"Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." Answering them, He *said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us. I want to let you know how grateful I am for each of you, for your faithfulness, dedication and commitment to share God's Word with others. People all around the world are desperate for the Word of God. It's a tremendous blessing, but it's a blessing that brings a huge challenge. With more people coming to Christ, pastors and church leaders are asking for more Bibles in their native languages. I hope you will prayerfully consider helping us to make a difference by meeting their need.
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us. I want to let you know how grateful I am for each of you, for your faithfulness, dedication and commitment to share God's Word with others. People all around the world are desperate for the Word of God. It's a tremendous blessing, but it's a blessing that brings a huge challenge. With more people coming to Christ, pastors and church leaders are asking for more Bibles in their native languages. I hope you will prayerfully consider helping us to make a difference by meeting their need.
Have you ever Googled
something and just looked at how many links there are for that
particular thing? For example, if you
Google the phrase "the love of God" there are over 1.72 billion links!
Much of the love we experience from people in this life is conditional. Conditional love is based upon your performance. You have to do something to earn it. A person may say,"I will love you if…" They may say, "I will love you if you will love me." Or "I will love you as long as you’ll make me feel a certain way." But God’s love is unconditional. God doesn’t love me because I’m especially worthy or lovable; He loves me because HE is loving. In other words, God doesn’t love us because of who WE are. He loves us because of who HE is.
Why does God love us? The reason is God is love. God is love. God loves you because God loves you. God knows more about you than anyone else. He knows every mistake that you’ve ever made, and every mistake you will ever make. Yet, He still loves you with an unconditional love. And, He has before we were even born.Everybody had expectations of Jesus. The religious leaders had expectations, in fact, there was no pleasing these guys who wanted Him to do things their way. Jesus’ Family Had Expectations. If there was anyone who should have clue what Jesus was doing and why He was doing it, you would think that it would have been His family. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that no matter what I do I will not live up to everyone's expectations. The reality is, when all is said and done, I'm content to have the approval of the Only One Who counts, and I must finish the work that He gave me to do. Jesus had it figured out.
There's no doubt that Jesus loved His mother and family very much, but understand this, He also taught us to broaden
our definition of family. He came to bring us into the
family of God by purchasing us with His own blood. That relationship goes beyond the traditional
concept of family.
In Matthew 10, Jesus said "He
who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who
loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You as always for the great treasure of Truth of Your Word. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, speak to every unsaved heart with such profound clarity that Christ died for the sins of the unjust so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Father, we ask that those who are now enemies, would be reconciled to You and become sons and daughters, including those in our own families. Lord we pray that You be glorified and Christ may be exalted in every heart by their right response to the Gospel, even today. We ask and pray this in the name of Your Son, our precious Lord and Savior whom we love and adore.
Amen
Today's Message: Family Ties
As we come to the Word of God today, we're back in the gospel of Mark for the conclusion of chapter 3. As you will remember from our previous message, Jesus' half brothers and sisters thought that He a man, that He had gone completely mad, because no sane person in their right mind would claim to be God. So, as an act of intervention, they went to seize Him for His sake and probably theirs. Then, using very strong language, Jesus in no uncertain terms, informs the self-righteous religious leaders that they have crossed the line, reaching the point of no return, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, attributing His works to the power of Satan. They had all the evidence, they witnessed His supernatural miracles that no human on earth could do, they knew He could heal every disease and cast out demons, they should have fallen down before Him and shouted, "We were wrong, You are the Son of God!" Even the demonic forces of Hell recognized Him and fell down before Him but because of their darkened minds and the wretched condition of their corrupt hearts, those who knew the Scriptures better than anyone, rejected the Son of God, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, putting themselves in a position of never being forgiven either in this age or in the age to come, forever damned, they’ve confirmed their place in Hell.
Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 3, verses 31-35
and follow along with me as I read these verses to you to
set the text in our minds. I pray that the Lord would help us to hear
and apply what He has to say to each of us today. Mark 3:31-35.
"Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." Answering them, He *said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
Let's look at verse 31, "Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him." Jesus is taking care of business and right in the middle of everything, His family shows up, who has come to get Him, to rescue Him from His insanity, and the situation He's gotten Himself into, has now arrived, and are standing outside.
Verse 32, "A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." They couldn't get to Him because there is always a crowd gathered around Him, they sent word to Him and called Him. Remember, they were not just looking to catch up on the latest news about His ministry, they've come to take Him home. So they send someone to interrupt His teaching in an attempt to pass along the message that they are there. Apparently, His family didn't want to wait until He was finished, they weren't concerned about being a distraction or what he was doing. They wanted Him and wanted Him right then and there because they did not understand divine truth, they weren't on the same page. It just goes to show you that sometimes even our own family and well meaning Christians can get in the way of the work of God because they don't understand what He is trying to accomplish in and through us. Allow me to point out that Jesus always about His Father’s business, He did not just leave His task of teaching to go find His family. Instead, He asks a rhetorical question to seize the opportunity to use the situation as a teachable moment. The same is true for all of us, we should love our family but sometimes we may have to choose between our relationship with our family and our relationship with God. If we are ever put in a position and forced to make a choice, we must also remember, our responsibility is first always to the Lord, then our family.
In Matthew 10:36-37 Jesus said "And a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He
who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who
loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." Our family should never take precedence over the Lord.
Verse 33, "Answering them, He *said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Not only did Jesus not abandon approach His family, He reveals that He has another family.He hadn't lost His senses, of course, He knew who they were, but He was changing the narrative; from the priority of our earthly relationships to spiritual ones. He's talking about His kingdom family. He's teaching a revealing lesson, while our human relationships are important, they are not the relationships that matter most. There was nothing that set His natural family apart from their need of a Savior. It is similar to the principle we find in Luke 11, while Jesus was teaching, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
In Luke 1:47, Mary said "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." Surely she had acknowledged Him as her Savior and had that eternal relationship with Him but His siblings had not, in fact, John tells us in chapter 7 verse 5, "For not even His brothers were believing in Him." Eventually His earthly half-brothers and half-sisters were converted and they became a part of His eternal family, nothing He was saying made sense to them until after the resurrection, that's what made the difference, then they realized everything He said and did was under the power of the Holy Spirit. John 6:64-65,
"But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." It is only by the divine revelation of the Holy Spirit according to God's own will that we come to know that He is Lord.
Verse 34, "Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, "Behold My mother and My brothers!" In answering His own question, Jesus looked out over the vast multitude of followers and identified them as His family. How do you become a member of Jesus' spiritual family? In John 3:3, Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Only those who believe in Him and do the will of His Father will receive eternal life. John 14:6, Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Ultimately, it’s what you do with Jesus Christ that matters. We weren't born saved, we've all been forgiven for rejecting Christ to some extent. But if you read the Scripture and make the wrong decision, reject Him concluding He is anyone other than God, if your decision is to walk away from the full revelation of that knowledge, it can never be forgiven! Apostasy is unforgivable. You stand with who those who crucified Him!
In 1 John 5:12, John puts it this way, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."
That brings us to verse 35, "For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother." If you are in God’s family there will be visible evidence of it, you will not do the same things you used to do, no longer interested in doing what you want, talking the way you want. Your desire is to do that which pleases God. It is a process called sanctification that requires you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That's how you know you're saved!
If you are not part of Christ's eternal family, you can be today; If you will confess Him as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen