understanding when her son spoke. But what she did not understand, she didn't reject, she didn't ignore. No, by faith, by faith she treasured these divine truths in her heart. And this is what we must do with these blessed truths into which we've looked this morning. This is what we must do. Treasure them. Don't let them be a source of unbelief or doubt. We must treasure divine truth in our hearts, even though this side of glory, there's so much we don't understand. So let us learn. And if you want a resolution, let us resolve to receive with reverence and to lay up in our minds like a seed that we plant in the ground that has to stay there for a while before it bursts through. Let us lay these mysteries of God which are beyond our capacity until the day when these glorious truths bloom. In their fullness and their majesty. Trusting in Him. And I just want to add this. There's something that we can understand and know. And that's this. This 12-year-old boy grew. And he went to the cross. And he suffered and he died to pay for our sins. And gain for us eternal life. Let us pray.