Who Was Jesus?

Ok, I'm a little slow at getting back in the swing of things! For the next few weeks we will be going through Lee Strobel's 'The Case For Christ'. Next Sunday the lesson revolves around who Jesus was and who he thought he was.

Read Matthew 4:13-17

Context: John the Baptist has been preaching in the Desert of Judea, baptizing people for the repentance of their sins.

Text:

13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.

16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (NIV)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

At what point in his life did Jesus realize that he was truly the Son of God? The only glimpses of him that we see before his baptism are when he's an infant and when he's just coming of age. He had to know that he was uniquely gifted in his ability to understand scripture, but is that enough to convince him that he was God? I wonder what stories Mary told of his conception and birth...or did she and Joseph keep those things to themselves as they tried to raise Jesus and their other children? Knowing the example of Joseph and his jealous brothers, maybe they chose not to talk about it.

Did the young Jesus perform miracles on injured birds? Did he heal his own skinned knees? We don't have any record of that. Even if his mother had told him all about the prophecies and the circumstances surrounding his birth, after 33 years of a 'normal' life, I wonder if he really believed all he'd been told.

But now, in an undeniable way, God has claimed him as His own. Not only admitted to Jesus and the world that He loved His son, but also stated that He was pleased. Immediately following this, Jesus was led by the Spirit to the desert for forty days. Did anyone know where he had gone? Had Jesus known this would happen? If he had, I'm sure he stopped by at the Judean All-You-Can-Eat Cafe on the way!

I'm sure Jesus had a lot to think about during that 40 day trek.