WWUTT 2281 Jesus Grew in Wisdom (Luke 2:39-40)

Jesus is God incarnate. God who put on flesh and dwelt among us. He even grew from infancy into a man and experienced many of the same things that we experience when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Luke’s Gospel and the Hidden Years of Jesus

Thank you, Becky.

In our study of the gospel of Luke, we are in chapter two. Picking up where we left off last week, we're reading about Jesus teaching in the temple. Now, of course, there's a lot of passages about this, but not passages about him teaching in the temple at the age of 12.

I'm reading here verses 39 to 52. Hear the word of the Lord. And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him.

After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.

And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?

And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

And that statement there in verse 52 really bookends this account that we have. Verses 39 and 40 are very similar to that statement in verse 52. And in between, of course, we read this narrative of a 12-year-old Jesus in the temple teaching when his parents did not know where he was.

In the four gospels, we don't have anything written for us about anything that happened in the life of Jesus between his infancy and between the beginning of his earthly ministry at the age of 30, except for right here.

This is the only account that we have of anything happening in the life of Jesus between those two periods. From about the age of two, because if you'll remember in Matthew chapter two, when the Magi came and visited the baby Jesus, he was a little bit under the age of two.

So from then up to when he begins his earthly ministry at the age of 30, nothing else is written about him except for this account right here in Luke. I remember a pastor when I was much younger was baffled by this, just personally expressing dismay at the fact that we don't have anything else written about Jesus when he was a kid or when he was a teenager, or even when he was in his twenties, there's nothing written for us about the kinds of things that were going on in the life of Jesus.

And this pastor saying, well, wasn't anybody keeping a diary in the house? The son of God is in your home. Isn't somebody writing any of this stuff down? But of course the only ones who would have really known who Jesus truly was were Joseph and Mary.

Now, of course we had the account given of Simeon and Anna. So there were certainly whispers among others of Jesus being particularly unique and special, especially considering that Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus.

Now that wasn't the whispers or the murmuring among the people at the time that Mary became pregnant. People weren't talking about her miraculously being pregnant, except for Zechariah and Elizabeth, I would imagine.

And everybody else probably thought that Mary had cheated on her husband, just as Joseph had thought Mary had done until an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said the child that was within her was from the Holy Spirit.

And he would take away the sins of his people for those who believe in him. So there were people that had a pretty good idea this baby Jesus was unique, or this child Jesus had something special about him, but people weren't really looking at him as being the son of God.

Remember that when John the Baptist began his earthly ministry, we're gonna get to that later. But when he started his ministry, people thought he was the Messiah. And that's because he had a lot more familiarity with the people than this child who was born to the carpenter in Nazareth.

John was the son of Zechariah, one of the priests in the temple. And it was well known the crazy thing that happened to Zechariah. That one time he saw a vision and he couldn't speak anymore. And Elizabeth became pregnant when the way of women was not even with her anymore.

So that was certainly a miracle baby. People were looking at John the Baptist believing that he was the Messiah, but John the Baptist had come to make the way for the Messiah. And of course the Messiah being Jesus.

Jesus as the Growing Child in Nazareth

So here we have a pretty interesting account of Jesus in the temple and preaching at the age of 12. There are various different stages that are described by Jews to mark a child's development. How is it that we refer to the development of a child in the Western world, English speaking?

How do we speak of this? You have an infant, then a crawler, then a toddler, and then you would have what pre-K? Everything's kind of labeled by grades after that. Pre-kindergarten or preschool. And then you have kindergarten and first grade up through grade 12.

But in the middle there, you'll have an adolescent. You'll have a preteen. Teenagers, once they hit 13 to 19, they're considered teenagers. And then you have what? College age, probably the way we might define it.

20 years old up through 29. Then they're 20 somethings. Then they're 30 somethings. On and on it goes. After that, they're not kids anymore. But you know what I mean? The way that we refer to the different ages of a child, the different stages that they go through as they mature and develop.

Well, the Jews mark stages of a child's development with nine different terms. There's the newborn babe. That's Isaiah 9 .6. There is also the suckling or the nursing child, as in Isaiah 11 .8. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

So that leads to the next stage of development, which is the weaned child. There's also the nursing child who begins to ask for food. Then there's the weaned child. Then there is the child that is clinging to his mother.

Then there is the child becoming firm and strong. And then there is the reference to the youth. Literally, the way that term youth is translated is a child who shakes himself free or the ripened one. He would be referred to as a youth.

He is one who is self-sustaining. He's able to be on his own. He doesn't have to depend on his mother and his father to be able to provide for him any longer. So here at this stage of development, we've got those nine descriptions throughout the scriptures of a child's development.

What do we have here? What is described of Jesus here? He is a youth. He is old enough to be making decisions for himself, old enough to take care of himself. Verse 42, when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom.

So Jesus is at that stage of youth. Now, we're not going to get that far today. We're not going to get down into Jesus actually in the temple and what he was doing there and his parents in distress looking for him.

Let's look just primarily at what we have here in verses 39 and 40. And we'll also consider verse 52 since this goes along with it well. So in verse 39, when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

Now, this was right after everything that we read about in the temple when Joseph and Mary went there after Jesus had been circumcised, after the time of Mary's purifying, and they go into the temple in order to offer a sacrifice.

And it's there that they encounter Simeon, the prophet who had been looking for the arrival of the Messiah. You also had Anna who likewise was old in age, over the age of a hundred, and she is looking for the coming of the promised one of the Messiah.

And we read of this prophet and prophetess who are in Jerusalem and in the temple ministering and this demonstrating God's fulfillment of the time that has passed. Now the time has come for the Messiah to arrive.

And just as it was prophesied through Joel that both your men and your women will prophesy, so you see kind of a precursor to that, kind of a sneak peek with Simeon and Anna, a prophet and a prophetess who are allowed to witness.

God had promised to them that they would witness the arrival of the Messiah. And so they, in the voice of prophets, have now verified that the Messiah has come and no doubt would testify to this among other people as well.

We kind of see that in the beginning of Luke, a testimony to the arrival of Jesus. It's announced by these angels to shepherds. The shepherds go and see the Christ child, and then they go and tell other people everything that they had seen and heard.

It begins with the angel's testimony. It's given to shepherds. They spread this testimony. And then even when Joseph and Mary get to the temple and meet Simeon and Anna, the message of the gospel continues to be proclaimed even there through these two individuals.

So they performed everything according to the law, everything that was required of them to do even there in the temple. And they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. Now, of course, we know in verse 39, there's quite a bit of a time jump that happens there because it wasn't right after they fulfilled everything in the temple that they then go back into Nazareth.

What else happened in between? Well, you know that they actually stayed in Bethlehem for quite a while, nearly two years. And it was during that time that the Magi came and visited, as I mentioned, bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

They found the place where Jesus was born because they had gone and visited Herod first. And Herod, consulting his wise men, said, yeah, the arrival of the Messiah is supposed to be in Bethlehem. So that's where the Magi go.

They see the star that they have been following, resting on the place where Jesus was, Joseph and Mary, along with the Christ child, the light of the star shining on that place. And the Magi rejoiced.

They go in and they bow down and worship him and offer their gifts to him. But then they are warned in a dream not to return to Herod. So they went back home another way. Joseph is in the meantime warned in a dream that Herod seeks to kill the Christ child.

So he is to take up Mary and Jesus and there to flee. And they go down to the Jewish settlement at Alexandria in Egypt. And there they remain for a short time. It was probably not as long as their stay in Bethlehem.

And they waited until Herod had died, which had occurred according to history, that happened not long after the Magi would have left. So once they heard that Herod had died, they moved back into Judah.

But hearing that Herod's son was on the throne, they bypassed returning to Bethlehem and ended up going all the way up to Nazareth. So that all transpired here in verse 39, basically. It's not that Luke is telling a different story or he was unaware of these things.

Luke wasn't even ignorant of what Matthew had written. Matthew was the first gospel. According to Eusebius, Matthew was written about 12 years after Jesus had ascended into heaven. So it would have been the earliest, possibly the earliest book of the New Testament.

And so with that in mind, Luke surely knew of those things that Matthew had already written. It's why Luke writes certain things the way that he does, because he provides some extra details and accounts that people would not be able to have found in Matthew's gospel.

There's a lot of similarities because they're both synoptic gospels, synoptic meaning same, but there are some differences as well. And here, Luke just simply says, after they had performed everything, after all that was accomplished, according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

Now to say they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, that could also be a reference to the fact that the Old Testament mentioned some other things that would take place. And once all of those things were fulfilled, then Joseph and Mary and Jesus went back up to Nazareth, because even as Matthew gives that account of the massacre of the innocents in Matthew chapter two, he's showing even there scripture being fulfilled.

So they go back up to Galilee, which again is in the Northern area of Israel, and they go to Nazareth. And it says in verse 40, that the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Jesus Grew in Wisdom and the Favor of God

Now, one of the things that this demonstrates to us is that God had always intended in the creation of man for us to grow and to learn. We would not be born knowing everything. I've had that question asked of me before.

If Adam and Eve had not sinned in the garden of Eden, and everything remained that paradise, the way that God had created it, would we be born just knowing everything? Like an infant comes out being able to talk, I guess.

And maybe even the life cycle would have been a little bit speedier. A child grows a little bit faster. What sort of things would have happened had Adam and Eve not sinned? Well, remember that Jesus is without sin, and yet he is born as a child.

And it is explained to us that he grew in wisdom. Going to verse 52 again, Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. So there is development that's happening there. Luke is plainly showing that to us.

So from the very beginning, even in the perfection of the creation at the very start, God had intended that when we would be born, all of us would be learning, and we would be growing in that knowledge.

Just as the body grows, so does the mind. And that's kind of demonstrating that to us here in these passages, that Jesus is very man and very God. And in his humanity, experiencing everything as a human would, he also grew in knowledge, filled with wisdom.

That statement there in verse 40 that he is filled with wisdom, also kind of coupled with verse 52, indicates a progression that is happening there, filled with wisdom, being filled with wisdom, filling with wisdom.

So all of the knowledge that he possessed did not come to him at once. It came to him as he matured. It came to him by degrees. He had a true body. Jesus even had a soul. And in both of these things, in body and in soul, scripture tells us he was strong.

The child grew and became strong. You probably know people who are strong in body, but not as strong in mind or in spirit. And then there are others that you may know who are strong in spirit, but don't have a very imposing physical presence.

And so Jesus is being described here as one who is strong in body and in mind and in soul. He is filled with wisdom. Just as anybody would learn anything. So Jesus in his humanity was also a learner. Consider what John Gill writes about this particular statement about Jesus being filled with wisdom.

Gill says the following, he is filled with wisdom and knowledge as man, for this is to be understood not of his essential wisdom as God, nor of those treasures of wisdom and knowledge which were hid in him as mediator to be dispensed to his church, but of his created and natural wisdom as man, in which he increased gradually as his body grew and the faculties of his soul opened under the influences of his deity and the power of his spirit.

And then the last line that we have here in verse 40 is this, the favor of God was upon him. It's the same as saying that the grace of God was upon him because that's what grace is. It is God's favor toward us.

We don't deserve it and God just gives it to us. In this case though, Jesus does deserve it. He is the incarnate son of God. He is sinless. He is one with the father. So yes, he is very deserving of the favor of God.

As it would be said of us, when we read about God's favor upon us or him showing his grace to us, it is the undeserved favor of God that he shows to sinners. But here it means more than just simply favor.

God did show him favor, but he was pleased with him. He blessed him. Remember the words that the father said at Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Remember what the father said on the Mount of Transfiguration.

This is my beloved son, listen to him. So the favor of God is upon him because he is God. He is the God man. God's showing him favor and pleased with him in his humanity and blessing him as well that he would therefore grow in wisdom.

And Jesus does not come about this wisdom on his own. The wisdom that he comes about is not just merely in his humanity. He turned out to be a pretty knowledgeable person. It's because the Holy Spirit was with him.

The Holy Spirit of God was upon him. And by the blessing of God, he gains favor with God and man as we'll read about later in verse 52. So we'll come back to this thought later, even as we finish up the section.

Tomorrow, we'll look specifically at what happened with Jesus' teaching in the temple. But here we get those little hints of what growing up was like for Jesus. An entire dozen years or something like that captured in just this simple phrase.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. The favor of God is upon each and every one of us who are in Christ Jesus. Unlike Christ, we are undeserving sinners.

And yet God shows his favor to us and has given us his son so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And so may the growth that we experience now as followers of Jesus be in wisdom.

We would grow in wisdom, in the knowledge of God, drawing closer to God, increasing in love for God, and even for his people, as we await the day of Christ's return and we join him in his eternal kingdom.

Christ’s Humiliation, Our Growth, and the Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for your kindness to us in that you condescended yourself to us. Jesus taking on the form of a servant and being obedient to the will of the Father, even to the point of death on a cross.

Dying on the cross for our sins, rising again from the dead, so that all who believe in him, we will not perish, but have everlasting life. Grow us in knowledge of you. May we mature as Christians, as men and women of God, and likewise increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.