An Extraordinary Child | Luke 2:41-52

Konnection Kids y’all are good to head on to the back.

Good morning church! How awesome is it that we get to come here on Sunday mornings and worship Jesus together? I’m pumped to be here with y’all this morning.

This morning we’re gonna continue diving into the book of Luke. We’re gonna be in Luke 2:41 if you wanna turn in your Bibles there.

And y’all we’re gonna see another story this morning of Jesus in His childhood. Last week Caleb preached on Jesus being presented in the temple. Jesus was only a few weeks old and Mary and Joseph were doing this ritual of purification by bringing Jesus to the temple, and we see a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna see how awesome Jesus is even as a baby. And they praise this child.

Before that we see the birth of Jesus. Some shepherds were tending the field and all of the sudden this angel appears to them and tells them, “There has been a baby born in Bethlehem who is the Messiah.” So they go see baby Jesus and they’re amazed. They can’t help themselves and they go tell everyone about how awesome Jesus is even though He was just born.

So it’s clear that Jesus is no ordinary person. We see this even in these glimpses of Him as a baby. Now we’re gonna fast forward a bit. Jesus is twelve years old. No longer a baby. And we’re gonna see what happens when Jesus goes to the temple again.

So let’s go ahead and let’s read our passage starting in Luke 2:41.

Luke 2:41–52 NIV

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 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.” 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them. 51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Let’s pray.

So we start with Jesus’ parents doing what they do every year. It was custom for the Jews to go celebrate the yearly Passover in Jerusalem. So they’re going to celebrate Passover. And it was custom when a boy reached twelve years old for them to tag along for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem because 12 was considered the final year of preparation before a boy would become a “bar mitzvah” or a “son of the commandment”. And they would officially be required to participate in the religious practices of the synagogue. So it was seen as almost a transition to adulthood.

So Jesus is tagging along with Joseph and Mary because He’s now twelve years old. So they get to Jerusalem, they celebrate the Passover, and it’s time to go home. But Jesus stays behind. Every parent’s nightmare is that they leave their child behind. And if you’ve ever left your child at the store or at the restaurant you were eating at, here’s something that might make you feel better, at least you didn’t leave the baby Messiah behind and travel for an entire day before you figured it out. Not a good look for Mary and Joseph.

Mary and Joseph realize they’ve misplaced the Son of God and they head back to Jerusalem to go find Him. And it takes them three days to find twelve year old Jesus. Now at twelve years old, I’m not sure where you would’ve found me if I was left in a city for three days. Maybe the playground, maybe an ice cream shop, probably wouldn’t have found me at the church. But like we said, Jesus, not an ordinary child. So they find Jesus at the temple.

And they find Him listening to the teachers at the temple and asking them questions. And the people were amazed at how much Jesus knew. So Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus at the temple and they say, “Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you?” And Jesus answers in a way that no parent can be mad at. He says, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” What an awesome answer.

So we see Jesus go back with His parents to Nazareth, He’s obedient to them. And we close out chapter 2 with Mary treasuring all these things Jesus has done in her heart. And we see Jesus grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

It’s clear that Jesus is not an ordinary person. And that’s what we’re gonna be talking about this morning. The extraordinary nature of Jesus. We’re gonna see in this passage how Jesus is different and we’re gonna see what we can learn from Jesus.

And the first thing we’re gonna see that makes Jesus so extraordinary in our passage this morning and it’s our first point.

1. The wisdom of Jesus.

Even though we only see the word wisdom used once in our passage this morning, the wisdom of Jesus is riddled throughout this story. And we actually learned that Jesus was a wise child from the end of last weeks passage. After Jesus was praised in the temple from Simeon and Anna it says in verse 40 that the child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on Him. So we already knew Jesus was a wise child, this just puts it on display in a really cool way.

We see that as people saw 12 year old Jesus’ answers and His understanding in the temple, they were amazed. So while we don’t actually get any insight into what He was saying, clearly its some good stuff.

And its interesting that we are getting insight into the wisdom of Jesus, but we don’t actually see anything that He says to these teachers. Yes we see what He says to His parents in verse 49, but we don’t see what He said to amaze all these people.

And I think the reason why is because we’re seeing the wisdom of Jesus not in what He says, we’re gonna see plenty of what He says in His ministry, but in how He carries Himself.

Look at verse 46. I think we learn more about the wisdom of Jesus in this verse more than any of the other verses in this passage. It says that Jesus was sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions.

Let’s play out a hypothetical. Without jumping into heresy, say you were in Jesus’ shoes here. The Son of God, literally the perfect person. The Messiah who is the fulfillment of the Law. And you’re hanging out with these teachers of the Law. What do you think you’d be doing?

I can tell you what I’d be doing. I’d be pointing out all the things they got wrong. But what does the actual Son of God, Jesus, do? He listens and He asks questions. And church we can learn a WHOLE LOT from that.

How many of you like to hear yourself talk? As much as I’m trying to work on it, unfortunately I fall in that category. Some of you are nodding your head right now. I was the one that had to be reminded many times by my parents, “You got two ears and one mouth so you could listen twice as much as you talk.”

Did you know its the mark of a wise person to listen?

Proverbs 17:28 NIV

28 Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.

It’s wise to listen. And the reason why is because a wise person is someone who realizes they always have more to learn. They realize they don’t know everything there is to know about a subject.

There’s an effect called the Dunning-Kruger Effect that displays this very well. I’ve got a graphic for it up on the screen. You can see confidence is on the y-axis going up and down and competence is on the x-axis going side to side.

I’ve walked through this effect many many times. I walked through it a TON of times when I began ministry. But basically this effect is when someone learns a little bit about a subject, suddenly they have all the confidence in the world and they think they can accomplish any task relating to that subject.

So, for example, when I first learned how to play drums, it was a process. Had to learn how to keep a proper beat, keep a consistent tempo, how to separate what my left foot and my left hand is doing and the same thing with my right hand and foot. But finally I learned how to do a basic beat [simulate basic beat]. And suddenly I was the bees knees in my mind. I was now a drummer and no one could touch my drummer ego. And that right there is called the peak of mount stupid. All the confidence in the world but didn’t know a thing.

Then I started going to Connection Church Dublin. And one of the first Sundays I was there the worship pastor, Jim, asked me to play drums. And boy did I figure out quick that instead of being the bees knees, I sounded more like I was trying to swat a bee flying around behind the drum set.

And that right there is called the valley of despair. Suddenly I had ZERO confidence in playing drums. I asked Jim a million questions on Sunday to make sure I was playing everything right. And after every service I’d walk up to Jim and ask what I could’ve done better. I assumed I was the worst drummer ever.

Then after that you actually start to learn what you’re doing and you hit the slope of enlightenment. Your confidence builds as your competence builds, then you hit the plateau of sustainability. You are now able to accomplish that task.

There’s so much more to this effect. Ironically while I was writing this sermon I thought I understood this effect well, but I was shown that there’s so much more to it and that I’ve only scratched the surface. So I experienced the Dunning-Kruger Effect in my attempt to understand the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Went from the peak of mount stupid to the valley of despair.

But the reason we’re talking about this effect as we’re taking a look at the wisdom of Jesus is because the purpose of this effect is to show how over-confident and, dare I say, prideful we can become when we haven’t even scratched the surface of what we’re prideful about. Yet Jesus approached everything with humility.

Now a question that tripped me up as I got to thinking about this passage is, “Why did Jesus listen and ask questions when He’s the Son of God? Doesn’t Jesus already know everything?”

And yea, there are many instances where Jesus knows people’s hearts, He knows who they are despite having just seen them for the first time, He predicts circumstances that are about to happen.

Yet we also see Jesus say in Matthew 24:36 that not even He, only the Father knows when the end is. We also see at the end of our passage from last week and the end of our passage from this week that Jesus grew in wisdom. So how could an omniscient, all-knowing person grow in wisdom and not know some things?

I’ll tell you what I believe. I don’t hold very firmly to this belief because its a hard one to hold. But I believe that Jesus had a controlled lack of knowledge. Or in other words, yes He knew MANY things, but in humility He limited His knowledge while on this Earth.

Now I could be on the peak of mount stupid right now, but I believe based on the evidence we see in the Bible that this is the case. And it doesn’t feel right because it almost feels like you’re limiting the power of Jesus when you say that, so again I say that I hold that view loosely.

But either way, whether Jesus knew everything or not at 12 years old, we still see Him approach this situation in humility. Either in an effort to simply remain humble, or to actually gain knowledge.

And I can tell you confidently that we certainly know less than Jesus, so how much more should we be listening and asking questions.

Let’s move on to something else we learn about how extraordinary Jesus is in our passage this morning, and its our second point this morning.

2. The desire of Jesus.

Quick question. If you were left behind in a city for three days when you were a child, what do you think you’d be doing for fun in the city? Do you think you would’ve gone to the closest church and just start asking the pastor questions? Well that’s basically what Jesus did.

Jesus wanted to be with the Father. He wanted to be in the temple with people who understood God and His law. And it’s clear this behavior wasn’t unusual for Jesus. His parents finally find Him and tell Him they’ve been looking everywhere for Him and He responds, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

He just assumed they would know. Because He has made it clear that His heavenly Father is His ultimate desire.

So here Jesus desires to be in the temple. And that is an evidence that He desires to be with the Father. But when you think of Jesus in the temple, what first comes to mind? To me its Jesus flipping tables.

Once Jesus grows up, adult Jesus walks into the temple and sees a bunch of trading going on inside the temple and he starts chasing people out and says, “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

So how is Jesus wanting to be in the temple at 12 and flipping tables at 30 something both show that He desires to be with His Father?

Well there’s a verse in John 2 where Jesus cleanses the temple that describes it very well. It’s John 2:17. Let’s read it, it’ll be on the screen.

John 2:17 NIV

17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

This is actually a quotation of Psalm 69:9. Which reads…

Psalm 69:9 NIV

9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

So yes, Jesus desires to be in His Father’s house, but He also desires to honor His Father’s house.

And y’all again there’s so much we can learn here from Jesus. Prolly the most obvious one. While there’s no longer a temple like they had back in the day, 1 Corinthians 3:16 says we, believers, are now God’s temple. So we should desire to be with other Christians; to be in community; to be in church.

The Greek word used for church in the New Testament is Ekklēsia (e - kle - SEE - ya) which literally means assembly. So the church is an assembly of God’s people. So if you think about it, it’s an assembly of the temple of God. Remember 1 Corinthians 3:16, we are God’s temple? It actually says in the very next verse of 1 Corinthians 3 in verse 17 that God’s temple is sacred, and that we TOGETHER are that temple.

So y’all we learn from this that we should desire to be in church. We together are the Father’s house. Jesus desired to be in the Father’s house, so we should desire to come together as the Father’s house.

Another application of Jesus desiring to be with the Father, what broke our fellowship with the Father in Genesis 3 and what keeps us from being with the Father in heaven right now? Our sin. So if we truly love fellowship with the Father, shouldn’t we be saying no to sin?

In Romans 7, we see this internal struggle of wanting to do good but giving in to evil. Paul lays out his struggle with sin in such a relatable way. Specifically verses 18 through 20 I relate to so much and I’m sure you do as well. It’ll be on the screen.

Romans 7:18–20 NIV

18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

There is an internal struggle in every believer to do good or evil. We constantly struggle with this.

Every morning I wake up, this internal struggle starts all over again. When I wake up, do I stay in bed for a minute and look at social media or do I get up, grab my Bible and start reading it. When I get ready, have I made time to spend time with God in prayer before my day starts, or did I skip that part this morning? As I’m talking to people, do I constantly seek to talk about myself and keep the attention on me, or do I seek to care for the person I’m talking to and ask them how they’re doing? When I eat lunch, do I go out to eat and spend a lot of money, or do I honor the money God has given me and eat at home? And this could go on forever y’all.

If we desire fellowship with the Father, we should desire to say no to sin.

But church, even after we are saved, we still sin. We are going to sin. And my question to y’all is, as sinners can we have fellowship with God? Because God can’t be in the presence of sin, but we’re sinners.

And that’s where our third point this morning comes in.

3. The mission of Jesus.

[Worship team callup]

There’s good news. Our sin doesn’t keep us eternally separated from the Father. Because the perfect, wise, sinless Son of God would go on to grow up to be our Savior.

Let’s fast forward from 12 year old Jesus to 33 year old Jesus. It’s clear that 12 year old Jesus was extraordinary. Well He would continue to be extraordinary. Because even though He could’ve condemned us all for our sin and wiped us out, in humility He took the wrath we deserved for our sin on the cross. And He rose from the grave three days later and now sits enthroned as our King in heaven waiting for us to come home.

And now anyone who believes He died and rose from the grave three days later and confesses Him as their Savior can have fellowship with God. Even when you make mistake after mistake and feel like you’re dead in your sin, you’re not. Because you’ve been forgiven.

And you can’t lose that. If you’ve been transformed by the love that Jesus showed us on the cross, you can live in peace and joy knowing that one day you’ll be going home to heaven to be in full fellowship with the Father.

But the one who is transformed by the gospel is continually growing in wisdom; to know that you don’t know and is seeking to listen and ask questions, and they’re continually growing in a desire to be with God; to be in community with other believers in church and growing in your ability to say no to sin.

Because y’all the ultimate purpose of the cross was to bring glory to God. Yes, He wanted to save us from our sin, but the ultimate purpose was His glory. And our obedience to Him is participation in His mission to bring glory to Him.

So I urge you, if you’ve been stagnant in your faith, to take your next step to grow in obedience to God. Because as you grow in your obedience to God, your relationship with Him deepens, life feels like it has more purpose, and joy in God’s grace abounds.

We have Connect Groups starting back soon. If you’re not in a Connect Group, as we said earlier, community is important, get plugged in. Connection College on Thursday nights at 6 is starting back soon. Our middle and high school ministry, Connection Students, is starting back soon on Wednesdays at 6. If you’re here and you’re not plugged into biblical community, no matter your age, there’s an opportunity for you to take that step to get plugged in and I encourage you to do so. We want to walk with you as you take your next step.

And we also participate in God’s mission by telling others about Him. If you have a coworker, a friend, a family member that doesn’t know about the gospel, tell them. It is our mission, if it is aligned with the mission of Jesus, to tell them about the extraordinary nature of Jesus.

Thank God this extraordinary child would go on to be the Savior of the world, so that our lives could be changed to live for His glory. And that King is with us this morning, so let’s continue to worship Him.

[Let’s pray]