Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Increased in Wisdom and Grace
Hello everybody we're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. I'm Kenneth and this is Gloria. Of course, you can tell that. She's much better looking than I am. Oh you're so kind.
— Amen. And let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You today for the Word. We thank You...
— Oh, we're grateful.
— ...For the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Your Word says...
— Praise You Jesus.
— ...In the gospel of John, Jesus himself said it, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whoever believes on him and not perish but have everlasting life". And we thank You for that Lord Jesus for being the gift.
— Yes.
— The gift of love that God gave to this world.
— Thank You.
— And we praise You and we thank You for this broadcast today in Jesus' name. Amen.
— Amen.
— Now let's go back into the gospel of Luke in the second chapter where we were yesterday. Now, we noticed that the prayers, the ones that spent a lot of time before the Lord were the ones that knew. They knew by the Spirit. They knew who Jesus was. They knew why he came. And when Simeon lifted him up, he thanked God that this was Messiah. And then Anna came in, a widow of fourscore and four years. So, when you figure up the numbers, she's 91 years old and she had stayed before the Lord. She coming in at that instant gave thanks, under the Lord and spoke of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So the prayers, the people that spent time before the Lord were the ones that knew, it had been things revealed to them. Now who knows what all had been revealed to them over all those years. But she, Anna, came in at that instant. She knew by the Spirit that she spent her time in the temple. I always wondered when I see things like that we was going to see something else about Jesus here in a minute. She spent all of her time in the temple. Where did she live? I mean, did she live in the temple? She was obviously there that day. So, I don't know. That's interesting in itself.
So now, in verse 40... "The child grew and waxed strong in Spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him". Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover. Of course, they did. So they made that night, and mild journey, but now it's only once a year. And at least she wasn't pregnant this time, but now she had more children. And James, the book of James, was the writer of that book, was Jesus' brother. Well, half brother. We know that. And that makes the book of James an extremely important book. Now, how would you like to have had Jesus as your older brother? Well, why can't you be like Jesus? He never does anything wrong? Everything he says is just perfect. Now I want to interrupt this for a moment. Thank You Lord for reminding me of that. There are other so-called gospels that talk about Jesus, maybe healing birds and so forth. Don't waste time going there because the scripture very plainly states that the first miracle he did was at the wedding feast of Cana. And his mother pushed him into that. He said, "Woman, what have I had to do with him? My time hadn't come yet". She said, "whatever. He says, you do it".
So we know now that from the scripture that Jesus only said what he heard his father say and he only did what he saw his father do. Well, in this case, that was the will of God. And his mother, she just stepped across the line. And of course he did whatever mother said. That was the first miracle. We also have record of the first healing... Was the nobleman son. So all that other about him healing animals and all, that's not right. And maybe later on the week, I'll tell you some other things about that.
"So when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days as they returned the child, Jesus tared behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother knew not of it". He stayed behind, "But they supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance". Excuse me. "When they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. When they saw him, they were amazed and his mother said unto him, 'Son, why has though dealt with this like this?' Behold, thy father and I have sought the sorrowing".
Now figure it up. There are five days involved in this. Now where did he sleep? Who fed him? Well, he wasn't the 12 years old. So he's just now becoming a man. He's considered a man at 13, circumcised the eighth day. And now he is becoming a man. So they recognized in him that he had a lot of insight into the scriptures. So obviously he was a very good student. Now let's look at it again.
— Where are you?
— In Luke 2:47. "And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers". His answers. He had answers. We also know from studying the scripture that he found himself in the book of Isaiah. So his knowledge of all the scriptures, Isaiah and the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible because by this age he had them memorized. He's a young man. He had those first five books memorized. And so he was very accurate and the things that he said in his insight in the scriptures. So they were glad to keep him there. They were glad to take care of him. They could see in this young man a very valuable student and could possibly one day be, you know, so forth and so on. And they were very interested in him because of the wisdom that he had. And so he was filled with wisdom.
Verse four, "The child grew and waxed strong in Spirit, filled with wisdom"... filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon him. Well, the Holy Spirit was in him. Now, he's not 30 years old yet. So he has not been baptized in the Spirit, but he had the wisdom of the Spirit. And all of these things were coming up inside him and he's asking questions and answering questions that astounded these teachers and doctors of the law. And can't you have just imagined, they're saying, "Have you ever in your whole life"? And the others say, "No, have you"? "No". "Whose boy is this anyway? We need to find out more about him". And so lets... "Where's his folks"?
— "Where'd he come from"?
— Yeah. "Where'd he come from? Where his folks"? "Well, we don't know somehow or another, they got misplaced, but surely they'll come back and pick him up, but let's take care of him until they get here. Cause we want to meet his parents. We want to know who they are". And so they took care of him. Notice what he said unto them. "How is it that you sought me"? What are you looking for me for? "Know you not that I must be about my father's business"? What do you see in that? They looked everywhere before they looked in the temple.
— I doubt children went to the temple voluntarily.
— Well, the way...Yes he did. But they knew he did because he just studied the Word night and day. And they should have thought, "Well now wait a minute. Let's check there first". But they checked there last. Anyway, they learned from that. "They understood not the saying, which he spake unto them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature". Or if you read your cross reference...Aged "in favor or grace". He'd already mentioned grace. He increased in wisdom and age and in favor with God and men. Everybody liked him. He got along with everybody until he stepped out. And then other things begin to happen. So we're right here in the book of Luke. So in that third chapter, "the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilot being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee and brother Philip tetrarch"... And so forth and so. "Annas and Caiaphas, being the high priest, the Word of God came unto John, the son of Zachariah in the wilderness". Well, now we've already read about him. He's six months older than Jesus. And they're cousins and their mothers spent their pregnancies together. And so they're obviously very close.
Now, my being an only child, since my mother was not able to... it was dangerous for her to have any more children. And so my cousins were the closest thing to brother and sisters that I had. And, several of them were just really close. And so I had one cousin that was just so close to me. Anyway. Cousins can be... I mean, that's kinsfolk. And so they're close. Their families know one another. And there's obviously a lot of intermingling of those two families since they all live right there together. And, so all of that's happening. Now in that third verse in Luke three, "And he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins". Now that is old covenant baptism, not new, but old. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare you the way of the Lord make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low and the crooked shall be made straight. And the rough way shall be made smooth. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God". Now you have the Amplified there, Gloria?
— What am I looking at right now?
— Yeah. Okay. And I want to see that in that fifth verse. "Every valley and ravine shall be filled up and every mountain and hill shall be leveled and the crooked places shall be made straight. And the rough roads shall be made smooth and all mankind shall see. Behold and understand. And at the last knowledge, the salvation of God, the deliverance from eternal death decreed by God". The deliverance from eternal death. That's what I wanted you to see from the Classic Amplified. Deliverance from eternal death. Oh, glory be to God. Thank You, Jesus. Now. "And then said he to the multitude", the seventh verse, "that came forth to be baptized of him. Oh, generation of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth, therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able to, of these stones to raise up children of God. Now therefore"...
— Would that be us?
— Well? Yeah. And what he was saying, "Don't compromise here. Don't be coming up here and saying you don't have any sin. We're children of Abraham". No, he said "That's no excuse". And what I see out of this is that he just turned and pointed to those stones. But now, do you remember what professor Greg Stephen said about those stones? Those were the gravestones of the prophets. So he pointed to those stones.
— And said what?
— And look what he said, "God is able of those stones to raise up children under Abraham". So... he's really, man. I mean, he's putting a lot of pressure on him. Now...Jesus said that this is the greatest prophet ever born. Yet in the kingdom of God, he's the least. Now Jesus was referring to the new birth. They didn't know that. He said "The least of those shall be greater than the greatest prophet". Well, now we look back on that and we know what he was talking about because we've been born again. We've been born from above. And so what? We have been made kings and priests unto our God. Hallelujah.
— And we can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
— Yes.
— Which, they couldn't.
— They couldn't at that time. The day of Pentecost is just around the corner, but they didn't know that. So, because we're after the resurrection of Jesus, we're only talking about 50 days here. So anyway, he began to preach and now let's come down... Verse 14 "And the soldiers, likewise demanded of him saying, and what shall we do? And he said, unto them do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely and be content with your wages. And as the people were in exception and expectation and all men used in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, John answered". Oh, this... I underlined some of this in red. "John answered saying unto them all, 'I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with a Holy Ghost and with fire'". Glory to God! He will. And they didn't know it, but it's just a few days away. "Whose fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge his floor and he will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff... The wheat into his garner, but the chaff, he will burn with fire unquenchable and many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people".
Oh my. He preached Jesus. And he preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost to the people. And they didn't have a clue what he is talking about, but he was so powerful and so anointed and he is rugged. He's a rugged man. And he... Powerful man. And they recognized it. Those soldiers. I expect those soldiers recognized... I don't want to mess with this old guy. I don't want to fool with him. I mean, but I don't want to mess with him. I'm going to look at him. Look as powerful as he is, whatever he tells me to do, I'm going to do it. Cause he really has something here. And so soldiers... Well, do you suppose those are Roman soldiers? I expect a number of them were Roman soldiers. They might have been, they might have been a part of the temple. And anyway, they had a lot of respect for this man named John.
Now why was this man named John? And why was he called John the Baptist? Well, he was named John because the angels said to name him that. And, he was called Baptist because he was famous for baptizing people. Baptist was not his last name. Whatever Zachariah's name was Zachariah been whomever that was would've been his last name. But we only know him as John the Baptist. Now that's the reason we know Jesus as the Christ. What Brother Copeland? Well, you heard me. That's what he preached. That's what he preached. Now you come on down. "Herod, the tetrarch, being reproved by him because of Herodias, his brother, Philip's wife, and for the evils, which Herod had done added yet this above all that he shut up John in prison. Now, when all the people were baptized, it came past Jesus who, being baptized, and praying the heaven was opened. And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven, which said 'Now art my beloved son. In thee I am well pleased.' Jesus himself being about 30 years of age being as was suppose the son of Joseph", and so forth. Now, awe we're out of time. Praise God.
— It just came up on you suddenly.
— Yeah, it really did. Praise God. Come on Jeremy, son...