“The Incarnation” - Luke 2 - Jan 5th, 2025 - Pastor Scotty Brown

If you have a Bible, would you turn with me to Luke chapter 2?

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And we are going to finish the chapter today, believe that or not.

And we're just going to read the rest of the chapter.

Starting in verse 39, where we have seen,

Simeon and Anna and Mary and the shepherds and everybody totally amazed at this little boy that was born there in Bethlehem.

And it goes on in verse 39 and says,

And so when they had performed all things, according to the law of the Lord,

they returned to Galilee to their own city, Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom.

And the grace of God was upon him.

and his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover.

And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem,

according to the custom of the feast when they had finished the days as they returned.

The boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother did not know it,

but supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and sought him

among their relatives and acquaintances.

And so when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking,

him. Now, so it was that after three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the

teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished at his

understanding and answers. And so when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said to him,

son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. And he said to them,

why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

but they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them, and then he went down with them

and came to Nazareth and was subject to them, but his mother kept all these things in her heart,

and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Let's pray.

Lord, your word is, it is a light. Lord, that it shines so much light on who you are, Lord,

and who we are. And Lord, just continually brings to our attention.

our great need, and that is more of you and less of us. And so, Father, we just pray that as we look at your

word this morning, Lord, that it would be that thing that converts our soul, Lord, that it would

cut into our conscience, that it would quicken us and make us alive in you. And Lord,

that we would apply it to our lives, Lord, knowing that it is a living word. It's powerful and it's

sharp. And it's the one who can divide soul and spirit and bone and marrow, Lord. And so we, we love you for that.

We thank you for being honest with us. Lord. Oh, help us to be honest with you in Jesus' name.

Amen. And so here we are in this passage where Jesus is growing. We're past the cradle.

But within this whole chapters one and two, we see the incarnation. We see the incarnation.

And we, I take it for granted. And I've got to tell you, this week has like rocked my world. I've been in tears. I've been

dealt with. I've had wild dreams. I've just, God is his showing me some things that I don't know that. I think that I've seen them before,

but they've never had this kind of impact on my life. And it's just the power of God's word.

and it truly is that thing that makes us alive.

It quickens us and it brings to life a dead spirit.

Or should I say, I know in my case, a lazy spirit.

And so we're just going to go down through this verse by verse,

but the main thing is kind of looking at this incarnation.

And it's a bit mysterious.

Well, maybe it's very mysterious.

how God became man. And so we start here in the first couple of verses is verse 39 and 40.

And it seems it face value. It's very simple that they left the south and went back to the north in Galilee.

But Matthew chapter 2 tells us that there's a detour. Right? That Joseph and Mary take.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

And it's because of the rage of Herod, the great who killed all the babies in Jerusalem.

or excuse me, Bethlehem. Just checking you.

So we don't know. Obviously, Joseph was from that area. And so he had family there.

So they were probably there. It calls Jesus a young child when the magi come to visit him.

Some think that he was a little bit older. Herod the Great died in. And many believe,

four B.C. So they weren't, weren't.

it wasn't a long detour, but it was a detour.

And because an angel spoke to Joseph in a dream, says,

Get your son, get out, get to Egypt.

He went to Egypt.

And he said, the reason that he took him to Egypt is that the scripture might be fulfilled

that out of Egypt I called my son.

And so that's a little detour that's not recorded.

in the gospel of Luke. And so, but they had come to worship. They'd come to worship. This baby.

And the newborn king, the king of the Jews. And that obviously created fear in Herod's heart.

He sought the priest to find out where the Messiah was to be born. And he was to be born. And he was to be

in Bethlehem and therefore they killed all the babies, little boys, between zero and two years old,

up to two years old. So pretty painful detour to say the least. And so, but then it transitions into

verse 41 where it says, and his parents went up to Jerusalem every year for the feast of Passover.

And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem. They went up to Jerusalem.

according to the custom of the feast. And so they would go. The men were required to go to the feast,

three major feasts anyway, the feast of Passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles. And the males would

go up to that and worship the Lord their God. And it's interesting that it says there that Mary and Joseph

when every year, they're very devout and devoted to worship the Lord their God. And it's interesting that it says there, that Mary and Joseph,

worshipping the Lord.

And they were just good Jewish parents getting ready to call their young son to manhood

at the age of 12.

Customs tell us that at the age of 12, they would start preparing the boys for their bar mitzvah.

Right?

They would start preparing them for that because at 13, Jewish boys are bar mitzvahed.

Right?

It's a call.

It's a call into manhood.

It's interesting.

It's not just a call.

to be a man, but to be a man of God.

The word bar means son, and the word mitzba means commandment or law, a son of the law.

And Jesus was that in spades, right?

Because he low in the volume of the book, it is written of me, to do your will,

O Lord, he fulfilled the law.

Can I say F one more time?

F F F F F F Filled the.

Be careful.

But he fulfilled the law completely Jesus did.

And he was truly a son of the law, but they would take him around and they would show him

the temple and they would prepare him for some of the, you know, the rituals that would they would do

with the boys that were being bar mitzvah. years ago, I went to a promise keeper and I was, uh,

overwhelmed by a dad who he's a pastor, James Ryle, but he talked about, you know, bringing his sons into

manhood and kind of bar mitzvahed them. And he said as he studied the bar mitzvah, what would happen

was at the end of the celebration. If the father was able, he would hoist the boy up on his shoulders.

If not, he would have help. And he would hoist the boy up. And he would point to him and say,

this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. That's what he would do. He would do.

do at the bar mitzvah.

What boy doesn't want to hear that from his dad?

Right?

The statistics in Judaism and the way that the men treat their sons, it's powerful.

You should check it out sometime.

But so Jesus, right, at 12 years old, maybe thinking that he was going to be bar mitzvahed.

But many scholars believe that Jesus wasn't parmitsfid because he was thought to be

illegitimate, right? That Mary was pregnant out of wedlock. They had not consummated the marriage

when she was pregnant. And so, uh, so some think that that hoisting up and the declaration of the

father didn't happen when Jesus was 13. But we know it did happen at the Jordan, right?

When John baptized Jesus and a voice from heaven comes, it says, this.

This here's my boy in whom I'm well pleased.

The son of God, right?

And I don't know why it's hit me so hard this week.

But it's probably because I have to compare my life to the man, Christ Jesus.

I have to compare my life to Jesus.

Christ, right? The perfect human. Are you comparing your life to him? Because that's the only one you

should compare your life to. Right? And when you do, if I don't know if you're like me or not,

but I'm undone. I don't even know why God would have any interest in any of us.

Right? We are so far from that. And you're not. And you don't even know why God would have any interest in any of us.

And yet he loves us. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son.

And it has just been, like I said, I've been in tears, I just think about it, and I just start bawling.

And I know that's a sign of getting old too. You cry a lot easier when you're old. I don't know what it is.

Maybe your tear ducks get just saggy or something that just kind of comes out.

But Jesus was in fact a son of the law.

And so there they were.

And they were traveling in a caravan.

You know, you look at Nazareth.

It's like 80 miles from down there around Jerusalem.

And so they would, some of the cities would come together as they would

caravan down.

And the women and children would be in the front and the men and the, and the, and the, um,

young men would be in the back. And so they're traveling. They go down. They have their,

their celebration of the Passover and they're on their way back. And there were probably people

from Nazareth and Nane and Cana's there and quite a community of people. And in the busyness of the trip,

the parents misplaced Jesus. Shame on them.

I mean, I've misplaced a child before.

My wife went to her grandpa's funeral and we get in the car and I started her up and I put her in gear and all of a sudden here comes my wife's sister over and she goes, we wait and said, well, we'll see you later.

She goes, you guys going to take your baby?

We had less shy hand sitting over there on the grass.

She was about two or three months old.

Now, it's one thing to leave your daughter at a funeral.

That's quite another to lose Jesus.

But so here they misplaced this boy.

And, you know, and because the caravans were kind of separated like that, you know,

Obviously, Mary and Joseph came to again. Say, hey, have you seen Jesus? Well, no, I thought he was just you.

Oh, no, he's not with me. I thought he was with you. Well, he's 12 years old. So where is he? Is he with the man?

Or is he with the women and children? And you ever done that? Yeah. No, I don't know.

We, I don't know where he is. I haven't seen. So here, here it's been a day's journey away.

So it's another day's journey back. And then they start, they start looking for the book.

boy. And we come to the, this, this doctrine of the incarnation. We read in verse 46, it says,

now, so it was that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the

teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were astonished

at his understanding and answers.

Astonished at a 12-year-old boy.

And obviously, the last place of Mary and Joseph

probably had expected to find Jesus was in the temple.

I don't know.

They might have went to the pool of Shalom or the Mount of Olives or maybe the Kidron Valley.

You know, boys like to see a lot of blood and all the blood from the lambs that they sacrificed.

And the Passover would run clear out of the...

the temple down through the Kidron Valley there. And, um, but, but they, they went to the temple.

And it's interesting that the, the custom of the Passover's after the celebration was over,

all the scholars would get together and, and have their little, uh, little powwow.

All these liberal scholars. And, um, they would, they would, uh, discuss theology and, and, uh,

and no doubt the law and the meanings of everything, you know, that probably had talking about

all their different theological theories. You talk to people about that? In fact, there's a thing

coming to town here, uh, Jordan Peterson. Who know who's who Jordan Peterson is? Yeah,

Jordan Peterson is coming to town. And I don't even know if the guy saved yet, but he's

enamored with theology or the study of God. He's just, he's kind of fascinated by it. And so it might be

quite something to listen to, but that's kind of probably what was going on here. And to Mary and Joseph's

astonishment, they find Jesus sitting among the doctors participating in these theological dialogues.

And he was 12 years old. And, you know, he wasn't just there, like, get out of here, kid.

No, he was taking part. And so the astonish. And so the, the ester,

And astonishment wasn't just his parents, but the teachers. Truly, this kid was a, was a prodigy.

Right? You've heard of those, right? You graduate college by the time they're 14. Right?

Just got this mind that's, that's amazing. And they had never seen anything like it probably in their lives.

and was amazed that this boy was spot on in everything that he knew and very provocative questions that he asked.

Now you think about this, and I never really thought about this, but who would have been there?

What teachers would have been there? Scholars think that Gamalio probably would have been there.

Gamal is the one that Paul grew up under. They think that Heleneal,

the great halel might have been there. Another, another conservative teacher, Shammai.

And then there was a, there was a Simeon, not the old Simeon that we read about last week,

but a Simeon, the younger guy that would eventually succeed Halele. And many believe that

Nicodemus was there. Right? And here's this boy. Absolutely tipping them over with his, with his,

his understanding and his question. And so really the question about the incarnation,

or a question that may be answered here today for you, how did he know so much?

How did Jesus know so much? And all of us, I would have, like most everybody else,

has a very short out. Duh, he's God. He knows everything. God's on mission, right?

God is omniscient. And Jesus is God. So. But if you look at it closely, and the church, the doctrine that the church

established, as far as the deity in the humanity of Christ, it can be kind of confusing. And back in that,

day by the fifth century, there was two heresies that were going around. Right. The first one was if, if Jesus, it was a, it was an idea that there was this

mixture of humanity and deity in the, it was a mixture, right? Well, God's not into mixture. Right? God's not into mixture.

Right. God's not into mixture. As you read through the Old Testament, I was looking at it. He never let you mix seeds when you planted your ground.

He never let you mix seed in the vineyards or in the grain fields.

He never didn't allow the mixing of cloth, wool and cotton.

He didn't allow the mixing.

I didn't allow the mixing of animals.

He did not allow Israel to mix with other cultures.

Right?

He didn't allow that.

So if that's true, right, if what they were teaching that this is a mixture of God and

man together, then you have to, if he's human, if his human nature has been deified,

right? Then he's no longer God. Right? Or he's no longer human. Because if his human nature

has been deified, he's no longer human. But if his divine nature has been humanized,

then he's no longer divine. Right? You guys are looking at me like, Pastor, you're confusedness.

You're confusing.

But, okay.

Yeah, because I'm not done yet.

Hopefully we...

So, so this was called the monosophyte.

The monosophycite.

Right?

Mono means one.

So that Jesus just was this, just one-gust.

Now, then there was an historians who said that if Christ has two natures, a human nature, and a divine nature, then he must be two people.

It's just like we have people today who don't understand the Trinity, right?

So instead of teaching the Trinity, they teach tritheism.

Tri-theism, tri-being three, that there's three gods.

Three, right?

No, there's not three gods.

We're not polytheists.

We don't believe in.

How many guys do you believe in? One.

And within that one, God, there's three persons, right?

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So some people resign to tri-theism

because they don't understand the Trinity,

because it's hard to understand, isn't it?

You've heard all.

If you've been around Christendom very long,

you've heard all kinds of explanations on the Trinity, right?

You got the egg, right?

The shell, the white, and the yolk.

Three and one.

Right?

Or you got H2O.

Right? It's liquid.

It can be steam or it can be frozen.

It can be solid. Right?

Same substance.

I, you know, I don't know if any of them do it, God justice.

I read this morning that we're created in the image of God.

In the image of God, he created them, male and female.

God's triune, we're trying, right?

Body, mind, and soul.

Or body, body, soul, and spirit.

And so, however you have wanted, but we're three and one.

But we're one.

But we're one.

Right.

but God is one in essence in three persons.

Jesus is just the opposite.

He is one in person with two essence, divine and human.

Right?

So they're not mixed, but they're not separated either.

So the church by 451 AD, they had a council called the council of chalcedon.

called the council of Chalcedon.

And this is what they came up with.

And this is what you and I hear in Christian doctrine, right?

That they said, Jesus, the mystery of the,

of the incarnation can be narrowed down to this.

Verra homo and vera duess.

Right?

Or truly man and truly God.

That's what they came up with.

That there's not a mixture, there's not a separation,

that Jesus, this one person, the two essence,

that truly he's man and truly he's God.

And there you go.

So really, they didn't answer a lot of the questions that people had, right?

But what they did do, and God bless them for it, is they set two boundaries, two linear boundaries.

And in that middle is very, very, verily, truly,

human, verily, truly, God.

Within those boundaries, right?

Because Jesus did all kinds of stuff that you're going,

just causes you to scratch your head, right?

The things that he did, the things that he said, right?

So the monophysites were wrong, then historians were wrong.

The council at Chalcedon, they got it right, I believe.

believe. And they set the borders where they needed to be. Right. The Jesus is truly human. He's truly divine.

He is that God man. Do we totally understand that? No way. How can we? We are so marred and so

feeble, you guys. Really? By sin? We are so damaged by sin. How can we? How can we understand

somebody so, listen, perfect. How can we? I think our understanding is so limited. So,

so R. C. Sprole, he talks about this, talking about the difference of the two. And he says,

and he says, I'm distinguishing, not separating, even when he, Jesus, was thirsty in his human nature.

His thirsty human nature was still perfectly united to his divine nature,

but it wasn't the divine nature that was thirsty.

God never gets thirsty.

But what about when it comes to knowledge?

Jesus learned knowledge.

Jesus learned knowledge.

Like, what?

Wasn't he born with all of it?

No.

Not in his humanness.

In his deity, yes, he's omniscient.

I know it's clear as mud.

But it's exploded my brain this week as I've been talking about.

One of the things that drove the great theologian, Thomas Aquinas,

to distraction, was a problem in Mark's gospel,

where at the end of his life, the disciples asked Jesus,

when are you coming back?

And he gave them some general answer to the question.

And then he said, but of that day or that hour, listen, no man knows.

Not even the son, but the father only.

And Aquinas is going, if he's God, he has to know.

His divine nature, I believe, did know.

But his human nature didn't.

He says, no man.

No man knows the day of the hour.

Now, what do I believe?

What I believe now is I believe Jesus knows right now.

He's been glorified.

He's in heaven.

He knows.

He knows when he's coming back.

But he gave up some stuff to become human, to become like us.

Right?

For crying out loud, he was born in a barn.

He chose that.

for himself.

Now he chose that piece of wood, but he chose the piece of wood on Calvary for you and me too.

And so, we know that God does things.

Now some people think, well, if Jesus was sitting there with those teachers, you know, and maybe the Holy Spirit was just, you know, whispering in his ear, all the answers to all the questions.

but I don't think so because wouldn't that be manipulating his humanness?

I think Jesus had learned.

He had learned the word of God, 12 years old.

Now we know that in, and I believe there were times when it was God speaking, right?

His deity was speaking when he, when he tells us,

tells Nathaniel, oh, yeah, I saw you before Philip called you sitting on the hill.

That was his omniscience, his knowledge. He knew. He knew who Nathaniel was.

Nathaniel was overwhelmed, right? He says, truly, you are the son of God.

Because of what he knew. But he couldn't have known unless he was God. And we know that in the Old

Testament, that the Holy Spirit would come upon the prophets, right? And they would

speak things that only God could speak. Whether it was Isaiah or Isaiah when he talks about the virgin birth.

What? Virgins don't conceive. V virgins can't have babies. Only God could come up with that one.

And so some of those things, that knowledge they didn't gain by their own insect,

God gave it to them.

But a lot of what they knew, they studied.

Right?

They studied the word of God.

And so here comes Jesus as this boy.

who has this knowledge that he has learned.

Hebrews chapter 5 verse 8 tells us that though he was a son,

Hebrews 5:8

he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.

Jesus did.

So he was in this process of learning as a human.

And so.

So the capacity of that boy that was 12 years old that had not been marred by sin.

I've got this two-year-old grandson.

He's right back there.

He's probably given that poor teacher fits.

He's 28 months old.

And he absolutely fascinates me.

This little boy.

He talks.

At two years old, his vocabulary is incredible.

I went out and he goes, he wants to go with Papa to get eggs. So we went got eggs. And I filled my pockets with

eggs and I'm telling him not to kick my pockets or they're going to be wet. Right. And I'm going,

I'm wondering how many eggs I got. He heard me whisper that to myself. I'm wondering. And he looks at me,

he goes, why don't you count them? He's two years old. He's got this understanding, right?

Count them. What? And he's, that's a little. He's got this understanding, right? Count them. And that's, and he's, and he's, he's, he's

I mean, from my question to myself, he eavesdropped, right?

And gives me an answer.

He knows like 30. I bet he knows almost 30 songs, this kid can sing him, right?

He's, the things that he absorbs and learns and communicates is fascinating to me.

He can sing his ABCs, he can count to 10.

And he's just two.

But along with that, he throws fits, controls his parents, lives, steals, manipulates, his grandparents, Papa and Nana.

He's fallen. This kid is sinful. He's marred, right? And he has that capacity. And he has that capacity. What capacity would a child have that doesn't have the sinned?

This was our Jesus, folks.

And he absorbed the law.

It was coming in.

And I mean, he was retaining it.

He wasn't losing it.

And he could regurgitate it.

He knew what it meant.

And he was actually astounding.

These people who had been studying the scriptures probably for 40, 50, 60 years.

Jesus absolutely, totally and completely.

completely fulfilled the greatest commandment.

Where it says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

Moses says this and writes this in Deuteronomy 6.

He goes on and says, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your

house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up,

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand.

And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

And Jesus did this.

All those words that he, for 12 years, he had been learning.

And it was written on his heart.

In his humanity.

Jesus did in 12 years what no human sinful with a fallen nature could do in a thousand.

When this scripture says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,

I have not loved the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength one day in my whole life.

Not one day in my whole life.

I've wanted to.

I have a desire to, but I am fallen.

And I say it all the time and I know I can sound like a broken record,

I'm sorry, but I'm depraved.

My focus is not soul, like a single soul focus, like a single soul focus like Christ was.

And yet he calls us to this.

And so that's why I'm overwhelmed at this 12-year-old.

That's probably why I was in tears all week.

Because eventually he had this understanding.

And maybe even here, I believe it is here.

So I probably should read.

When his mother checks him.

And she says to him, she says, son, why have you done this to us?

Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.

And he said to them, why did you seek me?

Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

Did you not know that?

And so no doubt.

Mary's brain probably goes back to Anna, Simeon, the shepherds, the manger, the angel, all of it probably is coming like a flood.

Oh my gosh, what do we have on our hands?

Got a Messiah on your hands, lady.

Right?

That's what you got on your hands.

Is a Messiah, the God man, right?

And so, didn't you know?

Jesus said, I don't speak anything.

but what the father teaches me to speak.

I'm sorry, but I just can't measure up.

And if that does not humble you,

there's something terribly wrong with you.

Because that is humbling.

And I know I can never get there,

but he set such an incredible example

It's a trek that we can walk out. It's our pursuit. Though we never attain perfection, we pursue it.

He set the bar and he set it high. Well, if it's how high, why even try? Let's kind of like telling a bull rider.

You don't get on those bulls, you know, 100 points is the ultimate score. You'll never get that.

Yeah, but I don't want to try.

So, no doubt, when she heard him say this, it says,

But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them.

Why?

Because they're fallen.

They're sinful.

They don't get it.

We don't get it.

And then he went down with them.

And he came to Nazareth and was subject.

to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature

and in favor with God and men. And so he grew and he learned. That whole passage. I'm going to read

to you. I read part of it a bit ago out of Hebrews chapter 5. It says Jesus, who in the days of his

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

flesh when he had offered a prayers and supplication with vehemachrys and tears to him. Acries and tears to him,

who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear.

Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered and having been

perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Who wouldn't want to obey him?

When you see who he is, right?

In his humanity, in his humanity, Jesus worshipped.

he worshipped. He prayed. As he human. He taught us how to seek God. But in his deity, he received worship.

I remember Thomas when he gets down on his knee and he says, my Lord, my God.

Or he asked Peter, who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Who do you say he is?

Does he rock your world?

Does Jesus rock your world?

I think he should rock it on a daily basis, right?

It's so exciting to know him.

I mean, if you want a name drop, just name drop Jesus.

I know Jesus.

Go ahead and want me.

Try.

Now, it's interesting. He says, didn't you know I would be about my father's business?

At 12 years old, 11, 12, 13 years old, a boy was ready to step in and take over the business family business.

Well, what was Joseph? He was a carpenter.

But what was his father in heaven? He was the shepherd of Israel.

What is Jesus? He's the good shepherd.

I'm going to be about my father's business.

And shepherding the people of God.

And today that's you and me.

He worshipped.

I just read this morning about the temptation.

Right? What did Satan try to tempt him with?

He tried to tempt him with with pride and, and, uh,

with food.

And with false worship.

He says, you fall down and worship me.

I'll give you all of it.

You can have it all.

Well, let me tell you something.

The son is going to have it all.

And so are you and I.

Right?

So Mary kept these things in her heart.

And it's about, this is the third time

that Luke has said this.

And many believe that Luke,

interviewed Mary.

That he got a first-hand explanation of all these experiences that they had with the boy

And he subjected themselves.

He subjected himself to them.

He was subject to them, it says, or he was obedient to them.

And he grew.

He grew in a personal relationship with,

with his heavenly father. He grew in human relationships. He grew in stature. Some think this

means physical. Yes, he probably did grow physically, but also he became a pretty big person.

As he started his ministry and people started following him, he became big. He became big. In favor.

Or in the grace with God and men. This is the verse that we used to use for. For the word,

for the school, right?

That he grew in wisdom, academics, he grew in stature, physical growth.

He grew in favor with God, that's spiritual growth and men, socially.

Right?

This is who this guy was.

He was a person without sin.

And I guess the weight of that never really hit me until now.

And I'm just going, oh my gosh.

And you came to do away with all of ours, all of our sin.

And I'm so thankful that my sin has been dealt with.

Because believe me, if there's ever someone who deserves a ferocious judgment, you're looking at him.

And I know some of you feel the same way in your heart.

Right?

But because of the perfection of his soul, you're looking at him.

humanity and the perfection of his divinity. He has become the author, as it said, of salvation.

I hope he's your savior today because there is no other. Just saying, I don't know who you're

trusting in or what you're trusting in, but if ain't Jesus, you're barking up the wrong tree, right?

Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your word that is so powerful. Thank you for your person.

Lord, that you as a man you can totally identify with us, Lord.

You were subject to the weakness of the flesh.

And yet you never blew it.

And we blow it all the time.

So I pray that in your divinity and your ability to forgive this sin of mankind, Lord,

that we would find ourselves in a place of truly tasting and seeing how good it is to know you,

the person who came to be like us, that you would give us an eternity with yourself.

A sacrifice and the one who knows all things.

You know our heart this afternoon, Lord, and I just pray for any of those who haven't

surrendered themselves to you, Lord, that they would do so.

Lord, even now, that they would just cry out to you.

That that name of Jesus, that is so powerful, that you tell us that at that name,

every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess and heaven and earth that you are

Lord so Lord uh convert those who are in that place of not knowing you Lord that they would just

cry out to you and that you would hear them and that they would be blessed thank you for the life

that you give us Lord we know that you tell us in your word you you you set before us every day

life and death and you encourage us to choose life which is to choose you and to know you

and the power of your resurrection in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you guys. Have a great week.

Prayer team's going to be up here if you need prayer today. Please come up here. Be prayed for.