The Gospel of Luke: Growing in Galilee

Transcript

JRNT 76
02/09/2025
The Gospel of Luke: Growing in Galilee
Luke 2:39-40
Jesse Randolph


Well, this morning we are moving on in our study of Luke's Gospel, transitioning from that nine-month study related to the birth of our Lord to now moving into what Luke records about the life of our Lord. And today's text that we're going to be in this morning is sort of a bridge, it's a bridge between those scenes that we've been in where our Lord is an infant in swaddling cloths to suddenly being 12 in the temple causing those around Him to marvel and to be astonished. And the bridge of the text that we'll be in today is really a bridge that's composed of two sections. In verse 39 there's this final statement about what Joseph and Mary did before they left Jerusalem and headed back to Galilee into their hometown of Nazareth. And in the second half of the bridge in verse 40 Luke gives this summary statement about the growth and the development our Lord went through as He in His humanity advanced from infancy to childhood on His way to adulthood. And then we're covering just two verses this morning. You're going to see these verses are laden with significant theological truths about Jesus, His ministry, and His mission. So our verses for today are Luke 2:39-40.

If you haven't already, please turn there with me to Luke 2:39-40. God's Word reads, “And when they had finished everything according to the Law of the Lord they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. Now the child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” We have a simple two-point outline this morning, each point tailored to a verse. In verse 39 we're going to see “The Summary Statement” and in verse 40 we're going to see “The Savior's Succession”.

We'll get right into it with verse 39 and “The Summary Statement”, which again reads, “And when they had finished everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own city of Nazareth.” Now the “they” here in verse 39 refers back to Joseph and Mary, and then a whole account that we went through earlier that relates to why they were in Jerusalem to begin with. In fact, to refresh ourselves look back at Luke 2:21 where we see this whole scene where Jesus is being dedicated at the temple in Jerusalem, and it reads this way. “And when eight days,” this is Luke 2:21, “were fulfilled so that they could circumcise Him, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their cleansing according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” We went through that passage, you'll recall, a few weeks ago and we saw that what it shows is that Joseph and Mary were faithful Israelites, that they were devout Jews, which shone through the very way they carried out everything that was required of them under the Mosaic Law as it related to their newborn son, Jesus. They were required to circumcise Him and so they did. Mary having just given birth was now considered to be ceremonially unclean, so she had to cleanse herself, so she did. They were required to present their son to the Lord, so they did. They were required to offer a sacrifice of either two turtledoves or two pigeons, so they did. When it came to the rituals that they were required to complete under the Mosaic Law, Joseph and Mary followed the Law to the letter, they didn't skip a step.

Over the past two Sundays, just to catch us up, we moved into verses 25 and following, and we've been working through what Luke told Theophilus about two additional individuals, Simeon and Anna, who just happened to be around the temple in Jerusalem as these new parents, Joseph and Mary, were there dedicating their newborn son. Simeon, you'll recall from Luke 2:26, was that man who had it revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And then Anna was that prophetess who had been, I argued last week, a widow for eighty-four years who served the Lord continually in the temple through her fastings and her prayers. Now both Simeon and Anna were these devout Israelites, they both had this clear Messianic hope and they both had their Messianic hope fulfilled, as Joseph and Mary brought their infant son Jesus and as Simeon is there holding this infant in his arms. Now in terms of literary matters, the Simeon and Anna accounts, you could call them a parenthetical because as Luke is writing this material, it's almost as though Simeon and Anna are in brackets off to the side because the main story line here is all about Jesus being presented at the temple. And then Luke picks up with that main story line in our passage, verse 39, where again he says, “When they had finished everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.”

Now let's just take a moment to explore the first part of that verse where it says, “They finished everything according to the Law of the Lord.” Note the comprehensive sense of that term, “everything.” What this is telling us, what Luke is telling Theophilus, is that Joseph and Mary did not cut corners. They didn't self-police or sit in judgment upon the Law of the Lord, which is a reference to the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah. They didn't lick their fingers and hold them up to the wind and based on which way the breeze was blowing, determine which parts of the Law of the Lord they were going to follow that day. No, they were diligent to obey all that the Lord had given them.

And though we live in a different era now, we're not bound by the Mosaic Law the way Israelites like Joseph and Mary were bound by this Law, the principle that we see lived out through them is both timely and it's applicable. I mean, how many in our day will, in their Bibles, circle the words “God is love” and “judge not” and blow past every other verse in the Scriptures which tell us things like our God is a consuming fire and our God is angry with the wicked every day. Those don't end up on many devotional calendars or on Post-its on refrigerators. How many times do we wave off those passages of Scripture which frankly are just more difficult to live out and in our flesh, if we're being honest, we don't want to live out, like submitting to our bone-headed governmental authorities, or reproving or rebuking our brothers and sisters in the faith when they're acting sinfully or unwisely, or praying for those who persecute us. Or here's one, forgiving one another as God through Christ has forgiven us.

See, God's Word isn't something that we get to pick and choose from like we'd pick new shirts off a rack, or pick out fruit at a grocery store, you know, squeeze the avocado, or bang on the watermelon. God's Word isn't like a choose-your-own-adventure novel where by your choice you get to skip ahead not just words but entire chapters. God's Word isn't like this flight safety manual which, if we're being honest, we all ignore when the flight attendant is doing her demonstration up front. No. God's Word is perfect, it's timeless. Psalm 119:89 says it is “forever settled in the heavens,” it's a unified whole, and we're to learn it all. Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” We're to love it all. Psalm 119:97, “Oh how I love your Law.” And we're to live it out, not only the easier parts, but the more difficult parts.

Now someone might be here thinking, but what you're saying just sounds so legalistic, to not only read the whole Bible, but to do what it says, that's legalism. Oh, but it's not. When a child of God does the will of God as revealed in the Word of God, that's not legalism, that's obedience. And obedience and legalism are not synonymous. When my wife and I go out on a date night, which admittedly doesn't happen as often as it should, but when we go out on a date night and we leave our boys behind, and we leave a note on the counter that says something to the effect of make sure you pick up after yourselves, make sure you take showers, be kind to one another -- now when we come home from our date night and miracle of miracles they've done all three, do we rebuke them by saying, “You little legalists, how dare you do what we told you to do”? No. We commend them, we celebrate them, we reward them. God's Word is like that note on the counter. It's the expression of His will, His purposes for us, His commands for us now. And when we as Christians follow God's will through God's Word, we aren't being legalistic, we're being obedient. And the Lord is going to reward us for that one day at His judgment seat.

Joseph and Mary (back to the account here) as Israelites, they were still under the Law of Moses, and they got that. They understood that God's Word as it had been revealed to them at this time isn't merely a set of suggestions. Rather because it comes from God, it is His Word, and He expects it to be followed. They weren't legalists, they were compliant.
They were model Jews like Zechariah and Elizabeth and Simeon and Anna. They kept the Law blamelessly. Verse 39, “They finished everything according to the Law of the Lord.”

Now here's where I want to take us on a bit of a side trail and lay out an issue before us, which I really think is critical for us all to understand. It's a theological issue which ties into verse 39 here, where we're told that Joseph and Mary finished everything
according to the Law of the Lord. Here's the issue. I'll try to tee this up, and you just hold on to the string, and you let me know later if I kept this connected to the text. Okay? You can go to a lot of churches today, including a lot of churches that would be similar to ours doctrinally, and you'll hear language like Jesus lived the perfect life for you that you were supposed to live but didn't. And when you put your faith in Jesus, your sin is put in His account and His righteousness is put in yours. Now at first glance, that might sound okay. That might sound harmless because we know from the Bible that it is true that Jesus did live a perfect life, and it is true that we have not lived perfect lives. And it is true that Jesus, as God, is inherently righteous and perfect, and it's true that we, as fallen and sinful creatures, are not inherently righteous or perfect. And it's true that we do need a sacrificial, sinless substitute to stand in our place. And it's true that as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Now oftentimes the assumption is made when you hear a statement like the one I just mentioned, Jesus lived the perfect life that you couldn't live, should have lived, but didn't, and when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, our sin is put in His account, His righteousness is put in ours, the assumption that's underlying language like that is that our justification, our salvation is somehow tethered to Christ's life of perfect law-keeping. And that assumption that's floating around out there in broader evangelicalism stems from a doctrine that's known as the imputation of the active obedience of Christ. I bet you didn't think you'd get that doctrine this morning. I'm going to keep this hopefully at a very basic level. But what this imputation of the active obedience of Christ doctrine teaches is that through Christ's active keeping of the Law during His life here on earth, He somehow positively earned righteousness on our behalf and then that righteousness is imputed to us when we put our faith in Him. Now an implication of that teaching is that Jesus's death on the cross is not exclusively what saves us. Rather we are saved by His life, they will say, and specifically, we're saved by His life of law-keeping. A further implication of this doctrine is that the cross was not enough, that our Lord's shed blood was not enough. Instead, we also need His life, Jesus's life of law-keeping, to earn us a righteous standing before God.

Now one of the big problems with this doctrine, the imputation of the active obedience of Christ, is that the Bible never says what its proponents say it says. You won't find a single passage of scripture which teaches that our justification, our salvation, as Christians is tied to Jesus keeping the Law of Moses on our behalf. Did Jesus perfectly keep the Law during His day? He surely did. Was He the perfect and spotless lamb? He surely was. But does the Bible ever say that it is through His keeping of the Law that we are saved? No, it doesn't. Rather, what the Bible teaches over and over and over explicitly is that we are saved through Jesus's death on the cross, we are saved through His shed blood. Hebrews 9:22 says, “without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” Colossians 1:20 says, that He has “made peace through the blood of His cross.” Romans 5:9 says, “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” And of course, at the core of the gospel message itself, 1 Corinthians 15:3, it does not say that we were saved by Christ keeping the Law for us, it says we were saved because “Christ died for our sins.” He didn't keep the Law so that our sins might be forgiven, He died so that our sins might be forgiven.

So I get it. This is an odd time to bring up this doctrine as we're right here in Luke 2:39-40 and we're reading this story about Joseph and Mary and their keeping of the Law, but that's exactly the point. That's exactly why I'm bringing this up because I've listened to sermon after sermon on this passage and also on Luke 2:21-24 where the preacher will take this passage and use it as a proof text for the idea that our salvation is rooted in Jesus perfectly keeping the Law for us. But does this passage say anything about Jesus keeping the Law? No. The whole point here is that He's an infant, He's eight days old and the context is His parents, Joseph and Mary, are keeping the Law. Not Jesus, the eight-day-old, He's not consciously keeping the Law at this point. And this passage says nothing about how Christ being circumcised or being presented at the temple or having sacrifices offered on His behalf has anything to do with our justification or our salvation.

There's a lesson here bridging it to now and to today, and bridging it to us who teach and preach and to us who like to study the Word and study theology, that we need to be very careful that we not read the Bible through the lens of our own preconceived theological notions and ideas. We need to be very careful not to put the theological cart before the biblical horse. We need to be very careful not to let our theological biases leak into our reading and our studying of the Bible. Instead, we need to let the Bible drive and develop our theology, to build our theology from the ground floor of what the Word says and then go up from there, not to build our theology from the top floor down. I've never heard of a house being built from the top floor and working downward. It goes the other way. All this to say verse 39 is not a viable proof text for those who would hold to this idea of the imputation of the act of obedience of Christ. Rather what this text is, along with verses 21-24, is simply saying that Joseph and Mary were faithful law-keepers in their day, they were faithful Israelites. So we just let the text speak, and we move on.

Back to verse 39. It says, “Joseph and Mary finished everything required by the Law of the Lord,” meaning they did all the Law required of them during that time with their son's circumcision and dedication and presentation. Reading on, verse 39 still, Luke reports to Theophilus that once they had done so, “they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.” So what's going on there? Well, on the one hand, it's actually really straightforward. As Joseph and Mary had finished these rites of purification and dedication at the temple in Jerusalem, they go back to the region of Galilee, back to their hometown of Nazareth. And we do know that Jesus would grow up in the town of Nazareth, He'd be called, Matthew 2:23, “a Nazarene.” So Luke's report here that they returned to Galilee to their own city of Nazareth is actually super simple in the sense of geographical movement. And if we just take the whole picture here, we remember, sort of the movements of Joseph and Mary up to this point. They start in Nazareth and they go down to Bethlehem to register for the census that Caesar Augustus had decreed. And then the child is born in Bethlehem, and now they go to Jerusalem. That's what we've been studying the last few weeks where they were presenting and dedicating their son. Now we have Joseph and Mary leaving Jerusalem and eventually ending up back in their hometown of Nazareth, going full circle. So I mention that in one sense this is really simple.

But there's another sense where there's some complexity here because there is a glaring omission in Luke's account of the birth and early years of our Lord. See, between Joseph and Mary's completion of the circumcision, presentation, and offering ceremonies and their eventual return to Nazareth, something else happened in the life of our Lord, the early years of our Lord, which Luke seemingly inexplicably leaves out. And that's what?

Turn with me to Matthew 2. Matthew 2 has some pretty significant detail about these early years of our Lord that Luke does not pick up on. Look at Matthew 2:1, it says, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’ And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he was inquiring of them where the Christ was to be born. And they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.”’ Then Herod secretly called the Magi and carefully determined from them the time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. And when you have found Him, report to me so that I too may come and worship Him.’ Now after hearing the king, they went their way, and behold, the star which they had seen in the East was going on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And after coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi departed for their own country by another way. Now when they departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph
in a dream saying, ‘Get up, take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the child and His mother while it was still night and departed for Egypt. And he remained there until the death of Herod in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’ Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the Magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she was refusing to be comforted because they were no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, ‘Get up, take the child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.’ So Joseph got up, took the child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the district of Galilee and came and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets would be fulfilled: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”

Long scripture reading this morning, long text in between. So Matthew records this account of the Magi, their visit to the family in Bethlehem, and then the angel's visitation to Joseph in a dream, and then the departure of Jesus and His family down to Egypt, and then their eventual return back to Nazareth in Galilee. That's what Matthew does but Luke leaves it out.

Now laying these two Gospel accounts side by side, one question we need to ask is, is there room for the events recorded in Matthew 2, what I just read for you, to fit in with the events recorded in Luke's Gospel? Can these two separate Gospel accounts written by these two separate men be harmonized? And the answer is, yes, of course. Look at verses 39-40, our passage in Luke 2. Now these passages that we're studying today, these cover a span of about 12 years, Luke 2:39-40 covers about 12 years. And then midway through verse 39, after it says that Joseph and Mary “finished everything according to the Law of the Lord,” comma, but before “they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth,” the events of Matthew 2—the visit of the Magi, the dream, the fleeing to Egypt, the return out of Egypt back to Nazareth—could easily fit right there. So if you're asking my opinion on where Matthew 2 fits in to Luke's Gospel, I think it's at the comma in Luke 2:39.

That then leads to another question. Why didn't Luke record all of these extra details that we see here in Matthew's Gospel? You know, Luke is this able historian, he's this very detail oriented historian as I've been belaboring now for many months. So why would he leave out these facts? Well, all sorts of theories have been offered in response to that question. Some have argued that Luke knew what Matthew had recorded in Matthew 2, but Luke simply didn't think it was important to the whole flow of his Gospel. Some have said that Luke left out these details in Matthew 2 because he was in such a rush to get to the story of John the Baptist and his ministry in Luke 3 and the life of Christ in Luke 4. I'm really not persuaded by either of those arguments really, because they carry this idea with them: there's this assumption undergirding both of them that Luke was rushed or slipshod in his research when throughout his Gospel we see he was nothing of the sort. The opposite was true. The third theory that's out there that I think is more persuasive is simply this, that Luke wasn't aware of Matthew's account of the Magi and the family's flight down to Egypt and the family's return from Egypt to Nazareth. And this theory maintains that Luke, though a capable and thorough historian, he didn't have these details. And had he had those details, had he actually known what Matthew wrote of in Matthew 2, there's no doubt that Luke would have included those details in his Gospel. And the fact that he doesn't include those details suggests that he wasn't aware of them. I suspect we will have to ask Luke that question in glory.

Until then we wait and move on to verse 40. We're going to officially now -- this is kind of a momentous occasion in our study of Luke -- we are now officially pivoting from the birth account to now the life of Christ. This will take us all the way to Luke 23, from this pivot point between verses 39-40 all the way to Luke 23, as we study the life of Christ. Here's our second point, if you're a note taker, for verse 40. This would be “The Savior's Succession”. Verse 40 reads, “Now the child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” As the preacher and theologian G. Campbell Morgan once said, “The whole story of the childhood of Jesus from infancy to His religious coming of age is contained in one verse.” And he's talking about this verse, verse 40. And now coupled with the scene that follows in Luke 2:41-52, what we have here is the only information in the Bible about the childhood years of Jesus. What we're covering today and what we'll cover next week when we get to verses 41-52 is all that we have in the New Testament concerning the early years of our Lord's life.

Now a couple of broader observations to make before we get deep into verse 40. For starters, it's good to remind ourselves that Luke's Gospel, like Matthew, Mark, or John, for that matter, it isn't intended to be some comprehensive biography. The way that you and I read historical biography or political biography where we get every single detail about every single event involving a figure's life, that's not what the Gospels were meant to do. Rather, the Gospels as a genre of biblical literature, they're intentionally these selective accounts picking up these key aspects of Jesus's life and ministry—His birth, His baptism, His teaching, His triumphal entry, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension. But their ultimate purpose for each of the Gospels is to point the reader to the Lord's saving work. Remember that the very word “gospel” means good news. Every Gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, has a central purpose, which is to drive its audience to the good news of what Jesus Christ did for sinners like you and me,
as He came, as He died, as He rose, and then as He rose victorious to His Father's right hand at His ascension. So let's remember that. It's okay that the Gospels don't include every single detail to satisfy every curiosity we might have.

Here's another thing to mention about what are called these forgotten years of our Lord's early life, those early years between His birth and the beginning of His public ministry. In the first few hundred years of church history, dozens of new writings popped up claiming to be authentic Gospels. And these writings had all sorts of strange improbable stories about the life of our Lord, specifically in His youth. And though these are historical documents, they have never been considered Scripture. And it's easy to see why because of some of the wild claims they make about what Jesus allegedly was doing during these forgotten years of His childhood. For instance, in one of these so called Gospels, we have a story of Jesus making sparrows out of mud and then breathing on them so they would come to life and fly away. Interesting, not in the Bible. We have another story of Jesus pronouncing a curse on another child who was bullying him and that child then dies instantly. Fun story, not in the Bible. There's another story about Jesus going to school as a little boy. And not only disrespecting, but causing one of His teachers to become paralyzed because He didn't like the way that the teacher was instructing him. Interesting, not in the Bible. And there are many more stories like that in these, they're called the non-canonical or apocryphal gospels.

There are many more stories like that, they're bizarre. But not only are they bizarre, they're inconsistent with what the Bible teaches because what they ultimately do is they make Jesus out to be some sort of power-tripping brat with this selfish vengeful streak. And they really make Him out to be, without using the word, sinful, which obviously cannot be because Hebrews 9:14 speaks of Jesus being without blemish. Well, these so-called Gospels are inherently untrustworthy. The Gospel of Thomas, we've mentioned some of these before, but we simply need to remember that while perhaps God didn't give us all of the details concerning Jesus's early years that we would like to know, He gave us all that we need in terms of what we actually do need to know. And He's given those details to us in the actual four Gospels, specifically here in Luke 2.

One more preliminary matter to work through, then I'll get us into verse 40, and that's this, that though the details of Jesus' early life are somewhat scarce in terms of what's revealed in the four Gospels, what Luke is communicating here in our text, here in Luke 2, is profound. It is truly profound, and we don't want to miss it. The truth that's being communicated here is that the Lord Jesus Christ was truly, is truly and fully man, truly and fully human. And that is really important for us to remember because while a good amount of the false teaching that exists in our day is centered on a direct attack on whether Jesus is God, on the deity of Christ, the truth that He is human is of equal importance. 1 John 4:2 says, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” In other words to be considered orthodox, in a lowercase “o” sense, to have a right understanding of who Jesus is, to be in a right relationship with God through Christ, a person must affirm not only the deity of Christ, that He is God, but also the humanity of Christ. To be right with God a person must affirm that Jesus is fully God, but also that He is fully human, fully man. We have to have a picture of the whole Christ as God has revealed Him in His Word. And that includes affirming, believing, in what the Bible teaches about His humanity. We remember as we get deeper into the Gospel accounts that Jesus slept, He ate, He wept.

And as we see in verse 40 now, He grew. Verse 40, “Now the child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” Now note first that Luke here describes Jesus as growing physically. That's what's meant by those words, the first words in verse 40, “Now the child continued to grow.” That word “grow” is this all-encompassing term which refers to every aspect of our Lord's physical development as a child, as He shot up in height, as He put on weight, as He generally filled out. In describing the child of our Lord here in verse 40, Luke does not shy away from the fact that the eternal Son of God was embodied. He took on humanity in actual flesh, He truly grew, He passed through the normal stages of physical development. And His physical development would have in many senses been normal. It would have resembled the normal development of any child as He learned to crawl and then walk and talk and play and so on.

But His physical growth would also have been suited to His surroundings, to His environment. And remember that He was the son of a carpenter, Mark 6:3 says; some say stonemason, I'm not going to have that argument right now. Either way, it would have been a labor-intensive environment that He was raised in, that would have been one that would have been conducive to His growing in strength. He also would have been one who was walking all over the hilly terrain of Galilee. That would have taken a certain amount of physical strength. He's described in the Gospels as staying up all night, laboring in prayer, communing with God the Father. That would have taken a certain amount of physical strength. When you think about the fact that He endured the torture He experienced after His arrest, leading up to His crucifixion, leading up to His death, He didn't die right away. He endured it, giving up His life only when He was prepared to do so. That would have taken a certain amount of physical strength. In other words, our Lord really did grow physically. He wasn't born a full-grown man. Rather the Savior of the world, the Son of God incarnate, He was born a bobble-headed baby, who then went to being a wobbly-legged toddler, to then being a fully-developed man.

What that means for us practically is that He can sympathize with us, He can sympathize with us in every stage of our growth and development, from the cradle to the grave. The only thing He didn't partake of in His humanity, the only thing He cannot sympathize with us in, is sin. He was tempted to sin as we are, but He never gave Himself over to that temptation, which is why we're told in Hebrews 4:15 that “we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Putting those two double negatives into a singular positive statement, we do have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, then it continues, “but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.” Our Savior is sinless, meaning as He grew according to His human nature, He never sinned, He never experienced the stain of sin in His life. He never experienced the effects or the consequences of His own sin in His life like we do because He never sinned. He was never hindered or impaired or restrained by His own sin because He had none. So while He did grow physically like every other man, and in that sense can sympathize with us, He did so without trace of sin. And in that respect the similarities end. So He continued to grow, He grew physically, He grew in stature, verse 40.

Next, we're going to see that the Lord grew in strength. Reading on it says, “Now the child continued to grow and become strong.” Now you might be thinking, isn't that just another way of saying He grew physically, like we just covered? And the answer is no, because Luke here is describing, actually, when he says become strong, he's talking about the internal transformation that our Lord underwent as He grew intellectually and in wisdom. And we know that because those words “become strong” are modified by what comes next. He “became strong,” comma, “being filled with wisdom.” The idea here then is that the Lord became strong as He was being filled with wisdom. The Lord became strong because He was being filled with wisdom.

Now here's where we need to do some review on some basic doctrinal truths, because things can get really wonky really fast if the next few words that come out of my mouth are said incorrectly. We have to remember first and foremost that there are three persons of the Godhead. We worship a Trinitarian God: God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. We have to remember that only one of those three persons of the Godhead ever took on a human form. Who? God the Son. He did so in His incarnation, which was brought about by His conception in the virgin Mary's womb. By His birth, He had a real body of flesh. So God the Son, who we know as Jesus, has two natures. He is fully God and He is fully man, fully divine and fully human. How do we know that?

Well, we can go a number of places, but go with me over to Philippians 2 to see it stated with clarity and focus. Look at Philippians 2:5. We won't read the whole section, but if you could just go to Philippians 2:5 we'll sort of tease this out. Here Paul says, “Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although existing in the form of God,” that's describing our Lord's divine nature, and then it continues, “He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.” That second part is referring to our Lord's human nature, His humanity. So Christ had both a human nature and a divine nature. And what this allows for is this tension that we see all over the Scripture. Where on one hand Jesus is very clearly portrayed as God, doing God-like things. Upholding the universe, Hebrews 1:3, “by the word of His power.” Colossians 1:17, holding all things together. We think of those other statements in the Gospels which mention our Lord doing things and knowing things that only God can know while on earth, demonstrating His ability to know all things, His omniscience. I'll give you a list here of Scriptures that describe our Lord knowing everything while encased in flesh. John 2:24, “He knew all men.” John 2:25, “He Himself knew what was in man.” John 18:4, “He was knowing all the things which were coming upon Him.” Luke 9:47, “Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side.” John 6:64. “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray Him.” So He demonstrated while on earth that He knew all things.

He also demonstrated in His humanity and while on earth that He is all powerful. That's why we see those accounts in the Gospels where He is doing things like rebuking the wind, and miraculously feeding the hungry, and healing the sick, and casting out demons, and raising the dead. These were things He did in His life on earth which demonstrated His deity. And there's more: He demanded worship while on earth. John 5:23, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” He granted eternal life, indicated His ability to grant eternal life in His earthly ministry. John 10:28, “I give eternal life to them and they will never perish, ever, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” And the point is no one can do these things but God Himself. So these are indicators, statements that Jesus is God and that He did demonstrate His divine power as God while on earth. But then, we have a passage like ours in Luke 2 which seems to be indicating that this same Christ who was simultaneously upholding the very universe by the word of His power is somehow growing, becoming strong, growing in wisdom.

Now initially, realistically, there is going to be a sense of unease with that, with that tension. And that's understandable because there is tension there. Jesus is God, He is all wise, He is all knowing. So how in the world could He grow? How could He grow in knowledge? How could He grow in wisdom? How do we explain that? It goes back to Philippians 2 and what we're told there about Christ, who was eternally in the form of God, taking on in the incarnation the form of man. “The Word,” John 1:14, “became flesh.” And through His incarnation, as our Lord took on humanity, He did in some sense take on its limitations. That's why He could say things like this (I'm going to give you another list), John 8:28, “I do nothing from Myself, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” Or this, Luke 22:42, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will but Yours be done.” Or why He would say in Luke 8:45, this is that scene where the woman had the hemorrhage of blood, He says, “Who's the one who touched Me?” I thought He knew all things. Or Matthew 24:36 where it said of Him, “of that day and hour,” meaning the day of our Lord's Second Coming, “no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” So, by taking the form of a slave, by adding a human nature, He didn't take away any divine nature, He added a human nature. Our Lord did voluntarily take on certain limitations which were consistent with His truly human nature.

And it's in that sense that Luke here can say that Jesus, in accordance with that human nature, “became strong, being filled with wisdom.” It was in His human nature that He grew in the wisdom of God. It was in His human nature that He grew in His perception of God's will. It was even in His human nature that He grew in His own self-awareness of His identity, not only as the adopted son of Joseph and the son of Mary, but the Son of God. Look down the page at verse 41, the next verse, we'll be here next week. This is that whole scene where His parents leave behind 12-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem only to find Him in the temple, and it says this: “And His parents would go to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He became 12 years old, they went up there according to the custom of the feast. And as they were returning after finishing the days of the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but His parents did not know. But supposing Him to be in the caravan, they went a day's journey, and they began searching for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him. And it happened that after three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astounded at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished and His mother said to Him, “Child, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.” And then verse 49, the first recorded words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, the first red letters, (if you want to say it that way) in the Gospel of Luke. It says, “And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were searching for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?’” See, by age 12, that's what we know from the text here, Jesus knew exactly who He was, and He knew exactly who His Father was. He knew that Joseph was His earthly father, at least in the adoptive sense, but He knew that His true Father was Yahweh, God the Father. And as He came of age Jesus knew, as it says here, that He needed to be “in His Father's house.”

So going back to our passage now to verse 40, what Luke is telling us here is that Jesus didn't start at His birth in His human nature, that's the important qualification here, in His human nature with a fully developed knowledge base. Rather, in His humanity He grew in knowledge. He gradually, as it says here, “became strong, being filled with wisdom.” On the outside He would have appeared to be just like any other normal developing child. He was truly human. And on the inside in His humanity He grew in wisdom. He became more and more capable of receiving more and more of the wisdom of God, the understanding of the wisdom of God, so that by the time we get to Luke 2:49 and He's 12 years old and in the temple, by then He fully comprehends who He was in His humanity. And He fully grasped the mission that God had sent Him on to accomplish. Now have to make it super clear here, in His eternally divine nature, His unchangingly divine nature --
right? Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever -- there was no change, there was no growth, there was no advancement in wisdom. But in His human nature He grew, “He grew in strength, being filled with wisdom.”
So what we've seen so far in verse 40 is that He not only grew physically, our Lord also grew in wisdom in His humanity. And then at the conclusion of the passage, we're told by Luke here that “the grace of God was upon Him.” I like what John MacArthur says on this passage. He says, “grace not in the sense of the favor God shows to sinners who don't deserve it, but grace rather as the favor God gives to the one who does.” Only Jesus would meet that standard as the perfect Son of God. And the idea here of grace is favor, “charis” is the word, it's favor, the favor of God. It comes out when we're at Jesus's baptism scene in Luke 3:22, “And a voice came out of the heavens saying, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.’” That's the sense of favor here, and that's what Luke means here when he says, “the grace of God was upon Him.” God the Father was devoted as He has always been. Going back to eternity past He was devoted to God the Son, He favored Him. The Son was the object of the Father's special attention. As one old commentator puts it, “the Son lived in the undimmed sunshine of God's blessed favor.”

One more note, one more final observation from the text. Look at how when you look at verses 39-40 together, in verse 39, the focus is on the Law of the Lord. Remember that? Jesus's parents, Joseph and Mary, did all that was required of them by the Law of the Lord. But then look how it ends in verse 40 on this note of grace, “The grace of God was upon” Jesus. As we move next week into the life of Christ, and remember that there are no stray words in Scripture, let's hold the words of John 1:17 really close, that “The Law came through Moses,” verse 39, “but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” verse 40.
Now, in the spirit of how we ended the message last Sunday, and to make sure we don't treat this morning's sermon as a sanctified data dump or a seminary lecture or a museum tour, this is something I'm going to try out this week where I'm going to give you five points of application to take home from this morning's message. Now by the way, I'm a total adherent to the fact that it's the Spirit who is going to be the One who brings conviction. It'll be the Spirit who brings about change based on what you heard from the text that was preached this morning. But I'm also not opposed to pastors like me giving you guys a little nudge along the way. Okay? So I have five points of application to take home with you.

First is this, embrace the tension of our Savior being fully divine and fully human, because the reality is that's what Scripture teaches. The Scripture teaches us both. So embrace both sets of teaching. Don't follow the temptation to veer off on one side or the other, either thinking of Jesus merely as a human at the expense of His divinity, or only as God at the expense of His true humanity.
Second, worship God with grateful hearts for the fact that some of what He reveals to us will never be fully understood by us. The fact that we in our fallen human condition cannot fully plumb the depths of certain mysteries like the three-in-one nature of the triune God, or the fact that Christ our Savior has these two natures, being fully divine and fully human, that actually gives us even more reasons to praise our already praiseworthy God. Like Paul says in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.”
Third, as you walk through life in this broken world, know that Jesus did too. Be comforted by the fact that He is fully human, and He went through these various stages of physical growth and internal growth in knowledge and wisdom. And what that means is that you have a Savior who is not only your substitute, but a sympathetic one at that.
Fourth, praise God for the fact that while Jesus's earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, were under the Law, and we know that Jesus himself, Galatians 4:4, “was born under the Law,” you and I are not. And we live in an era of grace. Again, John 1:17, the Law came through Moses, “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Praise God for that.
Number five, though we do live in this era of grace, this age of grace, don't allow yourself to fall into that trap of thinking that simply because you're the recipient of God's grace means that you now have a license to sin. We are free in Christ, whom the Son sets free is free indeed, but we're not free to sin. We've been freed from the penalty of our sins so that we can now be His slaves, and now we're called to conduct ourselves accordingly.
So I know we've done some deep work today. We went through the active obedience of Christ, we went through the two natures of Christ. But I hope those application points will sort of sum this up and with the Spirit's help really drive these points home for us this week.

Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank You for the time together this morning in Your Word. We thank You that we can go to it and take in truly transcendent truths and drink deeply of them. But at the same time we know that we are called to take what You've given us in the Word and then live it out and apply it to our lives. We're called to be, as James says, not mere hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. So I pray that this morning through the text that we've been in, we would each grow in our love for and appreciation of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray at the same time that we would be motivated and spurred on by Your Spirit to live in light of what we've learned. Help us to be pleasing in Your sight. Help us to live upright, noble, godly lives in Christ Jesus. And God, if there is someone here this morning who has not put their faith in Christ, I pray that what they're hearing would help them see that this is not about doing, this is not about earning favor with You. A person must first give their life to Jesus Christ, to trust in His finished work on the cross, His death, His resurrection to be saved. So if there's anyone here this morning who is still reckoning with that truth, still wrestling with that truth, I pray that they would come to faith, that You would draw them, that Your Spirit would convict them as You bring them to saving faith. We love You and we thank You for this time. In Christ's name, amen.