Why Did Jesus Need to ‘Learn Obedience’?
00:00:00.000 | Merry Christmas to you all and depending on where you listen, perhaps Sunday night on
00:00:09.360 | Christmas Eve you're listening or on Christmas Day, either way, from all of us at DesiringGod.org,
00:00:16.040 | I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.
00:00:18.400 | Thank you for listening to the podcast and making it a part of your day.
00:00:21.640 | We really appreciate it.
00:00:23.700 | And this, of course, is the season to reckon with the fact that Almighty God became little
00:00:30.280 | boy.
00:00:32.160 | And not only that, Jesus grew up and He matured, which leads to this question from a listener
00:00:37.540 | named Tina.
00:00:38.540 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:39.600 | I need your help.
00:00:41.160 | Can you explain to me Hebrews chapter 5, verses 8 and 9?
00:00:44.680 | Particularly this Christmas season, I want to better understand the early years after
00:00:48.780 | the Incarnation, specifically how Jesus learned obedience and had to be made perfect as a
00:00:56.620 | child.
00:00:57.820 | These verses make it sound like Jesus wasn't fully God and fully human, but that He had
00:01:01.700 | to work His way to perfection and obedience.
00:01:05.820 | So what does human maturity look like in Jesus, the little boy?"
00:01:10.380 | Okay, I did a whole "Ask Pastor John" on these two verses, Hebrews 5, 8 and 9, June 2016.
00:01:18.280 | So let me just give the conclusion of that effort and then tackle, I think, what she's
00:01:26.460 | most curious about, namely Jesus as a boy.
00:01:32.140 | Here's the verse.
00:01:33.140 | "Although He was a son," this is Hebrews 5, 8, "although He was a son, He learned obedience
00:01:40.180 | through what He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation
00:01:47.140 | to all who obey Him."
00:01:49.100 | Now this same book of Hebrews says Christ was tempted in every way, yet without sin.
00:01:58.740 | So learning obedience from what He suffered and being made perfect don't mean that He
00:02:05.940 | moved from being in a state of sin to being in a state of sinless perfection.
00:02:12.220 | That's what they don't mean, because this author makes clear He never sinned.
00:02:16.740 | Well what do they mean then?
00:02:18.620 | What does it imply?
00:02:19.740 | That He learned obedience.
00:02:22.940 | What they mean is this.
00:02:24.220 | He learned obedience not in the sense that He moved from disobedience to obedience, but
00:02:30.420 | that He moved from untested or untried obedience to fully tested, fully tried obedience.
00:02:39.220 | So He was being tested at every point and proving Himself obedient at every point,
00:02:45.100 | like you'd be giving a person a test and he gets an A on every one.
00:02:49.700 | It's not like, "Oh, He proved His obedience by getting all A's, so He must have had B's."
00:02:54.380 | No.
00:02:55.380 | You can get an A on every test if you're Jesus.
00:02:57.580 | And He was made perfect doesn't mean that He moved from sinful imperfection to sinless
00:03:04.420 | perfection, but that He moved from incomplete obedience to full, complete, total life of
00:03:13.340 | finished obedience that fitted Him perfectly for His great sacrifice.
00:03:19.100 | So the question that Tina is asking, I think, is what we can know about this younger, less
00:03:27.020 | mature, less complete person, Jesus Christ, as a youth.
00:03:32.380 | So let's read it.
00:03:34.100 | Let's read the one story, the one story that we have in Luke 2, 40 to 52.
00:03:40.500 | We get one glimpse into this boy's life, and here it is.
00:03:45.420 | And the child grew and became strong and filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon
00:03:50.580 | him.
00:03:51.580 | Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he
00:03:55.660 | was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.
00:04:01.960 | And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in
00:04:07.220 | Jerusalem.
00:04:08.220 | His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's
00:04:12.020 | journey and then they began to search for him among the relatives and acquaintances.
00:04:17.220 | And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him.
00:04:21.100 | After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them
00:04:26.440 | and asking them questions.
00:04:28.420 | And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
00:04:35.580 | And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.
00:04:39.180 | And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so?
00:04:42.940 | Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress."
00:04:47.380 | And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me?
00:04:52.460 | Did you not know I must be in my father's house?"
00:04:57.620 | Or about my father's business.
00:05:00.060 | It's sort of my father's things, and you have to decide what particular is meant there.
00:05:06.540 | My father's business, my father's house.
00:05:09.020 | And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.
00:05:12.900 | And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
00:05:19.520 | And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
00:05:22.980 | And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men.
00:05:27.580 | Now I see four things that you can say about Jesus as a boy from this.
00:05:33.660 | Number one, Jesus was sufficiently intelligent and articulate and informed in the Scriptures
00:05:40.380 | so that he could interact with the temple teachers so as to amaze them.
00:05:45.320 | Number two, when asked why he stayed behind in the temple, he answered, "This is my father's
00:05:52.300 | house," or "This is my father's business."
00:05:54.180 | In other words, "This is my real calling," not carpentry.
00:05:59.340 | Joseph's house and Joseph's business is not mine.
00:06:04.460 | God is my ultimate father, not the carpenter Joseph, and I'm going to be back here in some
00:06:10.340 | years to show these teachers how I came to fulfill these Scriptures.
00:06:15.500 | Number three, he was submissive to his parents in a way that did not compromise his calling
00:06:22.420 | and did not compromise their authority.
00:06:24.780 | And number four, he grew in wisdom and stature in a way that won favor with people and with
00:06:32.900 | God.
00:06:33.900 | And I would add a fifth, not from this passage, but from Hebrews 4.15, 1 Peter 2.22, 1 John
00:06:39.140 | 3.5, John 8.46, 2 Corinthians 5.21.
00:06:42.900 | In all his life, he never sinned.
00:06:46.740 | He was sinless all through his boyhood and young adulthood.
00:06:51.860 | But here is the most striking and probably the most important thing to realize.
00:06:59.740 | In the four accounts of Jesus' life—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—this is the only glimpse
00:07:09.020 | into this young boyhood or any of his life up till he was 30 years old.
00:07:16.800 | The Gospels are not ordinary biographies.
00:07:20.940 | What a weird biography.
00:07:22.300 | He was born and he turned 30.
00:07:25.380 | They focus almost entirely on the last three years of Jesus' life.
00:07:31.860 | And the question is, why?
00:07:34.340 | And I assume it's because if the Gospel writers included lots of stories about his
00:07:42.940 | boyhood, they would be seriously distracting from what he came to be and do.
00:07:51.140 | They would stir up unhelpful curiosity about things that are not crucial.
00:07:56.900 | So it seems to me that the vast silence, the vast silence about Jesus' first 30 years
00:08:07.480 | is like putting a huge megaphone to the last three years of his life, saying, "Look at
00:08:15.580 | this!
00:08:16.580 | Look at this!
00:08:17.580 | Linger over this, and surely that is what we should do this Christmas."
00:08:24.940 | Glory in the arrival of Jesus as the God-man, and then do what Paul did in Philippians 2:8.
00:08:33.980 | This is amazing.
00:08:34.980 | I wonder if everybody's listening who has ever thought about this when they read verse
00:08:39.460 | 8.
00:08:40.460 | Here is Paul's summary from manger to crucifixion of the life of Jesus in one verse.
00:08:47.940 | Here it goes.
00:08:48.940 | "Being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on
00:08:58.820 | a cross."
00:08:59.820 | Period.
00:09:01.660 | Found in human form, manger.
00:09:05.540 | Next main event, cross.
00:09:08.660 | Amazing.
00:09:10.460 | And I think that's the way we should celebrate Christmas.
00:09:15.060 | Every carol, every candle, every present, every meal, every mistletoe, every manger
00:09:19.940 | scene catapulting us over 30 years to the cross.
00:09:26.260 | That's why he came.
00:09:27.780 | That's why it is a merry, merry Christmas.
00:09:31.580 | "Behold, I bring you good news of great joy."
00:09:35.780 | Good news, good news of great, great, great joy that will be for all the people.
00:09:42.420 | "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, and the way he saved was at
00:09:52.460 | the cross."
00:09:53.460 | Amen.
00:09:54.740 | What a great place to wrap up and end for Christmas.
00:09:58.460 | And again, Pastor John and I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas as you reflect
00:10:04.100 | on the glories of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross, from Bethlehem to Calvary.
00:10:10.460 | What a sobering thought and what a sobering connection.
00:10:13.620 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:15.540 | We will see you on Wednesday.
00:10:16.580 | [END]
00:10:17.100 | 1.
00:10:18.100 | What a sobering thought and what a sobering connection.
00:10:19.100 | I am your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:20.100 | We will see you on Wednesday.
00:10:21.100 | [END]
00:10:21.100 | [BLANK_AUDIO]