The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: As many as received him, the Lord Jesus, to them gave he right or the power or the authority to become sons and daughters of God. It's a decision that I make and when I make it, I have a know-so salvation.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Today, we're going to talk about Jesus as a boy, the boy Jesus. We're accustomed to thinking about Jesus healing the sick, breaking the loaves and the fishes and feeding the multitude, calling Lazarus to come forth. That is where we usually think about Jesus, but I want you to think about Jesus as a little twelve-year-old boy. That's what we're going to talk about today. We talk about it because it's in the Bible. Here's where he spoke his very first recorded words. He had spoken many times prior to being twelve years old, but these words are recorded.

If I overlook these words, I am overlooking something that is so important about Jesus and so beneficial to me as I read it and as I hear it. Let's go back to chapter two, verses 41 and 42. The parents of Jesus elected to go to the Feast of the Passover. There were three annual feasts that Israel observed every year, and every male Jew was required to attend at least one of those annual worship celebrations. The Feast of the Passover had to do with remembering and celebrating when the death angel went through Egypt.

All the firstborn of Egypt died, and those who had the blood applied to the doorpost, their firstborn lived. It was the blood that protected. So they take Jesus, twelve years old, to the Feast of the Passover. Jesus is now going to become, in the eyes of Israel, a man. He is going to go through the rite of passage and become a son of the law, Ben Torah, Bar Mitzvah. He is now going to receive a certain degree of privilege in making his own decisions. This is a very important time, and so the parents take Jesus to the temple for this Ben Torah.

This is the only glimpse of Jesus that we get during his adolescent years. We have thought about Jesus as a baby at Christmas time, but now he is a teenager, an adolescent, and we're going to hear what he has to say. At this moment, after Jesus speaks, he goes back to Nazareth and lives with his parents. At this time, the curtain drops and we don't hear from Jesus again for the next 18 years. The next time we hear from Jesus, he is a full-grown man at the Jordan River to be baptized.

Something absolutely phenomenal happens when he is twelve years old for the church to hear and receive and be abundantly blessed by it. Every word that proceeds from his mouth, even this twelve-year-old boy, is important. In verse 44, it says that the Bar Mitzvah was over. The covered wagons were loaded, and the caravan had started back toward Nazareth. It is going to be several days on the road. There were several boys that had gone to Ben Torah, and Jesus was only one of them.

The parents, now respecting this rite of passage giving Jesus the responsibility to make decisions on his own, allowed him to select whose wagon he was going to ride in, and they assumed that he was going to ride with the relatives. Some of these boys decided they would have their own wagon, and all the boys who were now sons of the law would ride together. They would talk about the things of God and share together. The parents assumed that Jesus was with the relatives or perhaps with other sons of the law.

That's a dangerous assumption to assume that he is someplace where he might not be. We don't have to guess about the presence of Jesus. We don't have to assume that he is somewhere or have that supposition that he's in our heart. We can know. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he was telling me how he had been raised in the church. He went to parochial school all his life. Through his elementary years and high school years, he went to church every morning for mass.

For 18 years, he had mass every morning, Monday through Friday. He told me he had had enough church for a lifetime, more than most people. Then he said to me, "Jack, when we get to heaven, I might be a couple of notches higher than you." I told him he might be. He got a little serious and said he treats everybody right and that he is a fair man. He is. I've known him for years. But he is assuming. He really doesn't know, but he can know.

We all can know. As many as received him, the Lord Jesus, to them gave he right or the power or the authority to become sons and daughters of God. It's a decision that I make, and when I make it, I have a know-so salvation. It's in my heart. I know I've got it. I know he's got me. You can have it today. You can know beyond a doubt that when this life is over, you're going to heaven. Get the guesswork out of it. It's entirely up to you and me.

No one can make that decision for you. Not even God can make that decision for you. That is something that you and I must make for ourselves and accept the Lord as our personal savior. There are others that are saying, "I've been baptized, I must be right with the Lord. I'm a member of the church. I've taken communion." It's not "I must be." You can be, and you can know that you are. That is the wonderful thing to live this life knowing that when it's over, you are going to heaven.

Live this life knowing that as long as you are here, Jesus has you and you have Jesus. The parents of Jesus couldn't find him for one day. They searched for him and couldn't find him. Then they go on a prolonged search of three days. They retraced their steps all the way back to the temple, and there they found him. Isn't that a nice place to find your son or your daughter? In the house of God. What a place to find a child. In the church, in the house of God.

There is where they found him in the temple. Now we get the very first recorded words of Jesus. I pray the Holy Spirit will open your ears, focus your attention, and clear your mind. Here's what he says: "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" Some versions say, "I must be in my Father's house." Pay special attention to these words because they stand at the very forefront of his teaching and they announce the very purpose of his being.

He didn't need to say anymore, and for 18 years, we hear nothing from the Lord Jesus Christ. In the next message, we're going to discover what went on with Jesus during those 18 silent years. Maybe they weren't quite so silent. We're going to look at that. Notice what he said. He said, "I had to be in my Father's house. I had to be. I must." Do you have a divine must inside you? You need to look at your heart and see where Jesus is.

You might have tucked him over there in the corner in a closet somewhere, ready to pull him out when you need him or your kids need him or you have some financial problems. Jesus isn't a rabbit's foot that you rub. Jesus really cares for me, and I wonder if I really care for him. But I must be in my Father's house. There's a divine must. I had to be in my Father's house. I must talk to my God in prayer, taking my burdens to him.

When I'm burdened, the first thing I'm supposed to think of is that he's there to hear and answer my prayer. I must be in worship. I must sing those songs. I must hear and participate in those choruses. I must sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his voice through his word. That's a divine, holy must, not an obligation must. If you feel an obligation to get up and go, you might be a bedside Baptist. But I'm coming to the house of God because of a constraining love.

I must provide for my children. I must provide for Corrine. I do it because I want to. It's the joy of my life to be that father and that husband. And so it is with God. It's not because I just feel constrained by obligation. The constraining comes from a love, a devotion, and a nearness to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love his house, I love his people, and I love his word. This next week is not going to be all that it would have been if I had been a bedside Baptist.

There would be something missing. There would be a void. When I come to the house of the Lord, I am blessed. Solomon said, "O thou whom my soul loveth." Have you said to Jesus recently, "I love you, Jesus"? Let's just close our eyes and maybe put our hands up a little bit and say, "I love you, Jesus." O thou whom my soul loveth. When you begin to talk to Jesus like that with devotion, with love, and with affection, something begins to happen inside.

There's a change, and a wonderful worship begins to come forth from the Lord. Solomon said, "The one my soul loves." Now here is what the apostle Paul said. He said, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Read it with me. "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Is that true of me? Paul says, "I consider." It's something that I've got to do. I have to do some considering and some analyzing.

It's like a CPA or a financial analysis. I've got to consider that everything is a loss compared to the gain. I've got to bring them together and look at it. Think about your religion. Think about Jesus. Think about your relationship with God. Don't assume. "Oh, I joined the Largo Community Church 25 years ago." Big deal. I'm glad you did, but so what if you don't love Jesus? What if you don't have that divine must? What if you don't know the power of his presence in prayer?

Notice he said, "I considered everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing." There it is—knowing. Not surmising and not assuming. Away with the suppositions. I can know Christ Jesus my Lord. Paul is a CPA. Notice this scripture. "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." There are two columns: there is a loss column and there is a gain column. Everything in the loss column had at one time been in the gain column.

He thought that power, prestige, obedience to the law, and the privileges of his birth made him the greatest. He had a high opinion of himself. All of that was real. What was in the loss column was the crucified, risen Jesus. He didn't think much of Jesus or the followers of Jesus. In fact, he was out persecuting them. But he met Jesus. Have you truly met Jesus? When you do, a wonderful, mysterious, supernatural change is going to take place. You're going to become a new creation in the Lord.

When he accepted the Lord, he said, "I consider everything a loss." Power, prestige, obedience to the law, and privileges of birth. When I compare the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, look at what is in the loss column and look at what is in the gain column. That is what it is when you truly become a child of God. Jesus said he had to be in his Father's house. I'm going because there's a love tug. I have to be there.

Jesus calls God the Father "Abba." Throughout the New Testament, when he spoke to the Father, it was always Abba in the original language. Abba Father indicates an awareness that he had of a very special relationship with the Father. When I was a boy growing up in Western Pennsylvania, I would see the dads of my friends and I would say, "Hello, Mr. Jones" or "Mr. Smith." I was just being respectful. But when I saw my dad, it was different. In my heart, I was connected.

That's my dad. When I was born, some of my dad's DNA came into me. DNA is an acid that localizes itself in the cell nuclei. That very liquid came into my body. I have my dad's life in me. When I became a born-again Christian, something of God—spiritual DNA—came into me. In my heart, there was a change. Not that I became perfect. I've made many mistakes that I've had to repent and confess. But a life came in.

The very life of Almighty God part of him came into me and came into you. What he feels, you're starting to feel—the worship of angels, the worship of the church, and the call of the spirit. All of that now is working in me. I can't put it off. When I begin to think of God and what has transpired, Jesus said that there is a special relationship that you and I have with the Father. It's a relationship like he had.

When he was ready to go back to heaven, he got with the disciples and he said, "Do you know who you are? I'm ascending to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father. Do you know who you are? You are like me. We're children of God. My Father is your Father. My God is your God. I'm going back to heaven to be with him." In my Father's house, I must be there because I get nurture. I am fed with spiritual bread, spiritual meat, and spiritual drink.

I become stronger spiritually. There are a lot of people that come to church and go home. They don't get that bread and that drink. There's an attitude or a disposition eclipsing the power of God, so you're not growing. Someone said, "I've been saved for 20 years." No, you've had one year of experience repeated 20 times. You're still an infant and you're easily upset. You may be in the church and you may go to heaven, but you're still a spiritual infant. You're missing something of the divine.

I must come to the house of God to worship. He's worthy. I've got to tell him and sing it to him. There's a divine must inside me. When I have my burdens and my difficulties, it's not long until I think, "I must pray." There is a Father in heaven who loves me and hears me. There's a warmth of love among the saints of God. I love everybody equally. Is this the church, the bride of Christ? Are we all part of the bride of Christ?

The hand cannot say to the foot, "I don't need you." You may not say that, but your attitude is echoing through the universe. I'm not just talking about a building. I'm talking about the house of God being in me. Everywhere I go, Sunday worship is with me. I won't forget you this week. I am able to close my eyes and see you. You're with me all week long. That hymn, that message, that anthem—it's enveloping me. I carry it with me. I continue to be in the presence of God.

Guest (Male): We'd like to invite you to join Pastor Jack Morris and The Healing Word family in both prayer and support of this ministry. Your prayer strengthens us and your gifts, large or small, help us extend the reach of God's word to more people who need his hope. Every gift is deeply appreciated. To stand with us today, simply visit thehealingword.com and click on the donate tab. Together we can share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.