Jesus Grew In Favor With God

I declare you are calm and peaceful. You will not let people or circumstances upset you.

You will rise above every difficulty, knowing that God has given you the power to remain calm.

I declare that you choose to live your life happy, you bloom with your planet, and you let

God fight your battles. Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Yeah. Oh, the inspirational cube returns.

Maybe that's my new intro. Probably get sued. Mike Abenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, AKA Duplex Gratia Radio, DGR.

Pat's got the cool P Pactum shield thing. It's got, you know, he's got it going on. Pat and Mike Grimes.

And maybe we need a new DRG, some shield thing. It can't be shield, it has to be something else.

Maybe I'm the sword, Pat's the shield. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. I appreciate it.

Thank you for your prayers. I hope that everything's gonna work out.

I don't know why I said that. I started to say, I hope, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

But anyway, thank you for praying. I feel better than I did last week. And for that,

I'm very, very thankful. Someone just sent me a little blurb, someone in their church. I was reading

Gospel Assurance and was blessed by it. So I appreciate that input.

I have some other books in mind that I'm gonna try to figure out how to write, but I wanna first get all this leukemia stuff sorted out.

As I said, I think last show, I've been told that if I have a headache from the medicine, which I do, it's the terminal hangover feel.

I said to my wife last night, I drank seltzer water and water last night. And it gave me a hangover.

I didn't have any alcohol. I just had seltzer water. Come on. That'll drive you to drink.

If you're gonna have a hangover, you might as well have some fun when it comes to that. Just kidding,

JK. What was I talking about? I have no idea.

Oh, coffee. Yes, so I have my coffee here today. And it's not

Steve Meister approved coffee from, what's the place called in Sacramento that's good? Temple, temple coffee.

Why would I buy like tabernacle coffee? Is this some, who knows what it is? Speaking of tabernacles and temples,

I haven't said much about Israel in terms of my take on the wars that are going on overseas, whether it's

Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Hamas. I love

Israel. Of course, she birthed the

Messiah as it was. And when I'm over there, I think I'd like to be there.

I like the Jewish people. I mean, some like the Hasidic Jews and the very right -wing

Orthodox Jews. They're not going to allow for proselytization or Christianity or this, that, and the other.

And so I have a variety of different thoughts about that. But my overall thought is I just watch people on social media and even radio, podcasting, just say a bunch of stuff that I don't really know if I want them to say about Israel, future for Israel and no future for Israel and this, that, and the other.

So I've just tried to remain mum. So now see, I just broke my own rules.

It was kind of like, you know, somebody the other day posted something about health and why

R .C. Sproul and John MacArthur, one was more healthy than the other. And then

I guess he felt bad about it. So he said, I'm taking down my post, but I'm including in the takedown of my post screenshots of my post.

I just thought that's why young people, young men shouldn't be allowed on that.

I probably shouldn't be allowed on Twitter, but I think probably once a week, I tweet something late at night and I get up in the morning and go,

I didn't really need to do that. The no -co side of me wanted me to do it. And then I thought, well, if people from church are listening or watching, they're probably thinking what's wrong with that guy.

And I'd rather have them think that about something I did in ministry versus some no -co thing.

So it is what it is. Today on No Compromise Radio, I want to talk about the humanity of Jesus, the humanity of Jesus.

Now, the first few centuries after Jesus's resurrection and ascension, the debate was, you know what, how could he be really human?

I don't think we have that debate very much now. I think the debate is how can he really be divine?

But throughout the centuries, at different times, some have said, you know, he's not truly

God. And other times they've said he's not truly man. And of course he is perfectly man, perfectly

God, perfectly, I mean, truly human, truly God. And we use words like that, truly

God, truly human, instead of fully God, fully human, 100 % God, 100 % human, because those last two, fully and 100%, are more quantitative words, like 85%, 100%.

And the other words like truly, perfectly, they are qualitative words.

And that's why you'll see in the confessions, they're trying to talk about who he is, his essence, his nature, after the incarnation, two natures, after the incarnation, obviously,

Jesus has two wills because he has two natures. And therefore, perfectly and truly are better.

But these days, I want to make sure you are reminded, dear

Christian, that Jesus is truly human. To be a great high priest,

Hebrews 2 and 3 and 8 and 4, you have to be human.

And Jesus did not become angel flesh.

There's no flesh of angels, but the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we behold his glory. Jesus is truly human.

I'm not saying he's not truly God, but he's truly human. He has to be born under the law so he might redeem those under the law.

And I've talked about this in last week's show or in two weeks ago, the true humanity of Jesus. And there's a passage in Luke 2 that I've been working through that helps me think through the humanity of Jesus.

Verse 40, it says, in the child grew of Luke 2, Luke 2 40, talking about Jesus, child grew.

So we're going from his infancy, now up to 12 years old, all in one verse, became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

That's verse 40. From infancy to age 12.

It's similar language to John the Baptist language. He became strong in spirit and the child grew and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel, Luke 1 80.

It also has echoes of first Samuel 2. Indeed, the Lord visited

Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the

Lord. And I just want you to know that humans grow. Now, the only human that didn't grow in stature that I can think of would be

Adam. I mean, day one, he probably looked like he was 30 or 25 or something like that, but Adam aside, humans grow.

And I don't know if you've ever thought about Jesus growing.

You think about little children. Pretty soon, you know, after they're born, they can roll over and you have to call your friends.

You have to FaceTime your grandpa, grandpa, Mike Avendrop. Then they roll over on the other side.

And then they, when you sit them up, they can stay up. And then they start to crawl and then they, you know, they're reaching and then pretty soon they start to walk and they laugh and they cry.

And instead of just like grabbing things with all just kind of a hand motion, they start to be able to begin to use their index finger and their thumb and they can grab things and their dexterity increases.

And they're smiling and cooing. And as Ryken said, you can almost imagine

Jesus's parents, his stepfather, Joseph and Mary, his mother kept his growth chart on the wall of their family home in Nazareth.

Jesus grew. To be truly human, you have to be truly human. You can't be less than human and you can't be more than human.

We're talking about the human nature of Jesus. Two natures, one person.

And we're not mixing the natures and conflating the natures and confusing the natures.

We're talking about the human nature of Jesus. And this baby pretty soon could eat this baby

Jesus, not just breast milk, but eat, smashed up carrots or squash or whatever they eat there in the

Middle East when they're children. I don't know why we start off with the smashed up carrots all the time. That's no fun.

But he would start with milk and then he would go to parade solids and then he could have solids and then he could have a couple of teeth come in and he would be teething and then he could start eating some solid foods and some meat and stuff like that.

He becomes strong, the text says in Luke 2. And you can imagine as a human, Jesus is getting older and stronger and Jesus goes through puberty.

He has hair on his lip that's getting darker. He has facial hair. He has an

Adam's apple. He has going through that clumsy stage that boys go through as they develop.

Whatever it means to be truly human, Jesus was truly human. He's not less than human and he's not more than human in his humanity.

That's the way to think about it. Jesus is not more than human in his humanity. Is he the

God man? Of course, is he truly God? Of course, I'm talking about his humanity. And that's what Luke is doing here in Luke 2.

He's a real human in real history because to be a representative and to be your substitute, he has to be a real human.

You can't have God dying on the cross. God doesn't die. So we have to have human

God man, right? The God man, Jesus. And he, Jesus, grows in his body.

And pretty soon he's gonna be walking all around Israel and he's going to be certainly the son of a carpenter or a

Mason, depending on how you look at that word. And he is strong and he's getting muscles and he's filling out.

By the way, this should help you recognize that bodies aren't bad. There's a thought probably that even floats and lurks around Christianity, that bodies are bad.

And the spirit's good and the body's bad. And we just equate flesh with our bodies and spirits are good and flesh is bad.

And Jesus has a body, it's not bad. And Jesus, of course, is tempted and he never sins.

And whatever it means to be human, Jesus is. And in his humanity, he's not less than human nor more than human, but he is truly human, perfectly human.

And he's perfectly human and humans grow. That's what they do, they grow. And bodies aren't bad and he grows.

And it says he's filled with wisdom and he's beginning to develop. And it's a day -by -day process.

The text here is it's ongoing. He's understanding more. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And what does that mean for a four -year -old? And what does it mean for a 10 -year -old? What does it mean for a 15 -year -old? And he is becoming more wise at 15 than he was at 10 and more wise at 20 than he is at 15.

Two natures, two wills. The word becomes flesh. He has a human mind and he's thinking through something that's different though.

Of course, he has no sin. Therefore, he has no depravity and he has nothing to hinder him to be a true human, to be the most human.

Maybe I could put it that way, would be better. By the way, when you talk about this subject, I am so close to getting into heresies with every syllable.

Let's hope Steve Meister doesn't listen or Rich Barcellos or somebody could be in big trouble. But I think so far

I'm okay with Nicene. I'm okay with the Athanasian Creed and Apostles Creed.

I think I'm okay there, Chalcedon. I reread all those the other day just to make sure.

The Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Spirit is almighty, and there's only one almighty, not three almighties.

Whatever the maximum potential of a human mind could be, that is what Jesus has because he's not hindered by sin.

The fall affects our minds, right? We talk about total depravity, which we mean whole depravity,

W -H -O -L -E, affecting our consciences and our emotions and our will and our body and our mind, but that doesn't affect

Jesus. And so whatever the max potential is, he has that. And Jesus is learning and growing even with simple things.

Jesus was in his humanity, didn't have the divine mind. Well, no, let's see, how do

I wanna rephrase that? I was doing good until then. Here's what I wanna say. He didn't have the Bible jammed into his human mind.

He had to learn the Bible. He grew and learned, and he wasn't doing difficult cues and algebra at two months old.

He had to learn, he had to grow. Now, sometimes, of course, we see Jesus having supernatural knowledge, knowing things that other people don't know, and we know he has that via his deity.

But in his humanity here, the focus in Luke 2 is his humanity. And this text says, in favor of God was upon him.

And here, Jesus, the perfect man, is growing. And he's not impaired by sin, and he is close to the

Father. And while Jesus gets tired, while he gets hungry, while he needs to take a nap,

Jesus is truly human. And I like it when J .C. Ryle said, one comfortable practical lesson stands out in the face of this truth, which ought never to be overlooked.

Our Lord is able to sympathize with man in every stage of man's existence, from the cradle to the grave.

He knows by experience the nature and temperament of the child, the boy, and the young man. He has stood in their place.

He has occupied their position. He knows their hearts. Let us never forget this in dealing with young people about their souls.

Let us tell them confidently that there is one in heaven at the right hand of God who is exactly suited to be their friend.

He who died on the cross was once a boy himself, and feels a special interest in boys and girls, as well as in grown -up people.

Hey, that is neat, isn't it? Aren't you glad you turned into No Compromise Radio today? Just for that little nugget, that is so worth it.

I mean, that makes me feel imperial -like, does it not you? It does.

Did they purposely make that sound like Wagner or not? I don't know, that's another question. Mike Havenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

We see Jesus in the temple, and what we don't hear is a bunch of weird stories about Jesus doing weird things when he was young, and healing people, or rebuking people, and all that kind of stuff.

We don't see any of that. There's the long passage here about Jesus in the temple, and he stays behind to be in his father's house, and we see that relationship with the

Father, capital F, compared to his regular father.

What I wanna talk about now is in verse 52. I'm gonna skip that middle section. You can listen to the sermon, and you probably have already by the time you listen to this show.

Can never keep track of what goes where in terms of timing, especially since I had some of those

Pactum shows played. Verse 52, and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

So we kind of have this bookend. Verse 40 that we just talked about, and now verse 52. And in one sense, those bookends are there so that you don't think somehow

Jesus sinned against his parents by staying back in the temple, learning from the teachers, and being in his father, capital

F's house. But in addition, we learn that he's truly human. He increases in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

You have to watch out and tread carefully, and if I've made a mistake in what I've said, you just tell me what the mistake is, and if I agree,

I'll recant next time. But just trying to be careful to make sure we're not commingling natures of Jesus, that we're not denying the two natures of Jesus, that we're not jamming one nature into the other.

We have the God -man, truly God, truly human, at the same time where it becomes flesh and dwells among us, and that in his humanity,

Jesus learns and grows because he's truly human. What does it mean to be truly human? We can't somehow have a superhuman.

We can't have some hybrid mixing natures. We have two natures, one person, and that's what we believe.

That's what the church has taught. And here it says, Jesus increases in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

I don't know if you've ever thought about Proverbs 3, verses five and six we think about, but what about one to four?

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.

For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.

Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so that you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

Wow, there we go. Proverbs 3, verse four. Then it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, et cetera. That's amazing.

We shouldn't be surprised there's one divine author of all the scripture. And here Jesus is increasing.

This is the language of advancing and cutting down trees for the army so it can advance.

This is the language of, you're trying to make headway in the ocean and you're in a sailboat and the wind's coming and you're still making headway in spite of the wind.

And Jesus increases in wisdom and how to deal with people and how to work through trials and continuing to say no to greater temptations.

This is Jesus growing. Matthew Pool.

If any ask how he who was the eternal wisdom of the father who is the only one God increased in wisdom, they must know that all things in scripture which are spoken of Christ are not spoken with respect to his entire person, but with respect to one or other nature united to that person.

He increased in wisdom as he did in age or stature with respect to his human, not divine nature.

And as God daily magnified his grace and favor toward him, so he gained favor with the unrighteous and people of Galilee.

And he just keeps increasing in wisdom. Wiser at 12 than nine, wiser at 25 than 15.

He increases in stature. Like I said before, was a baby, got bigger, went through all the stages of development that someone would go through.

Eight more at 14 than he did at six. It's funny,

I've only had one son and I have three daughters and with the daughters and my wife and with me, we kind of don't eat too much.

And then all of a sudden the son comes along and you're like, we used to have to just order like one pizza extra big pizza and then feed the whole family.

Now we're ordering three. He increases with favor with, let's skip to the end there.

Man, get to know Jesus, increase favor, sinless humanity, how other people respected him, dealt with him, liked him.

And he increased in favor with God. That's the part that's kind of tricky.

How can he increase with favor with God if he is God? Well, because he is God, that's true. But we're talking about his humanity.

His humanity is learning and growing. He's not increasing in favor by saying, I'm not gonna sin as much because he never sinned.

He's pure, he's sinless. He's not less than human in his humanity and not more than human in his humanity.

And here he's learning and growing, learning more of the Bible, believing with deeper ways.

I mean, you can believe the Bible and you can trust in the Lord even more and more and more. He's not a fake man, he's not a ghost, he's not any of that.

Here's what Sinclair Ferguson says. I'll quote him so I don't have to duck. Favor with God.

That's a staggering statement that he grows in favor with God. Is that your personal Jesus or is that just a step too far?

And you see, if you have reservations about Jesus growing in favor with God, then somehow or another, you've got caught up in a false theology.

Underneath your view of Jesus lies some false thinking that's not consistent with scripture. How can this be?

I wonder if you recall some time ago we were talking about the fact that while the two natures of our Lord are united in one person, his deity and his humanity, united in his divine person, they never mixed and they never confused with each other.

Each nature retains and exercises the properties appropriate to that nature. And that's what Luke is saying here.

The test and temptations that Jesus experienced increased in severity as he grew from infancy to childhood, to adolescence, to manhood.

More demanding obedience was called for. More personal sacrifice was required. And as he became ultimately obedient to death, even to the horrible death of crucifixion, his father's favor toward him increased correspondingly.

There was more reason for the father to favor his son in her flesh because his son's obedience expanded to the point where he was willing to die on the cross in obedience to his father, end quote.

That is so good. That's the Jesus you worship. That's your Jesus. That's your own personal Jesus revealed in scripture.

Where it's not some kind of in his humanity, a magic Jesus and pre -programmed with the brain already having the

Bible in it. He's learning, he's growing. He had to learn, study, hard work.

He wasn't reading at two months old. He didn't know the Bible at two months old in his humanity. His parents actually were teaching him.

By the way, this is a good exhortation to parents to teach your children the Bible. Learning, diving in.

Jesus is listening and asking questions in this section as a young 12 year old boy. And if you're 12 years old and you're listening,

I'm not gonna send you to junior church. I want you in there learning and listening. And by the way, parents, good job teaching your 12 year olds about the

Bible. Mine is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. And I want you to know that Jesus is truly human.

Jesus is truly human. So he can be a representative. And since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,

Hebrews 2, he himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of his people.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

That is the Lord Jesus Christ for you. Truly human, truly