Growing Up Jesus

Luke 2:51–52 NKJV

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Open: A group of tourists visiting a picturesque village walked by an old man sitting on the sidewalk. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked him, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.”

Many tend, and rightly so, to just look at Jesus as if He was an adult His whole life. But we know that isn’t the case. Just because the Bible dose not speak heavily about Jesus youth, dose not mean He didn’t have one. He had to grow up.

Have you ever stopped and thought about that? What was it like to be the Creator of the universe to which now you subject yourself to and are constrained to live according to it’s ways. What was it like growing up Jesus?

While I can’t answer those questions fully due to the lack of written evidence, we can learn some valuable lessons as we look at what some of life was like Growing Up Jesus.

We see in His growth…

I. The Elevation Of Family (51)

Luke 2:51 NKJV

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart.

A. The Closeness Of Family

1. Seen In The Level Of Trust—you just don’t go with anyone. (Mom and Dad made sure they knew not only my friend, but their parents.). No doubt that the parents of Jesus trusted others in the family thus they thought He was with them the first time they left. (Jesus no doubt had siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. All of which were probably close in relationship with each other. (Much like us today)

2. Seen In The Love Of Togetherness—the whole family had been to Jerusalem, together. As Jesus grew, He came to understand first had what it was like to be a part of a family unit He could trust and could cherish the togetherness of. As Jesus grew, this closeness of family was elevated.

B. The Compliance Within The Family

“and He was subject (obedient) to them”

1. Born From Respect—His mother and foster father were put in charge of His care. He respected them not just because they were in charge but because they loved Him and He them.

2. Born Out Of Religion—not a ridged religion that says do or die but a religion that again comes by way of love. Col. 3:20 “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.”

ILL: After the dedication of his baby brother in church, little Johnny sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally the boy replied, “That pastor said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I want to stay with you guys!”

We see in His growth…

II. The Experiences Of Life

(“and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature”. This Shows His Humanity)

A. Mentally

1. Becoming Wiser—how is it that Jesus being fully human and fully God could become wiser? By not just knowing but experiencing. I can tell you how painful it is to cram your toe into the bedpost, but until you do it, you’ll never fully understand. Once you do it, you’ll be wiser when you walk around a bed post in the middle of the night!

2. Building Wisdom—adding to what you know and have experanced. Now that you know what it feels like to cram your toe into a bed post in the middle of the night, you build upon that wisdom by realizing there is a night stand in the room as well. To Grow In Wisdom means that you grow in application of what you know.

Jesus experienced it first hand and took knowledge to the next level. We to must grow in wisdom, and not just when it comes to walking around in the dark. Knowing how to wisely walk in this wilderness with wolves and a roaring lion known as Satan demands we grow in wisdom.

B. Physically

1. In Stature—there is not much one can do to stop this from happening for all puppies turn into full grown dogs and all babies become adults. Can you imagine being around forever past and for the first time getting a pimple? Or how about when you start growing a beard for the first time.

2. In Stride—Jesus accepted who He was in appearance. Nowhere do we find Him concerned with the way He looked. That is not to say He didn’t keep Himself in order, but He was who He was. We each are fearfully and wonderfully made to be just who we are and to look just like we look. Regardless of what they may say, you can’t change your gender any more than you can change the rotation of the earth. You are who you are. You are unique and God loves you just the way He made you. Life is far easier when we accept that and love God back for it.

ILL: A Dutch bicycle manufacturer, VanMoof, has come up with an ingenious idea for ensuring that its product is safely transported to its customers. Oddity Central reports:

VanMoof plans to sell 90 percent of its bicycles online by 2020, but after seeing a considerable number of products getting damaged during deliveries and incurring serious losses, the company was left with two options – rethink its business plan or come up with an effective solution. Luckily, they managed to come up with something so brilliant that it’s bound to be copied by other companies that rely heavily on online sales.

Creative director Bex Rad wrote on the company blog:

Earlier this year our co-founder Ties had a flash of genius. Our boxes are about the same size as a (really, really, reaaaally massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?

By simply printing a flatscreen TV on the boxes, they reduced the rate of damaged goods by 70 to 80 percent.

APPLICATION

When we value what’s in the box, we treat the box with greater care.

We see in His growth…

III. The Examples Of Character

(“and in favor with God and man”. This Shows His Spirituality. Two greatest commandments. When you met Jesus, it didn’t take long to see He loved the Father and others)

A. His Spiritually

1. Grew By Way Of Communicating—Jesus learned early on to be in constant contact with the Father. There are many accounts in the Gospel where Jesus even went off to Himself to pray. The most intimate was at the Mount of Olives just before His death. We to must communicate with God.

2. Grew By Way Of Conformity—We may not like that term but that is exactly what Jesus did in regards to the Father and what we to must do. We are to change or “conform” to the ways not of this world but be transformed to the ways of God. That is how Jesus and we grow spiritually.

B. Socially

1. By Loving Others— showing someone that you care and love them will in most cases help you grow socially.

2. By Leading Others—everyone of us needs leadership in some form or another and Jesus having the character that He did was a great leader of those around Him. Be a great leader for those to whom God has placed in your life. Invest in them, help them, train them in the ways of the Lord, Lead Them!

Close: John Kaessler tells the story of how his father was an artist. His father had a black leather sketchbook filled with cartoons and doodles. As a boy he was enthralled by his father’s drawings and wondered how he could learn to draw like him. He began by tracing over his father’s originals, line for line. Once he got a feel for the shape of the image, he drew his own copy next to his father’s. At first, he says, his images looked like the childish imitations they were. But in time it was hard to tell which drawings were his and which were his father’s.

As we look at the growing process as Christians, we much the same concept. We follow Jesus step by step until before long we look just like Jesus. It is a growing process.

That process starts with salvation.

The next step in growth is imitation.

All should lead us to grow in our gratification.