Getting Relationship Priorities Right

Opening Prayer (Thanksgiving & Confession)

“There is no greater work for both church and nation today than to build a Christian home.”—Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

Mark 3:31–35 LSB

31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him, calling Him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” 33 And answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus Highlights a Lack of Eternal Vision. (v.31)

Mary and the Lord’s brothers are not disciples, as much as they are perturbed by His ministry.

Mary, his mother, and his brothers are not hindered by the crowd, rather, they want to bid Jesus come out from his gathering with the disciples and the crowds following him.

The issue of Jesus’ lineage and claims to be the Messiah leads to discomfort and a desire to have him be restrained by his own family.

Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected.

Chuck Swindoll

The Large Crowds Echoes Ignorance of the Truth. (v. 32)

The crowd recognizes and emphasizes the importance of the family unit as the building block for their culture and nation.

Beyond the social aspects of family, the crowd shows the ignorance of what the Word of God called the people of Israel and Judah to to for the World.

Exodus 19:5–6 “5 ‘So now then, if you will indeed listen to My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.””

It is confusing to the world that the love one has for God should then redraw lines of allegiance between creation and the creator.

Zechariah 10:2 “2 For the teraphim speak wickedness, And the diviners behold false visions And speak worthless dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people journey like sheep; They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.”

A Simple Question Reframes the Relationship Paradigm. (v. 33)

We must not fall into the trap of thinking Jesus is saying family is not important. We must remember that God created the family, after all.

Jesus is highlighting for his family, the crowds, and the disciples what he had always intended for humanity—to enjoy relationship with the eternal God as one Brotherhood under the banner of the Risen King.

The question posed by Jesus to the crowd is a means to get them thinking of the eternal truth that in God all people are made into a family that lives by faith.

Romans 3:28 “28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”

Galatians 3:8 “8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.””

Revelation 7:9 “9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;”

Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Master, continues to refocus our sight from the narrow-sightedness of the world, to the immense vision of eternity.

Jesus Christ Sets the Relationship Priority Straight. (v. 34-35)

Obedience is the crown and honor of all virtue.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

Jesus is not looking to all those around him, as to include the on-lookers who are following for a show and astonishment.

Jesus is pointing to those whom he called out for his disciples to send them into the world as ambassadors, making them brothers under the blood that would cover them—His very own substitutionary blood.

The clarification is based on the virtue Luther mentioned, as the covenant of obedience is that which unites all true disciples of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:5–8 “5 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

An Eternal Family Formed:

The Gospel separates into two families: Disciples of the LORD and The Lost & Condemned.

The eternal nature of this family leads us to urgency about evangelism.

The Local Church is the expression of the family we inherit from the LORD Himself.

STEPS of OBEDIENCE:

1—Repent of your Sins and Confess Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior.

2—Repent and Return to God, who will receive you to make you whole from your disobedience to Him.

3—Join Yourself to a Family of Faith, The Local Church is the home for the Christian who is wandering about like a lost sheep.