Sermons
GLORY HIDDEN IN HUMANITY
Series: The Glory of ChristGLORY HIDDEN IN HUMANITY
Introduction to series: “The Glory Of Christ”
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / January 18, 2015
There is so much about the life of Jesus of which we know so little.
¡ The Scriptures tell of His birth. / Lk.2:7
¡ The New Testament also notes His circumcision & naming on the 8th day after His birth. / Lk.2:21
¡ We also read about His presentation in the temple as a first born. / Lk.2:22
According to OT Law (Ex.13:2-15 & Num.18:15-16), this was to be done a month after the birth of a son.
¡ Shortly thereafter, a dedication service took place at the temple.
This was to take place on the 41st day after the birth of a male child. / Lev.12:1-8
¡ His early childhood years are encapsulated with a very brief summary statement. / Lk.2:39-40
And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord,
They returned to Galilee, to their own city in Nazareth.
And the child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom;
And the grace of God was upon Him.
Vs.41 adds 4 And His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.
¡ Sometime during the early days of His life, comes a visit from the wise men from the east. / Mt.2:1-12
¡ One final insight into the days of his youth, at the age of 12, is provided. / Lk.2:42f
Vs.46 notes 4 And it came about 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.
This episode concludes with a brief statement of about the years that followed this incident (Lk.2:51-52) 7
And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth;
And He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
We know so little about so much of His life.
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What happened to Jesus between the after the first forty days of His life until the age of twelve?
And furthermore, what happened to Jesus between the ages of twelve and thirty.
Lk.3:21 tells of His baptism.
And Lk3:23 adds 4 when He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age.
These unknown years GREATLY STIR OUR CURIOSITY.
We can safely extrapolate that the life of Jesus was very much like the life of a typical Jewish child:
filled with compliant obedience to His parents … a healthy respect for His elders …
filled with all manner of instruction, attendance at all kinds of Jewish festivals, diligent study in the Scriptures ...
all with a strong emphasis on honoring God and obeying the teachings of the Old Testament.
Heb.2:17 states, “He had to be make His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
Heb.5:8 also notes 4 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”
As R.C. Sproul observes - - This is both astonishing and disconcerting.
It is astonishing in that Jesus is clearly the most famous and most studied personage from the ancient world.
Yet we know next to nothing of the vast majority of the years of His life.
The synoptic gospels give us a sketchy biography with a heavy concentration of the last three years of His life.
John’s Gospel spends about two-thirds of its pages on the last week of Jesus’ life.
This void of information or blank space about the early days of Jesus has given rise to various extra-biblical writings.
Pseudipigrapha (false script).
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One such document is known as, “The Childhood/Infancy Gospel of Thomas”.
This is a fictional writing interspersed with gospel facts that can be dated
somewhere around the 5th century A.D. - - hundreds of years after the life of Christ.
In this book we read of Jesus making little birds out of clay and causing them to fly away.
It tells of one occasion when a boy playmate who accidentally bumps into Jesus is struck dead.
It also tells of a time when Joseph the carpenter cut a piece of wood too short.
The young Jesus stretched it out to the proper size.
(Yet Jn.2:11 notes that Jesus’ turning water into wine was “the beginning of His signs/miracles.”)
There are numerous books that have attempted to fill in “the gap” concerning the hidden years of Jesus.
All of these are spurious and ought to be taken with a grain of salt.
These absurdities serve to deface the gospel records.
We can safely conclude that the silence of the New Testament documents is not accidental.
“The gap is there by design” (Wayne Jackson / The Eloquence Of Those Silent Years).
The NT writings were specifically purposefully designed to focus on God’s unfolding plan of redemption.
We can rest assured that what is not told to us about the first thirty years of the life of Jesus,
falls into the category of, “the secret things that belong to the Lord our God” (Deut.29:29).
There is a real sense in which these hidden years actually serve to confirm the authenticity of the Bible.
If Matthew or Mark or Luke or John were “uninspired” they would very likely fell compelled
to bolster their credibility by supplying all kinds of details about the early life of Jesus.
This makes us think of John’s gospel.
Of all of the many miracles that Jesus performed, John only tells us about seven signs.
In Jn.20:30-31 John wraps up his gospel narrative by writing 7
Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples,
Which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe
That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
As a final postscript John writes (Jn.21:25) 7
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail,
I suppose the world itself would not contain the books whichwere written.
When I prepared for my sermon for the Sunday before Christmas,
I kept thinking of the song, “Meekness and Majesty”.
We spoke of how the story of the birth of Jesus is filled with heavenly drama;
It is a story filled with fear and trepidation, as well as joy and exultation.
It is a story chock-full with wonder and awe.
¡ Lk.1:26 tells of an angel named Gabriel who was sent from God to Mary.
¡ Mt.1:18f tells of an angel (perhaps Gabriel as well) who appeared to Joseph in a dream.
¡ Lk.2:8f tells of yet another angel who appeared to shepherds watching their sheep in the fields.
Lk.2:13 records an angelic chorus that (sang) praises, saying, “Glory to God in the highest…”
The Shepherds were compelled to go straight to Bethlehem and see this great event.
Vs. 20 / “The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all they here and seen.”
¡ Matthew’s gospel tells of how the wise men “saw His star and rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Mt.2:10).
Several key events in the life of Jesus speak directly of God’s GLORY and often include
the accompaniment of angels or other key Bible characters (Moses, Elijah, Simeon, Anna).
Birth … Circumsion … Baptism … Temptation … Transfiguration … Crucifixion … Ascension … Parousia.
Jeannie came home and told me about R.C. Spoul’s book, “The Glory Of Christ”, which I obtained about 2 weeks ago.
It’s a hard concept to fully grasp - - this meekness and majesty thing.
How could Jesus be both fully human and yet fully God simultaneously?!
The life of Jesus was marked by humiliation (humbleness) and suffering.
His humanity often worked to conceal or veil the splendor of His glory.
But there were numerous times when the Deity of Jesus could not be restrained.
A Latin phrase was popular in the 16th century: finitum non capax infinitum.
The finite cannot grasp the infinite … The finite cannot contain the infinite.
John begins His gospel by declaring (Jn.1:14) 7
“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and WE BEHELD HIS GLORY,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
There was much about Jesus that was UN-REMARKABLE.
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Is.53:2-3 notes 4 He grew up before Him like a tender shoot (suckling),
And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him,
No appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with much grielf.
And like one from who men hide their face, He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Even the expression, “man of Nazareth” was an expression of His humility.
Mt.2:23 states, “He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’.”
Had Jesus been reared in Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria or Rome - - that might have been a springboard to greatness.
But N-a-z-a-r-e-t-h ??
Remember in Jn.1:43f when Philip excitingly exclaimed to Nathaniel,
“We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Jospeh.”
Nathaniel was unimpressed - - How could the Messiah come from Nazareth.
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” / Jn.1:46
He was probably also thinking: How can the Messiah be the “son of a carpenter”?
In this series we want to revisit the gospels, noting certain times when the glory of Christ shined forth.
I am convinced that this journey will give up deeper insights (Biblical wisdom) to better understand Jesus our Savior.
