Special

We are going to have 2 readings from god's word.

You can, turn in your booklets to the, penultimate page, and you'll see that there is a reading from Luke's gospel, and, there's a reading from Philipp. We're gonna start with the 1 from Luke, but we're just gonna begin a few verses earlier, which I think will be on the screen. I think it will be verse 39. So we're gonna read from verse 39 and, when it gets to 41, you can follow along in your books, and then we will turn to read from Philipp 2. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law of the lord.

And in this case, it was taking Jesus to the temple and dedicating him at the temple as was the the custom of the time. They returned to Galile to their own town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom, and the grace of god was on him. Every year, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the festival according to the custom. After the festival was over, While his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.

Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After 3 days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me? He asked?

Didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house? But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and man.

Now we'll return to those words in a minute, but first let's read from Philipp 2. This is the apostle Paul writing. And, many people think this was originally a, a Christian poem or a Christian hymn, that the congregations read or sang together about the lord Jesus. In your relationships with 1 another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Who being in very nature god did not consider equality with god something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing.

By taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, and therefore god exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the father. Heavenly father, we have just read together some interesting and awesome words. About your son, the lord Jesus, and we pray that you would give us eyes to see Jesus in our minutes together, and we pray that you would please speak to every single 1 of us here in Jesus' name. Are men?

Well, the, first reading that we just had from Luke's gospel contains some of the only information that we have about the lord Jesus Christ before his public life. It's a curious thing about the Bible when you first come to it. You notice that Jesus spends 30 years growing up and only 3 years in public, and we know quite a lot about the 3 years and not a great deal about the 30 years, which makes sense in 1 way because the whole story of the Bible is moving towards the saving work of the lord Jesus Christ. And so god wants us to be crystal clear when it comes to those final 3 years. He wants us to be clear on the cross.

And what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, and he wants us to know the things that Jesus taught, and he wants us to see the miracles that he performed, and he wants to take us to that death and that resurrection, which were the climax of his ministry, and so it makes sense that the spotlight falls so heavily on those final years. And yeah, I think it would be a mistake to conclude that there is nothing that we can learn from those first 30 years that were largely lived in obscurity and out of the way and in the normalness of domestic life, or we must at least ask the question together. Why has it happened that way? Why 30 in private, you might say, and 3 in public. Because presumably, if Jesus is God, which he is, then he could've just skipped over those years of obscurity and years of growth and years of orderiness and he could have arrived on earth at the point of power.

A little bit like the terminator did. You've ever seen that film from yesteryear. You know, the terminator, he just shows up 1 day in a car park. As a fully formed adult, ready for his ministry. Yeah.

You could argue that that is a more efficient way of being, a more efficient way of tackling the work that is yours to do on earth. It would certainly be a more economical way of doing things. You see, Mary and Joseph were a minimum wage family. They were common ordinary workers. They would have been bringing in something like 1 denarius a day, or as it would be in our day, 12 pounds 71 an hour.

It's not much to live on, and kids ain't cheap. Are they? They're not cheap. I mean, we have said some very lovely things about Elise and Lucas and Alexandra, but let's be clear about it. For the first 16 years, They are going to be a net drain on their family's bank accounts.

They estimate that to raise a child to the age of 16 will cost 200000 pounds. 200000 to bring them to 16 before they will even contemplate the idea of getting a job, in order to give back to the family home. And so why for Jesus and why for us these decades of, growth and formation and dependency and obscurity and out of the whaness, why do it that way? And what might that tell us about a service like ours this morning? 2 things I want to share with you.

The first is this. Jesus has entered our humanity. That's what it tells us. Jesus has entered our humanity. Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him immanuel, which means god with us. That is a promise from Isaiah chapter 7, which is right at the heart of the Old Testament, a promise that God's people knew, and it's a promise which when the new testament comes into being, becomes even, even clearer. It is a unique claim in all of human thinking that the second person of the trinity, god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit, that the second person of the trinity god the son has united himself to a true human nature and has been born into the world that he created. Now, let's just think about that for a minute. We are saying that the 1 who was able to form planets by the power of his word that the 1 who was able to ignite stars all across the galaxies of the universe has known life in the womb.

And life as a baby, and life as an infant in his mother's arms. And he has known what it is to be a toddler pottering around the village in which he grew up. And he has known what it is to be a child growing up with mates in that village. And he has known life as a young adult where he began to learn a trade, and he earned his first denarius 1 day. There's a thought.

That the 1 who actually put silver mines and gold mines and veins of copper into the world 1 day received his first paycheck and held some of those coins. In his hand for a day's work. And he knew life as an adult growing up in the world with all the joys and the complexities of adult life. This is the same 1 who said Let there be light. And in 1 nanosecond, there was light.

He just said it and it appeared. This same 1 chose to embrace the slowness of human life. And the slowness of language learning, and the slowness of mastering a trade, and everything that is slow and ordinary, he chose for himself, the god of instantaneous universe forming chose slowness for himself for 30 years, and not just the slowness and the orderiness. He also chose for himself everything is that is difficult. About the human experience.

Those times of disappointment and loneliness and hunger and pains of the body and pains of the mind. And pains of the soul, which we all know and which come to us throughout the course of life. They come to us as children, and they come to us as teenagers, and as young adults, and as adults, And the Bible tells us that God in Jesus Christ has known it all in all of its forms and in all of its stages. And it would be a huge mistake for us. To think that that was just all a pretense.

As some have tried to say in church history, that no. No. That that's not really what Jesus endured, but rather he made it seem as if that's what he endured. As if god for a season chose to wear the clothes of humanity, but it wasn't really real. No.

No. We are talking about a true human nature. The lord Jesus Christ developed like we do, and he grew up like we do, and he gained social understanding of the world, like we do. And he gained intellectual understanding of the world, like we do. And yet not for a minute.

Did he cease to be god? True man with all that that means. True god with all that that is bonded together Inseparately. 30 years in the quiet and the normality because he came to inhabit the normal human life. If you're a regular here, we've been working our way through the book of Hebrews.

And, some time ago, we looked at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15, which I've put on the screen, and which who draws us to this truth. We We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with us in our weaknesses, but we have 1 who has been tempted in every way just as we are and yet he did not sin. And so the question for the morning, why does Jesus not skip over those 30 years? Because surely surely If anyone could have skipped over those years, it would have been god. But he chose rather not to skip over them, but to come into them why so that he might be a sympathetic god man who has entered our humanity.

Luke 2 52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and in the overall context that is surely because he has come to qualify himself as the priest and the god who knows us in all of our experiences. And so at every point, the parents this morning who've been up here and we've prayed with and heard from and seen at every point these parents can teach their little ones the gospel by saying to them that in heaven We have a savior who knows you and who has known your experience with all of its highs and lows. And who loves you and who cares for you and who you can talk to. They've made the promise this morning that at every stage of growth, Did you pick up that word? At every stage of their growth, they will give them Christian teaching and instruction.

1 excellent way to do that is to say at every stage of your growth, Jesus has been. And he has known every stage of your group. So trust him and talk to him and love him because he knows you. And this is not, I mean, this is not just for kids and parents. Friends, you you will not find this anywhere else in the religions and philosophies of the world.

Mohammed has not done this, was not able to do it, did not choose it. Buddha was not able to do this, did not choose it, did not want it. Are only in the scriptures do we find the god man who knows us so beautifully and who can save us and sympathize with us. So firstly, why the 30 years Why this growth in stature and wisdom because Jesus has known our humanity. Secondly, so that Jesus could redeem our humanity.

Jesus has redeemed our humanity. Here's that verse from Hebrews 4 again, and I wanna just pinned down the last bit of the sentence now. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have 1 who has been tempted in every way just as we are. Yet he did not sin. Just as we are, yet he did not sin.

And so if 0.1 was about Jesus' shared humanity, here is a point of difference. As a true man, the lord Jesus Christ knew what it was to be tired like we do, but never to be irritable like we are. He knew what it was to be lonely like we do, but he never was self pitying like we are. He was betrayed and let down by his friends like we can be. And that is a testing time, isn't it when that happens?

But never did the lord Jesus lie about or let down? His own friends, like we sometimes do. The lord Jesus Christ was lied about on many occasions like we can be, but he refused to compromise on the truth. Like we so often do. The lord Jesus was labeled as a glutton and a drunkard like we might be, but he never set his eyes in a longing way on impurity like we sadly do.

In other words, this god man was like us in that he was presented with all the trials and the temptations that we face but he was also so unlike us in that he was without the sin and the compromise and the shame that so often characterizes our own lives. 1 writer puts it this way. I've put it up on the screen. He worked his trade, supported his family, loved his god, made friends and proved himself utterly faithful. In 1000 small things before he formally entered his appointed ministry.

At every stage, he was perfect for that stage. Yes, in the 3 public years, which we can read lots about, but also in the 30 quieter, unreported years, at every stage, he was perfect for that stage. Now, why does that particular thing matter for us? Well, here's where we can look at Philippians 2. And so get Philippians 2 open in front of you, and I wanna suggest a slightly different reading of it.

Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature god, clicked the middle bit, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Or in other words, if Paul who wrote this chose to to put it like that, we would still be able to logically follow what he was saying, and it would make sense to us but you notice he doesn't do it like that. Before he comes to the cross of Christ, he wants to preach to us the life of Christ, the life and then the cross. Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature god did not consider equality with god something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself.

By becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. And so why all of this human stuff in the middle? Why here's the reason? Because in order for us to be saved, We need a god who has died for us, and we need a god who has lived for us. The Christian gospel contains some very hard and bad news.

And it's this that every stage of our own growth, in every stage of our own growth, we have been working against the god who made us. It happened when we were children. And in the ways that we knew how, we chose to rebel against our parents and whatever loving authority we had, and we did that as an expression of our rebellion against God. At that stage of our formation, we were rebels. We did it as teenagers in 1000 different ways.

When the world and its treasures were opening up to us, and we declared independence of god in favor for things that we thought were more precious. At that stage of our human formation, we were working against god. And then as young adults, when we were moving out into the world, perhaps living and traveling and working for ourselves. We use those opportunities not to bring glory to god, but to bring glory to self and At that stage of our formation too, we worked in ways that were against our maker. And then as adults, although we become much more sophisticated in covering our sin, and we learn strategies to be less obvious and public about it.

The same heart works away in disobedience to god. In every stage of our growth and formation, we have suppressed truth about god. And we have gone on our own way. And yet the Bible tells us that at every stage of his life, the lord Jesus was perfect for that stage. As an infant and through childhood and as a young adult and as an adult at every stage.

Perfect for that stage. The true and better Adam, not fallen through his life, but perfect and perfect and perfect through the stages of his life. And that means that when you and I trust him, if you will. Not only do our sins get forgiven because of his death in our place. And we need that.

We need him to die in our place and to bear the consequences of all of our failures. But all of his many perfections get counted to us too. And friends, we need that just as much, don't we? Because the standard for heaven is not just sinlessness, but perfection. We need not just be forgiven, but we need to have a perfect humanity in all of its stages counted to us so that we can stand before a holy father in the son.

Perfect because of his righteous achievements throughout his life. It is a remarkable thing, I think, or at least it struck me. But for 30 years, the most important work in the universe was a quiet ordinary domestic life in Nazareth. For 3 decades, that was the single most important thing happening in the universe, a quiet, slow life in Nazareth. As Jesus Christ was winning all of the perfections that were needed to make us right before God.

If you're here this morning, and you are a guest. Maybe you've come as, part of the, the family entourage this morning and you're not used to coming to church, but you've, kindly agreed to come on an occasion like this. Let us never reduce Christianity to just nice morals and nice examples. When what is actually presented to us is a glorious god man, who knows us and who can save us and who can make us perfect in him. I would encourage you this morning.

On the basis of god's word, you may have come for any reason at all But this lord Jesus Christ offers himself to you in the pages of the Bible, and he can forgive you and make you the perfect man because of his life. So come to him. Come to him. And then for the parents that we've been praying for and for all of us as a church, let's remember those words that we've just said together, that it is our duty at every stage to especially pray for and teach and encourage these children towards Christ. The 1 who knows and the 1 who can redeem ezekiel, Lucas, Alexander, and Denise.

Father, it is so hard for us to comprehend some of the glories that we've been speaking of this morning. The thought that the eternal son of god, the lord Jesus, the 1 through whom the universe was made. Became flesh and who lived and who grew and who in his humanity gained understanding of the world knew what it was, to work, to live, to rest, to have fun, to feel sorrow, everything that is common to us except sin. He has known. And we pray for these parents that as they grow up teaching their little ones about the lord Jesus, they would always be quick to point them, not to a distant god or a force that we just acknowledge, but to this living, breathing son who has known life as they have known it.

And we pray that they would please these little ones would grow up to love and trust and not live far away from the lord Jesus Christ. We thank you too, lord Jesus that you, although like us, were so beautifully different from us. That you were perfect in all the ways that we are stained and broken. And we thank you that you therefore have qualified yourself to be our savior who can forgive us and make us perfect. Please, lord, the greatest danger we we face is that the things and the person of Jesus Christ become small to us and our sense of wonder and worship begins to grow tired and old as we think about him.

Please by your spirit enlarge our eyes and enlarge our hearts and take our breath away with the greatness of Jesus, and we pray these things in his name, amen.