I Must Be About My Father’s Business

I Must Be About My Father’s Business

Text: Luke 2:40-52

Ver.44 people who went to Jerusalem for special festivals often traveled in caravans, with the women and children in the front and the men in the back. Sometimes the whole village would travel in groups together.
We can assume that both parents thought Jesus was with the other parent.

After about 4 days, even though Jesus was 12, can you imagine the fear games they would have wrestled with in their heads?
Imagine for a bit the conversation they must have had when they went to bed for the night – wherever they might have slept – if they slept.
- Joseph – “God is going to kill me, I lost His only Son!”

Lu 2:46 “… after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.”
After they found him, maybe in hindsight it might have been a logical place, but still - at the temple???

Ver.48 “So when they saw Him, they were amazed…”
This was a surprise to them - he was sitting in the middle of the Hebrew teachers – listening & asking them questions.

Ver.49 – the first recorded words of Jesus. “And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
Jesus in turn seems surprised that Joseph and Mary were surprised.
Perhaps as Jesus was growing up, they had already discussed this – that is, His purpose.

Ver. 51 “But they did not understand …” HUGE understatement.
Even though Joseph and Mary knew Jesus was God’s son, their way of thinking was VERY different than how Jesus thought.
They filtered what they knew about Jesus, and what God had shared with them through their human reasoning, understanding and perspectives.

These first recorded words of Jesus are important because it shows that Jesus knew at age twelve what His purpose was all about.
“I must be about My Father’s business.”

The basis of this message is this: I am asking God to give to us today the same level of understanding / revelation / conviction Jesus had for the purpose of His life - that SAME understanding for our life.
My understanding of God’s purpose for me should have the same revelation as to why I live.

Too often like Joseph and Mary, we hear with our head, but not at a heart conviction.
We grow up in a different culture of reality – especially in America, where I think of my life as my own, to do what I want with it, to set my own agenda for the day.
But when I give my life to God, I take on the same purpose as Jesus had –
“I must be about my Father’s business.”

Theres a balance here somewhere – I believe God calls me to be a good husband, father, before I am a minister / pastor.
But the understanding that my life is His, my purpose is from Him, my LIFE is His.
This NEEDS to be from the same perspective as Jesus had.

How I give myself to this revelation sets the tone for my everyday life.
How I live life. How I treat my wife, my family, how I interact with people.

I am not my own. (1 Cor.6:19-20)
When I wake up in the morning, I start out asking, “God, what are we going to do today? What is on Your heart for me this morning?”
As I drive to work, or to the post office, I’m communicating with Holy Spirit.

Jesus had one focus – a singleness of mind / purpose.
Everything He did, went through that filter.
I want to live my daily life with this single-minded understanding that Jesus had.

We see life thought the filters we have learned to live with.
We hear truth, then filter it with my: experiences, understandings, questions, education, etc.

Take a moment and simply ask: “Holy Spirit, what are You saying to me today?
How do You want me to apply this message to my life?”