You are listening to a sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana. Please remain standing for the reading of God's holy and errant and infallible word. This morning our reading comes from Luke 2, verses 41 through 52. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover, and when he was twelve years old they went up according to custom. And 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 a day's journey. But then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And 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. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And 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 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. This is the word of God. Please be seated. Well, good morning, everyone. I'm thankful to the elders and Pastor Trey for giving me the opportunity to preach this morning while he gets some much-deserved rest and time with his family up in Zachary. I also pray that everyone was able to have a merry and joyous Christmas season, and that we were all able to take time to celebrate the birth of our Savior and consider what this amazing miracle meant and still means for all of humanity. With the holiday season, though, I'm sure many of us have one or even many treasured holiday traditions that we always strive to pack into an already busy season. And that may be small traditions. It may be traditions such as wearing the same pajamas on Christmas morning, exchanging a present on Christmas Eve, or for some of us, it may be some bigger traditions, traditions we want our children to come along with us, or even our grandchildren, so they can cherish this time together with family, while also teaching them to appreciate it so they can maybe do it one day with their kids as well. So those big traditions, they may be something like the bonfires on the levee, or the nutcracker downtown, or even going to one of the many large holiday events or lights displays in the area. There are a lot of events to enjoy in Baton Rouge, but there are also plenty of events to enjoy with large crowds and lots of people. And if you're a parent or a grandparent and you have children with you, you know it is easy for them to wander off and get lost if we are not attentive. The text we are examining today, though, is not far removed from this anxiety and fear that we would feel if it were to happen to us. However, though, it's not centered around Mary and Joseph losing Jesus. While it is an extremely relatable moment, and we can probably feel the pain that Mary feels, This conflict merely sets the stage for what I believe to be one of the most unique and special passages of any gospel account. A passage which puts on display Jesus' humanity, his priorities, and devotion to his Father in Heaven. We will often, when reading this passage, focus on the panic, anxiety, and fear, the stuff that our fallen mind wants to focus on, when instead we must be mindful of who Jesus is and what he came to do. We'll do this this morning, we'll investigate it under three headings. First, the godliness and reality of Jesus's family. Second, Jesus's desire to be in his father's house. And finally, submission to his parents' authority and human growth. So, let's dive into the text with this first heading. So, in this concluding note of Luke's prelude to Jesus' public ministry, we find a boy that is on the cusp of manhood, approaching the high point and transition in the body of Luke's gospel with us back just like we began in the temple, which you would see in Luke 1.5. Starting in verse 41, it reads, Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover. We learn a lot in today's text about the piety of Mary and Joseph, Jesus's earthly parents. As did the two verses that precede this section, they show that they wanted to be pious, they wanted to do everything according to law. And according to law of the day, Jewish men were required to come to Jerusalem for the three major festivals or feasts every year. They were Passover, which was often celebrated with the feast of the unleavened bread, Pentecost, or it's also known in Exodus 34, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booth or Tabernacles. However, in light of the scattering of the nation and many people being far off, Daryl Bach notes that the custom of first century Judaism was that the pious who lived some distance away from the city journeyed to the temple only once per year. And since Nazareth was considered a backwater and was some distance from Jericho as Steve and I talked about, it's actually around 80 to 90 miles, around a three to five day journey on foot when you're in a caravan. Jesus' family only journeyed to Jerusalem once per year, and in doing so, they were considered faithful adherents to that traditional Judaism. But what made them be considered extremely pious was that only Joseph was actually technically required to embark on this annual journey. But this is a godly family, so if Mary made the trip, it was considered a great sign of piety. Furthermore, most scholars will note that it is inferred from the text that they stayed the full seven days in Jerusalem, as Passover often, like I said, combined with the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. But what's important here is that we have seen the verses prior to this text, Mary and Joseph had made a covenant to raise their child right. And as Philip Riken notes, this included leading him in the public worship of God, a practice he maintained until he was even an adult and eventually was imprisoned and put on the cross to die. Now, Passover was probably one of the biggest events on the Jewish calendar, and especially for Jerusalem. And one can imagine the experience this would be for anyone, especially a boy at the age of 12. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims lined the streets along with hundreds of thousands of sheep for sacrifice, don't forget. They're all on the streets of this crowded holy city. And what a special time and treasure time this would have been for the boy Jesus. Running around with excitement and frenzy everywhere, eating large and special meals with all his friends and family, worshiping with his family upon the temple mount at night. praying and singing psalms and of course spending time with his faithful earthly father as he prepared the sacrificial lamb where he was retold the story of God's salvation for the Jewish people all over again. This picture though is not far removed from the same way in which we celebrate Christmas every year. We can find ourselves in a similar mindset as we have just finished a time where we gathered with friends and our family, went to church on Christmas Eve to worship through the recitation of God's word and the singing of carols, and dwelt upon the story of our salvation, even potentially traveling far distances to do so. But being 12 also made this a very, very special year for Jesus. Luke doesn't just put this text in verse 42 as a lone chronological detail. It has purpose. The next year when his family would visit for Passover, when Jesus was 13, Jesus would be regarded as a man. Jesus would be a full member of the synagogue and we'd be considered responsible before God. A practice that eventually morphed into what we have come to know today as the Bar Mitzvah. Therefore, this is why Luke says that Jesus went up according to the custom. Jesus was spending the twelfth year of his life in preparation, learning how to be a man, studying the law with the rabbis and mentors that were in his life, and learning all the rituals and customs expected of him as a Jewish adult. What Luke is ultimately stressing here in this text is that these people observed the law and lived by the book. They were a faithful, godly family who were desirous to keep every letter of what Moses has written and raised Jesus to do the same. Jesus therefore understood the law well and obeyed it. From his childhood he read, was taught, learned, and practiced devotion to God in his home and everywhere he went, as Deuteronomy tells us to do. Can you identify with this though, I ask? As a parent, as a grandparent, or even just as a friend, do you have a desire for your children, grandchildren, and those close to you to not only know the Lord, but also to follow Him closely? While we in the New Covenant are no longer required to go to the temple, make sacrifices, or observe feast days, we have a privilege to gather every Lord's Day to worship the living God, and do so as family and friends sitting together side by side in these rows of seats. We have the opportunity to be examples to young ones who see busy people that set aside all the hustle and bustle of work, all their other priorities, to place the worship of God above all things. And even though the youngest ones may be bored out of their minds, I mean, I know my daughter has told me or asked me multiple times, Dad, when is worship going to be over? When's church going to be over? What are we doing for lunch? They may be wondering when it's going to be over, but they continuously in this process still see faithful parents and adults that have tons of other things to do stop and prioritize the worship of God. If that's at least the only thing that they see and they gather in that young age, God must be pretty important. More important than anything else. And that's a big lesson we can teach the children of our church body. God is more important than anything else. But, as we all know and have come to know, our kids are not Jesus Christ. And although we want our children to behave perfectly as we go about the things of God, we know that in this fallen world, things with kids can rarely go the way that we want them to. with children often having an agenda of their own. No matter how much we try to behave in a godly manner and how much we teach our children, our fallen forms can't force holiness. I'm gonna say that again. Our fallen forms can't force holiness. What we can do is live our faith out, instruct our children to the best of our God-given ability, and raise them to know Jesus, doing so surrounded by a community of faith, just as Jesus was in his community in Nazareth. However, it is only God who can change the hearts of our children and bring them unto himself. So, Jesus was part of a pretty godly family, but just like the fallen families we all reside in, the fallen friendships we all reside in, there are mix-ups, and there are errors, and in verses 43 to 45, we find that as well. We find an up-close and personal account of one of, I think, the more relatable displays of parenting in the Bible. And 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 a day's journey. But then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him." And as we'll learn in verse 46 as well, they spent three days doing so. Part of us wants to ask Luke, why include this at all? This is likely a story he received from an interview with Mary. I can't imagine the shame, fear, and anxiety Mary and Joseph felt they had in such a moment because, as far as they were concerned, Jesus was lost. However, this is not due to their carelessness, nor is Jesus committing a sin against his parents in any way in this process. First and foremost, pilgrims in this day and age do not travel as individual family units, but for reasons of safety and fellowship, they traveled as large caravans that were consisting of immediate family and extended family, friends, and community members. As Philip Ryken points out, we may infer that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph belong to the kind of vibrant spiritual community that we pray to find in the church. A happy fellowship of family and friends who worship God and love to serve him together. The pilgrims most likely traveled in two large groups, for it was a custom in those days that when a company of festival pilgrims embarked on their return journey, the woman would go ahead with the younger children and the men would follow behind. The children at Jesus's stage of life, remember, he's on the cusp of manhood, he's 12, he's learning all the ways, but he's not yet a man. So he's on this weird kind of living in ether stage. He's in between manhood and childhood. But the children at Jesus's stage in life would have traveled along with either group. Therefore, Joseph may have thought when he did not notice Jesus that he was with Mary or other friends and family, while Mary probably thought the exact same thing towards Joseph. Now, it was also in custom for these caravans to come together at a prearranged location for the night to rest, relax, and also recount the wonders and joys they had just experienced in the Temple City. Mary and Joseph had trust in Jesus to be where he was supposed to be. But when they were a day's travel outside of the great Temple City and they had gathered for the night, they realized that Jesus is with neither of them and is nowhere to be found amongst their family and friends. I know parents in this room, my wife and I included, can feel the horror that must have struck their hearts. You know, you think of them coming to this place, they start looking, okay, where's Jesus? Where'd he go? Where is he? And then finally it escalates to, where is Jesus? Oh my goodness, we have lost the Messiah. As Ligon Duncan humorously notes, this is kind of the original Home Alone. So, what does any good parent do, though? They retrace their steps back toward Jerusalem, which, by the way, is a completely uphill journey, and search high and low for three days along the route they've journeyed. You can imagine their hope diminishing bit by bit as they get closer and closer to Jerusalem and time elapses. They search every nook and cranny of the city, every swimming hole, every food stand, every playground. There's no playgrounds probably in Jerusalem at that time. But as you can see, they've checked everywhere. They must be exhausted and finally they get the notion, you know what, let's check the temple. Well, they head there and what do they find? They find Jesus sitting in the temple among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions, which leads us to the most important part of this story and our second heading really that we will be working under, Jesus's desire to be in his father's house. Now, while there is a ton of drama and anxiety leading up to this point as Mary and Joseph looked for their son, the fear they experienced amongst this mix-up is not the main point of the passages I mentioned earlier. It's evident by the way the passage is structured. Nonetheless, Luke says, after three days of searching, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. So they found him in the first place they have ought to looked, at home in his father's house. But why did Jesus remain behind in Jerusalem at the temple to begin with? Well, because it was a place that satisfied his soul. As Philip Ryken writes, he wanted to learn as much as he could about the scriptures and the promise of salvation. Thus, he was irresistibly drawn to the house of God. He wanted to stay in his father's presence, lingering at the place where his heart could echo the joy he had always experienced as the eternal and preexistent son. Jesus had sought out teachers of the word. Think about that, Jesus sought out teachers of the word. Many people in some of the apocryphal texts misconstrue and misrepresent this passage to make it seem like Jesus was actually teaching them. testing their knowledge, putting them to the test, being like, haha, I'm Jesus, the son of God. No, the text makes it very clear that Jesus was learning. And it says in verse 46, that he was listening to them and asking them questions. Now when we think of learning, we often think of a classroom style or a Sunday school type lecture in which the person with the subject knowledge will present the information and then we sit there receiving it and maybe have one or two questions towards the end to clarify a point and we just accept that information, right? Well, it was much different in Jesus' day and age. The teachers of the Jewish faith would often sit with their students and entered into a question and answer dialogue with their rabbis or their mentors. And the Passover festival presented a unique opportunity for Jesus, or really any student of theology. Many of the top teachers would be there in the temple for that week and would often remain a few days after to continue teaching at the temple. It's kind of likened to going to the Ligonier Conference and then being allowed to remain behind for a few days to hang out at someone's house in a seminar-like discussion with people like Derrick Thomas, Bob Godfrey, Sinclair Ferguson. And Jesus was eager to learn. You can understand that of those of you who are passionate about theology. Jesus was eager to learn, and it was natural enough for a boy to sit and talk theology in this day and age, especially a son about to become a son of the law. But also we find that Jesus was also advanced as a student. He was amazing and astounding all who heard, as verse 47 states. But it was because they were amazed at his understanding and answers, it was obvious to these teachers that he had an exceptional knowledge of God's word through his perceptive and lucid responses. But the thing, again, like I said, is he wasn't teaching, he was clearly a student. And now what is really fascinating and amazing to take in here is that Jesus, yes, Jesus wanted to study the word of God with people who knew it. As Ligon Duncan points out, this is the word incarnate desiring to study the word of God. What a juxtaposition that is. Jesus was desirous to grow in his knowledge of it as he grew into a man. It's one of the things that makes this passage also so unique and special. We see a human Jesus who had to grow in knowledge and wisdom of the word just as we do. While yes, he did so with a sinless heart, he wanted desperately to know God and be in trusting communion with his Father in heaven. As we continue in the text though, verse 48 tells us that Jesus' parents were also astonished when they found him there. But instead of sitting there and just being amazed by their child's theological skills, How many of us have sat there and when our child can recite the first 25 questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, be like, wow, my kid's pretty awesome. No, they didn't do that. They were exasperated. They were astonished. And Mary did what I think any mother would do and says, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. Now this is the same thing a mother I think today would be saying as, where have you been? We were worried sick about you. How could you have done this to us? It's even right down, perfect right down to that reproachful phrase of your father and I. Well, while we in Mary's position would be thrilled and relieved to find our son, there is no doubt that many of us would have given Jesus the same reprimand. And as Phil Rikens states, she was still trying to understand who Jesus was and what he had come to do. Thus, there were times when she faced the temptation that all parents face, which is to raise the child more out of fear over what could go wrong than by faith in what God could do. Mary's scolding came from her fears and anxieties. If you examine this text in its original language, you'll also see that a lot of Mary's reaction comes from being overwhelmed by the events. But how does Jesus respond, though? He just got yelled at by his mom. No one likes being yelled at by their mother, even at my age. I don't like being yelled at by my mother. But does he respond like a typical 12-year-old? We would know with a scoffing attitude, like, mom, I was right here the whole time. No, he responds with a declaration of mission. The first ever recorded words of Jesus Christ in the Bible have him saying, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? Here's the first moment we have of Jesus's self-revelation of his true identity. As Daryl Bach notes, it reveals Jesus's sense of priority and includes a reference to the necessity of his task. His response displayed the special intimacy he shared with the one true God by calling him my father. No one had ever dared to use that term before. Sure, the fatherhood of God was present in the Old Testament, and there are at least a dozen places where scripture refers to God as father. But those who do so always refer to themselves in the plural, the collective spoken as our father, our people's father. Heavenly paternity was more of a general concept of that time than it was a personal relationship. It was much different than we know heavenly paternity to be today. Furthermore, it wasn't that Jesus was just casually should be in his father's house. He uses the word here, must. It could also be translated that it is necessary. It is inevitable. It is binding. This means that Jesus was right where he was supposed to be. He was not sinning against his earthly parents, nor was he disobeying any instructions they had given them. He was right where they should have expected to find him. Ryken notes that Mary and Joseph had a right to expect him to be where he was supposed to be, but in this case, they made the wrong assumption about where that was. By pointing this out, again, like I said, Jesus was not trying to be some sort of smart aleck. It was just so obvious that he was frankly amazed that his parents didn't know where to find him. They were his earthly parents. But his real father was the God in heaven. This was new ground that Jesus was breaking, and maybe this is why we find that his parents did not understand the saying he spoke to them. They appeared to be slow to come around to the true nature of their son. A sermon Lee and Duncan preached on this about 14 years ago posits the conversation as being something like this. Mom, don't you know who my father is? Don't you know that I had to be in my real father's house? Don't you know that I treasure my father more than I treasure food? Don't you know that I wanted to commune with him in his house, in his word? Why did you have to look for me? You ought to have known where I was because, Mom, angels told you who I am. Angels told you who my father is. I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad. But I had to be with my father. Why is that so hard for you to understand? How do we respond to who Jesus tells us who he is? As believers, we, because of this passage, dare not deny that He is God's Son. But do we live in this world like we know this truth? Do we live like our example, even in His childhood, who valued being in His Father's presence, being in the Word with other believers every day? Do we forsake other things, the fruitless things that gather rust and that gather dust in this world, for the sake of the gathered worship of God? Nevertheless, we start making our turn towards our third heading in this sermon, Jesus's submission to his parents' authority and human growth. So, these final two verses show that despite Jesus remaining behind in the temple, he still submitted to his earthly parents' authority. Even though he said he must be in his father's house, or in other terms about his father's business, he submitted to his heavenly father's will. As verse 51 tells us, he returned home, back to Nazareth, back to the family business, and back to obeying his parents. If there was ever a child who had a right to tell his parents this is how it's gonna be and demand their own way, it was Jesus. But it was the will of God for children to obey their parents. And Jesus was ready to submit. to God's will. And therefore, as long as he was a boy, he submitted to Mary and Joseph with all humility, cheerfully and willingly obeying their God-given authority. But this doesn't mean that Jesus didn't continue going about the things of the Father in heaven. Verse 52 tells us that Jesus continued to grow. He increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He says, and even in John 8, 29, that he strove to always do the things that are pleasing to him. Jesus grew in wisdom, which means he grew in knowledge. So that means he probably spent tons of time at the local synagogue, learning from the rabbi, and he and his family would undoubtedly return every year to Jerusalem for the Passover. You can be sure that, where did he go? He went back to his father's house. He must be there. He would sit among the most learned theologians, trying to learn everything he could about his father. Jesus also grew in stature, which means he physically grew, as we do as well. What Luke is doing here is giving us kind of a training montage at this point. It's one you may see in sports movies or action movies while the main character prepares for the big game or event. Anyone has seen Rocky IV, you know, the awesome training montage between him and Drago while they're going to square out. Well, either way, this is somewhat like it, not like it. Same, same, but different, but still same. What is of note here, though, is that Jesus grew just like us. He was human like us. He had to learn like us. Growing in wisdom of the things of God, his physical form grew. That means he started life with real infant needs. We just celebrated the incarnation, Jesus as a baby. We hear all these stories. We think about, wow, the marvel of a baby. But we forget that Jesus woke his mother and father up in the middle of the night. 3am for feedings, for burping, for diaper changes, and I'm sure some of those diapers were just as nasty as the ones our kids have put out. But it also means that he suffered as an adult. He suffered the same physical limitations of our existence. He grew tired and hungry. He labored with sweat on his brow. He needed to eat and sleep just as we do. His temptation was real and it was a real body that suffered upon the cross. As Rikens states, it was flesh like ours that was torn and bloodied by the nails. It was the only way that he could save us. His humanity was a full humanity that included reason, will, and emotions. This is not just the mind of God and the body of man. That would be a heresy, a heresy of Apollinarianism. How can we say, though, that God became man unless he had a human mind as well as a human body? The critical difference between us and Jesus, though, is he developed without sin, unhindered by depravity, and thus his intellect advanced to its full capacity. He was never lazy. He always tried to learn as much as he could. He was a great steward of his mental abilities and achieved the maximum potential of the human mind. Many Christians will say they believe in the Incarnation, but don't fully take stock of what it truly meant for Jesus to take on human form. Jesus, like us, is also required to be submissive to the Father's will, and that also include the authority of both His earthly and heavenly Father. So, as we conclude today, it's important to kind of take a step back. We cover a lot of text here, and a lot of different things, a lot of different arenas. As we take that step back, it's important for us to see what has happened here. We've seen a godly, yet very real family, through a simple mix-up, lose track of their son, However, their son happens just to be the savior of all mankind. And he remained behind in Jerusalem because he had to be about his father's business. Jesus shows us who he truly is through those moments in the temple through his language and his perceptiveness in the temple discussion. The big questions and thoughts to take away from today are, how do we respond to who Jesus is when he tells us? If we are sitting here as a believer of Jesus Christ this morning and don't deny that He's the Son of God, are we living like it? Are we living like the Son of God has come? I mean, we just celebrated this reality this past week. And does it actually have an impact on our existence as we enter this new year? Are you going to, in your discussions, in your workplaces, have salt-seasoned conversation, conversation that lives a holy life just as our Savior did? Are we living like him? We as followers of Christ should want to emulate his holy life to the best of our fallen ability. And if his desire is to be in his father's house, studying the word amongst the elders and teachers of the church, shouldn't that be our desire as well? How much are you pursuing the knowledge of God? How much are we pursuing the knowledge of God? Are we in his word day by day? And not just only on the Lord's day, but every day of the week that passes. Also, shouldn't it be our desire to bring up our children in this environment? Finally, what do we do and how do we respond when Jesus, who is God, doesn't behave the way we want him to? I'm sure there are many of us here today who have wanted life to go one way, and it seems that things go in a completely opposite direction. How do we respond? Do we respond like Mary and Joseph with fear and anxiety, with anger, with frustration towards the situation, sitting in bitterness, letting it eat away at our souls? Or do we prayerfully submit to the will of our Father in heaven? Let's pray. Thank you for listening to this sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana, where you will always find biblical preaching, meaningful worship, and the equipping of disciples. For more information on River Community Church and its ministries, please visit rivercommunity.org.