Institutes of Theology | Session 5 - Intertestamental Period and the Ordinary Years of Jesus Christ

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Welcome, men, good to see you all here tonight. And we're ready to go. A lot we want to cover tonight. So let's get started. We're going to start by looking at a portion of the history of redemption that isn't in your Bible. You say, well, why would we do that? When I was in college, I took a course on Shakespeare, an entire six months studying the works of Shakespeare. I came to thoroughly appreciate his work and read most of his plays from a resource I still own, the Riverside Shakespeare. In addition, at the institution that I attended, there was a theatrical stage, really second only to those on Broadway, and twice a year the faculty and students would perform the great Bard's plays, a tragedy and a comedy each year.

So in the course of my education, I saw nearly 20 of his plays. Several times, obviously, in each of his plays, there were scene changes. One act would end, and the lights would go dark and for 10 or 20 or 30 seconds the lights would stay out, while the stagehands and the actors worked furiously. And then the lights would come up again for the next act. The darkness between the scenes not only allowed for the necessary stage work to be done, but it also symbolized for the audience that the reality of change, the last scene had changed, time had passed, and the circumstances had changed. That's what happens between the collection of books we refer to as the Old Testament and the collection we refer to as the New Testament.

There is a period of 400 silent years when the lights of redemption appeared to go dark in terms of revelation, but we're going to discover tonight that that's not true. There's so much to learn. Just to give you a glimpse of kind of what that looks like, the last Old Testament revelation was in about the 420s B.C. That revelation comes in the prophet Malachi. He prophesied, you remember, between Nehemiah chapter 12 and Nehemiah chapter 13. Malachi gives his prophecy before Nehemiah returned from Persia to Israel in about 424 B.C. The other part of prophecy that ends the Old Testament is Nehemiah 13. So, you have Malachi that comes between Nehemiah 12 and 13, and then you have Nehemiah 13 when Nehemiah returns. That really, Nehemiah 13, is really the last passage in the Old Testament from a chronology standpoint. Then you have the next item on the agenda in revelation is the birth of John the Baptist, somewhere around 5 or 6 B.C. 

So, from Malachi and Nehemiah 13 to John is roughly 400 years when God was completely silent. There are no angelic appearances. There are no miracles. There are no prophets. There's no additional revelation. For 400 years, the page of revelation is blank. The stage of the Divine Drama of Redemption is dark and quiet. But there is so much, men, that happens during those 400 years that is very important. Because when the New Testament begins, when the lights come on and the curtains go up for the next act in the Drama of Redemption, everything is different than when the curtain went down in the Old Testament. 

A man named Herod rules over Palestine. There's a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Two competing groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, dominate the religious life of the nation. There are local centers of worship and study called synagogues. And the entire world is ruled by Rome, the entire Mediterranean world. You cannot fully understand the New Testament without some understanding of the events that transpired between the Acts or between the Testaments. Because during those 400 silent years, God was preparing the world for the arrival of His Son. And to really appreciate when He comes on the stage, you have to know what goes on when the stage is dark. And that's what I want to do in this hour. I want us to examine this period of time from two different perspectives. First of all, we're going to consider the political history.

What happens to make everything so different between Nehemiah 13 and the Gospels? Writing more than 500 years before Christ, Daniel had prophesied that there would be a series of successive world empires. You remember in Daniel chapter 2, there's the image that Nebuchadnezzar sees in his vision, a human shape with different metals. And then in Daniel chapter 7, you have the same truths, but there the kingdoms or empires are portrayed as beasts. What's going on with that? Well, what you have is in chapter 2, you have the vision of a pagan king, and it tells history from man's point of view. So guess what? Nebuchadnezzar sees himself as how? The head of gold. You see the point? You have a noble image with expensive metals. That's how men see the kingdoms of men.

The statue in that case is destroyed for no obvious reason. And God's power is seen as this inanimate stone that comes in and crushes this image. That same truth is revealed in chapter 7, but this is the vision not of a pagan king, but of a godly prophet. And guess what this is portraying? Human history from God's point of view. And instead of this lovely image with all these precious metals, the empires of men are seen as beasts without a conscience. And the nations end up being destroyed by God for rebellion against God. And God's ultimate power is revealed in the stone that was rejected, the Messiah who would come, the Son of Man who would come and reign. So that is the background of the description then of the great world empires.

Those two chapters describe a successive series of kingdoms. You see it in the third column here on the screen. You have, first of all, the Neo-Babylonian Empire. That's Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold, and the great beast that is a lion. Then you have the Medo-Persian Empire, which takes over the Neo-Babylonian, captures them, and that's the chest and arms of silver, or the bear. Then you have the Greek Empire, which is the belly and thighs of the image. Metal is bronze, and the beast is a leopard, and we'll talk about why that is in a moment. Then you have the Roman Empire, which is pictured as iron legs and feet, and this is the fourth beast. And finally, you have a revived Roman Empire happen in the future, the Antichrist Empire, toes of iron and clay, and ten horns on the beast.

So that's the flow of world history from a Biblical perspective. I really believe that we are... we're not the revived Roman Empire. That's coming in the final days. That's coming in the days of Antichrist. But we are so Roman.  If you've been to Italy, if you've visited Rome, if you see what's there, you realize our culture is thoroughly Roman, Greco-Roman, just like in the first century. So that was Daniel's prophecy. And history records that that is exactly what happened. Most of Daniel's life was during the Babylonian Empire, the head of gold and the lion. But when Daniel was over 80, during the night of October 12th in the year 539 B.C., the Medo-Persian Empire captured Babylon—in Daniel chapter 5—killed Belshazzar, the last king, and the Medo-Persian Empire came into power. It was the breasts and arms of silver and the bear. It became primarily the Persian Empire from about the year 400 to the year 333 B.C.

So Daniel, mostly during the Babylonian Empire, but late in his life, it transitions to the Persian Empire. But beginning in the year 333 B.C., and lasting for 11 years to 323 B.C., the son of Philip of Macedon captured most of the world, of that Mediterranean world. And what was his name? Alexander the Great.

Although he was technically Macedonian, he led an alliance of the Greeks. His kingdom, as we just saw a moment ago, was the bronze belly and thighs, and the leopard, because of the quickness with which he took over. In 333 B.C., Alexander beat the Persians at the Battle of Issus, and then in 331 B.C., Persia was completely defeated by Greece. Here's what the kingdom of Alexander looked like. That's his empire. You can see that it spreads far to the east. It includes Egypt. It includes portions of Europe, and certainly includes the Middle East, as we know it today. It was mammoth.

But Alexander died suddenly and very mysteriously in Babylon when he was only 33 years old. There's a lot of conjecture about what he died of, and historians have not been able to determine for sure. But when he died at the age of 33, after that 11-year run in which he captured so much of the world, in that part of the world, there was no clear successor. So ultimately, four of his generals divided up his empire like this. Lysimachus took Thrace; Cassander, Macedonia. But the two that figure into Biblical history are the last two here. Seleucus, which took Syria, and Ptolemy, who took Egypt. 

So these generals divided up that empire, and the two key ones in Biblical history are Seleucus, who took Syria, and Ptolemy, who took Egypt. Basically, the Ptolemies of Egypt dominated Palestine until about 198 B.C. You can see here a map of the Greek empire divided. You can see where the different rulers, generals ruled. You can see Seleucus had Syria, but so much more than Syria. That white space is all his portion of the empire. And then the General Ptolemy took what we call Palestine and Egypt and down in the Arabian Peninsula as well. So, and for the Jews, this was a period of relative peace, of autonomy.

Turn to Daniel chapter eight. What's amazing to me about the scripture, and I don't have time to take you through Daniel eight, but if you're interested, go online, listen to the lessons I teach on Daniel eight from our study of the book of Daniel. It's incredible. Daniel wrote 200 years before Alexander the Great and before all of this happened. But just look at what Daniel writes. Daniel eight, verse one, “In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously. I looked in the vision, and while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam, and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside Uli canal. Then I lifted my eyes and looked.” Now, here's his vision. “And behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal.” Now, what is this? Keep your finger there, but go down to verse 20. “The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.” Now, go back to verse 3. “Now, the two horns of this ram were long, but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last.” Guess what that is? Persia. It was the Medo-Persian Empire, but Persia eventually became the stronger of the two. And so he sees that. God gives him this prophecy before all of this unfolds. 

“And then I saw the ram [and it's going to get even further ahead when we talk about Alexander here in a second]. I saw the ram budding westward, northward, southward, and no other beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself.” Verse 5, “While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming up from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground.” What is this male goat? Keep your finger in verse 5, go over to verse 21. “The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece.” This is now 200 years after Daniel.

And look how he describes Greece in verse 5. “Coming over from the west, over the surface of the whole earth, [that's the expansiveness of the kingdom] without touching the ground.” That's the speed with which he would take, with Alexander, with his 35,000-man army would take that large portion of land. “And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. [This is Alexander.] He came up to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him, so he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power.” In other words, he totally destroyed the Medo-Persian Empire, which is exactly what happened. 

So, while all of this was unfolding, for the Jews, it was a period, as I said, of relative peace and autonomy, but things change. From 198 to 63 B.C., Palestine became a kind of political football between those two kingdoms. Remember, you have the Syrian or Seleucid Kingdom in the north, you have the Egyptian or the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the south, and there's only that tiny little land bridge that we call Israel between them. And when they want to exert power over the other, that's what happens. That land is affected.

So in 198 B.C., a man named Antiochus the Great, one of the Seleucid rulers of Syria, and interestingly enough, Cleopatra's father, captured Jerusalem. And with that military move, tensions in the region ratcheted up. Listen, tensions in that part of the world are nothing new. Then in 175 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes became the king of Syria, and in 170, five years later, he defeated Egypt. He defeated Ptolemy VI. But in 168, stay with me, okay? In 168 B.C., Ptolemy, down in Egypt, rebelled, and Antiochus invaded Egypt a second time. But in Egypt, something remarkable happens.

He met a new player in world politics, particularly in the politics of the Middle East, an envoy, a man named Lainas from Rome. Lainas told Antiochus that he must stop trying to take Egypt, and if he did, he was going to find himself in a war with Rome. Antiochus replied, and this is one of the most dramatic things in history, Antiochus told Lainas from Rome, listen, I need to think about it. And Lainas said, great, I'll give you time to think about it. And then, in dramatic fashion, he took his sword, and he drew a circle in the earth around Antiochus, and he said, you can decide before you leave that circle.

Antiochus relented, he left Egypt frustrated and angry, and he retreated back up to Syria. Guess what he went through? Through Israel, through Jerusalem, and he plundered it. And then he decided he was going to unify his kingdom by Hellenizing it, that is by converting it into all things Greek. Two years later, he sent his chief tax collector with an army to Jerusalem. And it was amazing what happened in 166 B.C. They stripped the temple of its valuables, they massacred 80,000 people, carried 10,000 captives back to Syria according to Josephus. Some estimates are up to 40,000 prisoners. They demolished the walls of the city, they built a tower, supplied it with armed mercenaries. And as the ultimate act of desecration, he desecrated the temple by erecting an image of the god Zeus. And then he sacrificed a pig on the altar in Jerusalem and sprinkled its blood around the temple grounds. You see what he's doing. He's trying to destroy and obliterate all Jewish worship. He set out on a comprehensive plan to force the Jews to think and act like Greeks, to Hellenize them. How did he do that?

Well, he erected shrines to Greek deities throughout the entire land. He burned copies of the Law of God and executed the owners, those who were caught with copies. He refused to let them circumcise their children. In fact, circumcised children were strangled along with their mothers. If you want to see what this guy was like, look at Daniel 8 again. Daniel 8 verse 9. 

“Out of one of them, that is out of one of those horns, [oh, I need to go back to verse 8. Go back to verse 8] the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. [This is Greece] but as soon as he was mighty [this is Alexander], the large horn was broken. And in its place, there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.” There are these four generals of Alexander who take control of his kingdom. 

Now “out of one of them [that is, out of the Seleucid, the Syrian kingdom in the north], came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the beautiful land [that is the land of Israel]. It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. [That's probably best understood as his persecution of the people of God]. It even magnified itself [this is Antiochus Epiphanes], to be equal with the Commander of the host.” 

Antiochus actually called himself Antiochus Theos Epiphanes, Antiochus the Manifestation of God. That's what he called himself. By the way, his enemies changed the Greek words slightly, and they said, yeah, you're not Antiochus Epiphanes, you're Antiochus Epimenes, which means Antiochus the Madman. That was closer to the truth.

“But he magnified himself [verse 11] to be equal to the Commander of hosts. [Now remember, Daniel's writing, in the mid-500s, we're talking about history that unfolds in the mid-160s. And think about how precise this is]. And it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. And on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice, and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper [talking about Antiochus]. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one, [so two angels are having a conversation here. Daniel's overhearing this.] How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply [how long is this going to happen] while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled? He said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings [so 2300 days, about over 6 years], then the holy place will be properly restored.”

Folks, guess what happened? From the moment Antiochus killed, executed, the high priest of Israel in 170 B.C., to the time that the temple was retaken, as it's described here in this verse, and the sacrifices were restored, in December of 164 B.C., it was 2300 days. Just think about the precision of this prophecy.

So, the horrific circumstances of this period of Jewish history sparked a Jewish rebellion. It's briefly described over in Daniel chapter 11. Daniel chapter 11 verse 31, talking about the same period of time, it says, “Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. [This is Antiochus.] And they will set up the abomination of desolation. [That's the image of Zeus in the temple.] By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness, those who act wickedly toward the covenant. But the people who know their God will display strength and take action.” How was that prophecy fulfilled in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes?

Well, out of these events came the Maccabean Revolt. The fuse for the Maccabean Revolt was lit in a most unlikely place. The scene was the tiny village of Moda-in, about 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Some of Antiochus' men, under the leadership of one of his generals named Appelles, came to this small village. And Appelles demanded that the people of this village offer a sacrifice on a pagan altar that had been set up there to prove their loyalty to Antiochus. In an effort to ensure complete compliance, Appelles first approached one of the leading men of the town and a priest, a man named Mattathias. And he demanded that Mattathias offer the sacrifice, and to sort of sweeten the pot, he offered him a bribe, if he would do it. Because this was kind of the, you know, the goat leading the rest of them. Mattathias refused. But there was another Jewish man there who out of fear of the consequences was willing to offer the sacrifice to the pagan gods in this little village. When he'd finished, Mattathias and his five sons were so enraged that they killed the Jewish traitor, they killed Antiochus' general Appelles and the soldiers who were with him. They tore down the pagan altar. And then, Mattathias said to the rest of the people of the village, if anyone be zealous for the laws of his country and for the worship of God, let him follow me. This is the fulfillment of that prophecy we just saw in Daniel 11. Those who know their God will act.

And so, Mattathias, his five sons, and many others left the village for the Judean Hill country. And in the months that followed, they fought a guerrilla war against the stronger Syrian force. And their ranks just continued to grow. But during that time, after about a year of fighting, Mattathias became terminally ill. Shortly before his death, he appointed his son Simon as the administrator of this new force. But he appointed his oldest son, a man named Judas, as the general of the army. And Judas became known as Judas Maccabeus, Judas the Hammer. 

Under his leadership, the Jews recaptured the temple in Jerusalem in December of 164 B.C. It was exactly three years from the time it had been desecrated, and it was six years from the time that he had executed the high priest. But the temple had been completely deserted, its gates had been burned, all its furniture and vessels had been plundered, weeds grew in its courtyards. So Judas removed the pagan altar, he replaced it with one that was not built with iron tools as the Old Testament law calls for, and on the 25th of Kislev, in 164 B.C., the worship of Yahweh was restored. The celebration lasted eight days. There was singing, there was feasting, there were sacrifices, and it was decided that this remarkable occasion would be remembered every year as the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the cleansing of the temple under Judas Maccabeus in the year 164 B.C. It's a remarkable story, and the prophecies, what I want you men to get is the detail of the prophecies that were made in the time of Daniel that played out on the stage of human history in those 400 silent years. 

So the Maccabees, from 165 B.C. to 63 B.C., the descendants of Judas led the nation. One of those men, in 129 B.C., John Hyrcanus won political independence. But it's so often true with Israel, that was to be short lived. Because in 63 B.C., the powerful Roman general Pompey annexed Syria and arrived in Damascus. And Pompey decided that something had to be done with Judea. So he went immediately to Jerusalem. Some of the people of Israel had barricaded themselves in the temple area. And for the next three months, they resisted. But eventually Pompey captured the temple. He didn't destroy it. He didn't take a single thing. Sacrifices continued the very next day. But Pompey did something that would enrage the Jews for hundreds of years. He entered the temple. And not only did he enter the Holy of Holies, but he pushed back the curtain out of his curiosity and went into the Holy of Holies. So in 63 B.C., Judea and Jerusalem came under Roman occupation. 

From 63 B.C. to 31 B.C., you had all of Rome's civil wars, as Rome's generals fought for control of Rome. And the Jews, for the most part, were left alone. But in 31 B.C., Octavian won, and in 27 B.C., he gained the title Caesar Augustus. Because he had helped Octavian, a man named Antipater was rewarded, and his son was made governor over Palestine. And that son's name was Herod, who would later be called Herod the Great. 

Now, I won't go into all of the things about Herod, because we just talked about it Sunday, but for those of you who may not be here, who are our guests tonight, you need to understand that Herod the Great wasn't called Great because of his morals. He wasn't called Great because of anything but his building. He was a brilliant man, a brilliant builder, but he was a brutal man. As I mentioned Sunday, he had at least 10 wives, but he loved one of them, Mary Omni, passionately. But because he came to suspect her of being unfaithful to him, he had her killed. In 7 B.C., he executed her two sons. In 4 B.C., he ordered the execution of all the babies in the village of Bethlehem, two years and younger. And in 4 B.C. as well, just five days before his death, he had his favorite son executed. And as I mentioned Sunday, just before his death, he ordered all the leading Jews of the nation to be gathered, to be arrested, to be gathered into a place, and on the day of his death to be executed so that there would be real mourning in the land when he died. This is the kind of man he was. 

Folks, that is what happened politically to get us to the New Testament. When you open the pages of the New Testament, all of that has transpired. And guess what? God, through the prophet Daniel, told us everything that would happen in those 400 silent years politically. It's unfolded powerfully and beautifully. I love what God says through the prophet Isaiah. He says, look and find another God, like me, who can tell you what's going happen before it happens. There isn't another. But our God, because He orders the future, can tell us the future. 

Now, that's the political history. A second perspective we need to examine during those 400 years is the religious history, because this factors hugely into our New Testament. During those 400 silent years, several important changes affected the religious landscape in Israel. First of all, there are the Pharisees. They obviously factor hugely in the New Testament. Well, now that you understand the political history, you're going to understand the Pharisees better. Let me just walk you through this. 

The Pharisees arose from a group in the time of Antiochus called the Hasidim, which means the separated ones. Guess why the Pharisees arose? They arose to oppose his attempts to introduce Greek, pagan elements into the Jewish culture. That's where the Pharisees came from. When Antiochus said, I'm going to make you Greek, the Pharisees said no. We're the separated ones. They were the most conservative of Israel's leaders. Scribes, the scribes were primarily Pharisees. Their task was to copy the scripture some, but especially to teach it. Their responsibility, as you can see here, was to interpret the law using oral tradition, which was eventually recorded in the Mishnah by 200 A.D. They were to teach the law, and they were to apply the law in judicial cases. In their zeal—now think about the Pharisees for a moment—We're really hard on them, and rightly so, because guess what happens? Their attempts to be faithful to God turn into self-righteousness. They're going to be right with God by their own works.

But see the positive element here of the Pharisees. They began with a desire to keep God's people from assimilating the Greek culture, and to be pure, to be faithful to God. But here's what legalism does, and it always does this. Out of the best of motives to keep from disobeying God, it adds to God's word. It adds things God hasn't said. Initially, it adds them as fences. Think of it like this. The Pharisees said, okay, here is the precipice. Here's the precipice. And God's law says, don't do this. But if you break God's law, you're going to fall over the precipice. We don't want you to do that. So instead of just having God's law, we're going to set up a fence back here, a safety fence, to keep you from falling over the cliff and from breaking God's law. That sounds reasonable, right? I mean, let's set up a fence. 

Here's how it worked. The law said, the law of God said, you weren't to work on the Sabbath. In the Jewish nation, that was a requirement. You're not to work on the Sabbath. Well, the Pharisees said, well, that's, you know, we don't want to break that law. So we need to set up some fences that keep people from breaking God's law. So a tailor, what does a tailor do? A tailor, you know, uses his needle and works on clothes and sews clothes. So if we don't want him working on the Sabbath, he can't do that, then he shouldn't be carrying a needle in his clothes on the Sabbath. And so they said, that's the fence. No tailor carries a needle in his clothes on the Sabbath. That's an implement of work, and you're risking breaking God's law. To this point, okay. There's nothing wrong with setting up fences to protect yourself.

You know, I tell couples that I'm talking to in pre-marital all the time, look, there are certain things God's law doesn't permit. You can't get sexually involved before marriage. So it's okay to set up some fences to keep you from breaking God's law. You know, don't do anything stupid like being each other's homes alone. At night, I mean, that's just dumb. That's a fence. Nothing wrong with a fence. Here's the problem—and this is what the Pharisees did—over time, their fences, to protect them from breaking God's law, became just as important to them as God's law. And it became the standard you had to keep. They ultimately become as important as the law, and you begin to judge others based on your fences.  By the way, let me just say, guys, that's a temptation to avoid. It's okay to build your fences, but if it isn't chapter and verse in the scripture, you have no right to hold anybody else to that. This is where the Pharisees came from. 

Another group you need to know about are the Sadducees. Sadducees are probably named after Zadok, the high priest of David's time. They were primarily priests, and they consisted of the wealthy aristocratic families who control the office of the high priest. Most of the political leaders tended to be Sadducees. Now, they embraced the Pentateuch, literally, and they rejected oral law. So far, so good. But here's the real shocker about the Sadducees, this group you run into in the New Testament, they were anti-supernaturalists. They believe God doesn't intervene in the world that He made. There's no spirit world. They didn't believe in angels. There's no resurrection. And so, they were pragmatists. And therefore, they were willing to assimilate Greek culture. If this is all you got, then why does it matter? And God doesn't intervene in the world. There's no resurrection. Then do what you want. They tended to be pragmatists, and therefore, they tended to be Hellenists. They tended to be very much open to the Greek culture and assimilating Greek culture. 

I would also say that these aristocratic, wealthy, influential families control the politics of the nation under the Roman government. And so, they were, you know, I think you need to think of the high priest as kind of a godfather of the Jewish nation in the first century. That's more like it was. It's not like he was a deeply religious man. It was a political prize, often won by the highest bidder. And so, it was exactly like you see here. This is who the leaders of the nation really were. 

Another change in those 400 years is the Great Sanhedrin. Now, the Jews argue that this ruling body in Israel dates to the time of Moses and the 70 men chosen to lead the nation in Moses' time. But most historians agree that while there are similarities, this exact body didn't begin until between the testaments. The Mishnah says that it consisted of 71 men. Through most of its existence, it mostly consisted of the aristocracy and the Sadducees along with the high priest. But there were two periods, including from the year 6 to 66 A.D., when the Pharisees were also allowed to be part of the council in great numbers. That's why you see the Sanhedrin in the New Testament of Sadducees and Pharisees. There was one time when the Pharisees were allowed to be there. 

There were smaller Sanhedrins across the nation appointed across the country, but the one in Jerusalem was the most powerful, and it was over the nation, and so it was called the Great Sanhedrin. The high priest was the leader; he presided over the council when it met. Josephus says that they met in the temple precincts in a place called the Chamber of Hewn Stone. They sat in a semicircle, as you see the picture there on the screen, they sat in a semicircle, and in front of them were two scribes to keep a written record. They had authority to interpret the Mosaic Law, they governed the civil affairs of the nation, to whatever extent Rome allowed it, and they tried certain criminal cases under the Roman procurator's authority. This is the Sanhedrin, the council that you meet in the New Testament. 

Another change that comes in those years is the synagogue. It arose during the 6th century during the Babylonian captivity. So 500 years before Christ, the synagogue begins. They're obviously in Babylon, they can't go to the temple, and so the synagogues begin to pop up. The Greek word synagogue means a gathering of people or a congregation. The Hebrew word is knesset, the name used for the parliament of modern Israel. The synagogue was a local place to meet, to pray, to hear the word read and explained. To form a synagogue required a quorum of at least 10 Jewish men. They came together, men and women. Initially, the men and women sat together, but over time, they ended up sitting in separate sections. By the time of the New Testament, the men sat in one place and the women sat in another. Most of the synagogues were small, but some of them were huge. For example, the main hall of the synagogue in Sardis was 65 yards by 43 yards. Just think about a football field. 65 yards by 43 yards. In Alexandria, Egypt, the synagogue was so large that the leaders posted a man with a flag in the middle of the building so that it could signal to the people in the back the right moment to say amen.

The weekly service in the time of Christ would have been very simple. There would have been prayers. The chief prayers supposedly date to the time of Ezra and are called the 18 benedictions. In their present form, they probably date to shortly after 70 A.D. So there would have been prayers and there would have been the reading of the scripture, both the law and the prophets. This was the center of the service, and there was a reading plan to cycle through the law and the prophets. And you read the next portion the next Sunday. Wherever you stopped in reading the law, the next guy, the next Sunday picked up there, and the same thing with the prophets. Consecutive reading of the scripture, and then a sermon, an explanation of the biblical text, an exposition took place on either the law or the prophet reading for that morning.

We often find Christ or Paul in the synagogues, and guess what? They're participating in that cycle. The law or the prophets read consecutively, and then someone teaching. Consecutive exposition, just like we do every Sunday. That's what happened in the synagogues. It wasn't always good exposition, but that pattern was established in the synagogue.

So there's one more huge change that happens religiously between the testaments, and it's the Septuagint. Ptolemy II of Egypt commissioned a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. We can't be absolutely sure, but there are two possible reasons. It may have been because the Jews who were spread around the empire no longer spoke Hebrew, but they spoke Greek. It may have been simply to provide a copy of the Jewish Bible for the famous library in Alexandria. Regardless, Ptolemy commissioned Jews from Palestine to make the translation. Legend has it that it took 72 scholars, 72 days. That's why it's called the Septuagint, which means 70. The Pentateuch was probably completed somewhere around 275 to 250 B.C., the rest of the Old Testament, in the hundreds B.C. It was the Bible of the New Testament times. Jesus, the apostles, Paul freely quote from this translation.

So those are the key changes to the religious landscape when the New Testament opens. What I want you to see, men, is that during those 400 silent years, God was preparing the world for the arrival of his son. How? Think about it. Think of all that God did, I described politically during that time. How did that prepare the world for Jesus?

First of all, the Greeks gave us the Greek language. A very precise language, especially suited to the revelation of the New Testament's doctrine. I'm always amazed, you know, almost every day, I read from my Greek testament, and I'm always amazed at the precision of the language. In my own study right now, just from my own soul, I'm working through the pastoral epistles, and this morning, I was at the end of 1 Timothy 1, and I just was amazed at how intricate the language is, and how much can be contained in such an economy of words. It was a universal trade language that allowed the spread of the apostles' writings across the empire. So Paul could write in Greek, and across the entire Roman empire, people could read it. That was a new thing with Alexander and the Greek empire that spread all over the world, and then the Romans kept that language up as well. So the Greeks gave us the Greek language. 

The Romans gave us the Pax Romana, relative peace across the world, the Roman peace. You had a united world where national boundaries and loyalties wouldn't prevent the spread of the Gospel. They also created a network of roads that made travel and communication by letters much simpler. And in the Roman Empire, there was an openness to religions of various kinds. It's amazing. It was unique in human history in the Mediterranean world, but God was setting the stage for his son.

And then finally, you have the Jews. The Jews, oppressed by the Romans, looking for a deliverer, looking for a messiah, dispersed throughout the Empire and the Diaspora. They had a Greek translation of their scripture, and they took this Greek version of the Old Testament wherever they went. In the New Testament era, even God-fearing Gentiles had the Old Testament in a language they could understand.

What's the point of all this? Where does all this come? Here's the point of those 400 silent years, Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of the time had come [when God had set the stage where it was perfect], God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

With Malachi and Nehemiah 13, the stage goes dark. And when Matthew 1 opens, and the curtain comes up, this is how the scene has changed, as God has prepared the world for His son. Let's take a break. We'll come back, and next time, in this next session, we're going to look at, begin to look at the life of Jesus.

All right, well, we are transitioning. I know some of you, for some of you, that was a lot of history, and I understand that. But I hope you understand the big picture of what was going on, and you see that transition that occurred. All right, so now we are transitioning. We've looked at the Old Testament, and that was a wonderful journey. We've given you that sort of overview of those 400 years between the testaments. And now, it's a joy for me to transition to the Gospels. Let me just remind you, as we begin our survey of the New Testament, obviously, it begins with the Gospel records.

We call them the Gospels. The truth is there's only one Gospel told from four different vantage points. Matthew writes about that Gospel to Jewish believers, and he presents Jesus as the Messiah and King. Mark writes his Gospel to the Romans and other Gentiles, that is, Roman believers and other Gentiles, and he presents Jesus as the servant. You could even say as the servant of Yahweh that shows up in the Old Testament prophecies. Luke writes his version of the Gospel, his specific take on the Gospel, to the Greeks and to other Gentiles, and he presents Jesus, as you would expect, writing to a Greek audience as the perfect man. That is the perfect example of a human being, but of course he also presents Him as God. And then John writes to the entire world and presents Jesus; he's the last Gospel record near the end of the first century, and he presents Jesus as the unique son of God. You know, those verses at the end of his Gospel, “I have written these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, and the believing you might have life in his name.” So each of the Gospels is written to a different group with a unique purpose. Together, when you look at the four Gospels together, you have a fabulous portrait of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, seen from different angles. Think of the four Gospels like a diamond, and when you turn from one Gospel to the next, you're seeing a different facet of the character of Jesus Christ, a different aspect of His life and perfection. So that is the Gospel record. 

Now, let me start our survey of the New Testament, and particularly of the life of Christ, by giving you a summary timeline. This is what it looks like when you look at the life of Christ. First of all, as I've already noted, He had to have been born in either 5 or 6 B.C. Why do we know that? Well, we know He was born before Herod died, right? Because we're studying Matthew 2. Herod died in 4 B.C., so He had to be born before that. And Herod was after the children to make sure he got Jesus, who were two years of age and younger. So that gives you that time window that I've described there. So then, if Jesus was born in that time period, and there are, let me just say, there are those who disagree with this timeline. There are those who shift it a little later because of particularly the year of Jesus' death. They would say it's 33 A.D. We'll talk about that when we get there next week.

But using this timeline with the birth of Christ in 5 to 6 B.C., you have in 26 A.D., in the spring, the beginning of John's ministry, in the summer, the baptism of Jesus, and in the fall, His temptation. In 27 A.D., you have the end of John's ministry, the beginning of Christ. You have in the spring, the first Passover's public ministry. In 28 A.D., you have the 12 Apostles called. Now that may surprise you. Now these men were attached to Him from the very beginning. You remember in John 1, it describes early on, you had these men attached to him, but He didn't designate them as apostles and have them with Him full time until the winter of 28 A.D. Then in the summer, you have His great Galilean ministry begins, and the fall, you have His first public rejection, and His ministry of parables begins in 28 A.D. In 29 A.D., the winter is the final Galilean campaign, the fall, the later Judean, down in the area of Jerusalem, His ministry there.

And then in the year 30 A.D., the apex, you have His ministry in and around Perea, there in the winter. In April, you have the Passion Week. If 30 A.D. is the right year, and I believe it is, then we even know the day on which Jesus was crucified because it would be April 7th, based on when Passover fell in that year. And then that means the resurrection would have been April 9th. May would have been the Ascension 40 days after the resurrection, according to Acts 1:3. And also in May would have been Pentecost 50 days after the Feast of Passover. So, that kind of gives you an overview of the life of Christ. 

So, with that in mind, let's begin to walk our way through the life of Christ. And of course, it begins with the genealogies. There are a couple of these early elements I'm not going to spend a lot of time on, because we've just done it in Matthew. But let me just remind you of the big picture. Both Matthew and Luke provide us with genealogical records of Jesus. Obviously, as I've noted, if you compare them, there are significant differences. Obviously, Luke goes back to Adam, Matthew goes back to Abraham. But the greatest issue is the difference in the generations from David to Christ. There are two obvious issues. The names are very different, and the number of generations is different. Why is that? Well, a lot of solutions have been proposed, but I think the simplest, most obvious, the one I taught you as we walked through Matthew 1, is from David, they are different genealogies. Why was that important? Well, again, just to remind you, it's because of the curse on Jeconiah.

He's the problem. Jeconiah, we learned that the legal right to David's throne was to pass through Solomon, according to 2 Samuel 7. But one of Solomon's descendants was this man named Jeconiah. And the problem is, because of his sin, God said that none of Jeconiah's physical descendants would prosper on the throne of David. That's where the genealogies come in. From David to Christ, they are the genealogies of two different people. Matthew 1 is the genealogy of Jesus, obviously, but through Joseph, his legal father, and back through David's son, Solomon. It includes Jeconiah and the curse. The legal claim to the throne passed to David, to Jesus, through Joseph. But because Jesus was not the physical descendant of Jeconiah, He escapes the curse.

On the other hand, you have Luke, Luke 3, again, the genealogy of Jesus, but in this case, through Mary, His physical mother, and her genealogy goes back through David's son, Nathan, not David's son, Solomon. And this excludes Jeconiah and the curse. And guess what? The curse said no physical descendant of Jeconiah would sit on the throne. And Jesus isn't the physical descendant of Jeconiah. But the physical claim to the throne passed to Jesus through Mary and escaped the curse on Jeconiah. Again, there's a lot more I could say about all that, but we've just said it, so I'm not going to spend any more time there. If you have questions, see me afterwards.

So let's skip then to the birth of Jesus. Again, we have just looked at this in Matthew 1. So I'm going to just survey it across the top.

Scripture doesn't tell us how old Mary and Joseph were when they became engaged, but most men in the 1st century, Jewish men, were married before they were 20. And most Jewish girls were betrothed just after puberty in the years 13 to 15 years old. It's possible Mary was in her late teens, but not likely. Usually, families arranged for the marriages, and the Jewish marriage consisted of two parts. There was the betrothal period called the Kittushin, and there was the Huppah, which was when the man went to the wife, the home of his wife, and brought her back to his home to live, the marriage was consummated, and they were legally married. The word Matthew uses in his account tells us it was during the Kittushin. Matthew adds, it was before they came together. A euphemism for they had not had any sexual relations. 

At some point during the Kittushin, during the betrothal, she was found to be with child out of the Holy Spirit. Now, you remember again, just to survey, we learned that Joseph, when he learned, had three options. He had the option of marrying her, which simply wasn't done. Even the Jewish Mishnah forbade the man in this situation to marry the woman. Besides, if he married her, he's admitting the child is his, essentially. His second option was to disgrace her, that is, to take her to court in a public spectacle that would publicly shame her, but it will also shame him and his family. But he didn't want to make a public spectacle of her, so he only had one other option, and that was to send her away secretly. The Greek word divorce, it's the word used for divorce in Matthew 5, Matthew 19. He had planned to secretly, privately divorce her rather than some public spectacle.

But Joseph intends to do that, that's his course. Mary has no way to convince him that the child within her is truly supernaturally produced. I mean, think about it, put yourself for a moment in Joseph's shoes. What do you think if the woman you're engaged to says, oh, there's a child in my womb, and I haven't been sexually involved with anyone, this child has been put there by the Holy Spirit. An angel told me I was going to have this child. Yeah, you would do what Joseph did. I'm going to divorce her privately. But God sends his angel to speak to Joseph in a dream, Matthew 1:20, this is what he said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” To take Mary as your wife. That describes the second part of the Jewish marriage, the Jewish wedding. When the man came and took the woman back to his home. So basically, Gabriel tells Joseph to move forward, marry her, take her as your wife. And he did that. But Matthew 1, notice what he says in Matthew 1:25, he kept her a virgin. Literally, he did not know her. He didn't have sexual relations with her until she gave birth. The reason? Because Isaiah said that a virgin would conceive, and that as a virgin, she would give birth to a son. Now, as you know, Luke 2, verses 1 to 20, describes the specific event surrounding the actual birth in the city of Bethlehem. And I'm not going to walk through that tonight. So that brings us then, that's the birth of Jesus.

That brings us to where I want to focus in the rest of our time in this session, and that is the 30 ordinary years of Jesus Christ. Guys, let me just tell you, there's so much encouragement in what I'm about to cover, because Jesus lived like you live. He did the kinds of things that you do. This is so rich to me and so encouraging, so let's walk it through. I mean, when we think about it, if we're honest with ourselves, we're drawn to secretly long to live extraordinary lives, to be and to do something great. I think that's why James Thurber's short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty resonates with us all. But for most of us, greatness is a fleeting dream. Our lives are often predictable, pedantic, even profoundly ordinary. We work, we spend our evenings and weekends with our families, we worship, we eat and sleep, and then we repeat this cycle for decades, and then we die. I mean, to the world, that seems like a waste. And sadly, a lot of believers begin to think of their lives like that. 

In this session, I want to challenge you with a revolutionary thought. Most of Jesus' earthly life was profoundly ordinary. In fact, between His miraculous birth and a couple of events that happened right after His birth and His three and a half year of ministry, there are almost 30 years of ordinary. And there's so much, guys, for us to learn from those ordinary years.

So let's go back and walk through them. It begins not as ordinary, but it'll get there. Stay with me. And there's so many lessons to learn. First of all, as we look at the New Testament record, after His birth, the next thing that we're told about happens at eight days after His birth, His circumcision and His naming. Somewhere likely in December of 6 B.C. to January of 5 B.C. could have been December of 5 B.C. to January of 4 B.C., but we just can't be sure. It's in that window. 

And here's what's described in Luke 2:21. “When eight days had passed after His birth, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.” Usually there was a ceremony attended by family and close friends, and it became the occasion at which the name was typically announced. You see that in Luke 1:59 with John the Baptist. Joseph had been told by the angel that this son was to be named Jesus. And as I pointed out to you, the Greek name for Jesus, Yesush, was a transliterated form of the Hebrew name Joshua or Yeshua. It means Yahweh is salvation or Yahweh saves. Why? Why name Him that? I hope you never get over this. Look at Matthew 1 again. Look at Matthew 1:21. “She will bear a son, and you will call His name Jesus [Yahweh saves], for He himself will save His people from their sins.” I don't know about you guys, but I find myself often praying, even in the process of sanctification. Lord, you are a savior. You came to save your people from their sins. I'm one of your people. This sin, I don't want this sin in my life. I want to be more like you. Save me from my sins. And then, of course, there's obedience required, but he's a savior. He saves from the penalty of sin. He saves from the power of sin. So he's named Jesus. 

The next event that's described for us happens at 40 days. 40 days after His birth, Jesus is presented at the temple. It's about 6 miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and what happens that day is described in Luke 2, verses 22 to 38. Jesus had to be presented, and an offering related to the firstborn, as the law required, had to be offered. The offering was to be a lamb, or a dove, or a pigeon. If she couldn't afford a lamb, the law allowed her to substitute two turtle doves, two pigeons. So apparently, because that's what they do, apparently Joseph and Mary, like most young couples, starting out were not wealthy. But they may have had some family property, because they had to return to Bethlehem for the census, for the purpose of taxation, and primarily land was taxed. But we can't be sure. I suspect, based on the evidence, that theirs was probably a middle-class home by the time that Jesus reached adulthood, based on the trade that Joseph and later Jesus was involved in.

Now, after 40 days, in the winter of 5 B.C., maybe 4 B.C., there was a brief trip to Nazareth. It's described in one verse in Luke 2:39. When they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, after Jesus had been presented as required, that sacrifice had been made, they returned to Galilee to their own city of Nazareth. Now there is some question about whether this happened after the wise men and the flight to Egypt or before. But I think this verse seems to imply that after they had presented Jesus at the temple, they returned to Nazareth. If, in fact, that's right, then their purpose was simply to collect their things from Nazareth and move to Bethlehem. Because the next time we find them, they're living in a house in Bethlehem. 

Between 40 days and 2 years, you have what we're studying in Matthew 2, the visit of the Magi. Somewhere between February and April, obviously before the death of Herod, this event has to happen. And it may have happened the year before. February of 5 B.C. to April of 4 B.C. Somewhere in that range is when this event transpires. Again, I'm not going to spend any time there because we're studying it. Between 40 days and 2 years, you also have the flight into Egypt. This is described in Matthew 2, 13 to 18. We're going to get there, but you remember Herod sends soldiers to kill the infants. In a village the size of Bethlehem, it's likely fewer than 20 infants were killed. Nevertheless, it's still rightly called the Massacre of the Innocents. Joseph and Mary are warned by God that this is going to happen. They hastily leave, and leaving in the middle of the night, leaving most of their belongings there in Bethlehem, and they go to Egypt.

Now, Egypt was cosmopolitan, and Egypt was accountable directly to the emperor. There was no Roman governor, so it was an easy place to get lost, which is exactly what they wanted to do. We don't know for sure where they went, but Alexandria, Egypt, was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, and it had a large, a very large community of Jews. Again, a good place if you want to hide, to hide. And so it's possible that's where they settled. We don't know what Joseph did while they were there. He may have used His trade, or this is interesting, God may have provided for their needs to the gifts of the Magi. They may have sold them and been able to live off of the proceeds of those gifts while they were there in Egypt. So that's between 40 days and two years. 

Around 18 months later, they returned from Egypt and settled in Nazareth. They returned from Egypt after Herod's death in April of 4 B.C. This is described in Matthew 2. During this time, though, three significant events occur. The death of Herod, they returned from Egypt, and they established a new home in Nazareth. As I said, the events of this we're going to get to in Matthew 2 verses 19 to 23. Joseph apparently planned to live in Bethlehem. But when they try to execute that plan, they hear that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, and that was a problem. And God warned them in a dream not to settle there, so Joseph and Mary go back to Bethlehem, but only for a short time to gather their things, and then they go to Nazareth. He settles His family in Nazareth, in Galilee, where they had originally been from. 

Now, what was Nazareth like in the days of Jesus in the first century? It wasn't a chief city. At the same time, it's always called a polis, the word for city in Greek, not a village. It certainly didn't have a good reputation with the culturally sophisticated in Judea. You remember in John 1:46, Nathaniel, when he heard Jesus was from Nazareth, he said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? It was secluded. It wasn't on a main road at all, but a trade route passed just south of it. It was 15 miles from the Sea of Galilee and 20 miles from the Mediterranean, so it was centrally located. It was large enough to have a synagogue. As one author described it, it was secluded, yet not isolated. Nazareth cradled the origin of the Christian faith. That's where they settled. 

Now, between two years and 12 years, that is from about 4 B.C. to about 7 A.D., you have what we call the childhood of Jesus. The only New Testament verse about Jesus' childhood is Luke 2:40. The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Now, during this time, His education began. He would have been taught by His father and mother at home initially, but in a city the size of Nazareth, there would have been a school, typically called the House of the Book. Alfred Eddersheim, in His wonderful book on Jesus the Messiah, writes this. 

There is a passage in the Mishnah which quaintly maps out and, as it were, labels the different periods of life according to their characteristics. It is worth reproducing, if only to serve as an introduction to what we shall have to say on the upbringing of children. Rabbi Jehuda, the son of Tima, says, here's the quote, ‘At five years of age, reading of the Bible. At ten years, learning the Mishnah. At thirteen years, bound to the commandments. At fifteen years, the study of the Talmud. At eighteen years, marriage. At twenty, the pursuit of trade or business, active life. At thirty years, full vigor. At forty, maturity of reason. At fifty, for counsel. At sixty, commencement of agedness. At seventy, gray age. At eighty, advanced old age. At ninety, bowed down. At a hundred, as it were dead and gone and taken from the world.’”

Sorry where you find yourself in that list.

He says, “In the passage just quoted, the age of five is mentioned as that when a child is expected to commence reading the Bible. Of course, in the original Hebrew.” So from the age of five, Jesus would have begun to read the scriptures. And at six, He would have been taught by the rulers of the synagogue. Because in the synagogue, there was a type of elementary school that was connected with every synagogue. Again, Edersheim writes this:

Every place then which numbered 25 boys of a suitable age, or 120 families, was bound to appoint a schoolmaster. More than 25 pupils or thereabouts, He was not allowed to teach in a class. If there were 40, He had to employ an assistant. If 50, the synagogue authorities appointed two teachers. This will enable us to understand the statement, no doubt greatly exaggerated, that at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., there were no fewer than 480 schools in the metropolis. 

Edersheim goes on to say, 

“The number of hours during which the junior classes were kept in school was limited. As the close air of the school room might prove injurious during the heat of the day, lessons were intermitted between 10 AM and 3 PM. For similar reasons, only 4 hours were allowed for instruction in July and August.”

So, for 4 years, the Old Testament in Hebrew was the only textbook. That's what Jesus would have learned when He began elementary school. And the goal was that the Jew knew, quote, the Jew knew the law better than His own name, end quote. The first book Jesus would have studied in elementary school, you ready for this? Leviticus, true story. He learned three languages. He learned Aramaic because when the Jews returned from the 70-year captivity in Babylon, they came speaking the language spoken by the Persians, Aramaic. He also spoke Hebrew. Luke 4, 16, Jesus read from the scroll in the synagogue, which would have been almost certainly in Hebrew. He also spoke Greek. In John 21, Jesus uses two different Greek words for love, and Peter uses two different words for no. That interchange doesn't work in Aramaic, and it doesn't work in Hebrew. And in Matthew 16, 18, Jesus uses a wordplay on the Greek words petra and petrus, bedrock and stone. So Jesus began His education early. Five years of age started reading the Bible, six years of age entered elementary school, and for the next five years, or four years rather, the only textbook was the Bible, starting with Leviticus.

The next event we have recorded in the Scripture is at 12 years of age. It's His first Passover in Jerusalem, around 7 A.D. It's recorded in Luke 2, verses 41 to 50. Jesus was 12 years of age, at 13 years of age, He would become a son of the commandment. It meant he'd come of age. He was considered an adult for all intents and purposes. In preparation of that momentous event, most Jewish boys went on their first Passover celebration at the temple at the age of 12. I think it's likely Jesus went with His parents before that, but certainly He did at this point. In this passage, interestingly enough, we find the very first words of Jesus after the incarnation. Luke 2:49, “He said to His parents, ‘Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house?’” Now, this wasn't insolent. This wasn't disrespectful. There's an intentional contrast in what Jesus says between what Mary had said, Your father and I, and what Jesus says, My father. You see, it clearly shows. The point of this story is not that as a kid, you can be brighter than your teachers. The point of this story is that at 12, Jesus had a clear sense of who He was and of His mission.

From 12 to 30 years of age, from about 7 A.D. to His ministry at 26 A.D., you have His adolescence and young manhood. Luke 2:51-52 summarizes what transpired during those 18 years. 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 men. 

Now while there are a lot of things we can't know about those years of Jesus' life, there is much that we can learn. Here's what we know about his, what happened from the age of 12 to 30. First of all, we know that He studied the law of God. On the Sabbath, He attended and apparently often led the worship at the local synagogue. You see Him doing that in Luke chapter 4 when He returns to Nazareth. It's likely during this time that His family had a copy or a partial copy of the scriptures. We know even hundreds of years before this, Jewish families did.

Edersheim writes, at the time of the Syrian persecutions, during the time of Antiochus, just before the rising of the Maccabees, the possession of portions or of the whole of the Old Testament by private families was common in Israel. For part of those persecutions consisted in making search for these scriptures and destroying them, as well as punishing their possessors. So we knew that families, even a hundred years before Christ, had their own copies of the scripture. And it's likely that Jesus' family did. But certainly, there were complete copies of the scripture in the local synagogue, and Jesus could have made use of those at any time that He chose, as well as, of course, on the Sabbath. 

Also during those years, Jesus practiced a trade. His father Joseph was in what line of work? Matthew 13:55, “Is not this [speaking of Jesus], the carpenter's son?” But it was also Jesus' trade. In Mark 6, verse 3, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? So He took up the family trade. Now, the word carpenter literally means a craftsman. The Greek word is broad, like our English word builder. It can include the work of a carpenter, a mason, a woodworker. There are any number of things it can include. We can't be absolutely sure. But Justin Martyr, who lived shortly after the Apostle John's death and who knew John, wrote this. “When He was among men [speaking of Jesus], He made plows and yokes and other farm implements.” So He was a carpenter. 

You know what's encouraging about this, men? It's what it tells us about work. J. Oswald Sanders writes this, speaking of Jesus. “He saw no incongruity in the Lord of Glory standing in the saw pit, laboriously cutting the thick logs into planks, or using a plane and hammer. In days when white collar workers tend to despise those who work with their hands, contemplation of the life of Jesus during those silent years would wither such contemptuous pride. He was a carpenter, a working man, who earned His living as others of His contemporaries by manual skill. His was no 40-hour week, but a 12-hour day, doubtless with overtime as well. If it was not beneath the Son of God to work as an artisan, then surely it is beneath none of His children, because He was no stranger to the dust and sweat of toil. Sons of labor are dear to Jesus, and He has imparted to a life of toil, both dignity and nobility.” I love that quote. I love that. Our Lord worked. He practiced trade.

Also, during those years, He annually would have made the trek to the temple for the three annual feasts required of Jewish males. What about His family life? Well, it's described in Mark chapter 6. Look there with me. Mark 6, there's so much we can learn from this verse. Mark 6, verse 3. The people of Nazareth, His hometown, tell us this, “’Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him.” Now, notice in that text, there are four brothers that are listed. Two of them, of course, will later write books in the New Testament, Jude and James. And he's said to have sisters, plural. So that means, when you do the math, four brothers, at least two sisters, Jesus grew up in a family of at least seven siblings. It's a large family. And I think, likely more, if He had more than two sisters. So think about that for a moment. 

Now, let me just say that some try to argue that these aren't really His brothers and sisters. There are three answers that have historically been offered for “brothers or sisters to Christ” in what sense. One answer is that these were actually cousins. This comes from Jerome. This is the official Roman Catholic position, primary Roman Catholic position to this day. This can't be true, however, because Greek has a word for cousin, which the New Testament writers chose not to use. In addition, this Greek word brother is never used to designate a cousin. So that's just an attempt to justify their theology.

A second thing that's said is that, no, these are Joseph's children by a previous marriage. In other words, Jesus was born to Mary, but Joseph brought children into the marriage, and these were His children. Well, if that's true, it would mean that Jesus was the youngest in the family and the only child of Joseph and Mary. This solution was originally proposed to protect the perpetual virginity of Mary, that Mary and Joseph never had sexual relations. It's a theory that began a couple of hundred years after Christ. In addition to clearly denigrating the sanctity of marriage, the physical relationship in marriage, there are many problems with this view. First of all, there's no mention in scripture. Secondly, it erases Jesus' claim to the throne. He wouldn't be the firstborn of Joseph if this were true. And it doesn't match the New Testament picture. I mean, in the New Testament, these boys are always tagging along with their mother, and they're later described as having wives. The implication is they were younger than Jesus, not older.

There are several other implications in Mark 6:3. Look at it again. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, are not His sisters here with us?” The first implication is that Joseph had died. He's not mentioned here. He's not mentioned during Jesus' ministry at all. He was clearly still living when Jesus was 12 in the incident at the temple, but there's no mention of Joseph after that. Think about what that meant practically for Jesus. Jesus had at least six younger siblings that He became responsible to lead and support on the death of Joseph. Secondly, Jesus had taken over the family business. He's called “The Carpenter.” That means during those years, the silent years, before He began His ministry, He worked six days a week to support His family, just like you. Thirdly, it means that Jesus led the family. If Joseph, His father, died shortly after Jesus' visit to the temple when He was 12, but before Jesus began His ministry, as it obviously is clear in the scripture, then it would have fallen to Jesus as the oldest male in a Jewish home to teach His younger siblings to be the surrogate father, to teach them the scripture. His responsibility, Jesus' responsibility, was to be a father in that home. He was to teach His younger siblings the scripture, a responsibility outlined in Deuteronomy 6. Think about it. No family ever had a better teacher, a more consistent example, a more perfect model of God the Father than they did. Men, He did what you do. He did what you do.

But sadly, whenever it was that Jesus' siblings first became aware that their older brother claimed to be more than the human son of Mary and Joseph, they all refused to believe him. In fact, they thought He was crazy. Go to Mark 3, Mark 3, verse 21. Let's go to verse 20. “And He came home to Capernaum, where His ministry headquarters was and where He lived, and the crowd gathered again to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people, [His own kinsmen] heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him, for they were saying, He has lost His senses.” He's out of His mind. They didn't believe him. In fact, go over to verse 31. Then His mother, and by the way, I don't think Mary thought He was crazy. I think Mary was like any mother, concerned about the health of her son. He's overdoing. He shouldn't be, you know, he's not taking time to eat. How many of us have heard from our mothers at some stage in our life? You're doing too much. You need to slow down. You need to... This is Mary.

But His brothers thought He was crazy out of His mind. And His brothers arrived, “and standing outside, they sent word to Him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to Him, ‘Behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.’ Answering them, He said, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, ‘Behold, my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.’” Isn't that true? If you come from a family that isn't believing, the people of God are closer to you. They're more family than your family. That's exactly what Jesus is saying.

Their attitude toward Jesus, His brothers, His siblings' attitude toward him, became very clear in a later incident that occurs just six months before His crucifixion. It's found in John, chapter 7. John, chapter 7, verse 1. “After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee. He wasn't going to Judea because they were seeking to kill him. The feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, that happens in October, was near. Therefore, His brother said to Him, ‘Leave here, go to Judea, so that your disciples may also see your works, what you were doing. For no one does anything in secret when he seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’” Why are they saying this? Verse five, “Four [because] not even His brothers were believing in Him.” Not even His brothers were believing in Him. They thought He was crazy. I mean, think about this for a moment. How sad it must have been for Jesus to have His own family reject His claims, His younger siblings whom He had faithfully led and taught and shepherded through their years growing up. This may well be why at the cross, Jesus gives the Apostle John responsibility to care for Mary, His mother. Why would He do that if He has six younger siblings? Well, we know that Jesus willingly limited certain exercise of His attributes in His humanity. It may well be that in His humanity, He didn't know that His brothers would ever believe in Him. He may have died thinking that those He had loved and cared for and taught would always reject Him. Listen, men, if you have a child who's walked out on the faith, who's turned to his or her back on all that you've tried to teach that child, Jesus knows from experience exactly how you feel.

For 30 years, Jesus lived an ordinary life. Think about that for a moment. Just let that settle into your soul. For almost 30 years, He lived a perfectly ordinary life. He lived life like you lived it. He had a family He was responsible for. He needed to teach the ways of the Lord. He went to synagogue on every week on the Sabbath. He worked hard in a trade to earn a living to support His family. Men, He lived your life. Just think about that. A completely ordinary life.

Dean Frederick Farrer in his famous book, Life of Christ, writes this.

“In these years, Jesus began to do long before He began to teach. They were the years of sinless childhood. A sinless boyhood, a sinless youth. [Imagine that!] A sinless manhood, spent in that humility, toil, obscurity, submission, contentment, prayer, to make them an eternal example to all our race. We cannot imitate Him in the occupations of His ministry, nor can we even remotely reproduce in our own experience the external circumstances of His life during those crowning years. But the vast majority of us are placed by God's own appointment amid those quiet duties of a commonplace and uneventful routine, which are most closely analogous to the 30 years of His retirement. [That is the years He was not involved in ministry.] It was during those years that His life is, for us, the main example of how we ought to live.”

You say, what was the... why? Why did Jesus...Have you ever thought about this? Why did Jesus not come down to earth on Friday of the Passion Week, die on the cross on Friday, be in the grave on Saturday, rise from the dead on Sunday, and go back to heaven? Why not a weekend trip? No, I mean, really, why not? What were all those years about? Well, there are about two things. Jesus' 30 silent years, first of all, serve as an example and encouragement for us. He lived your life. He lived doing what He's called you to do, what he's assigned you to do. He did that for almost 30 years. Certainly, for those 30 years, He set an example for us, but He was doing something far much more important during those 30 years, and that was He was truly living the life we should have lived. That's why 30 years.

It's because somebody had to earn the righteousness that would be imputed to you. And the only way for Him to earn that righteousness was to be one of us, to live among us, and to do what you do every day, to grow up like you grew up, and to do it perfectly. To do it like you've never done it, like I've never done it. He lived the life we should have lived. For those 30 years, so that His perfect life could be credited to the account of every one of us who would ever believe. Second Corinthians 5:21. Here's the real purpose of those 30 years. Not just to be an example, but to be our righteousness. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” That's the cross. That's the passive righteousness of Christ as it's often referred to, meaning His passion, the righteousness that He accomplished in His passion. But here's His active righteousness applied to us, “so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” You see, men, when you and I believe in Jesus, not only does God amazingly credit our sins to Jesus Christ. Think about it, think about your sins for a moment. Think about all that you've done, that you know your conscience bothers you about, that was contrary to the law of God. If you believed in Christ, on the cross, God took every one of those sins, and He credited them to Jesus. And on the cross, He treated Jesus as if He had committed your sins, every single one of them. But then He did something even more amazing, I think, in justification, the moment of your salvation, He credited those 30 perfect years of Jesus, a sinless childhood, a sinless youth, a sinless adulthood. He credited every perfect act of righteousness, every righteous thought, every righteous deed, every righteous word, He put in your account. And now He treats you, He sees you, and He treats you as if you had lived those 30 perfect, silent years. That's salvation. That's justification. Your sins to Christ, His 30 years of, 33 years of perfect righteousness to you.

This is how we begin the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. With those 30 silent years, when He earned the right to be your Redeemer. Let's pray together.

Father, we are truly amazed at your grace. Thank you that you sent your Son into the world. That when the fullness of time had come, when you had made everything perfect for His coming, when we had the perfect language, when we had the peace that allowed the spread of the gospel, when the Jewish people were eagerly anticipating the Messiah, you sent Him into the world. Born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem those who are under the law, and that we might receive the adoption of sons. Father, thank you for our Lord. Thank you for those 30 perfect silent years that are the ultimate ground of our righteous standing before you. Thank you that on the cross, He paid for our sins, and in His life, He earned our righteousness. We thank you and praise you. In His name, amen.