“Road Trip: The Boy Jesus Travels to Jerusalem”

“Road Trip: The Boy Jesus Travels to Jerusalem”

1. The Trip to Jerusalem
2. Jesus Preparing for His Bar Mitzvah

“Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.” (Luke 2:41–42)

1. Jesus is Left Behind

“After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.” (Luke 2:43–45)

1. Jesus Will Confound Us All
2. What is the Fuss About? Jesus Challenges our Thinking

“After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”” (Luke 2:46–49)

1. Jesus Doesn’t Fit In A Religious Category

“After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:46–47)

1. Jesus Disturbs His Followers

“When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”” (Luke 2:48)

“I dethrone him if I demand that he act in ways that satisfy my ideas. God is God. If he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in his will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notion of what he is up to.” (Elisabeth Elliot)

1. Jesus Challenges Us To See His Unseen Purpose

““Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.” (Luke 2:49–50)

III.  For Jesus: It’s All About Us

“But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:50–51)