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Bro. Otis Fisher
Okay, in Luke 2 .41 we
read the story of Jesus at the temple.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover
and when he was 12 years old they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast and
when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother
knew it not.
But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey and they sought him
again among their kinsmen and acquaintances.
This means that Jesus was lost.
Do you ever think about him being lost?
And when they found him not, they returned back again to Jerusalem seeking him.
They've gone to look for him now.
Mary and Joseph were raising a normal, healthy child.
He didn't run around wearing a halo.
The artists of the Middle Ages had some strange conceptions about this,
both as a child and as adult.
I do not believe he looked any different than the rest of the children.
He was just a normal boy.
Now in those days people traveled in companies.
You didn't dare start out someplace by yourself.
When the time came to leave Jerusalem, the folks going to Galilee gathered together at a
little town right north of Jerusalem.
Everybody going gathered there and then they would leave as a group.
That's where they missed him.
Joseph probably said, where is Jesus?
Mary replied, I thought he was with you.
They looked for him among all of the people.
Everybody they knew and when they discovered that he was missing, they returned to Jerusalem.
That was the last place they had seen him.
They looked for Jesus for three days.
And where do you suppose they found him?
Now they looked three days without looking in the temple.
And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple sitting in the
midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed.
And his mother said unto him, son, why hast thou
thus dealt with us?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, how is it that you sought me?
Wist you not that I must be about my father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
Now when Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus in the temple,
he was standing in the midst of the learned doctors of that day, both hearing and
asking questions of them.
I imagine they were totally confounded.
Apparently he was asking them questions they could not answer.
And they were astonished at his answers.
Remember, he was only 12 years old.
I think it was clear that Mary and Joseph were a little provoked.
The answer of Jesus revealed his surprise that they did not
realize that he should be about his father's business.
Now if Joseph was his father, he could have
stepped up and said, well, what are you doing, trying to get a carpenter
contract here with the Jews?
But he didn't do that.
His father was not Joseph.
He was speaking of the business of his heavenly father at 12 years of age.
Mary at this point did not exactly appreciate who he was and what
his work entailed, but she pondered these things in her heart.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them.
But his mother kept all of these sayings in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man.
And wisdom means mentally he increased.
What was stature mean?
What?
Physically.
So he was normal with God spiritually,
with man socially.
So he was a well -rounded young man, but he was still obedient to
his earthly parents.
This concludes what I have for today.
Is there any
questions?
Yes.
And he didn't see to it that they knew.
Yes, she did.
She had a...
That's right.
No one knew like Mary knew.
What
did
you want
to
say?
Yeah.
Which shows that he did not exhibit any glory
or anything unusual.
Well children just didn't go to church by themselves.
I have a feeling her voice was raised.
I think it was.
No,
don't do that.
Clarence dismiss us please.