The sermon explores the story of Jesus as a twelve-year-old in the temple, emphasizing Luke's placement of this story between two significant statements about Jesus' growth in wisdom and favor. The sermon explains that Jesus' growth in favor with God and man pertains to his humanity and not his divinity. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature through ordinary means such as reading and meditating on Scripture, engaging with others in worship, and obeying God's commandments. His submission to his parents exemplifies the pattern for believers to grow in favor and love of God. The sermon encourages listeners to follow Jesus' example and grow in knowledge and fear of the Lord.

Good afternoon, welcome to another episode of Logan's Devotions. It's great to be together, wonderful to open up God's Word for another day and see what he has to say. It's great to be back after a couple of weeks of study leave to be able to turn back to the Gospel of Luke, but before I read our text, as always, let's pray. Father in heaven we thank you for your word which is both rich and true. We pray that you would encourage our hearts with it that we might grow in faith and knowledge and wisdom.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Luke chapter 2 picking up at verse 40. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he was twelve 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, that 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? But 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." We really don't have a whole lot in the gospels about the early years of Jesus. When you turn to the apocryphal books or the false gospels about Jesus you find all sorts of crazy stories. There's this one where Jesus turns little clay birds into real birds. There's all sorts of bizarre stories that take place.

At one point, I think if I remember rightly, the boy Jesus curses someone and they fall over dead. But we get none of that. Really, we only get one story. This one here. I wonder if that's ever struck you.

Why is it that the Gospel writers only record this one story? And why is it that Luke puts this one story just here? Like he could have just skipped over it right? He could have just gone from the birth of Jesus through to chapter 3 and headed into the ministry of Jesus, but he doesn't. And what's really fascinating about the way that Luke has structured this is that he's placed this little story in between two very significant statements.

So in verse 40 he says, 40 he says the child grew and became strong filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him so he grew with God's favor upon him then in verse 52 the other end of the story we get Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Now I wonder if that last statement bothers you at all. How can Jesus grow in favor with God? Isn't he the one that that the Father says this is my beloved Son and whom I'm well pleased? Doesn't the Son of God have eternal joy and fellowship with God the Father?

How can he grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God? What do we make of that? Well firstly we have to understand what Luke's talking about. Luke's not speaking about the divinity of Christ. He's not saying that God the eternal Father had grown...

Let me say it the other way around. God the eternal Son has not grown in his favor with God the eternal Father because that cannot be. The divine God cannot change, increase or decline. Luke is talking about the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying Jesus, the human, the God-man, and his humanity is increasing in these things.

Now that's very, very important because he's human just like you and I are. When Jesus was five he did not know everything that he needed to know. Jesus needed to grow in his understanding, in his bodily strength. He needed to grow in all that he needed in order to fulfill the mission God had given him. And not only that, but he needed to grow all the way through his life.

And there's a sense in which you can apply this today. Jesus in his humanity as a human continues to increase in wisdom and favor with God and man. That's not heretical, that's just the reality of the humanity of Christ. But now you need to ask yourself the question, if Luke is saying that the humanity of Christ is growing in wisdom, stature and favour, how does that take place? And that's when you get to understand the beautiful thing that he's done.

He says that the child grew, was filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon him. And he says at the end that that took place and he gives us in between the sandwich the cause for that. How is it that Jesus grew in his fear and understanding? Because if we understand that, one thing is it's going to show us how to do the same right because Jesus is an example for us. The wonderful thing is Jesus didn't just by some magical osmosis grow but rather he grew through the ordinary means given him.

And that's what we're really detailed with the story here aren't we? We get this wonderful story that most of us are probably familiar with. Jesus and his parents went to Jerusalem again. They used to do it every year, went up for the passover and on the way home their parents are traveling along Joseph and Mary and probably some other children at this point they're on their way home and all of a sudden as they're traveling in the caravan eventually they realize wait a second Jesus is missing Jesus is missing why Because we're told in verse 43 the boy stayed behind in Jerusalem and so they search for him they search for him they eventually come back and after three days they find him in the temple. Now what is Jesus doing in the temple?

He is listening, verse 46, He's sitting among the teachers, He's listening to them and He's asking them questions. What's going on here? Don't understand this as Jesus is there schooling all of the teachers. But rather, he's learning. He's engaging with them.

He's listening to them and asking them questions. He's doing the things that every student of the rabbis would do. He's effectively sitting in school, God's school, as it had been established in the synagogues and temple. And what was the result of it? Well the result was he grew in his knowledge and fear and understanding, right?

So he's at home reading the scriptures, meditating upon the scriptures, going to worship on the Sabbath, doing all that he should be doing, and then he's coming to the temple and he's engaging with the people there. It's just an ordinary means of grace, right? It's nothing special and you and I are to do the same thing. We are to devote ourselves to the things that God gives us. Monday to Saturday we are to devote ourselves to growing in our love for the Lord and our knowledge of the Lord and our fear of the Lord.

And then on Sunday what do we do? We come to the Lord's house with joy and rejoicing, worshipping God, engaging with one another, listening to the preaching, growing in our favour and knowledge. But then, notice what else he does. Notice what else he does. Firstly, he says, this is where I should be, but we'll just pass over that.

Notice in verse 51, He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. Jesus was submissive to his parents. Why? Because He's growing in his favor with God and man. He's growing in wisdom and stature.

How? By acting in accordance with God's Word, by obeying God. See, God requires children to honor their fathers and mothers, right? And so here Jesus is doing it. He's faithfully following his Father in heaven by being submissive to his earthly parents.

And that's a great instruction for us, isn't it? Likewise, as children of God, we seek to obey God by obeying those that he's given us, whether it's parents, whether it's a husband, whether it's the elders of the church, whether it's the government, whatever it is, we seek to grow in our favor and love and knowledge and fear of God by living in accordance with God's commandments. And what would be the result if we do this? Well it'll be the same as Christ. Not to the same degree, because sin ever clings to us, but because of the covenant of grace, because God's grace has been extended to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, as God's children adopted into his family, we follow the same pattern.

We walk in the footsteps of our elder brother and we seek to grow in favor and love. We seek to grow in stature and wisdom. How? By obeying God and by seeking our Father. And so may we do that, may we grow in knowledge and fear of the Lord.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the way that Jesus Christ, your Son, faithfully walked before you. And we pray that as his brothers and sisters you