Jesus as a boy/young man

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carla on December 23, 2008 at 10:42pm

Hi Vicki,

I pulled the following off of www.gotquestions.org


You should find some of your answers in this...

Question: "Who was the real historical Jesus?"

Answer: Without a doubt one of the most frequently asked questions is “Who was Jesus?” There is no doubt that Jesus has, by far, the highest name recognition throughout the world. Fully one-third of our world’s population—about 2.5 billion people—call themselves Christians. Islam, which comprises about 1.5 billion people, actually recognizes Jesus as the second greatest prophet after Mohammed. Of the remaining 3.2 billion people (roughly half the world’s population), most have either heard of the name of Jesus or know about Him.

If one were to put together a summary of the life of Jesus from His birth to His death, it would be somewhat sparse. He was born of Jewish parents in Bethlehem, a small town south of Jerusalem, while the territory was under Roman occupation. His parents moved north to Nazareth, where He grew up; hence He was commonly known as “Jesus of Nazareth.” His father was a carpenter, so Jesus likely learned that trade in His early years. At around thirty years of age He began a public ministry. He chose a dozen men of dubious reputation as His disciples and worked out of Capernaum, a large fishing village and trading center on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. From there He traveled and preached throughout the region of Galilee, often moving among neighboring Gentiles and Samaritans with intermittent journeys to Jerusalem.

His unusual teachings and methodology startled, as well as troubled, many. His revolutionary message, coupled with astonishing miracles and healings, garnered a huge following. His popularity among the populace grew rapidly and, as a result, it was noticed by the well-entrenched leaders of the Jewish faith. Soon these Jewish leaders became jealous and resentful of His success. Many of these leaders found His teachings offensive and felt that their established religious traditions and ceremonies were being jeopardized. They soon plotted with the Roman rulers to have Him killed. It was during this time that one of Jesus’ disciples betrayed Him to the Jewish leaders for a paltry sum of money. Shortly thereafter they had Him arrested, engineered a hastily arranged series of mock trials, and summarily executed Him by crucifixion.

But unlike any other in history, His death was not the end of His story; it was in fact, the beginning. Christianity exists only because of what happened after Jesus died. Three days after His death, His disciples and many others began to claim that He had returned to life from the dead. His grave was found empty, the body gone, and numerous appearances were witnessed by many different groups of people, at different locations, and among dissimilar circumstances.

As a result of all this, people began to proclaim that He was the Christ, or the Messiah. They claimed His resurrection validated the message of forgiveness of sin through His sacrifice. At first, they declared this good news, known as the Gospel, in Jerusalem, the same city where He was put to death. This new following soon became known as the Way (see Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23; Acts 24:22) and expanded rapidly. In a short period of time, this gospel message of faith spread even beyond the region, expanding as far as Rome as well as to the very outermost of its vast empire.

It was Dr. James Allan Francis who penned the following words that aptly describe the influence Jesus through the history of mankind:

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher."

"He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself . . ."

"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth—His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend."

"Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress."

"I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."

The late Wilbur Smith, respected Bible Scholar of the last generation, once wrote: “The latest edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica gives twenty thousand words to this person, Jesus, and does not even hint that He did not exist—more words, by the way, than are given to Aristotle, Alexander, Cicero, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte.”

George Buttrick, recognized as one of the ten greatest preachers of the twentieth century, wrote: “Jesus gave history a new beginning. In every land he is at home . . . His birthday is kept across the world. His death-day set a gallows against every skyline.”

Even Napoleon himself admitted: "I know men and I tell that Jesus Christ was no mere man: between him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison."

Blessings, Carla

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ian M Wilks on October 15, 2010 at 10:43am

I understand that some of the literature that didn't make it into the Bible covers Jesus' early years. I have not read any of this literature yet but understand a lot of it gives an insight into early Christianity.

Hope this helps.

God Bless

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on October 15, 2010 at 2:05pm

Hello family,

Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers 49 "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

>>There is alot of information about Jesus as a baby and then again as a young man. But what about the years between?

I personally think we have all the information we need from the Word of God without having to resort to outside sources.

Consider the following:

"Why were you searching for me? This is His response to his parents for worrying about Him. I bet Jesus at such an age was amazing, full of wisdom. Can you see HIs face telling His parents, hey don't you know me by now, don't you know my Father will always take care of me, why search for me as if I am lost? haha

“Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

Where could Jesus be found? In His Father's house. What was He always up to? About His Father's business. In todays lingo i can see Him saying: Come on now, like you don't know what i am about. Jesus reminded them that he had a higher Father than an earthly parent; and that, even in early life, it was proper that he should be engaged in the work for which he came. He did not enter, indeed, upon his public work for eighteen years after this; yet still the work of God was "his" work, and always, even in childhood, it was proper for him to be engaged in the great business for which he came down from heaven.

Scripture is Sufficient

To declare sola Scriptura, is to declare the sufficiency of the Scriptures. The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) confesses the sufficiency of the Scriptures as such:

The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. (WCF 1:6)
That is to say, there is nothing that is necessary for man to know in order to be saved and to glorify God that is not contained in, or can be deduced from the Scriptures. We need not search elsewhere, nor label any other standard as infallible. In like manner the apostle Paul testifies to the sufficiency of Scripture in his final letter to Timothy:
“…and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)by Nathan W. Bingham on July 18, 2009

Blessings

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rod Askew on October 15, 2010 at 4:53pm

Hello Raj,

Certainly the act of Jesus' baptism gave meaning to the Life of John the Baptist. Amen.
God's declaration of "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased" was a declaration for all those standing around watching.
Jesus didn't need to be told that He was the Son of God, He already knew that. He was from the Father.

The water baptism where the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus was Jesus' "coming out" so to speak.
This was Jesus and the Father showing John and others, saying "see what I do and see what I have received" by doing this. This is what you must do also.
This was a special occasion, but more so for those watching than for Jesus himself.

I don't feel we can doubt that as Jesus was from the Father, He always had the Holy Spirit in Him.

Jesus was always the Messiah, however it wasn't His time yet to step up and be seen. (As with the Caanan feast)
Obviously Jesus / God knew exactly how everything would unravel in terms of His walk on Earth and there was a time for everything to be revealed.
Ecclesiastes 3
1. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

His teaching to crowds in the temple when He was just a boy of 13 shows that He always had the Spirit in Him.
The Jews were shocked by His knowledge and confidence in the Word and scriptures.

Blessings Brother.
In His love
Rod

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephen King on November 12, 2010 at 11:00pm

The origin of the word is God. So He caused to be written only what He decided was enough for us. What matters about Christ is whether we believe The Father's testimony about the Son.

• ▶ Reply