The parents of Jesus went back to Jerusalem. I like that! We’re hearing some strange voices that our “movement” started in the 1800’s with Alexander Campbell. I never heard of Campbell or Barton W. Stone or “Raccoon” John Smith—any of those men—when I was growing up. I NEVER heard of them!! When I was baptized into Christ, I did what was here [Harvey holds up the New Testament]. That is what I heard of…what they did in Jerusalem. And I think there’s a real spiritual lesson in that.

[Luke 2, verse] 47: “Everyone who heard Him was AMAZED at His understanding and His answers.” And it’s still true. Oh, how He touches our heart!

You remember not long ago, we studied about the two men on the way to the city of Emmaus. And Jesus talked with them and answered their questions as they were walking along the way. It’s too good to be true! They can’t believe that it’s Jesus! But when Jesus does reveal Himself to them in the breaking of the bread, and He vanishes away from their sight, and they go all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the apostles and all the rest that are meeting…“He’s ALIVE! And He walked with us in the way!” Then they said, and I love this, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He opened unto us the Scriptures?” [See Luke 24:13-33]. “Our hearts burned within us.” They were excited! They were touched! They were moved! They were AMAZED!

Friends, let’s don’t lose that! And it’s EASY to think that the Bible is commonplace—“Oh, I’ve read that. I’ve done that. I’ve studied that.” Hey! Read the Old Testament again. Read the Psalms again. Read all four Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John] just as one unit. And then read Luke and Acts together! Then read the epistles of Paul. And finally, finish up with the Revelation letter that talks about HEAVEN!, and what it’s going to be like—streets of gold as transparent as glass. Doesn’t that cause you to wonder and be amazed? How could gold be as transparent as glass? But that’s a beautiful concept! Ah, man, it’s beautiful! Gates of pearl? How costly is a pearl? How big would a gate be? Well, I don’t think that’s literal, but I think the Lord’s trying to convey to us something that’s so magnificent and so wonderful that we couldn’t conceive of it unless He puts it in words that are thrilling to us, that are amazing to us, and that’s how it will be. Dear friend, I’ll guarantee you’ll not be disappointed in heaven! I think I can also say that it will be beyond our fondest dreams! We don’t want to miss heaven!

Then it says in verse 51 of Luke, chapter 2: “His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” The word “treasure” is only used in two places, and they’re right here…also in this same chapter in verse 19…treasured [in the New International Version]. We didn’t know how to translate this word. It’s a word that means to hold something, and turn it around, and look at it like studying the different facets of a diamond. It’s a word that can be translated from the Greek, to tumble over so you can see the other side. What did Mary “treasure” in her heart? Well, when the angel appeared to her and told her all of these things, and she heard other things from Elizabeth, Mary went back home and kept all of these things in her heart and kept thinking about them and rolling them over, as it were, and looking at different sides. So, when Jesus said, “Don’t you know I must be about My Father’s house—or in My Father’s house—or about My Father’s business?”…don’t you know that she thought of some of those early things that were said, and she realized that the Son of God was now accountable? She realizes that He’s growing up, and that the world depends upon His growing up. Boy! What a recognition! She tumbled that in her heart.

Do you have some Scriptures that you like—that you’ve memorized—and you say them to yourself sometimes when you go to bed? Do you “tumble them in your heart” when you think about them? I like Romans 8:28. John Phillis preached on that the first Sunday Sue and I were here at this congregation. Great sermon! “For we know that to them that love the Lord, all things work together for good, to them that are called according to the Lord [according to His purpose].” Isn’t that a good passage? Don’t you like to tumble that in your mind? Now, it doesn’t say everything is good. It says He makes all things work out for good. That’s a comforting thought! Hey! You’re going to win! “For in HIM,” the Roman letter says, “we are MORE than conquerors through Him that loved us,” [Romans 8:37]. More than conquerors? We’re not losers! Hey, we don’t have a building! There are a lot of things in the physical sense we don’t have. But I’ll tell you what we do have. We have this [Harvey holds up the Bible]. And we have this [Harvey points to the table where the Lord’s Supper was left prepared earlier]. And we have worshipped today, and I pray it’s acceptable in the eyes of HIM. I pray that we go away from here refreshed…and that’s all that matters. That’s all that matters.