The Will of God (Luke #8) - Bible Baptist Church

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Text: Luke 2:40-52

Leaving Jesus at church? Not about that.

Let’s read the Bible. Jesus is left at the temple and is lost for three days as a 12-year-old boy. We could preach about leaving Jesus at church and not bringing him with us to everyday life. You know, don’t let your Christianity be only a Sunday Christianity. And that would make for a fair speech and smooth words, but Jesus ends up going home with Mary and Joseph. So that sermon only works if you ignore the rest of the account. I try hard not to do that with the Bible. Don’t pick and choose verses just to prove a point I want to make. I’d prefer to let the word of God do the teaching. What’s being said is not about Jesus being left at church. In fact, that’s the opposite of what this is about. It’s about Jesus going home with Mary and Joseph. Keep that thought in mind: this is about Jesus going home with Mary and Joseph. The main thought is found in verse 51: he was subject unto them.

Grace of God upon him in verse 40

Jesus Christ is a holy child. John said, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; … and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, occupies a body conceived by the Holy Spirit making God the Father of the body of Jesus Christ. This is what makes him born of God and holy. In Jesus Christ, the very nature of God is manifest in the flesh from birth to death. Moreover, the WILL of God is manifest in the flesh from birth to death. That’s something you need to understand about Jesus Christ. He is the WILL of God manifested in the flesh. And the grace of God is with him? I thought grace was unmerited favor for a sinner.

Growth in verse 40

Now, these are some of the most profound verses in scripture. All of the attributes God is supposed to have like omniscience – he knows everything, omnipotence – he’s all-powerful, these things are absent from the Son of God who is the express image of the invisible God. Here you have God’s divine nature in the body of a twelve-year-old child, a divinity that seems ordinary. And this divine child is growing in wisdom which means he’s learning information and learning how to behave. But to be divine means to know everything doesn’t it? Apparently not. The LORD Jesus Christ grows in stature, wisdom, and in favor with God and man. He grows physically, intellectually, spiritually, and socially.

At twelve years old, the LORD Jesus Christ understands his purpose in life. Jesus is holy, he’s divine, but he’s learning, he’s growing, he’s gaining favor with God and man. He understands his purpose which means Jesus Christ understands the will of God as a Father, for him.

Seasonal and relational will of God

The will of God is not limited to age. You don’t have to be 30 years old to be godly because godliness is not an age. At twelve years old, the LORD Jesus Christ understands his purpose. He knows who he is. He knows what the purpose of his life is and he is a holy child who is growing and learning.
The will of God is not limited to age, but how the will of God is applied is limited to age. It is determined by the time of life you’re in.
Jesus, at twelve years old, understands he is to do the will of God the Father. But the will of the Father wasn’t for him to be in the temple, it was for him to be subject to his parents back at home.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. What’s the will of God for a child in his household? To obey their parents and be subject to them.
- Some said that Jesus was correcting Mary in verse 49, but the reality it was Mary correcting Jesus. Jesus wasn’t being rude and explaining to his mother how things were going to be because Jesus doesn’t stay in the temple. He goes home. Why? Because the will of God for his life was to obey and honor Joseph and Mary.
- The humanity of God. It’s divinity in the ordinary.
- Here’s another reference to the seasonal will of God. Titus 2:1-5 is all sound doctrine, that is, the will of God, according to age.
Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.
Clearly, the will of God is applied differently in different times in life. And holiness and godliness and the will of God are all working perfectly in a child who is learning new things, living under faulty parents, and in the midst of a godless world. And not one of those things has to change for a person to do the will of God.

Everyday will of God

If you know what the will of God is, good. But how do I do it?
Don’t you think there was ever a time in Jesus childhood when his mother Mary said something that wasn’t exactly right and he knew it? Don’t you know Mary and Joseph didn’t understand as much as Jesus did, yet he was subject to them. Don’t you know that Mary and Joseph were faulty fallible people trying to raise a holy child? Don’t you know that Mary and Joseph gave unnecessary and irrelevant directions to Jesus sometimes, but he obeyed them?
I don’t like what my parents say. So the LORD didn’t say obey your parents because they’re always right.
Or be kind because people are kind. Or love because you are loved. Or be patient because it’s easy.
The will of God is an expectation in spite of the pressures around you. And it’s an expectation in spite of your humanity.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Divine nature in operation in the midst of corruption!

Long-term will of God

In this seasonal will of God, and in the everyday will of God, there is a bigger picture at work. Jesus Christ will one day leave the oversight of his mother and Joseph and will enter the public ministry of his Father as an adult.
If he’s been a disobedient child, he can’t be the Savior of the world because he’s a sinner like everyone else. It’s everyday obedience to the will of God that gives Jesus Christ the opportunity to participate in God’s bigger redemptive plan.
And this long-term, big-picture will of God is dependent on the day-to-day will of God. I don’t know anything else about the childhood of Jesus Christ and neither do you. But you know the most important thing about his childhood and teenage years which is, he did the will of God. He was subject to his parents. And that was the thing he needed to be.
God has a will for your life. Some of it is seasonal and relational. Some of it is just daily dealing with opposition to that will. And ultimately there is a bigger plan that is dependent on your participation in the first two. What’s God’s will for my life? Well, where are you in life right now? That’ll determine what He wants out of your life. Jesus is a child in our text. Jesus asks, Father, what do you want me to do? Go to the temple and learn from the rabbis? No, go home and be subject to your earthly parents.
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.