[Randy Stiver] This is an interesting Sabbath. Each year, it's the day just before the American national holiday or observance of Father's Day. I wouldn't call it a holiday as much as an observance. It’s kind of an interesting event, though, as far as a day that's set aside for something.

It first started in 1909 in Spokane, Washington. The very first Father's Day was organized by a lady there in honor of her father. She was one of the oldest of a number of siblings. Her mother had died in childbirth and one of her youngest ones and her father had been caring for the whole family, so she wanted to honor her dad. And that's where it all started, and gradually it spread to other cities in America.

In the 1920s, President Coolidge supported it to be a national day to honor fathers, although it didn't actually become one at that time. It got resurrected again in the days of Lyndon Johnson when he was President in 1966, and he declared that Father's Day would be the third Sunday in June, but it wasn't a permanent observation. That took President Nixon signing a declaration that it would be a permanent national observance on the third Sunday of June. So, that's how we ended up with Father's Day. Interestingly, that was 60 years after Mother's Day had been established as a national observance in America.

So it's just interesting to see how these things happen. It's one of those days and I think we sometimes get a little concerned, well, it's a world's day so it's bad. It's probably pagan. Well, no, I don't think so, because it started out with a girl who just wanted to honor her dad. We need to be careful not to proclaim everything as pagan any more than the communist who's behind every bush in the 1950s.

But what makes a father a great father? This is going to lead in a direction you might not anticipate, but this is an important question. I don't mean responsible father who provides for his family. That's a given. In God's way of life, that's a given. It's not necessarily given in the world, but it is in God's way of life. Not necessarily a father who loves his family. But what makes a father a great father? It includes loving his family, of course, but in some way it has how to do with that.

I think one key that makes a father a great father is that he never forgets what it was like to be a kid. He never forgets what it was like to be a kid and I don't mean a young goat. Kid is a common nickname for a youth, for a young person, and we've used it for decades and decades. In fact, it reminds me of a double-language word play that is sometimes popular in some of our Latin American countries.

A lot of the young people know at least a little English, so the greeting is "Como estas frijole, cabrito?" “How you been, kid?” Como estas is how have you been. Frijole is bean, like you have refried frijoles, refried beans. And then cabrito is a baby goat. Como estas frijole, cabrito? How you been, kid? So they say it in Spanish but they mean it in English. And like I said, it's sort of a double language wordplay, pretty sophisticated. One thing that makes a great father is that he never forgets what it was like to be a child, to be a kid.

He maintains that sense of joy and wonder, of adventure and discovery. That's hard to do when you start getting old and you got responsibility on your shoulders and all that sort of thing. But no, the really great father remembers that and he remains patient with his children and exults in teaching them about God and His marvelous creation.

There's a proverb that sort of summarizes that when you think of it with that background. It's 17, 6, Proverb 17:6. It says that "Children's children are a crown of old men…” grandchildren and grandparents love their grandkids. And granddads do. That softens even the one that got so preoccupied with his career, providing for his family and all of those things, were preoccupied with whatever, they forgot what it was like to be a kid while he was being a dad. But he kind of remembers it when he gets to be a grandfather, and it comes back to him. Of course, then he's so old and decrepit he can hardly get around, so he doesn't get a chance to really act on it. No, I'm kidding. Not all grandfathers are like that by any means.

But wouldn't it be great if the dad remembered what it was like to be a kid? Because then the second half of the proverb really kicks into effect in that regard, “…and the glory of children is their father.” Youngsters love to see their dad. Boys and girls run to their father. Oh, they love their mother, and she looks after them all day long. When dad gets home, they can't wait to jump in his arms and give him a hug and want to play ball or go for a hike or do whatever it is that dad likes to do. And that is accentuated when he always remembers what it was like to be a kid himself so that he retains that sense of play and joy and his children relate to him.

You know in relating here is the challenge. Let's turn to Hebrews 4. This one we do want to turn to, Hebrews 4. Although it's maybe one that many of us have memorized the essence of. It's in verse 15, talks about Christ as our high priest. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses or to put it in a positive statement, we do have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. And He was, in all points, tempted as we are, yet without sin. And we marvel at that. He lived the life of a human being and He never sinned.

Now, the only downside to that is how do you relate, especially when you're young? How do you relate to someone who never sinned? Never got a spanking or never deserved a spanking, never got sat in the corner, never had a timeout or whatever the discipline happened to be. In my cases, I earned a few spankings. Thinking back over the years, I got spanked a few times, I didn't deserve it. But I figured, well, that makes up for the times that I did and he didn't know about it.

Somehow my parents instilled a sense of justice, so I never felt that I was unjustly punished even when I was unjustly punished that time. There was the other times that I wasn't punished that I should have been. Then I thought, well, it all evens out. That was a good lesson. But how do you relate to somebody who never sinned? That's the challenge.

Stop and think about this. We think of God and God is our Father. God, the Father, is our Father. So we have Father's Day. If you really want to honor your Father, that's the main one we honor with some deep and thoughtful prayer to start the day and reading of His word. And you wonder what would God, the Father, have been like if He had ever been a kid because He never was a kid. But if He had ever been a kid, what would He have been like? It's hard to imagine that, but I'll tell you what. It's not so hard to imagine is what Jesus Christ would have been like as a kid because He was a kid.

When He was human, He lived the entire life cycle of a human being, from birth to adulthood and then death. He knew what it was like to be a youngster, at every age growing up through His youth. And if we came to understand a little bit more about Christ as our Savior by understanding Him as a youngster growing up and then now the sermon really is a more at those of you who are young or young at heart, we'll shake a loop out big enough to hold us all. I think we would be better able to relate to our high priest who never sinned if we understand what He was like when He was a youngster and what it was like to grow up and realize, wow, we do have a lot of things in common with Jesus Christ by studying His youth or by studying Jesus Christ as a kid. There's your sermon title, “Jesus Christ as a Kid.”

Let's start with His infancy and youth, and then that's in Luke 2. That's in Luke 2. That's probably is our most complete documentation of the birth and early years of Christ growing up. The first part of the chapter, He is born in Bethlehem. The shepherds are visited by an angel, the shepherds in the area around Bethlehem, and so they come there and see Him. Of course, later on, the Magi from the east, wise men will come and visit Him but He's in a house by that time. He's not back. He's not in the stall or the manger by then.

Of course, we know this is not a December setting. This would be an Autumn setting when all of this is transpiring. And Mary marveled at what the shepherds had said. Notice verse 19. Now the shepherds were talking about all the things that were being said. “Those who heard it” in the general public in verse 18, “marveled at these things which were told to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She was still trying to comprehend what it was, why God had sort of singled her out and what was to unfold. If you think it's hard to imagine what Jesus Christ was like, that's not half as hard as Mary trying to imagine what He would be like, this baby in her arms, what He would be like as He grew up.

When you look at it from her perspective and think about it. It's really quite amazing, quite exciting to just consider it. So let's begin. Here are some of the events, this is going to hit the parents. And the parents are going to think, "Wow, what a kid! What a child, what an incredible little person we're holding here!” “After eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child,” in verse 21, “His name was called Jesus,” just like it was supposed to be. It means Savior. It's the same name as Joshua. Joshua and Jesus are just ones in Hebrew and the other ones in Greek, and pronounced, in my case, in English, the English pronunciation.

“And when the days of purification according to the law of the Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem,” that's in verse 22, “to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male who opens a womb shall be called holy to the Lord’)” the first born, “and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” So those are the only birds that were used as sacrifices. You couldn't bring a chicken. They had chickens, but you couldn't bring a chicken. Nothing wrong with chickens. They're edible. They're clean birds, but it had to be a dove or a pigeon or actually two, pair of doves or a pair of pigeons. That was a suitable offering for the first born child. It was a thank offering if we would touch on the lesson of being thankful from the sermonette, it was a thank offering, a thanked offering and in many ways a dedication offering.

“And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem” in verse 25, “his name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel,” that's another way of describing the Messiah, “and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” So we would understand therefore that Simeon was one of those few out of the Old Testament era that was converted, truly converted as we understand conversion. “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death…” in a sense, he was, you know, one of the last prophets of that time, “…he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.” Meaning the Lord's Messiah, Christ, Christos is the translation, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah. They mean the same thing.

“And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms.” He walked over to them and lifted Him out of Mary's arms and then he spoke to God. It was a prayer. “Lord, You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; my eyes have seen Your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people, Israel.”

It was a wonderful prayer and a marvelous prayer, but here they're coming in to do what was commanded and what they desired to do, to give this offering for Mary's first born son. It wasn't Joseph's first born because of the miraculous events involved. It was the Son of the Father, the Son of God. But they would raise Him. Joseph and Mary together had been chosen of all people on earth to raise the Christ Child up until, you know, He was a responsible young man on His own.

And what an honor that was for them, but, you know, to start seeing these events unfold, they come into the temple to make the offering and this old prophet comes up and scoops the baby out of her arms and then pronounces this great blessing as a prayer to God. “And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things that were spoken of Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also),” indicating the way He would die and how it would feel to Mary.

She would identify. She related to Jesus Christ at every level, from the time He was a baby until He became the Great Messiah, assuming His position in His ministry, she identified with Him. And when she saw Him die in His crucifixion, it was as if it pierced through her soul and her life as well. “And the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” The great prophecy.

“Now there was one, Anna,” here's Simeon, now we move to Anna, “a prophetess.” So Simeon was an old prophet, Anna was an old prophetess, and I mean old. “The daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe Asher.” Most likely in order to know clearly her tribal delineation, when Jeroboam split from the house of Judas or Rehoboam kept the house of Judah, Jeroboam took the 10 tribes to the north, either then or somewhat later, her family migrated from the territory of Asher, which was up in the northwest coast of Israel and moved down to be in the house of Judah and they stayed with the Jews so that she would know her family tribe. And she was of great age. Some of them did. Actually, records that some of them did. They came out of Israel because they didn't want to not worship God. Not all the Israelites adopted the paganism wholesale of Jeroboam. There were a few families who stood up for what was right.

“She was of great age, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow…” says “was a widow of about eighty-four years,” technically, we don't know how old she was. She either had been a widow for 84 years or she was 84 years old. Now, if she was 84 years old, she was old, well, unless you're 84, then sweet young thing. However, if she had been married for seven years and have been of marriageable age, upper teens to early 20s for that time, then she was way over 100 years old. And we can all safely agree that past the century mark, you're old.

Just this past week, one of the sweetest minister's wives in God's Church in our area came to her end and she had turned 100 years old a number of months ago. Glenn White's mother, Glenn White Pastors Western Montana Congregations and his mother, Stella White, died this past week. Her husband Valdon had been a pastor, an elder and then a pastor for many, many years in the Church long ago. He died quite a few years ago. She reached the hundred mark. She agreed she was old. She was young at heart, but she still recognized that the body wears out in due course.

So Anna was in that territory, you know, somewhere between 84 and 100 and whatever. “She was of great age, and had lived with…” I said, read all that part. Let's go where I haven't read “…Who did not depart from the temple,” she had dedicated her life for very many decades, it appears, to stay at the temple and “served God with fastings and prayers.” So she was someone who was there fasting at times and praying always night and day.

Coming in that instant, walking up just as Simeon was pronouncing this blessing. “She gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all who looked for the redemption in Israel [Jerusalem].” So she, too, pronounced the blessing. And so when you put this together, Joseph and Mary are seeing here comes Simeon, then here comes Anna and they're pronouncing these blessings in their great and honored people that they have known themselves from their pilgrimages to the holy city for the annual Sabbaths and things, and they had to think “What a kid! What are we holding, who is this little one?”

Then “they performed all the things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew…” They had took a vacation in Egypt first, but that's another story in another book. I think Matthew covers that. But Christ would not have, as a child, remembered probably His time in Egypt. They came back to Nazareth and “He grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom.” As a youngster, because the next time we're going to see Him He's 12, 12 and a half actually. So before He's even 12, He becomes “strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”

Once we did a survey. This was about 17 years ago, I think, 16 or 17 years ago in the northwest, and this one we had the Feast site still in Redding, California, before we moved it to Bend. So I wrote to all of the pastors and elders and wives just as a survey. I was going to give the sermon aimed at the youth, and I asked them “When did you know if you grew up in the Church…” and almost all of them had, “when did you know with certainty that God was calling you?” They had to think back and make their decision and we got a whole lot of the surveys back, I think 20 or so of them and it was between 10 and 14, so averaging around 12. That was when they knew God was calling them.

So you see, for our children who are that age or coming up to that age, you look back at Christ. He was preparing for this thing that He was going to do when He was 12 years old. He knew that God was calling Him. It all came together earlier than the 12 years, obviously, as we're going to see in the next item that that occurs. He became “strong in spirit.” Energetic, that means probably one that could push Himself through physical pain when needed, willing to work hard, strong in spirit carries there. Strong in spirit, though, as far as His dedication to God is one of the keys. Strong in spirit in His dedication to God and following God and obeying God in His way. And “filled with wisdom,” we don't normally think of youngsters filled with wisdom, but Jesus Christ, as a kid, was not just smart. He was wise.

Now and then you run into a youngster who has that kind of savvy. They are aware of much more than their own skin. They watch, they listen, mainly they listen to their parents, their grandparents, to their elders generally and they learn from them. Not all children are thinking that expansively. And as parents, we ought to try to encourage them to do that, you know, to encourage them to listen to others and listen to their grandparents, listen to those who are wise. So Jesus obviously did that, and the grace of God was upon Him. He stayed close to God even as a little child. It's kind of an inspiring element of the story. But now we come to the certainly dynamic part that comes in the latter part here. And then we'll jump from here onto how we're going to tell what He was like as a teenager.

“His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast.” They made their pilgrimage. They lived in Nazareth. They came down probably the roadway or pathway that was called the way of Lebona, which followed the ridgeline pretty much of the range of mountains in the central range of the country. They didn't go down to the coast and then back out up to Jerusalem. They just came down the way of Lebona, which before you get to Jerusalem comes down below 2,500 feet which is the elevation of Jerusalem and then you have to go up to Jerusalem.

So they were coming down that main road down the center of the country with others from Nazareth and other communities up by Galilee. And “They finished the days,” that meaning the Days of Unleavened bread, obviously, they follow the Passover. “And they returned, and as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.” Today, parents would freak out if their 12-year-old is not with them, because most of them have lived on a diet of sugar for 12 years, and they're hyperactive, and when you're hyperactive, it's hard to think straight, but Jesus didn't. They didn't even worry.

Now, that speaks a little bit of the culture of the land and the community. They weren't worried because they figured, well, this is not a dangerous area. But they were not worried, either, because why do you think? Because Jesus was responsible. I mean, He's 12-years-old. Even looking back, you know, just a little bit of personal experience. To my ears, when any of us in the neighborhood were 12-years-old, we were driving a tractor all day in the field. We're all working beside our father, shoveling ditches out for irrigation, and those kind of things. So the responsibility came early. Joseph and Mary undoubtedly nurtured that, as they should have.

Now when they started north and He wasn't with them, they didn't worry, “And Joseph and His mother didn't know it, but supposing that He was with the company,” you know, everybody else from Nazareth, so “they went an entire day's journey,” and you got to wonder about how long would an entire day's journey be.

Back in the day of 1973, the Yom Kippur War started. Mrs. Stiver and I were there. We were actually students at Ambassador College. That's actually when we got interested in each other. We were at the big dig, helping out with the temple mount excavations that summer with 80 other students from the three Ambassador campuses. There was a classmate of mine who stayed behind to look after the Church's office. Then there was another girl, a college-aged girl that came from the States and she came down for the Sabbath down to the hotel where we all stayed. We basically rented an entire hotel in the outskirts of Jerusalem. It wasn't a fancy hotel but it was comfortable and we just took it over. We had enough people to fill it up.

She would stay with us and be there for services before she traveled back to Kibbutz, where she was living for a year, and it was up near Dan, the site of Dan, on the northern edge of the state of Israel. And when the Yom Kippur war started, that Yom Kippur being the Day of Atonement, it started on the Day of Atonement. And so Brian, down at the office in Jerusalem, got a phone call early in the morning and it was her. And she said, "Brian, what's going on up here?" He says, "Why? What are you hearing?" She said, "Well, there's explosions or something like that." And he said, "Listen!" She's standing on the balcony, you know, in her night clothes and holds her phone out so he can hear the tanks firing at each other. “Yeah, I found out where she was.” He said, "You pack your stuff and get down off of the balcony at the downstairs. I'll come as quick as I can."

He jumped in the church's Land Rover and fortunately, it was a long-wheelbase Land Rover so it looked official. This was the old, classic, squared off, defender style, real Land Rovers, it's not the fancy dancy car-y things they have today, pity, but it was white. Okay. Government usually drives white cars over there. He just started up the highway and they kept waving him ahead of the troop movements. At every road block, they would just wave him on through and it looked official. He was typically British and could sit straight and look official as you might ask. It was about 70 miles for him to get up there. Well, it was about that far that Jesus had to come and His family had to come down, so a day's journey back, I'm guessing that would be a third of that, maybe less than a third of that, but 15 miles, probably. They probably walked 15 miles in a day.

Now, the rest of the story with Brian and Georgia was her name, as he got up there, they threw her things in the back of the Land Rover and they beat it south as fast as they could go and they got waved through. At every road block, they waved them right on through. Now, this was not just the white Land Rover. It was prayer that was helping a lot. They had then got stranded in Tel Aviv, because that's where the airport was, and they were going to be flying to the Feast there in England with us, and Brian showed up in Georgia. About the third day of the Feast, they finally made it because the airport was shut down. Yom Kippur war was a touch and go thing for the state of Israel.

I remember he got there and he caught up with them when he came to services, says, "Hey, you're back." He says, "Yeah, I got a story to tell." So we went to the back of the meeting there. It was a place called Minehead and it was a holiday camp and a huge room that held over 4,500 or 5,000 people is where we met. We had 4,200 at the Feast that year, and we're on the second story. So we're looking out at Cardiff Bay and the wind was blowing, it was raining, and the breakers were hitting the rocks just on the other side of the roadway that we were looking down on.

So I could remember him telling that story as we stood there watching the waves break over the highway in front of us. That was an exciting story, but it gives you a sense of the distance, approximate distance. It was about 70 miles to Galilee, maybe 65. What's five miles between friends? Anyway, they got part of the way there, you know, 12 or 15 miles and they didn't find Jesus. And then they freaked out. Okay. Then it was okay. You could freak out. You could get really concerned. And they didn't find Him. They returned to Jerusalem, which would've taken them most of the day to get back or all night, depending.

“Now so it was that after three days,” I would probably count the day that they traveled north, and then most of the day coming back and over a day looking for Him, “…three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.” Now, the teachers were the leading rabbis of the time, the leading rabbis. That's what rabbi essentially means. It means teacher. They taught God's word. That was the subject matter in Judea at that time.

And He was “listening to them and asking them questions.” So He wasn't teaching them, specifically. He was in a theological discussion. Twelve-year-old commanding the attention for how long? Not one day, not two, but apparently three days, He could command their attention and carry on it appears to be nearly a day-long conversation at a time, with the leading minds in the country, 12-years-old. Wow!

So, how could He do that? Well, I can tell you. He read stuff like the Bible. Video games were kind of out of the question. And then He was a thinker. As a young man, He was a thinker. Well, what do you think of that? All who were with Him are astonished at His understanding and His answers. And when they saw Him, all the teachers and anybody else that was sitting around, “Wow! Twelve-year-old kid. How can He know all this stuff?”” And when they saw Him, they were amazed; His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.’” “We were worried.”

"Ah," He says. "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know I must be about My Father's business?" This is the first inkling that is stated in the Scripture when He knew that His business was to be more than just being a carpenter in Nazareth. He was referring to His spiritual Father's business. But they didn't understand the statement. It was a little quixotic for them, which He spoke to them. But, you know, His discussion was over and He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject to them.

He obeyed His parents. He loved His parents. Jesus was a family Kid. You know, we talk about family man, meaning a father who has a family and cares for His family, but Jesus was a family Kid. He loved His family. “But His mother kept all these things in her heart.” Notice the last verse, “Jesus increased in wisdom…” Okay, at 12-years-old, He could discuss it apparently at a peer level with the leading minds in the country, so He increased in wisdom beyond that. Wow! He must have done more thinking and reading. Yep, “…and stature,” both physically growing and reputation, “…and in favor with God and men.”

He was very popular in the community. They liked Him. Now, that's a good lesson. To know Jesus was to like Him. And, of course, God loved Him, it's because God was His Father, so there was that added extra, but to know Jesus was to like Him. Now, what about His family beyond Joseph and Mary? This is when He's still pretty young. What about siblings? Children have their challenges. My family did like everybody's does when you have multiple kids getting along. Well, there's an inkling here in Mark 6 that I think gives us some insight.

Now, what we're going to look at are a series of what you might call biblical snapshots of Christ's life, biblical snapshots of His life. Just zip through these and extrapolate what we can from them, Mark 6:1-3. “And He went out from there and He came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in synagogue.” You know, so He came into His own country, that means Nazareth.

“And many hearing Him were astonished.” Whoa. “They were saying, ‘Where did this Man get all these things?… Isn't this just the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?’ And they were offended.” They weren't paying attention to the deep well, that Jesus was mentally and spiritually. But they knew He was a carpenter and He was Mary's son. There's no mention of Joseph here. So, the conclusion is that Joseph must have died or he'd have been there.

Joseph, according to the customs and traditions of the time, you taught your son your trade. Joseph had to have been a carpenter then, so Jesus was a carpenter. He learned it from His Father. That's why we know He's a carpenter. Then where He would have gotten the carpenter's skills, the training, and being a carpenter didn't mean that He had a pickup and He drove to Lowe's and He got lumber and, you know, a table saw and stuff like carpenters do today. That meant that He went out and picked a tree and then said, "This looks like the roof line of that house I'm going to build." And He chopped it down. He killed trees and He smiled when it came down.

You know, I'm mocking the environmental activist movement a little bit here, but rightly so. In the Pacific Northwest, they're called tree huggers, and I think they hug trees because they suddenly realize that there is something bigger than themselves and it's a tree. And unfortunately, they're just mislead and they don't know, but trees were grown to be used. And Christ, of course, in His other life, spirit life, had made the trees as our Creator. But whatever the case, He would cut trees down. He would have had to do stone masonry work. It was much more than the carpenter of today who gets to specialize in the use of lumber that somebody already made into dimensions. He had to shape things into dimensions. This is long before that kind of mechanization had taken place.

And He had these brothers, two of them we recognize, James and Judas or Jude. James was the one who wrote James and he is the James in most of the book of Acts because the other James, James, the brother of John, was martyred in Acts 12. After that, James that's being referred to is James, the brother of Jesus. And Jude wrote the book of Jude and the brother of Jesus wrote the book of James.

So, they didn't really believe on Him during His lifetime. You can read John 7 and, you know, there was a little tension there. They kind of mocked Him, said, "Well, you know, if you're going to have all these disciples, then you need to go down and appear before them. You need to go down to the Feast now." And He says, "No, you go to the Feast. You can go anytime. I'm coming, but it will be after you go." And He came incognito because the Pharisees were looking for them at that time.

But there was a little tension but that tension disappeared at some point. They loved Him. He was their brother. There was a great respect and I'm sure after His death, that's when James and Jude and probably the others as well came into focus. Notice, though, He also had sisters, so He had at least two sisters. We don't know how many, might have been three, four, but at least two. Large families were, you know, the way families were in those days.

So this gives us a picture. He's still relatively young. It's the beginning of His ministry, but the dynamics there of having all these brothers and sisters and the family life, this is like a family picture, you begin to realize He knew how to deal with siblings. He lived with a big family, so He understood big families. So that's good to know, especially if you come from a large family or you feel like you do or you're going to camp for the first time tomorrow, and you aren't sure how you're going to get along with living in the dorm there with the other campers in your dorm, which is like a big family. But you'll survive. Christ did, thrived in fact.

Now let's look at some other Bible snapshots for just a few minutes. These occurred during His ministry, so now, He's in His 30s. And you say, "Well, that's not young. You're not a kid if you're in your 30s." Well, I call kids in their 30s kids now, but I didn't used to, I'll tell you that. But what we're looking at, we look at what He was like then and then extrapolate backwards. So what would He must have been like as a teenager, you know, beginning to make His way in life and taking, you know, the workload alongside His father Joseph or technically His stepfather, Joseph.

Well, let's look at Luke 12. Here's one of many snapshots. Frankly, I'm just giving you several. You'll be able to read the life of Christ more afterwards, and you'll begin to think, "Wow, if Jesus knew about that, then He had to have learned it somewhere before, and He had to have an interest in those things somewhere before, which would lead clear back to His youth to when He was a kid, as we say."

Chapter 12 starting in verse 54, near the end of Luke 12. In verse 54, “He said to the multitudes, ‘Whenever you would see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, “A shower is coming”; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, “Oh, it's going to be hot weather,” and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?’" So Jesus here snaps off two weather reports, bing, bing. Now how many of us, just looking, going outdoors and looking at the sky, analyzing what we have learned organically about Ohio weather, could say, "Oh, well, looks like we're going to have rain this afternoon," or, "It's going to be hot and muggy.” I'm sorry, that one's easy. Look at the calendar. It's going to be hot and muggy. It's the Midwest.

But the point is that Jesus knew. Now, when you look to the west and you see the cloud, why was the deal there? It was called the Mediterranean Sea, that's what it was. The clouds were forming over the ocean and when you saw them, they were headed east, straight for landfall. And Israel was landfall. It was only 70 miles wide and 150 miles long, north to south, so it was going to get rain if there was a cloud coming from the west. Good case and point was the days of Elijah when He had to face off with the 450 prophets of Baal and they came out worse for the event, and God sent down the ball of fire and fried Elijah's ox that he had sacrificed, and all the water, water soak sacrificed but Baal didn't do anything for those poor chaps that worked for Jezebel.

And then he went and he sat on the hill. He was at Mount Carmel and it's a mountain peak or at least a high hill that is higher than the surrounding area, and you can see the ocean from there and he would send his servant periodically and he says, "Look to the ocean." They have three and a half years of drought, three and a half years of no rain at all. It was very, very dry in the northern part of the country. Finally, the servant came back and he says, "There's just a tiny, little one way out there."

He says, "Quickly, go and tell King Ahab to get out of here fast unless he's got four-wheel drive on that chariot", which he didn't, and of course the rest of the story is that Ezekiel is a prophet, he tucked his robe that he wore up into the belt, which lifted it up above his knees so he could run, and he ran the entire length of the Valley of Jezreel ahead of Ahab's chariot and the rain was pounding right behind them. So he ran over about the distance of a marathon so that they wouldn't get wet. Here, they've been wanting to get wet and they tried to avoid it, but it caught up with them when they finally got home.

So that was the weather coming from the ocean and this is what Christ was saying. Weather comes from the ocean. Or if a south wind blows and you look up, "Whoa, south wind, that's not good, it's going to be really hot. You know, it could hit 110." The summer we were in Israel, it hit 110, 115 I think one time, but 110 pretty often because of the south or east wind or southeast wind. It would vary from the south to the east coming off the Arabian desert. That's why it was hot.

So Jesus knew weather. That meant that as a young person He paid attention to His surroundings and He paid attention to the weather patterns. He learned that someplace, and He would've learned it when He was young. It was something He grew up with. And He could discern the sky and predict the weather, just like others could, but they couldn't analyze the times they lived in, so, there was the lesson.

Number second snapshots in chapter 5, just a few pages back, it's right of the beginning of it. This is the time that He calls some of His disciples to be His disciples. And “So it was as the multitude about Him… pressed about Him,” they got in close by to be able to hear Him, “to hear the word of God that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret,” that's just another name for the Sea of Galilee, “and saw two boats standing in the lake; and fisherman had gone from them and were washing their nets.”

“And so He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s,” that is Simon Peter, “and asked him to put a little out from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes.” Oh, wow, you know, He just told you that He understands how to run a sound system. Some of our kids in some of our congregations do run our sound systems for us and that's fantastic. Christ could, too. And you say there was no sound system, He's out in the water. Exactly, His voice bounces off the water and uses probably an inlet there, I would guess because that would be easier harboring the fishing boats, bring Him into an inlet using the bank as an amphitheater. That's, in essence, a sound system. He understood how to do that and that's why He did that.

But He would've known things like that. He had to learn things like that. But that wasn't all that He knew and we can get that from this picture. “When He stopped speaking, He said to Simon, ‘I'm done talking now. Hey, let's go out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Let's go fishing.’ Simon said to Him, ‘Master, we toiled all night and we didn't catch anything; nevertheless, if that's what You want to do, I'll let down the net.’ And when they had done that, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. And they signaled to their partners on the other boat to come and help them and they filled both boats.”

Now, I don't think Jesus was just sitting there watching this happened. Simon was fishing with his brother Andrew and He would've immediately heaved to and started pulling on the net Himself to give them a hand. So He was strong, very strong physically. To be a carpenter, you had to be, so He could also help with the fishering, and He understood something about the fishing. He knew what to do. "So I told him to let the net down at a certain spot." He knew where the fish were.

“And He filled both boats, so they began to sink. And Simon Peter saw what an incredible haul it was, he fell down to Jesus' feet… at Jesus' knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’" He was sort of over odd. “Those that were with Him were astonished at the catch of fish that they'd taken; and so also were James and John. Those are the sons of Zebedee.” Some scholars think they were actually first cousins of Jesus Christ through Mary and their mother being sisters.

“Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.’ And so they left their boats when they got to land, and they followed Him and they became His disciples.” Now, there was a joke in there as well. You missed it in Luke but it's not so easily missed in Matthew. He says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." They were fisherman. They would be fishers of men. That's a word play that has to work in every language, at least conceptually, but I think it probably works directly in any language. "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."

He was good friends with local fisherman. He understood fishing. He had a sense of humor. He was willing to work. He understood sound systems, but that wasn't all He knew and He would've had to learn that growing up. If indeed that James and John were His cousins and He was a frequent visitor, and that seems to be the implication, even with His relationship with Peter, that they had been longtime friends, you know, growing up, in essence, together. And Nazareth was only about four miles away. That was all uphill, mind you, so you got terrible mileage, but if you didn't have a gas engine in your body, we're fine going up to Nazareth. But it was all uphill to Nazareth but not that far of an uphill haul.

The next story we want to look at is in chapter 13 just over the page right at the beginning. “And they were present that season…” this is another time, and “some people who told Him about the Galileans,” people from His own territory “whose blood Pilate” that's the Roman governor, “Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all Galileans because they suffered such things?’" See, that was what the Jews assumed. Well, if that happened to them, then they had to really be bad people. They were just hiding what they were doing wrong because it's the attitude that God's going to punish you. Well, God will punish in due course, but that isn't the reason that people suffer trials that they suffer all the time.

"I tell you no; but unless you likewise repent or you repent then you will likewise perish." We all have to repent. He used it as a teaching time, an opportunity to teach a great lesson of the gospel. Well, that was 18, it wasn't done. It wasn't just the horrible tragedy of the Galileans who got on the wrong side of Pilate's troops, and when they were there at some festival and were making an offering at a temple and the guards fell on them and killed them. It doesn't say how many died, but that had to be news that rocked the world of Judea at the time. Jesus was aware of it. And He was aware of it and He commented on it and He drew a lesson from it. That meant that He not only heard the news, He remembered it. He thought about it and could reflect on it.

Look again, the next one. "Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse sinners than all of the other people that lived in Jerusalem? I say they weren’t; but unless you repent, you'll likewise perish." Now, the tower of Siloam was a tower, apparently a, you know, a building that was close to the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, and for some reason, it fell. You know, let's see leaning tower of Pisa hasn't fallen yet, but it might someday. They've actually reinforced it. They don't want it to fall, tourist trade. But the tower of Siloam went down and it landed on 18 people. It's just one of those sad tragedies that we hear about them periodically today, sometimes even bigger numbers.

Jesus was aware of the news, current events, aware and He thought about them to the point that He could comment on those kinds of things. But here's another element that I think is quite fascinating. It's in Matthew getting to the end of our snapshot list for today. Matthew 23 is the first section leading up to verse 37 is where Christ confronts the Pharisees and Sadducees and uses really sharp wit, satire, and sarcasm to make them mad, because it's around a week or so from the time of His crucifixion and now it's time to precipitate action on their part, and He does. But it's after He had finished that part of the diatribe that He came to verse 37. He looked to Jerusalem, wherever He was at the time, and He just says He was with the multitudes. But He must have been in Jerusalem maybe at the temple area somewhere or Olives… Mount of Olives possibly. It's hard to say. Mount of Olives would make sense.

And He looks across the Valley of Kidron to the west and there's Jerusalem. Now the Mount of Olives sits 100 feet higher than Jerusalem, the temple mount, so it's 2,600 feet above sea level and change, and then the temple mounts around 2,500 feet. So you can see down into it. You get a panoramic view of the whole city from up there. That would be a logical guess is He might have been up there. And He said, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’"

He is bewailing the fate of Jerusalem. He loved His city. He loved His country. He was a true patriot. In one sense in the church, we are true patriots because we are more concerned about the spiritual future of our people, whoever our people are, in America or other countries. We're more concerned about their spiritual future than even their physical future, likewise was Jesus. But He loved His nation. He is a deep patriot, great patriotic, historical patriotic love because He talks about how Jerusalem killed the prophets, stoned the prophets.

Well, that's a knowledge of the history of His nation and that's of course a great thing for you, kids today to learn the history, history of America, the history of whatever country, any that might be outside this country or not be American citizens, the history of your country and of the world, and especially the history of the Bible, and then how it fits together with the history of the world itself.

So it reflects the fascinating picture of Him bewailing and bemoaning and mourning, actually lamenting I guess is the right word to use. He's lamenting Jerusalem in its ultimate destruction and looking forward to the time, though, that it will be a blessed city again when He comes in the name of the Lord. It also shows that He understood chickens. It's right there. He said, "How often I would have gathered you together," so there's a knowledge of His pre-existence, His eternity, "As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." So it's very important I think for our young people today is to learn about life, learn about how things grow and how chickens take care of their little chicks.

Jesus knew that stuff. He paid attention to it. He learned things. Beyond being a carpenter, which could've taken up all of His time, but He studied agriculture. He understood the weather. He understood all sorts of things. If you look back over His growing up years, you'd have to draw the conclusion He loved His folks and His family. He worked hard.

He was physically fit. He walked everywhere and He was strong enough to be very imposing to the money changers when He drove them out of the temple twice. He was physically neat and clean, and that's what we expect. He didn't look like they painted the pictures of Him. He didn't wear the long, goofy robe and He didn't have these really long, weird hands and fingers. And He would've probably, to blend in with the crowd, He would've been about five and a half feet tall. It says in Isaiah that there's no comeliness about Him that would, you know, make us want to… He didn’t look like a rock star. Well, hold it, that's a bad analogy. He just didn't look like anybody that would stand out. He just was an average person, but He was physically neat and clean.

In Ezekiel 44:20, Jesus will reinstitute the temple priesthood in the Millennium and He has a specific direction in that verse that says that those priests will keep their hair well trimmed and that they have certain uniforms that they wear at certain times. Well, there's a principle there. Being neat and clean, grooming neat and clean and modestly, and wearing what's appropriate for the time.

He loved the outdoors. He understood fish, agriculture, wildlife. He fished Himself and ate meat. He was trustworthy. He was a keen intellect. He was funny. He was witty. He knew the Bible. He was kindhearted. He wasn't weird. He had many friends. He had a healthy family that included a lot of sisters. He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well. He understood women, not shy in that regard at all. He liked girls. He provided for His mother while He was dying, speaking to John to take care of her after His death.

He never married. You think, well, how could he have been normal if He never married? Okay. Well, there are several reasons. Number one, His life was dedicated to the Kingdom of God and to all mankind, not just to one woman. Likewise, number two, knowing of His coming sacrifice ahead of time, it would have been fair to a young wife to start a family. And number three, He was already betrothed. He was promised to somebody else, another girl. And you think, who was that? Look around. It's the Church. He was promised to the true Church of God. That's why He was never married.

Jesus Christ as a kid would've been fun to be around, safe to be around, fascinating and educational to be around. He would've been a true friend, faithful and loyal and helpful and inspiring. He would've been a true friend to live for, one who you would be so bonded with in the cause of God's Kingdom that you would also be willing to die for, and we have to recognize that. That's where the disciples were, with the exception of Judas Iscariot of course. But the disciples were willing to live for Him, to work with Him, to be serving at His side during their time of being taught by Him, and they were all willing to die for Him, including John who didn't have to.

As far as we know, all of the 12 were martyred. Peter and Paul, Paul not being of the 12 but both Peter and Paul both definitely martyred. But based on John 21, the apostle John didn't die the death of a martyr. Now, he was willing to, though, there’s the lesson. And that is partly the impact that Christ would've had upon them when they were all young. They knew each other. There was a marvelous study to consider what Jesus Christ was like as a kid, a lesson that can draw us closer to Him and closer to God, the Father, as well.