Disciples Must be Jesus Part II

Welcome back to our study of the Gospel of Mark entitled Lessons in Discipleship. Last week we studied a passage where Jesus called the original twelve disciples to Himself on a mountaintop. By way of review let’s quickly look at two of the verses we covered.

Mark 3:13–14 NKJV

13 And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. 14 Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach,

I want us to review these verses because they are connected with the verses we are going to study this morning. Verse 14 says, He appointed twelve, “that they might be with Him”. This phrase, “that they might be with Him” summarizes last week’s lesson. The one essential qualification for serving Jesus is always this.

Disciples must be with Jesus

In order to be disciples we must be with Jesus. We must be in the word of God learning from the Master. We must be sitting at Jesus’ feet allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us and transform us into the likeness of Jesus. The Greek word for disciple means a pupil or a learner. So, at a minimum to be a disciple means we need to be learning from Jesus.

Remember, there is a difference between believing in the Lord Jesus for eternal life and following the Lord on the pathway of discipleship. Eternal life is given freely simply by believing in Jesus for that life. The moment a person believes they are born again, and they are eternally secure in Christ forever. This idea is commonly expressed by saying “coming to faith or coming to Jesus in faith”. What I want to make sure we understand is that there is a difference between coming to Jesus and following after Jesus. We come to Jesus when we believe in Him. This is completely free gift. However, when we follow after Jesus we are embarking on the journey of discipleship. This journey costs us something. It involves commitment, obedience, and perseverance. The simplest way to express this is idea is by saying,

Eternal Life is Free, but discipleship most certainly is not.

So, we receive eternal life freely, but following after the Lord Jesus Christ is costly. But this morning I want to point out what we gain by following after the Lord. Today we are going to see that obedient disciples have a more intimate relationship with Jesus than His own flesh and blood. Today, we are going to see Jesus’ mother and brothers coming to find Him because they thought He was loosing His mind. Today, we are going to see His disciples sitting at his feet learning from Him, while His family waits outside to speak with Him. The point is this. The disciples were enjoying a closeness to Jesus that His own family was not. And finally we are going to study a shocking statement that that Jesus makes in verse 35 when He says, whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother. Hopefully, after this morning’s lesson this statement will make sense to us, and we will all learn the benefit of being an obedient disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which leads us into today text. Turn with me if you will to Mark 3:31-35.

Mark 3:31–32 NKJV

31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”

Mark 3:33 NKJV

33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?”

Mark 3:34–35 NKJV

34 And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

Let’s pray.

If you have studied with me for any length of time, you know I always emphasize the importance of context. So, before we get into today’s Scripture let me back up few verses so I can paint a clearer picture of what is going on with Jesus and His family. Let’s read verses 20 & 21.

Mark 3:20–21 NKJV

20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

In verse 20 we see Jesus and His disciples getting mobbed by the crowds. Apparently, they were being kept so busy ministering to these massive crowds that they didn’t have time to stop and eat. Well word of this gets to his family, (His own people), “they went out to lay hold of Him”. In others words, Jesus’ family is hearing about all this commotion surrounding His ministry, and they conclude that He has gone crazy. The straw that breaks the camel’s back is hearing that they are even stopping to eat. And you have to admit, if we saw one of our family members doing what they were doing, we might conclude the same thing. Especially if it was our son. I mean you can imagine what Mary was thinking hearing that her son wasn’t eating and taking care of Himself. Not to mention, I’m sure His family had heard about these clashes with the religious authorities, and so now the family is like, “Ok, He’s officially lost it. Let’s go get Him and bring Him home for a spell.”

Now there is a lesson tucked in here for us. Whenever, a believer goes “all in” for Jesus you can expect a similar reaction from those around you. It will sound something like this, “Hey, don’t you think you are getting a little carried away with this stuff. You can’t work fulltime, have a family, and spend all this time serving at church, writing sermons, teaching Sunday School. You need time to rest and spend time with your family.” Please don’t listen to that. That is worldly advice. Being in fellowship with Jesus is our rest. Studying the word of God is where we find peace and refreshment. It is where our minds are renewed, and our lives are transformed. You see, the world doesn’t understand the benefits of “losing our minds” for Jesus. And we see this is exactly what Jesus’ family was thinking.

And I have to admit I’ve thought the very same thing about other people when I was a young Christian. I would meet people who were like Jesus this, Jesus that, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and I would think man they need to chill out. I mean I can give sometime to Jesus, but I need to have balance in my life. Listen to me. If you are playing this game of I can spend this much time with Jesus, but I need all this other time over here for other stuff you have idols. You have idols in your life, and you are still trying to be Lord of your own life. Stop that. Just throw your life at the Lord’s feet, and say Lord organize my life. It belongs to you. Let me summarize my point. In a simple statement.

If you are willing to “lose it” for Jesus, He will give purpose and meaning to your life.

I can’t describe the purpose and meaning my life has today. I looked for it for years and years out there in the world, but when I became willing to “lose it” for the Lord, I found it. There is no deeper satisfaction that knowing your are doing the Lord’s will. None. As a believer, this is the only thing that will give purpose to your life. Everything else is a mirage. It is a barren wasteland that will leave you spiritually starving and thrusting for more.

Ok, let’s get back to Mark. So, Jesus’ family is on the way to get Him, and we don’t read anything else about them until we get to verse 31. Then in verse 31 we read.

Mark 3:31–32 NKJV

31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”

The first thing I want to draw your attention do is the word outside. It says, Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. Then again in verse 32, the crowd “sitting around Him”, said to Him, “Look Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking you.”

These verses teach us that Jesus’ family is out of fellowship with Him. They are outside. But notice who is in fellowship with Him. It is those sitting around Him; they are inside with Him. The people in fellowship with the Lord are those who are obediently following the Lord, and learning from Him. If you take nothing else away from this entire series walk away with this. To be in fellowship with Jesus we need to be obediently following Him and learning from Him. Again, I’m not saying this is how we get saved. That comes the moment we believe in Him. What I’m saying is that obediently following and learning from Him is how we grow in Him. It is how we become like Him. It is how we enjoy fellowship with Him.

Here is the next thing I want to point out. Notice the different attitudes in these verses. First, we see Jesus’ own family standing outside, and they are giving Jesus orders to come outside. Meanwhile there is a group of disciples “sitting around Him” on the inside. Who is closer to Jesus at this point? Who is in fellowship with Jesus? His disciples are. Do you see the difference here? One group of people is giving Jesus orders thinking they know best, and the other group are sitting at His feet learning. Sadly, we see from these verses that Jesus’ own family is out of fellowship with Him. Now, let me make a quick couple of points here. We know from John’s Gospel that Jesus’ brothers were not believers at this point, but Mary was a believer. She knew Her Son was the Messiah. So let me give you two quick takeaways from this.

Unbelievers cannot be in fellowship with Jesus.

Believers break fellowship with Jesus through disobedience.

So, how does this apply to us? Let’s think about it. Jesus family, instead of sitting around Him learning, they are on the outside giving Him orders, but even worse they are hindering His ministry. This is what happens when we take matters into our own hands. This is a big mistake that we all make as Christians. We get determined to do things our way. We get determined to see things done our way, and even though we might have good intentions, our way might not be God’s way. It is entirely possible to get ourselves in Mary’s situation. We can be so determined to get things done in the church our way that we never stop to ask ourselves, is this God’s way? The second we start saying, well I think we should do this, and I think we need to do that, we should stop and evaluate what we are doing. We should stop and think, is this what is best for my brothers.

Here is how we safeguard against against letting our self-will run riot.

Our ministry work begins and ends in one place, sitting at Jesus’ feet.

That is always the focus, and when it is the focus then the Holy Spirit will work through us, instead of us forcing our will on the church. You see, we want to be insiders not outsiders. We don’t want to be outside of God’s will giving commands. We want to be inside with Jesus learning from Him as we sit at His feet. And it is my personal belief, that no matter what we are doing to serve the Lord, the vast majority of our work should be done in private alone with Jesus. What do I mean by that? For me, all the work is done sitting in my office studying. The overwhelming majority of what I do is alone with God. I start with prayer asking the Father for His Holy Spirit to help me understand His word, and then I’m off to the races. I’m reading, and rereading passages. I’m studying commentaries. I’m looking up definitions of words. I’m praying again, when I get stumped, and this goes on all week. You see, all that the Church sees is about 35 min on Sunday mornings, and then about a hour on Wednesday night. But that is only a fraction of the work. Everything else is done in private alone with God, sitting at the Master’s feet. That is how we stay inside with Jesus. The majority of everything we should be doing is sitting at the Lord’s feet.

So, you may be thinking, yeah but your a pastor. I don’t speak to the church on a regular basis. Listen, over the past fifteen years of studying the Bible God has used what I’m learning in some way. That might be to help me change course. It might be a word of encouragement I speak to a friend, but God will use what you are learning. You might be studying a passage of Scripture and a coworker comes to you with a problem, and it relates to what you have been studying. Then you have the opportunity to say, “Let me show you what I learned in the Bible this week”. Or it may be something your are able to share with your spouse or your children, or a comment that you make in Sunday School. “Our ministry work begins and ends in one place, sitting at Jesus’ feet.”

OK, let’s get back to the text. So, we’ve covered verses 31 and 32, which read

Mark 3:31–32 NKJV

31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”

Now moving on to verse 33-34.

Mark 3:33–34 NKJV

33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” 34 And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!

Now before we deal with the hardest part of the passage where Jesus refers to His disciples as His mother and brothers. Before we deal with that, let me point out another detail. Look at what verse 34 says, “He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him”. Again, here is another beautiful picture of discipleship. Discipleship is sitting around the Lord’s feet in a circle learning from Him and listening to Him. And look at the benefit these disciples receive from being in that circle. Jesus says, “Here are My mother and My brothers!”.

Don’t miss the point here. He is using this terminology to describe the closeness of the Master/disciple relationship. I mean who are the closest people to you on earth? For most of us it is our immediate family. We’ve all heard the expression blood is thicker than water, right? And we understand what that means. It means that the bond we have with our families is stronger than any other relationships we have. There is a special bond we have with our flesh and blood. I was blessed to grow up in an extremely close family, and I have two siblings. And we have a special bond, we talk all the time, but even if we go a spell without talking, that bond is unbreakable. Even if we aren’t getting along, I know that if there’s an emergency or a crisis in the family, we will be there for one another no questions asked.

Here is the point, and this is amazing so please don’t miss this. Jesus is teaching us, that His love and concern for His devoted followers runs deeper than the connection He had to His own family. This is exactly what He says in verse 34. And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!” Now here is the craziest part please pay attention. We say blood is thicker than water.

Jesus says, the spiritual bond I have with My disciples is thicker than blood.

In other words, my care and concern for my faithful followers comes before my family ties. You see, even Mary who was a believer had broken fellowship with Jesus, and even though her intentions were good, she was opposing Him. So, Jesus looks around at His devoted disciples and says you are my family. I don’t know about you but I can’t wrap my mind around that. But here is what I know. We grossly underestimate the spiritual bond that we have with each other, and we underestimate the spiritual bond we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus comes before everything, yes even our families. And His love for you, His disciples, is a love that we cannot comprehend. Look around this room Legacy. The ties that you have with these people is everlasting. The connection we have with this group of believers is a spiritual bond with a strength that we can’t even comprehend.

I want all of us in this room to be insiders. I want us to be the disciples sitting around the Lord feet, and I want us to realize that Jesus says to those who walk in obedience to Him, “You are my family”. You are My mother and My brothers. Legacy, the spiritual bond we have with the Lord Jesus Christ is thicker than blood. Learn from Him, abide in Him, follow Him, obey Him because this is what discipleship is all about. It is being on the inside sitting at His feet.

OK, let’s take a look at verse 35. The Lord says,

Mark 3:35 NKJV

35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

Here is another key point. I want us to understand exactly what Jesus means when He says, “whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” He is not saying that whoever does my will is a believer here. When we believe in Jesus we become a children of God. Let’s look quickly at John chapter 1.

John 1:12 NKJV

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

You see, we become a child of God by believing in Jesus’ name. When when believe in Jesus were are born again and become children of God. So, don’t confuse this with what Jesus is saying in Mark chapter 3.

Mark 3:35 NKJV

35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

When Jesus says whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother. He is talking about a closeness that results from our obedience. He is talking about fellowship with Him. You see, the closest relationships were have are with our family. Our closest relationships are with our mother, brothers, and sister. What Jesus is teaching here is about the amazing benefit of being a faithful disciple. The benefit is fellowship with the creator of the universe. Jesus is telling all disciples that walk in obedience to Him, that they are His family. Here is a simple statement to summarize really the entire message.

Believers that are closest to the Lord are those who walk in obedience to His teaching.

Think about how close you are to your siblings. Think about your relationship with your mother. The Lord is teaching us that when we live a life of obedience our relationship with Him is like the ones we share with family. How amazing. Not only are we children of God by faith alone in Christ alone, but we share a bond with Him that is stronger than our family ties. The only thing that we can compare it to is the bond we share with our own flesh and blood.

I told you as we began this morning that today I wanted to share with you the benefit of being a disciple. This is the benefit. Jesus says, “whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” Jesus stays closer to the obedient disciples than He did with His own flesh and blood. Our spiritual bond with the Lord Jesus Christ comes before all other relationships.

You see, we so often talk about the cost of discipleship, but we forget to mention the benefits. This is what lead Paul to say,

Philippians 3:7 NKJV

7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

You see, Paul had the finest education. He had the right pedigree, being from the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee, which was one of the most honored positions in Judaism. By the worlds standards, he had it made in the shade. And he says, “what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ”. In other words, I gave it all up to be with Christ. Then, in the right verse He tells us why.

Philippians 3:8 NKJV

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Let me paraphrase what Paul is saying. He says, I gave up everything. I gave up everything to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I gave up everything for the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me point out something about that word knowledge.

Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible Exposition

This knowledge (Gr. gnosis) is the kind that one obtains only by personal relationship. It is different from the knowledge that we gain through objective academic study (Gr. oida).

The point is, Paul gave up everything in His life to be an insider. Paul gave up everything to be one of the people the Lord was talking about in Mark 3:35. He wanted to do the will of God so that the Lord could call him His brother. Paul put the Lord Jesus Christ before everything else in His life, so that he could know Jesus through a deepening, personal relationship. Legacy, this is what losing it for Jesus looks like. This is what the world and maybe your own family might not understand. To them you might look like a person who has lost their mind for Jesus, but let me tell you something. The only good type of insanity there is, is insanity for Jesus. In fact, to me the real insanity is not giving everything to know the Lord this way. Not only, are we saved by the grace of God, but He wants to know us intimately. He wants us to sit at His feet and learn from Him. He wants to call us His brother, sister, and mother. He wants us to be as closer than His own flesh and blood. Who can understand such as amazing love. How can it be? Let us give up everything and follow after our Lord. Let’s pray.