Jesus’ True Family, Part 2
Matthew: The King and His Kingdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:24
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· 18 viewsInclusion in the Father’s family through adoption in the Son results in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who fills, transforms, and empowers His children.
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43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.
44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.
45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Last week we considered a person’s life outside of the family of God.
We considered how a person who is outside the family of God will move from bad to worse.
We saw how…
Exclusion from the family of God in unbelief results in unclean spirits taking up residence, filling their lives, and spiraling from bad to worse.
Exclusion from the family of God in unbelief results in unclean spirits taking up residence, filling their lives, and spiraling from bad to worse.
They’ll be filled with every manner of unclean spirit.
The unclean spirits will even get worse and worse as they fill the life of one who only merely cleans the pipes out for other ungodly water to fill it.
Unlike the person who will clean their life up for a time and then fall into even worse unclean practices.
The Christian is fundamentally different than that though…
How is the Christian different than the person who merely cleans their life up for a time?
Is it because they try harder and do better?
Is it because they grew up in church and are used to it?
Is it because they know the right things to say and not say?
No…
What is a Christian?
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
J. I. Packer once said that…
“a Christian is one who has God as Father.” Knowing God, pg 225
It’s not that a Christian thinks of God as merely the creator who will “smite” him down for disobedience.
It’s not that a Christian thinks of God as a “big police officer in the sky” thats ready to give him a slap on the wrist.
No, a Christian fundamentally thinks of God as “Father.”
“Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.” —J. I. Packer
Packer means by this that a person can think all kinds of thoughts of God, “Creator”, “Judge”, “Ruler”, and the like but none of these show our grasp of Christianity as clearly as “Father.”
Inclusion in the Father’s family through adoption in the Son results in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who fills, transforms, and empowers His children.
Inclusion in the Father’s family through adoption in the Son results in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who fills, transforms, and empowers His children.
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
It’s important to see the contrast from earlier.
Jesus says that evil spirit dwell in people as their homes.
And here Jesus stands in the middle of a house surrounded by His disciples.
Jesus’ family came to Him trying to convince Him to stop making such a commotion.
If you’ve ever had a family member that acts a little kooky, then you understand this families concern.
By the way, if you don’t know who your kooky family member is, it’s you.
But His family is concerned that He’s making them look bad.
“Come on, Jesus! Knock it off!”
“You’re making our whole family look bad!”
21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
This family wasn’t just trying to talk to Jesus.
They were bringing an intervention to Him.
They were intervening in His life.
One of Jesus’ disciples picks up on this and observes to Jesus…
47 Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
Verse 47 which is omitted from the ESV is not included in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew we have.
Likely because of a scribal error.
It’s absence isn’t concerning for it does not change the meaning of the text.
But the context of Matthew 12:48 does assume the text should be included.
48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
Jesus’ question brings to the forefront the reality of who is truly in Jesus’ family.
It won’t be ethnic lines.
It won’t be blood lines.
It won’t be those who refer to themselves as family.
49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
Jesus points to His disciples and says that they are truly His “my mother and my brothers!”
It will be the followers of Jesus that is truly a part of the family of God.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…
The message of the whole New Testament can be reduced to as J. I. Packer says…
“were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be adoption through propitiation, and I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that.”—J. I. Packer
“Adoption through Propitiation…” —J. I. Packer
That is to be included in the family of God only through the act of a sin covering sacrifice.
Included into a foreign family by the blood of another.
This inclusion into God’s family cannot be overstated.
For our purposes I want to compare and contrast the results of being included in the family from being excluded…
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family… because the Holy Spirit dwells permanently.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family… because the Holy Spirit dwells permanently.
Remember that unclean spirits come and go.
They remain on a person temporarily and then are gone.
They return and bring seven of their other friends.
It’s all transient and chaotic.
Unclean spirits coming and going.
The unbeliever being like a swinging door of iniquity from one sin to another.
But the Spirit of God is fundamentally different than these unclean spirits.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit seals the life of a believer like “a kings signet ring” seals a wax seal.
The Holy Spirit will be the inward “mark of God’s ownership” over the life of a Christian.
Notice that the Holy Spirit stands in direct conflict to the unclean spirits.
The marks cannot be any clearer.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Living God that purifies and cleanses the lives of those He inhabits.
The Holy Spirit dwells and inhabits the lives of those who are His and is the “downpayment” or the “first installment” of what God is bringing about in the lives of His children.
The Holy Spirit will be the “pledge” of God to the believer that those who have truly trusted in the Lord Jesus by faith alone will receive.
And the result of this person will be to love the Lord Jesus.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
And this dwelling that the Holy Spirit does in the believer does not have an end.
We have only tasted briefly what God will one day bring to its fullness.
Jesus says of those who do the will of His Father in heaven…
“Here are my mother and my brothers!
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit identifies us as His own.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit identifies us as His own.
The unclean spirits claim ownership of the homes by referring to them as “my house” (Matthew 12:44).
In like fashion, the Holy Spirit claims ownership of the vessels that are filled with Him.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
The Holy Spirit identifies the Christian and marks them.
They are set apart because the fruit they produce are good fruit.
They are different because they are markedly His.
Knowing God A New Relationship
To those who are Christ’s, the holy God is a loving Father; they belong to his family; they may approach him without fear, and always be sure of his fatherly concern and care.
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Application – Jesus is Not Ashamed To Call us Brothers
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
We see this in our modern world but if a family is absent of a father, the whole family unit is a mess.
Even if a father may be a bit duddy and incompetent at times, the presence of a father makes massive differences.
Without a father, children will be insecure, unstable, there will be depression, randomness, immaturity, and a litany of other malfunctions.
Knowing God Adoption: The Highest Privilege
The very concept of adoption is itself a proof and guarantee of the preservation of the saints, for only bad fathers throw their children out of the family, even under provocation; and God is not a bad father, but a good one.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit fills us with His presence.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit fills us with His presence.
Again we have to see this compared to the unclean spirits filling a person’s life.
The unclean spirits bring themselves and seven other friends along with them.
But here Jesus shows that the clean pipes that are filled with the Lord Jesus Christ are those pipes that flow toward the terminus of the Glory of God.
We were meant to be a people that give glory to God.
We were meant to be people included in the family of God indwelt with the Spirit of Christ
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
I can imagine there are some of you who may be more sensitive in conscience saying, “But the Bible tells us we need to obey God in order to be saved!”
And we acknowledge, of course a person who is saved obeys God.
How does a person do “the will of my Father”?
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
The Father gives to the Son the people of God (John 17:6), everyone who comes to Christ (John 1:10-13).
ALL that the Father gives comes to the Son.
Whoever comes to the Son will be had by Him.
The Father gives, the sinners comes, and the Son keeps them.
The will of the Father does not make human decision making unimportant, rather it empowers it.
God’s election, redemption, effectual calling, and regeneration is the initiating power for the believer to move from death to life and walk in obedience (John 1:11-12; 5:24).
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory.
This is how the Christian obeys what Jesus says here in Matthew…
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit empowers us to obedience.
Included only through Adoption into God’s Family…because the Holy Spirit empowers us to obedience.
Now don’t think for a moment that everyone who thinks of God as a Father has him as theirs.
There’s a notion in liberal circles that God is universally the father of all men, it’s referred to as the universal fatherhood of God.
It teaches that all God is the father of us all and we’re all brothers.
But that misses the point of Jesus’ teaching.
If everyone is merely a “son of God”, then what gives with what Jesus is teaching?
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
It’s for those who “do the will of my Father in heaven”, not for anyone who just names God as “Father.”
It’s for those who look on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Inclusion in the Father’s family through adoption in the Son results in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who fills, transforms, and empowers His children.
Inclusion in the Father’s family through adoption in the Son results in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who fills, transforms, and empowers His children.
Benediction
Benediction
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
