Sermon: Luke 2:52
January 20, 2007
Sermon: Luke 2:52
Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Have you ever thought about, or wondered, what the childhood of Jesus was like? If you have, you're not alone - throughout the history of the church, Christians have speculated on what Jesus was like as a boy. In the apocryphal writings of the early church, the books that were never accepted by the church as part of the canon of Scripture, writers went as far as describing things that Jesus supposedly did when he was a boy. In one of these stories, the baby Jesus tells a palm tree to bend down, so that his mother Mary could enjoy some of its fruit. In another story, the five year-old Jesus modeled twelve sparrows out of clay. He clapped his hands, and the clay sparrows came to life, and flew away.
There are many more stories like this, but they are all similar - they're fantastic, distorted legends, they're the product of overactive imaginations. They show the child Jesus in his human nature as knowing everything, and as being able to do anything that he wanted to, like a young magician. To put it simply, these stories are just the opposite of everything that Scripture is. But it isn't surprising that stories like these popped up - they appealed to people's curiosity, because they tried to fill in the gaps that people thought were in the gospels.
But our scripture reading this morning gives us the only true account that we have of Jesus' childhood. We do know some other things about his early life - he grew up in a large family, he worked as a carpenter with his father Joseph, and Joseph must have died sometime before Jesus began his ministry. But whatever else may or may not have happened, we do know everything we need to know about Jesus as a boy, everything that the Holy Spirit decided we would need. From the time when he was forty days old until he turned thirty and began his public ministry, we have only this one story about Jesus' childhood - when he was twelve years old, he knew that he had to be in his Father's house. He knew that he had to learn God's Word from the teachers in the temple, and he amazed those teachers with his understanding.
Before telling us about Jesus' experience in the temple, Luke tells us that the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. And following this account, Luke tells us again: as Jesus grew from boyhood to adulthood, he increased in wisdom and stature, and he grew in favour with God, and with man. And since this is the only thing we're told about Jesus' childhood, and it's even repeated twice, this must be an important thing for us to know and to consider. Even in his childhood, Jesus was fulfilling his role as the second Adam, who lived the life that the first Adam didn't. All of the gospel accounts of Jesus' life on earth are focused on one thing: how did Jesus fulfill his office as the Messiah, the eternal Son of God who became man to bring salvation to his people. All of his life had this purpose, and everything the gospel writers tell us is with this purpose in mind. So this morning the Word of God comes to us under the following theme:
As he grew to adulthood, Jesus fulfilled his office as the Second Adam.
1.He grew in obedience
2.He grew in wisdom
3.He grew in favour with God and man
1.He grew in obedience
When God created Adam and Eve, he created them to live in communion with him, to walk with him. He created them to put their trust in him, to grow, to develop, to continue to mature as his children. Adam had to learn, he had to grow, he had to grow to true maturity, in communion with God, as God's son. And he had to do this in obedience to his Father, in obedience to the God who had created him, who had given him life, the God who sustained him and gave him everything from his Fatherly hand. The Father gave Adam one single command that he had to follow - he was free to eat from any tree of the garden, but he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam was to grow, if he was to mature, if he was to develop the world that God had given him to rule, he had to live a life of faithful obedience. There was no other way - there were no shortcuts; the only path to a life of communion with God was the path of obedience.
Adam was created good. But in order for Adam to fulfill his office as the covenantal head of humanity, he had to continue, to develop. He couldn't just remain as he was when he was created - he had to grow, to become strong, to increase in wisdom and stature, and to grow in favour with God and man. He had to till the earth. That means he would have had to develop the tools and the skills that he would need to do that. He had to keep the garden, to tend it. That means that he would have to learn the techniques that he would need to know to do that as well. Adam had to grow, he had to mature, and he could do that only in a close relationship with his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth.
But we all know what happened. Adam didn't obey. Adam and Eve decided not to follow the path of obedience; instead, they decided that they should be the ones to determine how they would grow in knowledge of good and evil. And so they ate from that forbidden fruit, and the rest is history.
But God didn't leave things at that. He sent his son into this world to put everything to rights. He sent his own Son into the world to do what Adam didn't do - to live a life of faithful obedience, to mature into the perfect man, the only man who could take away the sins of God's people and allow us to have a true, perfect relationship with him again.
And we can see from our passage this morning that God's son did what Adam didn't do. Where Adam listened to the voice of the serpent, the boy Jesus sat at the feet of the teachers of the law. Where Adam wanted to decide for himself what was right and wrong, the boy Jesus learned from God's own word, his revelation of himself. This was his task, this was his office, his mission. He had to be busy with his Father's business. He had to be in his Father's house. He had to grow as a person, in obedience to his God, and his Father.
Unlike Adam, Jesus chose to submit himself to the Father in perfect obedience, and he did it of his own free will, without being forced to. We don't understand this. We don't understand how the eternal Son of God could grow and mature, how he could develop from being a child to being a man. And in part, this is what lies behind the non-Biblical stories of Jesus' childhood. People confused Jesus' human nature with his divine nature; they mixed up Jesus' humanity with his divinity. As a human being, he had to grow. As a baby, he had to learn to walk. As a toddler, he had to learn to speak. And as a young man, he had to grow in obedience to his Father.
And in doing all this, Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled God's perfect ideal, his perfect plan for what man should be. In 1 Cor. 15, the apostle Paul calls Jesus the last Adam. The first man, Adam, was of the dust of the earth, Paul writes, the second man, our Lord Jesus, was from heaven. All earthly men, he continues, are like the earthly man, the first Adam. Those who are of heaven, those who put their faith in God and live for him, are like the man from heaven, Jesus Christ. As the people of God, we have been transformed, from being 'in Adam,' to being 'in Christ.'
And because we are in Christ, because the Father has made it possible for us to have communion with him through the Son, we too have been given the strength to grow in obedience. All of our lives are to be dedicated to just that - to growing in faithfulness, to growing in obedience to our gracious Father, to sitting down at the feet of the teachers, like Jesus did. Because the only way for us to grow in obedience to God is for us to submit ourselves to his Word, and to put that learning into practice. The only way to grow in obedience to the Father is to know what it is that the Father requires of us.
And the only way we can grow in obedience is in Christ. We are either like the earthly man, the first Adam, who wanted to be independent, who wanted to make his own rules and follow his own path, or we are like the heavenly man, like Jesus Christ, who knew that he had to be in his Father's house. And through the Holy Spirit we can grow in faithful obedience to our Father. Only with Jesus Christ as our covenant head can we experience the joy of an obedient faith and an eternal life of harmony with God.
2.He grew in wisdom
Our text tells us that the boy Jesus was filled with wisdom, and that he grew in wisdom. And again we come to something that is difficult, if not impossible, for us to truly understand. But we need to subject all the questions that we may have in our minds to Scripture first and foremost - God's word has to shape the way we think, the way we reason, not the other way around. We can never let our own human reason, the limits of our own mind, limit what we believe of Scripture. While we may not understand how Jesus grew in wisdom, we must confess that it is the truth, if we want to continue to subject ourselves and our limited minds to the Word of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7, the Son of God made himself nothing - he took the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. He gave up the full use of his divine powers, so he could be a true, 100% human being and fulfill God's plans for mankind.
And again we see that Jesus, the man, grew in a perfectly natural way - his growth, his coming to maturity, was both natural, and perfect. For every stage of his life, he was perfect for that stage. While he was a baby, he relied on his mother to care for him in every way, just like every other baby. But as a baby, he was a perfect baby. While he was a boy, he was like any other boy - he had to learn to do things just like all other boys who have ever walked on the earth. But when he was a boy, he was perfect for that stage too - in all the stages of his life, he showed what it meant to be truly human, as God had planned it for Adam.
So we can see that Jesus had to grow in wisdom. He had to learn wisdom, but he learned wisdom perfectly. He didn't have to 'learn from his mistakes,' because he didn't falter. He didn't have to 'learn the hard way,' because his life was always lived in agreement with the will of God. Yet he had to grow in wisdom, gradually, day-by-day.
And this wisdom is knowledge, it's understanding, but it's something far more than just that. We often speak of faith including knowledge, and as Reformed Christians we emphasize that knowledge is important for God's people. It's important for us not be ignorant of God's Word - it's important for us to keep searching the Scriptures, to keep learning more and more, to keep mining the gold from the pages of the Word. But wisdom is something that far surpasses simple knowledge - being wise is something way beyond being knowledgeable. It's perfectly possible to know Scripture inside and out, to know the doctrines of the church, to know the creeds and confessions, to read all the right books, to memorize entire Bible books and know all the proof texts, and to still be foolish. Knowledge does not equal wisdom! Knowledge is necessary for wisdom, but true wisdom does not end with knowledge alone.
Wisdom is the ability, and the desire, to use our knowledge correctly, to use it in service to the Lord. Wisdom means not only knowing God's Word, it means applying God's word to our lives. And in our Christian lives, we must always be seeking to grow in wisdom, to grow in true understanding of God's Word, to grow in applying God's word to our lives and to everything that we do from day to day.
And James tells us all about that wisdom, the wisdom that comes from heaven, in chapter 3 of his epistle - that wisdom that comes from God is first of all pure; then peace-loving, then considerate, then submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. And Jesus grew in all of these; he showed care and consideration to those who were in need; he submitted himself fully to the will of the Father; he was full of mercy; he was impartial, and he was sincere. And he was all of these things, in perfection, to their utmost. And as we can read in the 28th chapter of the book of Job, there is a simple definition of wisdom that even the simplest person can understand and take to heart: the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to shun evil - that is understanding. As Jesus grew in wisdom, so, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too need to continually strive to grow in wisdom, to grow in the fear of the Lord that is wisdom's beginning. And the only way that we can grow in wisdom is in Jesus Christ - apart from him, there is only the absolute foolishness that this world has to offer.
3.He grows in favour
And finally, along with his growth in wisdom and in body, Jesus grew in favour - in favour of both God, and man. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, the Father could speak from heaven, having seen all that Jesus had done in the first thirty years of his life, and he could say, 'This, this is my beloved son, and in him I am well-pleased.' Because his beloved Son had done the will of the Father, completely and perfectly, the Father could, in the most absolute and total sense imaginable, show him his favour, and reveal that he took pleasure in him.
Because the Lord delights in the faithful obedience of his people, and he delighted in the faithful obedience of his son. And again, we need to keep in mind the humanity of God's Son. We need to stay away from our tendency to think of him only as being God, and forgetting that he was, at the same time, a true, complete man. Because if we forget the humanity of Jesus, we may think, 'Well, so what? So what if he obeyed perfectly? So what if he resisted temptation? What's the big deal that he didn't sin? After all, he was God, and God can't sin, so it couldn't have been that much of a struggle, could it?'
But again, we need to submit ourselves to the teaching of God's word, and here we think especially of what we are told in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2 - Jesus was made like his brothers in every way, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, so he could make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
This man, this Son of God, was made like us in every way. That means that there is no way in which he's different from us, except that he didn't sin. He was just like us. When he was hungry, he was really hungry. When he was thirsty, he was really thirsty. And when he was tempted, he was really tempted. And when God turned his back on him on the cross, he really did feel the agony of being abandoned by his Father. He really did suffer, throughout his life, even as a child, but especially on the cross, when he took our sins upon himself. And because he suffered, because he shared in the pain of being a human being, and took on more pain and suffering than any human being ever has, he is able to help us, who face temptations and trials every day of our lives.
And this is why his obedience is real, and this is why the Father's delight in him was real. He grew in favour with God because of his faithfulness. And he grew in favour with other people for the same reason - they could see that he was different - it must have been quite obvious. Here was a boy who worked with his father Joseph, who must have worked hard and worked faithfully, and never complained or argued, never slacked off or cheated his customers. Here was a boy who was obedient to his parents, who never disobeyed, who never talked back, who listened to their instruction. When they came to get him from the temple, he was amazed that they didn't realize where he was - this showed his humanity, this showed that he didn't know everything. He didn't realize that his parents were searching for him frantically, worried about where he was. But he showed his obedience when he went with them, when he faithfully followed them back to Nazareth.
Here was a boy who sat at the feet of the teachers of the law, a boy who wanted to learn, and a boy who knew where he had to go to learn. He didn't come to the temple to teach - that would come when he began his ministry. He came to learn, to humbly submit to his superiors among God's people. Other people must have looked at this boy in wonder and amazement - they didn't know that he was the Son of God. They didn't know that he was divine. All they knew was that he was a perfectly faithful boy. His personality had no defect. He showed all the evidence of having godly wisdom - he was peace-loving, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. So it's little wonder that he grew in favour with the people who knew him.
But this didn't last. Once his public ministry began, the crisis that Simeon had foretold happened - Simeon had said that this child was destined to cause the rising, and the falling, of many in Israel, that he would be a sign that would be spoken against. Once Jesus began to expose the sinfulness of the people, once he began to prophesy against the hypocrisy and unrighteousness of the religious leaders, people began to take sides. And for some, for those chosen by God, Jesus continued to grow in favour. But to others, those who refused to submit themselves to God and follow Jesus, that favour disappeared, to be replaced by hatred, by jealousy, and by anger.
And once again, we are called to be like Christ, to take up our crosses and follow him. And if we live our lives in a Christ-like way, we will grow in favour with men. If we're honest in our business dealings, if we're generous, if we work hard and honestly, if we show compassion and care to those who are troubled, people will see that we're different. People will be drawn to that kind of Christian action, that obvious evidence of our faith in our lives and our dealings with those who are outside of the communion of saints. But, like Jesus, we can expect trouble, if we begin to speak out. If you practice your faith in public, in word and in deed, you will face trouble, you will face persecution. Christ caused division in Israel - he separated the righteous from the wicked. And when we bring the gospel to those around us today, the same things happen - divisions are revealed, and those who refuse to submit themselves to God's word will make themselves known.
But because of what Christ did, in doing what Adam never did, in growing and maturing as a perfect man and giving his life as a sacrifice for us, we can receive God's amazing grace, we can grow in the most important favour of all, the favour of God. And because as believers God treats us as his children, because of Christ's work we can call the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth our Father, and we can experience his love and his favour towards us. Already in this life we can live our lives in Christ, and we can look forward to the great day, which may be today or many years from now, when we can truly and perfectly enjoy full communion with God, as glorified and righteous human beings. Let us, as God's redeemed people, live our lives in thankfulness for this great gift that he has given us through his son, the perfect man and true God, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Have you ever thought about, or wondered, what the childhood of Jesus was like? If you have, you're not alone - throughout the history of the church, Christians have speculated on what Jesus was like as a boy. In the apocryphal writings of the early church, the books that were never accepted by the church as part of the canon of Scripture, writers went as far as describing things that Jesus supposedly did when he was a boy. In one of these stories, the baby Jesus tells a palm tree to bend down, so that his mother Mary could enjoy some of its fruit. In another story, the five year-old Jesus modeled twelve sparrows out of clay. He clapped his hands, and the clay sparrows came to life, and flew away.
There are many more stories like this, but they are all similar - they're fantastic, distorted legends, they're the product of overactive imaginations. They show the child Jesus in his human nature as knowing everything, and as being able to do anything that he wanted to, like a young magician. To put it simply, these stories are just the opposite of everything that Scripture is. But it isn't surprising that stories like these popped up - they appealed to people's curiosity, because they tried to fill in the gaps that people thought were in the gospels.
But our scripture reading this morning gives us the only true account that we have of Jesus' childhood. We do know some other things about his early life - he grew up in a large family, he worked as a carpenter with his father Joseph, and Joseph must have died sometime before Jesus began his ministry. But whatever else may or may not have happened, we do know everything we need to know about Jesus as a boy, everything that the Holy Spirit decided we would need. From the time when he was forty days old until he turned thirty and began his public ministry, we have only this one story about Jesus' childhood - when he was twelve years old, he knew that he had to be in his Father's house. He knew that he had to learn God's Word from the teachers in the temple, and he amazed those teachers with his understanding.
Before telling us about Jesus' experience in the temple, Luke tells us that the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. And following this account, Luke tells us again: as Jesus grew from boyhood to adulthood, he increased in wisdom and stature, and he grew in favour with God, and with man. And since this is the only thing we're told about Jesus' childhood, and it's even repeated twice, this must be an important thing for us to know and to consider. Even in his childhood, Jesus was fulfilling his role as the second Adam, who lived the life that the first Adam didn't. All of the gospel accounts of Jesus' life on earth are focused on one thing: how did Jesus fulfill his office as the Messiah, the eternal Son of God who became man to bring salvation to his people. All of his life had this purpose, and everything the gospel writers tell us is with this purpose in mind. So this morning the Word of God comes to us under the following theme:
As he grew to adulthood, Jesus fulfilled his office as the Second Adam.
1.He grew in obedience
2.He grew in wisdom
3.He grew in favour with God and man
1.He grew in obedience
When God created Adam and Eve, he created them to live in communion with him, to walk with him. He created them to put their trust in him, to grow, to develop, to continue to mature as his children. Adam had to learn, he had to grow, he had to grow to true maturity, in communion with God, as God's son. And he had to do this in obedience to his Father, in obedience to the God who had created him, who had given him life, the God who sustained him and gave him everything from his Fatherly hand. The Father gave Adam one single command that he had to follow - he was free to eat from any tree of the garden, but he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam was to grow, if he was to mature, if he was to develop the world that God had given him to rule, he had to live a life of faithful obedience. There was no other way - there were no shortcuts; the only path to a life of communion with God was the path of obedience.
Adam was created good. But in order for Adam to fulfill his office as the covenantal head of humanity, he had to continue, to develop. He couldn't just remain as he was when he was created - he had to grow, to become strong, to increase in wisdom and stature, and to grow in favour with God and man. He had to till the earth. That means he would have had to develop the tools and the skills that he would need to do that. He had to keep the garden, to tend it. That means that he would have to learn the techniques that he would need to know to do that as well. Adam had to grow, he had to mature, and he could do that only in a close relationship with his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth.
But we all know what happened. Adam didn't obey. Adam and Eve decided not to follow the path of obedience; instead, they decided that they should be the ones to determine how they would grow in knowledge of good and evil. And so they ate from that forbidden fruit, and the rest is history.
But God didn't leave things at that. He sent his son into this world to put everything to rights. He sent his own Son into the world to do what Adam didn't do - to live a life of faithful obedience, to mature into the perfect man, the only man who could take away the sins of God's people and allow us to have a true, perfect relationship with him again.
And we can see from our passage this morning that God's son did what Adam didn't do. Where Adam listened to the voice of the serpent, the boy Jesus sat at the feet of the teachers of the law. Where Adam wanted to decide for himself what was right and wrong, the boy Jesus learned from God's own word, his revelation of himself. This was his task, this was his office, his mission. He had to be busy with his Father's business. He had to be in his Father's house. He had to grow as a person, in obedience to his God, and his Father.
Unlike Adam, Jesus chose to submit himself to the Father in perfect obedience, and he did it of his own free will, without being forced to. We don't understand this. We don't understand how the eternal Son of God could grow and mature, how he could develop from being a child to being a man. And in part, this is what lies behind the non-Biblical stories of Jesus' childhood. People confused Jesus' human nature with his divine nature; they mixed up Jesus' humanity with his divinity. As a human being, he had to grow. As a baby, he had to learn to walk. As a toddler, he had to learn to speak. And as a young man, he had to grow in obedience to his Father.
And in doing all this, Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled God's perfect ideal, his perfect plan for what man should be. In 1 Cor. 15, the apostle Paul calls Jesus the last Adam. The first man, Adam, was of the dust of the earth, Paul writes, the second man, our Lord Jesus, was from heaven. All earthly men, he continues, are like the earthly man, the first Adam. Those who are of heaven, those who put their faith in God and live for him, are like the man from heaven, Jesus Christ. As the people of God, we have been transformed, from being 'in Adam,' to being 'in Christ.'
And because we are in Christ, because the Father has made it possible for us to have communion with him through the Son, we too have been given the strength to grow in obedience. All of our lives are to be dedicated to just that - to growing in faithfulness, to growing in obedience to our gracious Father, to sitting down at the feet of the teachers, like Jesus did. Because the only way for us to grow in obedience to God is for us to submit ourselves to his Word, and to put that learning into practice. The only way to grow in obedience to the Father is to know what it is that the Father requires of us.
And the only way we can grow in obedience is in Christ. We are either like the earthly man, the first Adam, who wanted to be independent, who wanted to make his own rules and follow his own path, or we are like the heavenly man, like Jesus Christ, who knew that he had to be in his Father's house. And through the Holy Spirit we can grow in faithful obedience to our Father. Only with Jesus Christ as our covenant head can we experience the joy of an obedient faith and an eternal life of harmony with God.
2.He grew in wisdom
Our text tells us that the boy Jesus was filled with wisdom, and that he grew in wisdom. And again we come to something that is difficult, if not impossible, for us to truly understand. But we need to subject all the questions that we may have in our minds to Scripture first and foremost - God's word has to shape the way we think, the way we reason, not the other way around. We can never let our own human reason, the limits of our own mind, limit what we believe of Scripture. While we may not understand how Jesus grew in wisdom, we must confess that it is the truth, if we want to continue to subject ourselves and our limited minds to the Word of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7, the Son of God made himself nothing - he took the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. He gave up the full use of his divine powers, so he could be a true, 100% human being and fulfill God's plans for mankind.
And again we see that Jesus, the man, grew in a perfectly natural way - his growth, his coming to maturity, was both natural, and perfect. For every stage of his life, he was perfect for that stage. While he was a baby, he relied on his mother to care for him in every way, just like every other baby. But as a baby, he was a perfect baby. While he was a boy, he was like any other boy - he had to learn to do things just like all other boys who have ever walked on the earth. But when he was a boy, he was perfect for that stage too - in all the stages of his life, he showed what it meant to be truly human, as God had planned it for Adam.
So we can see that Jesus had to grow in wisdom. He had to learn wisdom, but he learned wisdom perfectly. He didn't have to 'learn from his mistakes,' because he didn't falter. He didn't have to 'learn the hard way,' because his life was always lived in agreement with the will of God. Yet he had to grow in wisdom, gradually, day-by-day.
And this wisdom is knowledge, it's understanding, but it's something far more than just that. We often speak of faith including knowledge, and as Reformed Christians we emphasize that knowledge is important for God's people. It's important for us not be ignorant of God's Word - it's important for us to keep searching the Scriptures, to keep learning more and more, to keep mining the gold from the pages of the Word. But wisdom is something that far surpasses simple knowledge - being wise is something way beyond being knowledgeable. It's perfectly possible to know Scripture inside and out, to know the doctrines of the church, to know the creeds and confessions, to read all the right books, to memorize entire Bible books and know all the proof texts, and to still be foolish. Knowledge does not equal wisdom! Knowledge is necessary for wisdom, but true wisdom does not end with knowledge alone.
Wisdom is the ability, and the desire, to use our knowledge correctly, to use it in service to the Lord. Wisdom means not only knowing God's Word, it means applying God's word to our lives. And in our Christian lives, we must always be seeking to grow in wisdom, to grow in true understanding of God's Word, to grow in applying God's word to our lives and to everything that we do from day to day.
And James tells us all about that wisdom, the wisdom that comes from heaven, in chapter 3 of his epistle - that wisdom that comes from God is first of all pure; then peace-loving, then considerate, then submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. And Jesus grew in all of these; he showed care and consideration to those who were in need; he submitted himself fully to the will of the Father; he was full of mercy; he was impartial, and he was sincere. And he was all of these things, in perfection, to their utmost. And as we can read in the 28th chapter of the book of Job, there is a simple definition of wisdom that even the simplest person can understand and take to heart: the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to shun evil - that is understanding. As Jesus grew in wisdom, so, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too need to continually strive to grow in wisdom, to grow in the fear of the Lord that is wisdom's beginning. And the only way that we can grow in wisdom is in Jesus Christ - apart from him, there is only the absolute foolishness that this world has to offer.
3.He grows in favour
And finally, along with his growth in wisdom and in body, Jesus grew in favour - in favour of both God, and man. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, the Father could speak from heaven, having seen all that Jesus had done in the first thirty years of his life, and he could say, 'This, this is my beloved son, and in him I am well-pleased.' Because his beloved Son had done the will of the Father, completely and perfectly, the Father could, in the most absolute and total sense imaginable, show him his favour, and reveal that he took pleasure in him.
Because the Lord delights in the faithful obedience of his people, and he delighted in the faithful obedience of his son. And again, we need to keep in mind the humanity of God's Son. We need to stay away from our tendency to think of him only as being God, and forgetting that he was, at the same time, a true, complete man. Because if we forget the humanity of Jesus, we may think, 'Well, so what? So what if he obeyed perfectly? So what if he resisted temptation? What's the big deal that he didn't sin? After all, he was God, and God can't sin, so it couldn't have been that much of a struggle, could it?'
But again, we need to submit ourselves to the teaching of God's word, and here we think especially of what we are told in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2 - Jesus was made like his brothers in every way, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, so he could make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
This man, this Son of God, was made like us in every way. That means that there is no way in which he's different from us, except that he didn't sin. He was just like us. When he was hungry, he was really hungry. When he was thirsty, he was really thirsty. And when he was tempted, he was really tempted. And when God turned his back on him on the cross, he really did feel the agony of being abandoned by his Father. He really did suffer, throughout his life, even as a child, but especially on the cross, when he took our sins upon himself. And because he suffered, because he shared in the pain of being a human being, and took on more pain and suffering than any human being ever has, he is able to help us, who face temptations and trials every day of our lives.
And this is why his obedience is real, and this is why the Father's delight in him was real. He grew in favour with God because of his faithfulness. And he grew in favour with other people for the same reason - they could see that he was different - it must have been quite obvious. Here was a boy who worked with his father Joseph, who must have worked hard and worked faithfully, and never complained or argued, never slacked off or cheated his customers. Here was a boy who was obedient to his parents, who never disobeyed, who never talked back, who listened to their instruction. When they came to get him from the temple, he was amazed that they didn't realize where he was - this showed his humanity, this showed that he didn't know everything. He didn't realize that his parents were searching for him frantically, worried about where he was. But he showed his obedience when he went with them, when he faithfully followed them back to Nazareth.
Here was a boy who sat at the feet of the teachers of the law, a boy who wanted to learn, and a boy who knew where he had to go to learn. He didn't come to the temple to teach - that would come when he began his ministry. He came to learn, to humbly submit to his superiors among God's people. Other people must have looked at this boy in wonder and amazement - they didn't know that he was the Son of God. They didn't know that he was divine. All they knew was that he was a perfectly faithful boy. His personality had no defect. He showed all the evidence of having godly wisdom - he was peace-loving, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. So it's little wonder that he grew in favour with the people who knew him.
But this didn't last. Once his public ministry began, the crisis that Simeon had foretold happened - Simeon had said that this child was destined to cause the rising, and the falling, of many in Israel, that he would be a sign that would be spoken against. Once Jesus began to expose the sinfulness of the people, once he began to prophesy against the hypocrisy and unrighteousness of the religious leaders, people began to take sides. And for some, for those chosen by God, Jesus continued to grow in favour. But to others, those who refused to submit themselves to God and follow Jesus, that favour disappeared, to be replaced by hatred, by jealousy, and by anger.
And once again, we are called to be like Christ, to take up our crosses and follow him. And if we live our lives in a Christ-like way, we will grow in favour with men. If we're honest in our business dealings, if we're generous, if we work hard and honestly, if we show compassion and care to those who are troubled, people will see that we're different. People will be drawn to that kind of Christian action, that obvious evidence of our faith in our lives and our dealings with those who are outside of the communion of saints. But, like Jesus, we can expect trouble, if we begin to speak out. If you practice your faith in public, in word and in deed, you will face trouble, you will face persecution. Christ caused division in Israel - he separated the righteous from the wicked. And when we bring the gospel to those around us today, the same things happen - divisions are revealed, and those who refuse to submit themselves to God's word will make themselves known.
But because of what Christ did, in doing what Adam never did, in growing and maturing as a perfect man and giving his life as a sacrifice for us, we can receive God's amazing grace, we can grow in the most important favour of all, the favour of God. And because as believers God treats us as his children, because of Christ's work we can call the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth our Father, and we can experience his love and his favour towards us. Already in this life we can live our lives in Christ, and we can look forward to the great day, which may be today or many years from now, when we can truly and perfectly enjoy full communion with God, as glorified and righteous human beings. Let us, as God's redeemed people, live our lives in thankfulness for this great gift that he has given us through his son, the perfect man and true God, Jesus Christ. Amen.