Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Faithful Obedience - Luke 2:41-52

Welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus. I'm excited you guys are

here. My name is Jordan. If I haven't met you yet, come

and shame me. After I'm done talking, we'll have a whole meal together.

I'm excited for that. The kids are here, like Pastor Duncan mentioned

earlier, So things are a little squirrely, a little wily. That's okay,

embrace it. We're all family here. Also, kids, don't you

know, don't lose it, keep it together. I want to reiterate a

few announcements that we heard on the videos. The first is family meal,

like I mentioned, and secondly, Christmas Eve service is. Christmas Eve falls

on a Sunday, so we're going to be meeting here at four o'clock,

regular service time, business as usual, except it's Christmas Eve. All right,

Yay, Christmas? Thank you. June. You're my hype man,

hype woman, hype girl. You not yet, You're not all right.

We are content in our series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth, where

we are examining Luke's careful investigation into everything that happened through Jesus' life. Everyone

who witnessed his birth his youth, his ministry all the way up to his

death, resurrection and ascension. We are continuing where Pastor Duncan left off last

week, where we saw several examples of faithfulness. We saw Joseph and Mary

being faithful to raise Jesus and carry out the requirements of the law concerning him.

We saw Simeon, a righteous and devout man who was faithful to God's

promise that he would see the Messiah who would be the consolation or the redemption

of Israel before he died. And we saw the prophetess Anna, who,

after seeing the Messiah Jesus, faithfully give thanks to God for his work of

salvation and spreads the news to all who are waiting for the redemption of Israel

to come. And all these examples of faithfulness are acts of faithful obedience to

God and his word. Joseph and Mary were obedient to raising Jesus according to

the requirements of God's law his word. We saw Simeon in faithful obedience to

God's promise again God's word, patiently waiting to see Jesus before his death and

believing it would happen. And Anna, after seeing Jesus rightfully and obediently attributes

his coming to God by giving thanks, and then goes and tells everyone of

this exciting news. And I'm drawing attention to these examples because in today's text

we see Jesus, even in his youth, show us an incredible example of

faithful obedience to God and submissive obedience to his earthly parents. I'll say that

again for the kids, submissive obedience to his earthly parents. So if you

haven't a guests that already. My title for my servant today is faithful obedience.

So first we'll read and pray through. Excuse me. First we'll read

our text today, which is chapter two of Luke, Verses forty one through

fifty two. If you need a Bible, we have a stack over there

at that black table back there. Duncan will graciously get you one if you

need it. Let's read through the text. Every year, Jesus's parents went

to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old,

they went up to the festival according to the custom. After the festival

was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind

in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it, thinking that he was in

their company. They traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for

him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they

went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found

him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and

asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his

answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said

to him, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father

and I have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me?

He asked, didn't you know I had to be in my father's house.

But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he

went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother

treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature

and in favor with God and man. Let's pray, Lord, Jesus says,

we read through this text in your gospel. I pray that you would

help us to understand it, to understand what it meant to Luke's audience,

and what it means for us today. Help us to be humble in our

hearing of it, and to apply this teaching to our lives in faithful obedience

to you. Ask all these things in your name, Jesus. Amen.

All right, So let's start breaking it down verse by verse. In verse

forty one, I'm going to read it again. Every year Jesus's parents went

to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. So in verse forty one we

see that Joseph and Mary were faithfully obedient to God's law to celebrate the Passover.

Every year they made the journey from Nazareth all the way to Jerusalem to

celebrate and remember God's act of salvation for his people Israel when he brought them

out of Egypt. In the Book of Exodus, Israelites were captives in Egypt

for four hundred in thirty years. Four hundred and thirty years they were captives,

they were slaves. Then God elects Moses to free his people and lead

them out of Egypt in a move we now call the Exodus. We're gonna

look. We're gonna look at more closely here in chapter twelve, and I

want to give some context before I read it, because these verses take place

after all of the miraculous signs that God worked through Moses and Erin. Specifically,

these verses happened directly after the Spirit of God went through all of Egypt,

striking down all of the firstborn in the land, but passing over,

passing over, pass over, okay, passing over every home that had the

blood of a spotless sacrifice on its door. Very important. So in verse

thirty one, during the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said,

up, leave my people, you and the Israelites, go worship the Lord

as you have requested, take your flocks and herds as you have said,

and go, and also bless me. This is coming from a man who

has denied them time and time and time again. After all the signs that

God performed through Moses to the Aaron, plagues of locusts, flies, blood,

and the water, and now finally the first born of everything in Egypt,

He's had enough. He's probably full of fear, so he asks,

bless me. When you leave, have mercy on me. The Egyptians urge

the people to hurry and go, hurry and leave the country. Excuse me,

for otherwise, they said, we will all die like Pharaoh. All

the Egyptians recognize and have fear of what the real God can do. So

the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their

shoulders kneading excuse me, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs,

wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for

articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians

favorably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for.

So God made it so that his people would get what they asked for.

He made it happen, so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from

Rameses to suck Off. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot besides

women and children, so we don't know the exact number, but it's in

the millions, likely a mass exodus. Many other people went up with them,

and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the

dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread.

The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did

not have time to prepare food for themselves. Now, the length of the

time the Israelites, the Israelite people lived in Egypt, was four hundred and

thirty years. At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, to

the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt, because the Lord kept

vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt. On this night, all

the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.

So this exodus, this act of salvation to the Israelites, that God

worked, is now at the time of Jesus youth and before celebrated in what's

called the Passover or the festival of the Passover. As we see in our

texts today, it's how the Israelites keep vigil and honor the Lord for generations

to come. In the Book of Numbers, we find God's command to Moses

of exactly when to celebrate the Passover. The Lord spoke to Moses in the

desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year, after they came

out of Egypt. He said, have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the

appointed time. Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth

day of this month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations. And

there are many which I'm not going to read today. You're welcome. So

Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so in the

desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The

Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. So Joseph and Mary obediently

came. Obediently came to Jerusalem every year to honor God and celebrate the Passover

with many other Jews. Some scholars estimate that the population of Jerusalem at that

time was between twenty and thirty thousand people. At the time of the fee

the Passover, they're estimating that it swelled between one hundred and thirty to one

hundred and fifty thousand people in that city. It exploded. It was like

the Super Bowl of Passover parties, just with unleavened bread instead of seven layered

bean dip. Glad you like that. Always love it when a dad joke

lands. Thanks Jude all right. Let's continue on our text day in verse

forty two, when he was twelve years old, they went up to the

festival. According to the custom, at age thirteen, a Jewish young man

becomes responsible for his own actions. Before that, his own actions are attributed

to his parents. He becomes a bar Mitzvah or a son of the Commandment,

and the boy undergoes a ceremony to mark the occasion. According to the

custom of the Jews at that time, when the boy was twelve, a

year before is bar mitzvah, the parents would take him to Jerusalem and he

would be shown the temple and the different sites around the Holy City so that

he could be prepared for the following year's ceremony. Let's read on verse forty

three. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home,

the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it,

thinking he was in their company. They traveled on for a day. Then

they had begun looking for him among their relatives and friends. Now, first

glance, this sounds really bad. It looks really bad, and it looks

really bad on the part of Joseph and Mary. Like if social media existed

back then, which talk to me afterwards, if you can think of what

it would be called back in their day, child No, the name of

the social media company Steve, like Sandals or something. I don't know,

but if it existed back then, you could bet there'd be parents posting pics

of Mary and Joseph frantically searching for Joseph, being like OMG, parenting fail,

keep track of your kid or something like that. But for context,

as I said earlier, they were in a caravan of people visiting Jerusalem and

included family and friends. Were talking aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors from

village and village. In this case, it likely included all the family and

friends from nearby cities of Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, and other cities.

It was a big group. Also for more contexts, as you may still

be thinking like, yeah, okay, but they lost their kid. For

more context, When these caravans traveled, the women and children were up front

at the front of the caravan, and in the back it would be the

men and the older boys. And Jesus was on the threshold of his bar

mitzvah. He was between child and young man, so it's safe to assume

on that occasion, Mary was probably up at the front of the caravan with

the other women and children, and she doesn't see Jesus, so she's probably

assuming like, oh, yeah, he's back with Joseph. He's almost a

young man, he's probably back there. Likewise, Joseph is in the back

of the caravan, not knowing where Jesus is, not really thinking about it,

thinking oh yeah, he's probably upfront with Mary and the other children,

each of them thinking he was with the other. To make you feel a

little bit better about it, it doesn't have to. It's not my job

to make you submit to scripture. I'm just saying what it says. Let's

look what happens in verse forty five. When they did not find him,

they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. So, after searching among

the caravan, they realized he wasn't with them. And I can only imagine

the amount of anxiety they would feel after trying for a day then realizing wait,

you don't have him, wait he's not with you. Imagine that feeling

like my kid is gone. The anxiety must have been intense. So they

made their journey back to Jerusalem they got back to Jerusalem, and Jesus wasn't

waiting for them at the gates of the city. He would hope if you

lose your kid. I met we went to Disneyland last summer, and I

would imagine that if I lost my daughter, my hope is that she would

be at the front of the gates, maybe with one of the cast members

or something. They don't find him at the front of the gates, They

probably combed the city look for him. In fact, we'll see later that

they searched for him for three days. They were likely searching the bazaar,

all the shops that dotted the streets. They couldn't find him. And then

in verse forty six, after three days, they found him in the temple

courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. So after

the celebration of the Passover, any of the visiting rabbis, teachers, scholars,

theologians remained in the city to discuss the scriptures, to discuss matters of

theology. Imagine being Mary and Joseph not finding your child where you would expect

the child to be like a bazaar or a shop, or somewhere that looks

fun for a kid to be. No, they find him in the House

of God, speaking with questioning and answering with the other theologians, and all

who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And while Mary

and Joseph were astonished to find Jesus involved in these discussions, the teachers there

were even more amazed by Jesus and his knowledge. I wonder how could that

be? How could someone who I don't know how old these theologians would be,

probably up there in age older than Greg. Greg's only like two years

older to me. I don't know, But how could a child cause the

scholarly elite to be amazed by what he said? I think the last verse

Pastor Duncan tought out of last week kind of gives us a hint in verse

forty and the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom, and

the grace of God was on him. Now, to be clear, I

don't think what we're seeing in verses forty six and forty seven means that Jesus

used his deity as a cheat code to know everything, Because remember, like

we talked about in our previous series, that Jesus was and is both truly

God and truly man. He was truly God and he is truly man.

There are times in scripture where we see the omniscience his all knowingness of his

deity displayed, like in the Gospel of John when he calls Philip and Nathaniel

in chapter one, verse forty seven, when Jesus saw Nathaniel approach and he

said of him, here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

How do you know me, Nathaniel asked. Jesus answered, I saw

you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Then

Nathaniel declared, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the

King of Israel. So in this example, Jesus displays the omniscience on the

all knowingness of his deity. But there are times we see jesus humanity displayed,

like I think we've seen so far. In Luke's Gospel, he was

born, and in verse forty he grew and became strong, and he was

filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him. In future

verses that we're going to study through together. In the series, we'll see

that Jesus is hungry, that Jesus thirsts when he is on the cross,

that Jesus chries. We see other examples of his humanity. So what we're

seeing in verse forty seven isn't Jesus deity on display, nothing omnissions on display.

It's his humanity. It's his love and commitment to studying, to knowing

and preaching God's word. Even in his youth, Jesus practiced the first and

greatest commandment, the commandment he would one day preach to his followers, which

we find in Mathew twenty two. Jesus replied, when asked what the greatest

commandment is, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with

all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and

greatest commandment, which leads me to my first point for us today. Christians

love God with everything. The Christian loves God with everything, with all our

hearts, with all our soul, with all our minds. And even in

his youth, Jesus was faithfully obedient to knowing scripture, as we are commanded

in Deuteronomy chapter six. Here o Israel, the Lord, our God.

The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God, with all of your

heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments

that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them

on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, and when

you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get

up. Tie them as a symbol on your hands, and bind them on

your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Think about them all ways, Study them, Commit to knowing them.

Continue on in verse forty eight. When his parents saw him, they were

astonished. Like I said, they would probably expect to find him in a

bazaar, in a shop, but they found him with the other scholarly elite

in Jerusalem, in the House of God, speaking and asking questions and amazing

the other scholars there. His mother said to him, son, why have

you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for

you, And Jesus replies, why were you searching for me? He asked,

didn't you know I had to be in my father's house? But they

did not understand what he was saying to them. Now this is a fair

question from Mary, why did you do this? But Jesus very gently invites

his mother to recognize that her and Joseph's parental claims are subordinate to those of

God the Father. We should also remember that Luke's Gospel is the account of

witnesses of Jesus, one of whom was Mary herself. From what we've read

here, she never told Luke listen when it was time to go. The

caravan was leaving. We told Jesus, come along, it's time to go,

and he didn't listen. He's stayed Jerusalem against our word. That didn't

happen. No, when they left, Jesus, being full of wisdom in

his youth, remained in Jerusalem. He remained in his father's house. As

he said, he remained where he had to be, in the house of

his father, his true father. Jesus' commitment, obedience and love for God

came before all else. Now that doesn't mean that he outright tells Joseph and

marry off and then stays in Jerusalem after they confront him, because that would

have been sinful for him to do so. And we know that Jesus never

sinned. But look what happens next in verse fifty one. Then he went

down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured

all these things in her heart. What happens next is Jesus obeyed his parents.

He was submissive to their authority. Jesus shows us that obedience to God

comes before obedience to earthly authorities, but it does not negate it. Jesus

was obedient to God first, but was also obedient to his earthly parents and

their authority over him as their child. My second point is this, Christians

love God through obedience, and we're going to talk a little bit later about

what that could look like in a more applicable way. Christians love God through

obedience, and they love God with everything. We love God through obedience to

his commands, his commands to love one another, to be generous, to

tell others about the Gospel, and so on, while not negating obedience to

our earthly authorities. We simply obeyed Jesus first. Continuing on in verse fifty

two, and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and

man. Now this last verse is actually the very last verse before it ends

with Jesus being a youth, he's found back in the temple. He goes

back to Nazareth and hiss obedience to his parents, and then twenty some odd

years it jumps to John the Baptist and Jesus coming and being baptized by him.

Jesus starts his ministry. There's a gap there, a mystery of the

account of jesus life before he begins his ministry in his adult life. But

what we are told is that he continued to grow in wisdom and in stature

and in favor with God and Man, which is evident in the recorded teachings

when he continues to amaze people with his teachings, with the healing of the

sick, the calling of the loss to repentance, the sinners to repentance,

and showing further obedience to God the Father, even to the point of his

death on the cross. So what do we do with these verses from today?

What do we do with its example of faithful obedience? I think we

do what Jesus did. We do what Jesus did, which is grow in

wisdom and stature, in favor of God and Man. All the kids say,

grow in statf Wow, Thank you r c all the kids say,

grow in wisdom. Thank you, June. Don't tattle. I think what

we do with today's texts. We grow in wisdom and stature in favor of

God and Man, as Jesus did. But how do we do that.

We grow in wisdom and stature through knowledge of God's word. Through knowledge of

God's word, like we saw in Deuteronomy, it's what did it tell us.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children, Talk about them when you sit at home,

and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when

you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands, and bind them

on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your house is and

on your gates. Think about them. Always do what you have to do

to make the scriptures at the forefront of your thoughts. We grow in wisdom

and stature through knowledge of God's word, and secondly, grow in favor of

God and man through obedience. Grow in favor of God and man. Through

obedience, we speak the truth of God's word. We speak and act with

love, with patience, with concern for our neighbor. In obedience to God

and man. Knowing how to obey God only comes from the knowledge of what

He tells us to know how to be obedient. If you expect your kid

to do something, you can't expect them to do it without them knowing what

they first have to do. Right, June totally, Thanks Grayson. We

may not know what to do in every moment, but we do know where

to go to find it. My challenge, my homework for you this week.

Your homework is this. I wish I had a ruler. Yeah,

like that. My homework for you is this. For all of us,

consider these verses that we've read, Consider Jesus, faithful, obedience to God,

prayerfully and thoughtfully. Consider where am I falling short of obeying God?

Where am I falling short? What commands am I either ignorant of? We're

just flat out ignoring? Where am I falling short? I can't read it?

You, I'm sorry? Okay? Consider that where am I falling short?

And then through prayer, through trusting of the Holy Spirit, through partnering

with a fellow believer, with a spouse, with a friend, correct it.

We're called to be set apart, We're called to be different. We're

called to live differently. We're called to love God and love one another and

faithful obedience to His word. We're gonna move to a time of response.

And I completely forgot to call the band up. I'm sorry, I see

Jerry, just like Whence again to call me up. Man, I it's

because I didn't put it in my notes, Oh that I might go away.

Know it's there. We're gonna move to a time of response where we

respond in worship to God for the things we learned in his word. We

respond in worship for who He is, and we do that a couple different

ways. Versts with our giving. I don't have the envelope here with me,

but if you came prepared to give, we have envelopes out there in

the Connect table, and you can put your giving in those envelopes in that

white bin. We have Connect cards available if you want to connect with us,

if you want to know what we do. And by the way,

we have membership class coming up on the seventeenth of this month. We're not

going to make you come on Christmas Eve. The Connect card is also a

way to say I became a believer so we can celebrate with you. You

say I want to become a church member, I want to join a community

group, or I need prayer for something. There's power in our prayer because

of who we pray to, not because of who you pray with. But

myself and Greg I think we're it, are going to be on either side

of the room to pray with you. We would love to pray with you

for whatever needs you have. You can also write them on the connect card

and submit them out there in the bucket, and we will pray pray for

you throughout the week. The last way we respond is through worship. We're

going to sing one more song and then don't leave because we're gonna eat pizza.

Sorry, Tilly. All right, let's pray and then we'll worship Lord.

Thank you, Thank you for your word. Thank you for this example

of your faithful obedience, even in your youth, to the commitment, of

your commitment to the Holy Scriptures, to knowing them, to studying them,

and to knowing that you had to be in your father's house. I think

that we can be in your house as a family to support and love one

another and to learn from your word. I asked that as we prayerfully consider

the areas in our lives where we are not being obedient. Help us to

humbly and desperately turn away from them and to run to You to correct those

areas, and to live in the freedom of your truth. Thank you Lord

for this time that we can spend together as a family to worship your name,

to learn from your word. We love you, Amen.