And His Own No.12 The Family of God

Let's read from the Word of God as it's discovered in the Gospel of Mark in the third chapter. There are three occasions in scripture where reference is made to the family of Jesus coming to him. They don't fully understand his ministry and in one sense perhaps they represent a threat.

Mark's Gospel in chapter three, the 13th verse gives a list of the disciples and the 20th verse we pick up. Then Jesus entered a house and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this they went to take charge of him for they said he's out of his mind and the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said he's possessed by Beelzebub, by the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.

So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables, how can Satan drive out Satan if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. If Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand, his end has come.

In fact no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, he is guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit.

Join me in the next verses. Then Jesus's mother and brothers arrived, standing outside they sent someone in to call him, a crowd was sitting around him and they told him your mother and brothers are outside looking for you, who are my mother and my brothers he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said here are my mother and my brothers, whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

Let's go to Matthew in chapter 12 and I read to you the complimentary verses that we've just found in Mark's account from verse 46. While Jesus was still talking to the crowd his mother and brother stood outside wanting to speak to him someone told him your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. He replied to him who is my mother, who are my brothers.

Pointing to his disciples he said here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Well it's my privilege to round off this series of addresses from Matthew 11 and 12. We were glad to have the perspective of my dear friend Bishop Nang Wazwa.

I can say his name without losing my teeth which if your memory is good will remind you that I did hear his address because that's what he said about his name. We were glad to have his perspective as he helped us come to the concluding verses and see what our Lord was was teaching and I want to enlarge on that link up with what's gone before and package together what Tim and I have been so privileged to preach on during these last weeks and we've been very grateful for the response that we've had from the congregation in respect of these addresses. It seems to me that in these verses are some of the most wonderful ones that you find in the whole of scripture who for example could add to what our Lord says in the 28th verse of the 11th chapter come to me all you are weary and were burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus's words to you and if you want another telegram from the Old Testament authenticated also in the new of what God wants to say to those who feel inadequate and utterly weak and unable to make much of a contribution in the kingdom of God well look at the 20th verse of the next chapter a bruised reed he will not break smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Jesus has time for everyone we meet together not as successful people but as people who have failed and yet have discovered that our Lord does not crush us our Lord does not want to break us our Lord does not want to snuff us out he wants to make us and strengthen us and kindle new life within us well it seems to me that vying perhaps for the gold medal in these two chapters is the final verse or at least the penultimate verse at the end of the 12th here are my mother and my brothers our Lord Jesus is identifying the likes of you and me and he is saying of us they are so dear to me they are in the family circle it would just have been colossal cheek for anyone to have written this at the earthly level it needed the authority of the Lord Jesus to give it credibility but he comes from the Father and he speaks of those who belong to him and when asked by implication if he recognizes his family he says yes they they are my family those who've come with their yoke and exchanged it those who've limped spiritually into his presence and thought that he might crush them no says our beloved Lord they've come and they're mine and I acknowledge them as family that could perhaps be the subtitle for our address this morning Christ identifies his family you see our Lord had two families didn't he there were those who were his by natural birth in terms of human descent let's go to John's gospel that helps to underline the point in the opening chapter he speaks about his own ideally he's referring to his own people the Jews but perhaps specifically to his family verse 10 he our Lord Jesus John one he was in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him he came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him yet to all who received him to them through those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will but born of God did you not know that Jesus has two families there's the natural family they were important to him but there is a family of even greater import what do you know of the natural family of Jesus sometimes we forget that he had brothers and sisters he had four brothers you will discover that references made to them in the gospel of Mark and the sixth chapter some of you who are well clued up in terms of the contents of the new testament are aware that the epistle of Jude and the epistle of James was were written by the brothers of Jesus well there's James and there's Joseph and there's Judas and there's Simon chapter 6 verse 3 of Mark's gospel and he has two sisters so at least there are six in the family circle seven if you include him and there could be others our Lord came from a relatively large family did you know that now now here's the scene you see he's been speaking in the open air and sometimes he's gone into a synagogue and then he went into somebody's home but the the whole of these incidents seem to follow one after the other and towards the end of the contents of the Savior's ministry as depicted in the 11th and 12th chapter in Matthew's gospel you get his natural family coming along and I repeat our Lord was a family man as we are family people we've obviously been born into families we have a knowledge of our parents or most of us do and some of us are parents ourselves what was it like in Jesus's family circle well it seems as though our Lord looked after the family for quite a long time tradition has it and I can see no reason to disprove or to dismiss the notion that Joseph is the one who looked after Joseph died fairly early in life and therefore Jesus is left as a bread winner maybe that's the reason why he made reference to yolks because I mentioned to you there is this tradition that Jesus was actually in charge of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth and his yolks were famous in terms of the ease with which they fitted the animals in his day maybe the reason why he started at the human level his public ministry just at the age of 29 which was rather late not just obviously within the overarching purposes of God but at the family level was well that was the only time when he could safely move away so that Mary his mother would have sufficient resources from his now adult brothers to be able to maintain the family home you ever thought of this maybe we don't put sufficient significance on the family of Jesus because we've been tripped a little by Roman Catholic theology which speaks of Mary the mother of Jesus in terms of the state of a perpetual virgin and that of course is a nonsense there's no scriptural foundation for that whatsoever in fact I would hope that when Protestants refer to her as the Virgin Mary they only do so in a sort of honorific way because she was a virgin when she when she had the Lord Jesus but but then natural relationships between herself and Joseph are established and she has several children and although she is above all her sex she is the most wonderful woman that ever was that was the message of the annunciation hail thou Mary highly esteemed above all women yet she'll need the Lord Jesus as her savior she cannot be thought of in terms of mother of God as the Catholics tell us she cannot be taught thought of as the queen of heaven she would blush to hear this tell her that she is a mediatorix which is the feminine of mediator and she would wonder what on earth had happened who had written these things into her character no she is a wonderful woman and she comes with her sons to see the blessed Lord and she and they are a little bit perplexed as to how he is behaving you see if you go to John's gospel and the seventh chapter you find this and I wonder if you've ever noticed it before that it is said of our Lord's brothers that they did not believe in him verse 5 John's gospel chapter 7 even his own brothers did not believe in him and when you went to Mark's gospel which gave you also the scenery for this little incident you remember it was widely rumored that our Lord might be deranged so was that the reason why Mary and his brothers came to him on this occasion the composition of the family the natural family of Jesus at least six or seven people in it their convictions they didn't believe him and the thought was well perhaps he's been burning the candle at both ends maybe he's been exerting himself too much so they come to talk to him those of you who from a mixed family your husband doesn't know the Lord your wife doesn't know the Lord your children don't know the Lord your parents don't know the Lord wherever you lock into that little bundle of options remember this the Lord Jesus understands because his family didn't fully appreciate him or what he was about you see that's the reason why he can deal so gently with the bruised reed why he won't snuff out the smoking flax he knows the pressures because he's had them himself that's what makes him so uniquely approachable and why it is that we with bated breath come and see what he has to say as we draw to the end of this glorious two-chapter narrative well there is his natural family and they've come alongside it's uh they've come to him it's towards the end of this particular bit of ministry while Jesus was still talking to the crowd you get the the sequence he's been teaching about demon possession you remember that in the 43rd verse through to the 45th while he's teaching they come his family and they stand at the edge of the crowd I wonder who it was that first spotted them and how did they get the message to Jesus did somebody write a little bit of paper and sort of pass it forward probably not but probably the large crowd is outside the house in which Jesus is now in that would seem to be the context if you link Matthew up with Mark and and there's a buzz of conversation as they've spotted Mary and the brothers and so one leans forward to the next to the next to the next to the next and gradually the information as though he didn't already know reaches the Lord Jesus hey your mother's here your brothers are here you know our Savior will always use consummate skill whenever he's referring to his mother and to his family he wants to capitalize on this incident without doing injury to his family but also showing us that there are even stronger ties than the ties of flesh and blood you see our Lord has previously been speaking of the problems that family can bring in terms of commitment to the kingdom of God look at the 37th verse of the 10th chapter anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me you see the problem that our Lord is here enunciating describing the problem of family family pressure how many people would have found themselves on the mission field that mom and dad put pressure on you can't leave us can you and you felt your sense of responsibility I speak with with compassion I fully understand and so does our Lord but he does say that in the stakes of responsibility our responsibility to the Father the Heavenly Father is greater than our responsibility to our human parents now our Lord is always a balanced teacher he'll put up his negatives and he'll follow them with his positives sometimes he does it the other way around he puts the positives up and he follows them with the negatives but what do I mean by that well later on in his teaching having spoken to us about the fact that a mother and father and relatives can interfere in the purposes of God he also later on in Matthew's gospel tells us that it is necessary for us to honor our father and our mother you find that in the 15th chapter so here you have this juxtaposition our Lord teaching one thing and then teaching another thing but what is he saying well he's not contradicting himself all he is saying is that our major responsibility our prime responsibility is to the Father in heaven and then having fulfilled that responsibility we do our best to honor our mother and our father all right you say what's this to do with this incident well it's everything to do with it it gives you the synthesis in terms of the teaching of our Lord here comes his mother he doesn't deny any sense of responsibility that he has to marry I mean bless my soul what is the last thing our savior is speaking of when he's on the cross well amongst the the subject matter one is his sense of responsibility to marry and he picks up the attention of his beloved disciple John and he says John your mother mother your son you see the point our Lord he cannot minister physically to his mother at that stage but he makes provision all right here comes the natural family of Jesus we've looked at their composition we've seen their conviction what does our savior do well he teaches us that he has more than just responsibilities at the human family level he recognizes that there is another entity another category of people go back to John's gospel he came to his own his own countrymen his own family his own didn't receive him but it goes on to those who did receive him to them gave he power to become what the sons of God what is the son of God well he's a member of the family circle of God who represents God on earth the Lord Jesus you see the logic of scripture it's very difficult to do anything else but draw correct conclusions so here these people come and they pass their message down from one to another to another and eventually it reaches Jesus hey your mother's here and he wants to teach about responsibilities not just to his mother but responsibilities at the spiritual level so he says who is my mother who is my sister who is my brother he wants a better example now I suggest you that that point he could have gone backwards I mean nostalgically gone to the old testament the prophets were they not sort of linked to Jesus he was in the fellowship of the prophets could he not have said well you know they basically were my well I descend from them they were my heritage could he not have put his eyes upwards and thought in terms of the angelic hosts Gabriel and and all the rest the angels that the seraphim linked to him at least spiritually who is my brother and my sister and my mother if it's not these relatives of mine who so misunderstand me and are at the fringe of the crowd who who then is a better example now the Americans tend to follow the people in the Middle East at least in services I've been in by this particular custom and I approve of it not approve everything that comes out of America but I approve of this you always go for the seats at the front why will you get the best value Britishers they fill their churches from the back forward or I'm exaggerating but you get the point where were the disciples have been sitting well they'd have been sitting around the feet of the Lord Jesus who who is the the illustration of my family what fits best and he points to them they are my brothers they stand for my mother they stand for my sister now he's talking the family of God and you might have felt that he could have got a better example I mean bless my soul here's here's Peter and Erlong he's going to be correcting Jesus give it a few weeks and he's going to be denying Jesus there's James and John and well they don't hit it altogether well maybe they hit it a bit too much because they're called sons of thunder they seem to have tempers which Jesus deals with in a remarkable fashion and then there's Thomas the fatalist and the skeptic you see my point the family circle of the Lord Jesus as he as he illustrates them right now they just fill us with a sense of amazement that they should be selected to illustrate this point but don't you appreciate this that the family circle of God on earth is not a perfect family you say you've heard of feuds and squabbles among Christians of course you have they've not been perfected and they are the target of the evil one more than any other society not always a happy family though they aim for the goals of perfection and happiness but here is our blessed Lord and he's saying you know that really what stands for my family are these people they are in a spiritual line with me I've called they have responded they haven't understood everything but in as much as they have been following me they are amongst those who have been given me by God they are in the family circle of God they are my brothers they are my sister they are my mothers so to speak where are you your mother and brothers are standing outside I don't think that word outside was put in there because Matthew wanted to get the sentence out correctly I think there's more in that than just defining the the geographical position in which the mother and brothers of our Lord were they were not just outside physically they were outside spiritually your mother and brothers are outside wanting you to go to speak to them whereas you they should really have been inside wanting him to speak to them outside inside you see it seems to me that there's a lever here that I have to pull and I believe I have the mind of the Spirit in pulling it I don't say that glibly you see some of you once were inside in terms of the intimacy of your relationship with him you were you heard the call prayer was something you were diligent to commit yourself to the handling of your finances you're on the inside you understood in measure and you kept close but then then the years went by and you move from the inside to the outside I'm not suggesting that that there's any threat to your salvation your salvation comes through him but but I am suggesting that there is a threat to your discipleship when the insiders become outsiders then the church suffers and what our Lord is setting up here is a picture of the church time and time again I say this from this pulpit and I don't apologize for so doing for if there is one doctrine that is neglected today it is the doctrine of the church the church is miserably misunderstood the church is the family of God the church is the people of God the church is the extension of the life of Christ and to be outside or distant from the man who's central in the church's life is to cause the church to act in a deficient fashion because you're not making the contribution that you ought to within the family but you see our Lord by contrast shows us his men on the front pointing to his disciples here are my mother here are my brothers and he tells us something about the family secret you see it takes one to know one doesn't it I mean you take cricket well take cricket as far as I'm concerned it takes a cricketer doesn't it I mean to watch that game hour by hour you've got to be a cricketer to be turned on the same as anything else I mean I think that anyone reasonable and intelligent would jog I use humor to hit my point it takes one to know one in terms of the family circle whoever does the will of my father he's in she's in now this is interesting because our blessed Lord is is here giving us a true understanding of faith you see that there are those who perhaps on first reading or first hearing of my comment would say well that's against the whole Protestant position here you are going on about the Catholics but what about Martin Luther and John Calvin and justification by faith and you're saying it's doing do you not know that faith defined in the New Testament is always a verb of activity it is not passive that's why James says the brother of our Lord who changed his tune as did Jude conversion came after the death and resurrection of Jesus those of you from split families hold on our Lord ministers encouragement his family who so misunderstood him were brought together and they became two of them leaders of the church and James tells us that faith devoid of works is dead and here our Lord says I recognize those who are in the family circle by the way that they do they do the will of whom well they do the will of my father in heaven now they don't all do the same thing there are other categories my brother my sister my mother you see we can't all make the same contribution but we can all be doing in fact if you're not doing you're not in the family because there are no armchairs that are reserved for people to rock on throughout the whole of eternity perish the thought that that is heaven I mean how would activists like someone like myself and many of you here how would we cope if we couldn't do something and yet the most wonderful thing in life is to be doing in the service of God isn't it whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother so our Lord uses this human and domestic incident of his kindly but misinformed relatives including his mother coming along to give him wrong advice and he spells out that actually the family circle that is the most important is the one who enhances the work of God when Mary and Joseph you remember scolded our Lord when he was just a child of 12 or 13 because he remained in the temple and not gone back with the party from Nazareth he said to them do you not know I should be about father's business and the important thing is for you to and I to understand and appreciate that father's business meant for the Lord Jesus the establishing of a a new more intimate family circle than the natural one now I thank God for my parents memories of them my dad I thank God for the relatives that I've got but I thank God much more for the family of God in which I find myself as a member the church of God the called out people of God who are to relate in a level of intimacy and and honorable friendship with one another ever enhancing the work of the king ever pushing forward the frontiers of the kingdom so this is how I conclude these 11th and 12th chapters by leaving you once more with a picture of our blessed Lord who speaks to all the people who've gathered in such a wonderful fashion and makes it quite clear that to him they can go when they can go to no one else and to bring their load of sin and he will take it and ultimately he will deal with it on the cross of Calvary and the man who receives his forgiveness the woman who receives that has the burden lifted and instead of that groan of sin that comes from the heart there's a hallelujah that comes from the depths of the of your being as you recognize that you've been freed by him and brought into a family circle and the future is all glorious now the king wants citizens the man who represents the father wants brothers and sisters and those who will behave as mothers as of Israel in God so to speak can you do that do you wish to do this well it's up at one level to yourself to make a response and to commit your life to the Lord Jesus not to remain on the outside or not to have slipped back into that position with the determination to stay there come to the front sit by the feet of Jesus and enable him to save you by the grace of God see him see her my brother my mother my sister he came to his own his own received him not but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God and he says in Hebrews and the second chapter in the 11th verse I will declare the name of God amongst my brothers and that's what he has done and did in these two chapters let's bow our heads in prayer and ask this great and glorious son of God to make more real to us the thought of his kingship the thought that he alone can introduce us into the family circle making us to be brothers and sisters sons and daughters of the living God he's my friend and he is my brother even though he is a king Jesus is king and I will extol him give him the glory and honor his name father we thank you for your son we thank you that we can push our way forward to the front of the crowd and be acknowledged by him as we confess our need and commit our lives in his service bless us as we sing this hymn together and help us to appreciate the privilege that is ours of thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ as our elder brother who introduces us to the father and keeps us forever within the family circle amen three six six let's stand and sing Jesus is king and I will extol him give him the glory and honor his name is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all ever more amen good morning God bless you