Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.
Lord, we make that our prayer tonight as we come to share in Your Word. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in the saints among us, Lord. Let that beauty of Jesus be seen in all of its passion and purity.
Lord, how our nature needs to be refined by the work of the Spirit. So we look to You tonight, even for Your help. As we gather about this precious little Word, help us, Lord, to see Jesus. We pray in His precious name. Amen.
Well, I am sorry I did not sing a song tonight on my own, but after that roast beef and potatoes, it is tough. Anyway, tomorrow I will probably sing some, and we will go from there.
Now let us turn to Luke Chapter 2. Let us look at these verses we are considering. I want to begin one verse back, in verse 40, and read through the end of the chapter: Luke Chapter 2, beginning with verse 40 through verse 52.
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.
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,
and supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and 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.
And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
When they saw Him, they were astonished; 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.”
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?”
But they did not understand the statement which He 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.
Our dear brother Luke was a doctor when he got saved, probably somewhere in Asia Minor. He carried about him the usual tools of the trade. He had a Ziploc bag full of leeches to apply to people with high blood pressure—or some kind of, I do not know what they used that for.
Then I know he carried around chicken feet—yeah, as an alternative for lactose-intolerant people. He had a little bag of mouse droppings that he handed out as placebos for hypochondriacs. Other than a few prayers and some suggestions as to diet and everything, you know, a physician was quite limited in those days. They just did the best they could.
Then one day, probably in the marketplace in some Asia Minor city, he was arrested by a loud voice—a powerful, clear, intelligent voice. A former Pharisee was preaching, and standing next to this Pharisee was probably some man who had just recently been healed. Luke felt immediately one-upped.
But as this man proclaimed the gospel, he did not say that Asclepius, the god of medicine, had done the job, but that one Jesus was the healer. The funny thing is, there was a word that Luke only knew as a word for healing, which turned out to be the very word Paul was using for the word Savior. It is the same word in Greek.
Hearing of this Jesus, the healer, he came to Paul and asked him what he was talking about. Paul probably sat down and had a meal with Luke, and by the time he was through, Luke’s whole life flashed before him.
Indeed, Luke was a wonderful man: big-hearted, intelligent, and well learned. You know, this book, this Gospel of Luke, of all the books in the New Testament, is literary. Well, it is the best piece of literature in the New Testament. The grammar is amazing. The words are so well used. It is a very polished piece of work.
Luke was a fine man, but he was absolutely captured by the Lord Jesus. So Paul started taking Luke around in his little Father’s-business van. As he went from place to place, he did what he could to preach the gospel.
I imagine he preached a lot like our brother Thornton Stearns: very kind, very paternal, very precious, very insightful. He went about helping Paul, I think sometimes with poultices and all kinds of ancient Chinese remedies little known to the Middle East.
But he found, in the end, what was his Father’s business. I do not know when it came to him, but I know what happened to him. You see, he felt like he was a man born out of time.
He had never seen Jesus, the historical Jesus who walked on the earth, because, after all, he was a Gentile. He lived up in Asia Minor, and there was no reason for him to go to Jerusalem. So he had never seen Jesus, and a lifelong hunger burned in this man: Who is this Jesus?
This greatest Man—you know, the Greeks were always looking for the perfect man—and he had found the perfect Man: Jesus. Not only Man, but God, Savior of the world. He was absolutely preoccupied to find out and discover about Jesus.
Every place he went, he would record different anecdotes, vignettes, and stories about Jesus from reliable eyewitness sources. So we find there in Luke Chapter 1—just to read it, in case any of you have not caught up with this yet—Luke begins his Gospel by saying:
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word,
it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning,
to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus;
so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Now believe me, when Luke says that, he means it: “having investigated everything carefully from the beginning.” Years of note-taking, interviews with people, finally compiled into this wonderful, wonderful Gospel.
Actually, it is Jesus Part One and Jesus Part Two. Jesus Part One was the amazing Jesus on this earth. Jesus Part Two was the amazing Jesus seated from His heavenly throne. The Book of Acts was his second book, and it is all about Jesus—the resurrected, enthroned Jesus, now in His church.
What a wonderful compilation he put together: beautiful in literary form, and also, for us, the most beautiful human picture of Jesus that we have.
I thank the Lord for our brother Luke because he brought in something that the other eyewitnesses who wrote the other three Gospels just assumed was known by everybody: what Jesus the human was like.
It was up to Luke to compile this, and he compiled it in a number of ways. Of course, we are looking tonight at one of the seven snapshots that Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave to Luke.
He also took Mark’s basic form of the narrative of Peter, as Peter would preach the gospel and Mark wrote it down as the Gospel of Mark, and he used that as his basic chronological order. Then he added things he heard from various other disciples.
Nathanael, who was such a praying man, gave Luke unique insights into the prayer ministry of Jesus that are not found in any of the other Gospels. Bartholomew gave him special insight into the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. James, the son of Alphaeus, gave him details about some of the medical things that go on.
When you read Luke’s Gospel, it is particularly medical. He fills in some blanks. He tells you all about the scabs on people and what the temperature was of somebody with a fever—I mean, all those details that a doctor would like to know.
Andrew gave him many of the sayings and teachings of Jesus which, as you know, come from a slightly different angle than the same teachings recorded by Matthew. You compile all of that, and then, as you know, from Luke Chapter 10 right through His crucifixion, there is a video that Luke compiled of the last six months of Jesus’ journey, starting when He set His face toward Jerusalem until He went to the cross.
It is an amazing Gospel narrative, put together in such an amazing way. But we are looking at these seven snapshots from Mary.
Mary treasured things in her heart. Notice there in Luke Chapter 2, at the end of verse 51:
His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
I wonder how many people had heard of all these birth narratives and things until Luke pulled them out of Mary. Somehow, maybe when he visited Jerusalem and Mary was there, he pressed upon her: “Oh, please, please tell me the story. I want to know about the human Jesus. I hear the gospel, and I hear of the miracles and the things He taught, but how did it all begin?”
If he had not asked that question, we would never know these beautiful snapshots that Mary pulled out of her drawer. Of course, they did not have snapshots then, but you understand what I mean.
She gave Luke seven snapshots, and they were all framed by the same two things. If you look at these seven snapshots, they are all framed by amazement and happiness. The coming of Jesus brought amazement and happiness—or, if you are religious, blessing.
Amazement and blessing. Amazement and blessing. Every snapshot.
The first snapshot she gives is the snapshot of old Zach and Beth. They had been around for a long time, and Zach had been a priest for years but had never had any kids. Then the happy day came—amazement of amazements. God said, “You are going to have a kid. You are going to name him JB.”
Zach was so blown away he could not speak for a while. But when Beth heard about it, boy, she let out a yelp of joy, and you can read it there. It is right in the Book. That is snapshot number one. The coming of the forerunner brings happiness and amazement to a lot of people.
Snapshot number two: Mary, six months later. The angel Gabriel comes to her and says, “Guess what?” Full of amazement, fear, and joy, she hears that she is to bear the Messiah of Israel.
She immediately runs as fast as she can—as fast as you can go from Nazareth down into Judah, somewhere where Zach and Beth were living. By that time, Beth was six months along. You know, back in those days they did not have pregnancy tests, but here is what had to happen.
Mary ran in and saw Elizabeth. When she ran in, JB threw his hands up and went, “Hallelujah!” in the stomach. She said, “Look at that. Here, feel. My hands are going like this.” JB was praising in his own way.
Of course, Elizabeth burst out saying, “Oh, favored are you among women. This is so precious that God has seen fit to put in your womb.” Mary says, “Wow, I heard the promise, but I could not believe it. But now I am feeling a little nauseated.” No, she did not say that.
You know what she did? She burst into the Magnificat—the most wonderful song of a woman fulfilling the purpose of God. “God is magnificent,” begins her song. What a wonderful snapshot that was.
Then, of course, the next snapshot was when John the Baptist was born, and Zach went crazy. I mean, that is quite an amazing moment. John the Baptist is married and is born—sorry, I say, Mary—John the Baptist is born.
Zach’s tongue gets loosed, and he begins to prophesy of the amazing God and of the joy and blessedness brought to all because of this day.
Then she tells, in very understated terms, how Jesus was born there in the manger. Understating the whole thing, but in such an amazing moment she has to include the fact that, out in the field, the angels were having a big time.
Not only that, the shepherds were full of astonishment as they came and saw the baby who portended such destiny according to the angels. What a wonderful snapshot that was.
Then Jesus was presented eight days later, going into the temple, and even that had its own amazement to it. Mary and Joseph were walking in simply for Jesus to be circumcised and dedicated. In the process, an old prophet came up and prophesied, “Oh Lord, now I can go home. I can die, because my eyes have seen the Messiah.”
Of course, Anna did the same thing. A wonderful story. Whenever Jesus comes, He makes people happy. Whenever Jesus comes, it is an astonishment.
But now the seventh one is the one we are looking at here in Luke Chapter 2. It is the last of these snapshots, and it is especially precious because, guess what? In this one, she finalizes the little cycle of snapshots by saying, “Now let me tell you one more snapshot, and in this one I want you to see God the Father was happy.”
The people were astonished in the temple. The Father was happy.
So she shares this last wonderful snapshot with us about what happened at the first record in her remembrance of Jesus doing something very, very unusual—amazing, astonishing, out of character from what we expected from Him.
Suddenly we realize that He was on a track of destiny. So she records these things.
Now, Mary frames the story—or Luke frames the story after hearing Mary—between verses 40 and 52. If you notice those two verses, they are quite similar, but there is an important difference.
Verse 40 says:
The Child continued to grow and became strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
What a wonderful picture this is. What a happy picture this is. It pictures this Child growing up naturally, beautifully, in a wonderful happy balance of physical, intellectual, and spiritual development.
Luke, as he often does in his Gospel, gives us Jesus as a model for our lives as well. Would to God children today would be raised with this same balance. He was strong physically.
Now, I see some of you guys are pretty pumped, pretty strong dudes. The question is: do you have a brain?
Some of you women are not featuring how strong you can be, but you are thinking of the physical side of your beauty. At any moment’s notice, you want to know the latest makeup or whatever it is.
Well, some people are preoccupied with the physical, and some are preoccupied with the intellectual. They look like Martians. Their brains are so big, but their bodies are limp and weak, and you are almost afraid to let them go outside.
Then, of course, there are some who are physical and pretty intelligent, but spiritually? A spiritually healthy child—this is Jesus.
Wonderful, born, growing. Look, He is healthy. Look, He is intelligent. Look, He is pursuing God by grace. It says the grace of God was upon Him. It means the beauty of God was upon His countenance.
When you looked at Jesus—have you looked at Jesus, the twelve-year-old? Because that is what Luke wants us to do. Have you noticed what He would look like? He was a healthy dude, believe me, and He was intelligent.
You can see intelligence in people’s eyes. Whenever I do a meeting like this, I watch some people going—and I see other people. I never see their eyes because they are always… Occasionally, I look out and see intelligent eyes. I can tell intelligent eyes.
Some people are going, “Huh?” But I can see intelligent eyes—people who are taking things in. Ah, that is so refreshing.
Just think of Jesus at this age, twelve, taking it in. His eyes—you could tell they had that sparkle of intelligence. But you know what? The beauty of God was upon Him.
There was that passion we sang about, and that purity we sang about. It was written all over Him. He smiled. He was not, you know, a court jester. He was not the clown in the class or anything like that, but He had a lot of fun.
Strong, intelligent, and the beauty of God. You know, grace means beauty in its simple form. The beauty of God was upon Him. What a wonderful picture.
But the snapshot we look at during our week here is this: that is the natural side of His growth and development, but verse 52 adds something.
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
The word is “increasing,” which denotes a difference. As G. Campbell Morgan says, this word should not be “increasing”; it should be “advancing.” This is saying that as a result of the story, Mary could discern that there was advancement going on in His life.
As if to say, there is the natural side of growing, and then there is this moment where somebody takes hold of their development and begins cooperating with God. It is not just by osmosis, just by grace, just in a natural process of growth. Somebody comes to the point where they cooperate with God’s grace in their lives.
They lay hold of things that cause them to advance. Here we have this picture as we take a snapshot of Jesus in this transition, where now He is beginning to take hold of His life as an adult should and cooperate with God’s impressions in His life.
This advancement is still in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. So the point is very simple: Jesus is becoming a man.
He is no longer just growing as a child, unconscious of any responsibility on His part. Now He is this young bar mitzvah boy, laying hold of the Law, laying hold of the Word, laying hold of prayer, discovering things about God.
In this condition of advancement, He is beginning to grow and mature. Jesus is becoming a man. Here is the snapshot, and the Father is happy.
Now let us recap the facts of the story, which my brother shared already this morning. He basically ripped my notes out of my Bible last night and took all these things, but it is worth listening to once again.
Just some notes on the trip to the feast. If you notice there in Luke Chapter 2, verses 41 and 42, it was customary for Joseph and Mary, being pious, religious, God-loving people, to do that which was right, that which was their duty: to go to the Feast of Passover as prescribed by the Law once a year.
They went, celebrated, feasted, loved God, and sacrificed. It cost quite a bit of money to get down there from Nazareth, to sacrifice a lamb, and to do all the things necessary for the feast. It was a discomfort. It was not the easiest travel down from Nazareth along the Jordan River.
But they had a band, a caravan—or else they drove a Dodge; I do not know what that means. According to my translation, they were in a caravan of Nazarenes, probably a bunch of relatives and friends from the same synagogue perhaps, all heading down there.
I do not know how big you think that caravan was, but I am going to guess maybe thirty to fifty people, all going down to the feast, as was their custom year by year.
Actually, there were three feasts that happened bang, bang, boom. You had the Passover feast; the next day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the next day, the Feast of Firstfruits.
So if you got there around Wednesday, got yourself a lamb, got all prepared, and had a Thursday-night Passover, then Friday you rested for the day. The Sabbath came Friday evening. Well, it is hard to describe it.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread came on that following Sabbath—Saturday. The first day of the week, the Feast of Firstfruits, they waved the barley, and everybody waved bye-bye. They went back home.
It was a great weekend: feast, feast, feast. Wonderful time—singing, praising God, now going home. That is the usual thing.
But something very unusual was happening here. This may have been the custom for Joseph and Mary, but this was the golden moment for Jesus, the young adolescent.
You have to keep in mind: in the Middle East, when you are twelve years old, you are already in puberty. You are already growing up.
This young man had His first experience in Jerusalem, as it should be. Of course, He was there for the circumcision. Whether He was ever there again, the Scriptures seem to imply that He was not.
He could have passed by Jerusalem on the way down to visit Zach and Beth and JB—we do not know. But most likely, by the implication of the Scripture, this was a special occasion for Jesus. A golden moment. An opportunity.
Can you imagine, especially if you are a real lover of God, suddenly walking into this city of God? I mean, this was like the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the Oscars all at the same time.
The Jews lived for these religious occasions. In the midst of it was festivity. Can you imagine Him joining in with all these adults who loved God as they began to move up toward Jerusalem, singing those Songs of Ascents?
I was glad when they said unto me,
“Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
That is one of the Songs of Ascents. They sang all those Songs of Ascents, climbing up the mountains, going down the pathways, heading up there.
They got toward Jerusalem, and they could smell the lamb cooking. Oh man, I am salivating already, even after that roast beef. Now they were singing:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together.
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we are. Now this is really living. When you love God, this is it. You are almost beside yourself. Even the rabbis are dancing around, you know, in those crazy hats they have and all the long coats in the middle of the summer. It is tough, but they are doing it.
You are caught up in this. Then it is up to Jerusalem, up to the golden house. Oh man—the golden house, where it all happens, where God has decided to rest.
But look, there is the king’s palace. There are so many amazing sights. You had to climb stairs, and there was all this fanfare. The priests were there. You know, the priests had special band uniforms when they played their bagpipes and everything. They had these special uniforms.
The singers were up there—bass and alto and soprano, and I do not know the other “os”—singing day and night. There was music in the city. They had these huge lights that they lit up. They stayed up all night. These lights were huge, lighting up the whole temple mount.
This temple mount was—oh, wow. I forget the size of it; acres and acres of territory. It was a wonderful sight. Can you believe it?
Jesus not only got to go there, but His dad said, “Come on, let us go get the lamb.” They went down to the money changers because, coming from Nazareth, it was very unlikely that you would bring a lamb with you. Maybe, but most likely they had to go to the money changers, and they got built.
But they got an unblemished lamb. Maybe even Joseph said, “Let us go offer him up.” These were unforgettable moments to a child who had grown up in Nazareth, where all you had known was a synagogue and a couple of elders there.
Maybe Joseph was an elder there; I do not know. Maybe there were a couple of rabbis. It was a substantial little village, but He had never seen anything like this. He had never seen the phylacteries and all the stuff of the high priest and all these folks marching around. It was just amazing.
Then to go up there to the brazen altar as a man and watch the lamb being sacrificed, then receive back the portion for their feast.
They would go back and prepare this feast. You know, only Mary could cook it—some special kind of sauce and all this kind of stuff. As they ate the Passover, one of the people—there was always a master storyteller in every family, many times Grandpa, sometimes Great-Grandpa or a great-uncle—would tell the story of the Passover.
They would rehearse the whole story word for word, memorized. The kids would act out the parts: leaving Egypt, forgetting the leaven. They would run and do this and that. Really, it was tremendous. It was the closest thing to Broadway they could ever get to.
The family had their annual show. That great storyteller told the story. It had a little something extra-biblical every year, but everybody had a big old time.
Then after that Passover feast, they had these other feasts—unleavened bread, then the Feast of Firstfruits. By Monday, people were ready to go. Time to go home. It was a workday. It took them several days to get home, but they had to get started.
So they got started on this journey, and the caravans all kind of locked up. Of course, there was somebody missing.
Somebody probably went up before dawn, climbed up from the valley down below—hundreds and hundreds of steps, and up and up and up—went back into the temple mount, and was drawn to this little part of the porch where they had the midrashim going on.
That is to say, the rabbis were speaking the oral traditions, explaining the Law. Even at that time among the Jews, it was a great ferment because the midrashim were being written into the Mishnah. There was great discussion on the various matters of the Law, what they meant, and the different opinions of various rabbis.
Jesus was there and found Himself, as it were—could I put it this way?—compelled.
Something happened in Jesus’ life that is hard to understand, and His parents did not get it. There was an inner stirring in Jesus.
As the stories were told, as He saw Jerusalem, as the verses were quoted, there was some kind of deep calling unto deep. There was something in His life. What were merely words and customs to the people who heard the story were living callings to Jesus. They were pictures of His destiny.
So He had to go back. The family may have been finished with the feast, but Jesus was not finished. There was some insatiable appetite: What of His calling? What of His destiny? What of the Word of God? What of these matters?
He found Himself driven in such a way that He ended up under this portico. He settled in there with probably fifty or more people who would stay around and hear these rabbis pontificate on various things. But Jesus was there with an open heart.
Even the sourpuss preaching of some of those crazy rabbis was living Word for Jesus. He sat there and lost all track of time.
Moments went by into hours. He did not eat—well, probably He did; somebody gave Him some morsels. He was just part of the crowd pretty soon. There He was: lost—more than lost, compelled; more than compelled, enraptured.
Have you ever been enraptured by the things of God? He was absolutely enraptured. You could not have convinced Him even to play games with the boys. Nothing could distract Him, because something was resonating inside.
It was not just adolescence and its restlessness. There was something being clarified, and yet not fully clarified. It drew Him on to listen to these people.
It is interesting to hear the various interpretations of this story. A lot of commentators I read spend a great deal of time haranguing Joseph and Mary for being so careless. “What is the matter with these dummies? How can you just leave Jerusalem and not look for your kid? Do you not realize the treasure you had there? Do you not remember when Gabriel talked to you, for crying out loud?”
But these are not true, and certainly Joseph and Mary were not careless at all. They had a bunch of kids, you know. After Jesus came James, then Judas, then Joseph, then Simon. You know, it is like the King family: Jesus, Joseph, Jude, James, and Simon. Well, that is a long story. I will not go there today.
But these are just the boys. Then there were daughters. I think Mary was properly called Mama Mary at this time. If Jesus were twelve, I do not know how the other kids were aging up down the line, but there were little kids and things to take care of.
Here is the point: Jesus was absolutely trustworthy.
The parents had every right not to give it a second thought. First of all, keep in mind that a boy who was twelve years old was almost ready to be a man. He was almost ready to go to work. There was no high school or college. You had been training under your dad, and now you went to work in a carpenter shop. That was it.
By thirteen, fifteen, a lot of them got married, you know. The girls by twelve. Things happened a lot faster and earlier back in those days.
A guy who was twelve years old, especially of the temperament of Jesus, was absolutely trustworthy and responsible. Why was it that nobody was looking for Jesus? Because Jesus was the one who was always gathering up the other kids.
It was responsible Jesus suddenly gone missing. For some reason, that threw everybody off. So it was not Mary and Joseph’s fault.
Actually, though, by Mary’s own account—because do not forget, this is a snapshot Mary gives us, something she treasured in her heart, something nobody knew about until Mary told the story to our dear brother Luke—Mary gives us an implication of what was going on here.
Here is what she implies: she faults herself, but not for carelessness. She faults herself and her husband for being pious and religious, who loved God, did their duty, went to the feast, worshiped at the feast, and yet had no idea of the Father’s business.
Notice what it says in Luke Chapter 2, verse 50:
But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them.
Mary is telling that on herself. You understand what I am saying? It is possible, my dear friends, for you to grow up and become a Christian who loves the Lord. You are truly saved, devoted to God, and going through the customs.
We have a customary breaking-of-bread meeting, a customary Bible study, a customary prayer meeting, or whatever customs we go through. We go through these customs as our duty, even as our privilege. We worship the Lord sincerely and have no idea what the Father’s business is.
That is the story Mary tells on herself. Sometimes it takes a young one—a young teenager with such a heart for God that they see the Father’s business—and that awakens a whole family to the customs and the shallowness of merely going through the motions.
But why is this story told? It is not to chide Joseph and Mary. Why is this story told?
There is one simple, salient point that is the backbone of this story, and it is this: if you see Jesus in this episode, you see a heart that is wholly consecrated to the Father.
Jesus’ heart was wholly consecrated to the Father.
That is what was going on here. That is the valuable lesson. Things were going on in the heart.
Listen: Jesus implied in His answer, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Jesus implies in this answer that He had already been about His Father’s business, and His parents had not realized it.
So much of the Father’s business among young people is an inward work of the heart. It was not that Jesus said, “Joe, I cannot go fishing with you on Thursday because I am going out witnessing.” He was not witnessing yet. He was in a time of preparation.
But in that time of preparation, the Father’s business was being attended to, and His parents did not realize it. Jesus was already about the Father’s business.
At this point, we have to stop and ask about this whole phrase, “Father’s business,” because some of your versions probably say “Father’s house,” and some other versions say “Father’s business.” If you have a really literal translation—you know, one you cannot understand but it is all literal—it says, “the Father’s things.”
Now, I do not want to pop any balloon for anybody who likes the T-shirt, because leave the T-shirt as it is. “Occupied with the Father’s business” is a wonderful thing. People will ask you what business you are in. You know, they do not want to know you are in the tire business. “What is your business?” You wear that T-shirt, and it will cause a lot of witnessing.
But first of all, you have to realize that there is no “occupied” in this Scripture. Neither is there “business” in the Scripture. Neither is there “house” in this Scripture.
It is interesting. You are going to have to leave it to your imagination to understand what it literally says. Here is what it really says: “Do you not know that it is necessary for Me to be in the ___ of My Father?”
That is exactly what the Scripture says: “in the ___ of My Father.” The blank is there. No, that was not some kind of eel or something.
What Jesus said was, “Do you not know I must be about…” How do you want to fill in that blank?
Some translations say that because He was implying they should have known He was there at the temple, it means “the Father’s house.” But it does not really say that. Others say “the Father’s business.” That is a very good phrase, but it does not really say that either.
It says the things of My Father, but without the word things. It has the article and then nothing after it. It leaves to your imagination what possibly it could mean.
How about the will of the Father? “Do you not know it must be about the purpose of My Father?” The purpose of My Father—that would fit just as well, would it not?
You can add a ton of words to it, but you will miss the point if your emphasis is on the house or the business. Here is the point: Jesus evidenced that He was absolutely in the Father’s heart. He was after the Father and all the things of the Father.
Maybe one night I will sing this song: “I would rather be with Him, and the things I find Him in, more than anything.” That was Jesus’ heart: “I would rather be with My Father and the things I find My Father in.”
There are things of the Father. In this context, the things were studying the Word of God. When Jesus was in the things, He was in there with a consecrated heart, and that makes all the difference.
He was in that portico of His own free will, under the compulsion of wanting to know the Father’s things. “Anything You have that is Yours, Father, I want to know. Everything, anything—destiny, purpose, anything.” This was Jesus’ heart.
That is why the statements that were made astonished everybody. The fact that He listened astonished people because, you know, anybody twelve years old cannot listen for more than twenty minutes.
Have you ever watched or known somebody? Here again, I give myself away. Sometimes when I look desperately around the audience, I am looking for somebody who is actually listening.
This Scripture is not merely talking about listening. This Scripture is talking about the fact that Jesus was sitting there, and as the words were coming, they were being translated from logos into rhema. He was not merely listening; He was listening and interpreting.
Have you known those moments in your life when you have been obedient to the Lord in His work and His service, and in your obedience, when words are heard, they become living words to you? Just translated, right? Boom—living. Now that is somebody who is listening.
Sometimes I have preached some of the most pitiful sermons of my lifetime, but the only consolation I had was that there was somebody there who was such a listener, like a sponge, that they could even soak up one little spit that I threw out that was worthwhile.
Some people really listen: “This is for me.” That was Jesus listening.
When Jesus asked questions, He was not asking Sunday-school questions. You know what I mean? “What is a publican? Is he a Democrat?” No, no. Sunday-school facts—forget Sunday-school facts.
Jesus knew Sunday-school facts. He was asking questions of interpretation. That is what threw people, because even among the Jewish scholars there were these little details. Jesus would pop right in with an interpretive question, and they would say, “Oh, we never thought of that. Let us see, according to my scrolls and my own baloney, I think…”
I suppose—and I know I have to assume this—they even felt a little challenged. Maybe they felt like this kid was one-upping them. So they said, “Okay, boy, here is a question for you.” Oh, they never should have done that.
Why? Because Jesus answered questions not according to the letter of the Word, but according to the Spirit of the Word. Holy smoke. No wonder everybody was astonished in the place.
All He was doing was soaking, drinking, and talking. We have to talk about this more tomorrow. That is what I am going to talk about: being in the Father’s business with the Word of God.
But what you could see burning through the whole thing was a heart loving God. This was the proof, at twelve years old.
Now, what is the point of the story and the greatest value of the story? I am going to tell you straight out: it is for you.
Luke put the story in to show the absolute spiritual importance of the silent preparation years.
The silent years. Wasted years? Not at all.
We see through this little snapshot that the Holy Spirit was busy, busy, busy during the silent years. We see further that the Father’s business was being accomplished during the silent years. That is the years of adolescence.
These are the years where you still have to be in submission to your parents, where most of your life is not your own but plotted out for you by school and various responsibilities. Yet God says, “Let us make this a time of preparation.”
Let us look at this story again and see its value. Luke says to you, as it were: “Look at Jesus the adolescent, and see that He is yours.”
St. Augustine, a famous theologian, had a theory about this whole thing that Luke brought out: the dedication of the baby and this time of His training as a boy at the temple. He said that through each of these stages, God was sanctifying for all time these various stages of life.
In other words, in the dedication of the baby, God through Jesus was sanctifying the sacredness of an infant as important to God—which would fly in the face of anybody who thinks of abortion. An infant is a sacred thing, proven by this dedication of Jesus.
But this moment at the temple is proof, according to Augustine, that God has made sacred the teenage years.
They are not merely something waiting to happen. Well, it is a lingering, as our brother shared this morning. You are lingering, waiting for your moment, as it were. But do not underestimate the importance of the adolescent years.
Now, I do not know theologically about this. It was a whole incarnational theory of Jesus sanctifying the various moments of human existence. But for Luke, it definitely means this: “I want people in the silent years of adolescence to see that they have a Jesus who is just like them.”
That is why this story is here: for you to take a look. Do you know Jesus was just like you? Look at Him.
See that He was growing naturally—physically, intellectually, spiritually—in a natural process. Then see Him beginning to lay hold of that process and advance that process, because during the silent years He was cooperating with that process.
Oh, that you could see that. Think about this Jesus as an adolescent. Do you know something? It was slow. There were stages. There were transitions. Oh, what a transition this time is.
It is as if Luke is putting Jesus before us as this adolescent and saying, “You go through the same stages.”
Now, we feel that we cannot even look at Jesus because we are such sinners. But no, here is the point. This is the point of the story that you need to believe: you have not only been born again, but the grace of God is upon you.
God has favor upon His children and adolescents who are interested in the Father’s things. God is happy.
You know something? I am so delighted. I come up here at the end of the summer, and it has been a long summer, but I love to come up here. Why? Because I know some of you are about your Father’s business.
That is worth a million bucks. You are pursuing. You are in stages. You are growing. You are going through transitions. You are starting to lay hold of things, and I am glad to be here with you.
If I could tell you one thing, it would be this: look at Jesus. Look at Him as an adolescent. Do not say, “Oh, He has no interest in me until I have a beard, until I am over thirty. Jesus only talks to people over thirty.”
Your elders and your parents might not talk to people under thirty, but Jesus talks to people who are twelve. That is the whole point of this story.
Look at Jesus—beautiful Jesus. Look at that beauty and say, “Oh, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.” The same grace that was upon Him is the same favor the Father shows me.
The Father says, “I am happy. I am happy with My children with consecrated hearts. I am happy with My children who, in the secret place, are pursuing. I am happy with My children who have come to this point.”
The story really leaves us with this little sense: Jesus remained at home, but He left home.
It was a bit of a sad time for Mary, I suppose. She treasured these things in her heart. She looked back later on because, as we understand it, Joseph, His father, died not too many years after that. Jesus was too soon an adult, having to run the business, take the family down for Passover, and sacrifice the lamb by Himself as head of the house.
But it was at this point that Mary came to see something: nobody loved their mother like Jesus did. Even on the cross, He squeaked out a message to John: “Take care, Mama.”
Yet she saw at this point that Jesus had another Father, and He was now chasing after Him.
Joseph was aware of it too. They just had not quite seen the transition. Somewhere in that devoted heart of a young boy they had always seen as a fine, God-loving, God-worshiping boy, they did not realize that He had given His heart to Another. He belonged to the Father.
Mary treasured these things in her heart. I say: look at Him.
Jesus wants to say to you, dear adolescent at the same stage He was at: Consecrate your heart wholly for the Lord.
And then, run after Me.
Oh, listen. Do you not think Jesus knew what it was like to be energetic and young and want to run? Run with Jesus.
The Scriptures say:
Draw me after You, and we will run together.
How Jesus longs to run with a young person. Then He says, “Can we study together? Come on, let us study. Let us study together.”
Do you believe He actually cares? He wants to study with you. Or do you think He only hangs out with the old, bearded rabbis ready to go home and die? He says, “Come on, let us study together.”
“Let us go on a nature walk, because let us look behind nature until we worship God.” Jesus was such an observer of these things. Even in adolescence, He was checking out the world, seeing the lilies and all this stuff.
Oh, to see with the eyes of Jesus, to walk with the life of Jesus. You know something? There He is, right there for you.
Luke says, “Before we go on to the story of the Gospel and Jesus’ death on the cross, I want you to see a Jesus who loves you, and He remembers what it is like to be twelve years old.”
He says, “I know you in your adolescence. I know that your life is primarily a hidden life, but do you have a heart? A heart for the Father?”
This is the key to these early moments. If there was anything that became obvious by that one sentence—“Do you not realize that I must be in My Father’s?”—it is that He absolutely loved the Father.
To us, we do not realize how strange it was, but this terminology was not used among the Jews. You did not call God your Father.
That is why everybody’s mouth fell open when Jesus said, “Okay, I will tell you how to pray: Daddy, Abba.” Everybody said, “Wait a minute. Who are You talking about? You mean the Holy—?”
“No, no. At least if You say ‘Daddy,’ make it a holy D, a big D, a big Daddy.” He said, “No, no, no.”
Nobody knew about that. This is an original revelation of Jesus. Isaiah mentions God as our Father a few times in the Scriptures, and there are some other places in the Old Testament, but the Jews did not call Him Father.
Look at this: Jesus is twelve years old, and He knows Him as Daddy. You are fourteen or sixteen. Do you know Him as Daddy?
Do you spend time with Daddy and with the things of Daddy? If they interest Daddy, do they interest you? Are you interested in the history of the church if it is the history of what Daddy has been doing? Are you interested in the Bible if it tells you what He is like?
Are you interested? It comes from a consecrated heart, wholly given to God. That is the first and wonderful step. It is the moment of our being occupied with the Father’s business.
Come run with Me. Let us study together.
It should be that, by the time we are in adolescence with a consecrated heart, we can sing:
My Jesus, my Savior,
Lord, there is none like You.
Because we have discovered that.
This is the wonderful portrait before us of a growing Jesus, captured in time so that you and I can understand: He is ever different from us, but He is also like us. Let us run after Him. He is there for the taking.
I would like us to have a prayer right now. The one thing I am going to ask you is: is your heart wholly the Lord’s? We call it consecration—an inner thing. I cannot really tell those who are and those who are not, because it is a hidden thing. These are the silent years, but the Lord knows.
I do not feel I need to ask people to stand up tonight, but I would like us all to pray and bow our heads. I am going to ask those who believe tonight—whether again or whether they never have before—that you would like to give your heart to Jesus, your Daddy.
I want you to respond. Raise your hand and say, “That is me.”
I do not know if you have ever come to those moments in your life where you have been impacted by the purpose of God and felt something deep within, deeper than just customs—a sense of God drawing you and calling you.
The first thing He calls you to is Himself. Are you one of those ready to be all the Father’s, to be occupied with the Father and everything He is interested in?
Lord, I pray for my dear brothers and sisters, because they have passively been fed many wonderful truths and have gained along the way that salvation which comes in a home of Christians. They have grown by grace, but now they are to advance as they lay hold of the heart of God and run after Him.
Oh Lord, I pray, consecrate these hearts tonight in the process of the silent years, that they may run after Jesus, who ran through His adolescence with a pure and passionate heart. Help us to run in that way.
If you are somebody who wants to acknowledge that you want to do that tonight, I would like you to raise your hand so I can see you. I ask many people. God bless you. Just raise your hand. Just keep it up another moment.
Lord, You look at everybody here. You see a hand, but You know the heart. I pray, oh God, in these days, that there may be young people who would surprise the customs of their parents with a heart that is unsatisfied with anything but everything to do with the Father.
Oh Lord, catch us up in such ways that we may be, in one sense, lost in time and space before Your presence, with a hunger to know more about You.
We are so glad that Jesus went through this time in His life, and we have this snapshot before us: that He was there with those intelligent eyes, with the beauty of God on His face, with physical strength.
He was there to run for You. Even in submitting and going back home, being obedient, learning carpentry, it never prevented Him from doing the Father’s business.
Oh God, grant that everybody here tonight may have such a heart after You. We thank You for all those who raised their hands, and others here who have already given their hearts over completely.
Lord, let it be evidenced in our lives. Oh, draw us after You, and we will run together.
I will rejoice in You and be glad.
For Jesus’ sake we pray. Amen.