Jesus’ actions as a 12-year-old in the temple created chaos and distress for his authorities.
When his parents began their journey back home to Nazareth after the feast of Passover, they had every confidence that Jesus was with them. Most likely, His behavior had never given them any cause for concern before. He was an obedient child.
Having this confidence, they traveled a full day’s journey towards home before starting to feel concerned for his whereabouts. But when they couldn’t find him, their concern grew. They began searching anxiously for Him. They searched everywhere among their caravan, but there was no sign of Him. No doubt, memories came flooding back to them of having to flee from Israel to protect Jesus from those who were trying to kill him when he was only an infant. Had they gone through all of the efforts to protect Jesus from the murderous wrath of Herod only to lose Him now?
Can you imagine the thoughts that went through their heads as Joseph and Mary made their way back to Jerusalem as fast as they could? And upon their arrival in Jerusalem can you picture them retracing their steps as they searched in every place they had been?
When they finally found Him sitting calmly in the temple, can you imagine their shock and bewilderment, after imagining that something terrible may have happened to Jesus? Mary voiced their feelings to Jesus.
*“Son, why have You treated us like this? Listen, Your father and I have been [greatly distressed and] anxiously looking for You.”—Luke 2:48 (AMP) *
The young Jesus’ calm, matter-of-fact reply showed that He really did not comprehend the distress that His actions had caused for his authorities.
This is a very common consequence when gifted, well-meaning believers strike out on their own, believing they are pursuing God’s calling for their lives, but actually throwing their authorities into chaos.
If believers insist on continuing this behavior after being confronted by their authorities, this becomes lawlessness.
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus gives us a clear picture of what He thinks of those gifted people who minister in His name, but who insist on following their own path, and do not submit to His will and His guidance:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (NASB)
At an evening ministry event, I was responsible for coordinating several ministry teams. I was also responsible for leading my own team during a time of individual ministry encounters.
On my team that night, there were two people with whom I had never ministered before. One of them was new to this type of ministry and was there only to observe. I was determined to see that she had a good experience that evening in hopes that she would be encouraged to pursue our required training to become qualified for ministry, and become more involved with the ministry teams, God willing.
The other team member was a very gifted individual with experience in revelatory ministry. Just before we began, she sat down with me and told me basically how the encounters needed to go. She informed me that she received revelation quickly, and that she would need to speak her revelation immediately when she received it, or it would fade from her, and she would not be able to minister as effectively. To me this seemed to contradict 1 Corinthians 14:32, but I listened to her without comment. She did not ask me, as the leader of the group, how I would prefer to lead the encounters, but instead, she told me how the encounters should go. This was a “red flag” signal to me of the troubles to come.
As the encounters got underway, this gifted team member not only dominated the ministry time in our encounters, but she essentially took over leadership of the ministry team.
This caused problems for me all night and shifted my focus from ministry to damage control.
As it became clear that she was not going to defer to my leadership of the team, my focus was taken off of receiving revelation from the Lord for ministry. Instead, I was forced to focus on trying to salvage what was left of the ministry that night for the benefit of those coming to receive something from the Lord.
This gifted team member also tried to pull the other team member in to participate in the ministry encounters, even though that team member was only there to observe and was not yet qualified or prepared to minister.
After the ministry encounters had finished, I confronted this gifted team member about her actions. She replied with, “Well, I didn’t think you were doing a good job leading the team. You didn’t seem to be a very strong leader.”
In other words, she felt that if the leader was not leading the team in the way that she thought was best, she felt justified in usurping authority over the team, taking control, and leading it herself. That reasoning sets a dangerous precedent.
Would she do the same thing to the pastor of her church? If she felt that her pastor was not leading the church as she felt he should, would she attempt to take over leadership of the church?
That was the same reasoning that led to the death of Korah and his entire family in Numbers 16.
There are still serious consequences for those who insist on going their own way and who refuse to submit to the authorities that God has placed over them. Jesus made that clear in the parable of the wheat and the tares.
“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes others to sin and those who practice lawlessness and they will throw them into a blazing furnace. In that place there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let the person who has ears listen!”— Matthew 13:41-43 (ISV)
Lawlessness still has consequences today, as it did in the days of Korah. When I was in the Philippines in 2016, the pastor there told me the tragic stories of two people—a man and a woman—who had risen up against him, his wife, and their leadership of the church there. These two people were verbally abusive to the pastor and his wife, falsely accusing them of many wrong things. They seemed to have nothing good to say about the pastor or his wife. After hurling much abuse and many accusations, these two rebels eventually left the church, taking other people with them.
Shortly after leaving the church, the man came down with a terrible illness, slipped into a coma, and died a few days later. The woman had a massive stroke, losing the ability to function normally. After she regained partial ability to speak, the pastor visited her to pray for her. From her sick bed, she begged the pastor to forgive her, as it finally became clear to her that her rebellious lawlessness had brought these consequences into her life.
The leader may not be the most gifted person in the group. The leader may not be the most organized person with the best leadership skills. The leader may not be leading in the best way and may not be leading as you believe he should, but he is still the one in authority until God sees fit to replace him, as God did with King Saul. David recognized this, and he refused to lift his voice to oppose Saul or lift his hand to harm Saul in any way, even when he had the chance (1 Samuel 24).
You may disagree with how the leaders are leading, but you may not be seeing the whole picture. You may not be aware of all of the details. There may be very good reasons for the leaders to do what they are doing.
The gifted woman who took over my ministry team that night tried more than once to pull the other team member into the ministry encounters, not realizing that this new team member was only there to observe. She was not there to participate in ministry and was not yet qualified to do so.
That gifted woman failed to pass a very important test. Even though she was very gifted and capable with amazing potential, she was not allowed to lead any of our ministry teams. She did not learn to submit to authority.
Just recently, I learned through social media that this gifted woman died unexpectedly.
Sadly, it’s possible that she went from ministry to ministry and from church to church, never fully entering into the fullness of purpose that God had planned for her unless she learned this very important lesson of submission to authority. And in the end, she may have blamed everyone but herself for not advancing further in the Kingdom of God and for never reaching her full potential.
Jesus learned this lesson early and submitted to the authority of his leaders (his parents) when He was 12 years old (Luke 2:51). Having learned the lesson early, Jesus could advance quickly in preparation for His future ministry that would impact the world more profoundly than any other ministry, before or since.
