The True Family of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Good evening,
Please Join me in Prayer.
Father God,
You are a faithful God our rock and our redeemer. You are the source of all wisdom and the giver of life. Lord please open our hearts to you as I present your Word. Allow your living Word to penetrate our hearts, open our eyes so that we may see the wonderful things in your Word. Allow your word to transform us by your Spirit. Father be Glorified in this time.
In Jesus name.
Amen
For decades I lived as a spiritual negotiator with God. I grew up going to church, I knew the vocabulary of the Gospel, and I knew that God was real. But I did not want a King, I didn't want a Heavenly authority; I wanted a eternal life insurance policy that I could get at my convenience.
My plan was simple, and I thought it was the perfect most brilliant plan that one could put together. I would be my own Lord, King of my life for the first 75-94 years of my life, trusting in my own intelligence, my freedom, and my abilities to make things happen.
Then I would, in the last five minutes of my life hand the keys over to Jesus. I wanted the security of His family, without the submission of His will. I was betting my eternity on my own Sovereignty and autonomy.
What I was showing here was the rebellion that is in all of our hearts. We don’t just ‘miss’ God; we actively avoid Him. We think of our independence, our self will, our ability to be Lord of our own lives as our freedom. But it is actually our prison. I thought I was in control but I was actually a slave to my own inadequate failing strength.
But when I was 24 year old, in His Grace and Mercy God did the most loving and merciful thing to me. He interrupted me, he ripped back the curtain of my self-sufficiency and showed me the truth. Not just that I sinned sometimes or that I was an over all good person. But the truth was that I was utterly incapable of pleasing Him or even doing a single ‘good’ thing that was not stained by my own pride and self serving tendencies.
God showed me how great the sin in my life was and how it had corrupted everything I touched, and there was no good that I could do alone. In fact my life was full of episodes of hurting others in one way or another, in trying to do things my way. He showed me my filth in relation to His perfect Holiness.
I knew I needed Him and I placed my faith in Him. At that moment of surrender, I did not just find a Savior and King, I found a family and became part of His Kingdom. He didn't just wipe my slate clean, he changed my nature and gave me the desire to do His will.
I learned that Jesus isn’t supplemental to our lives, you don't just add Jesus to a life of self will. You accept His Lordship, and by His power obey Him. Doing His Will isn't a prescription to salvation but it is the evidence that He has called us into His family.
Big Idea- Those who are in true relationship with Jesus accept Him and Obey Him.
Big Idea- Those who are in true relationship with Jesus accept Him and Obey Him.
Main Principles
Main Principles
Christians must be loyal to Jesus even when the world is in opposition to Him.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven is Advanced.
God’s people, the true family of Christ do God’s Will.
Our passage today is Mark 3:20-35. leading up to this, we see Jesus moving through the region, preaching the Good news of the Kingdom of Heaven and confirming His words with powerful miracles. In an act of sovereign Grace, Jesus did not just heal bodies, He also forgave sins. Through these works he revealed His true nature, that He is not just a man, not just a teacher, but He is God in the flesh, the Lord of all creation.
By working these wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom of Heaven was not just a distant promise anymore. But that it was breaking into our earthly realm, it was and is at hand.
Jesus then chose and appointed twelve men who were from different backgrounds and walks of life as His disciples. And commissioned them to preach giving them authority to drive out demons.
Now we are at a place where just after the commissioning of the disciples Jesus and the disciples enter a house, and this house is packed. Its so full that they don’t even have a place to eat.
In verse 21 we find that Jesus’ family has heard about what He was doing and they don’t like it. They think He has lost his mind.
How many of you have ever done anything that either made your family proud or brought shame on your family?
When I was in Highschool I lived in the same city as my grandparents and many of my relatives lived there at the time. My grandfather was the Bishop of a prominent black church denomination and he oversaw the state of Indiana he also continued to pastor the local church there. My grandmother was the daughter of a bishop and she also held a high position in the women's leadership in the domination at the state and national level. She worked in the local church along side and supporting my grandfather.
My grandparents had a good reputation and were known as being good stewards of the faith and of their family with their children being well behaved and decent and in order. Or at least to the public. They behaved as expected, and they dressed the same.
Well, at my grandpa’s church there were several services throughout the week. Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, Tuesday Bible study, and Friday night service.
One Friday evening, after track practice I drove to church, I was expected to be at all services. However I was still wearing my shorts and a cut off t-shirt from practice. So I sat kind of in the back of the church on the left side. My parents were at work at the time, but my grandma looked back at me and as soon as there was a break period in the service she made her way back to me.
She got close enough that no one could hear her but me, then she said. “Corey, don’t you ever come to church half dressed and stinking. Next time you come, come decent. You represent all of us.”
See to some that would not be a bid deal. But in a Shame-Honor Culture, my grandmother was letting me know that I came into the church in a shameful way, and I brought shame to her, my grandfather, my parents and the whole family.
See in our culture, in many subcultures in America in general including African American culture, Latin American Culture, Asian American culture there is a Shame-Honor dynamic.
So if a someone does something Honorable it is seen as a result of the parents training and the entire family is honored. But if someone does something shameful then it is a reflection on the parents, have you ever heard the phrase “he aint got no home training"? That is what that statement is talking about. The shameful act brings shame on the entire family .
In the middle east the culture is and was a strong shame-honor culture. And this event in the passage took place in the middle east.
During this time in Jesus’ ministry He was being opposed and talked about by the religious leaders and those who were in power saw and talked about him as if He were doing things that were shameful. He was healing on the Sabath, sitting and eating with sinners, forgiving people of their sins; of which only God could do. The religious powers did not recognize Jesus as who he actually is, God in the Flesh Lord of all.
It appears that the cultural pressures and the thought that Jesus was bringing shame to their family caused Mary and the rest of Jesus family to feel the need to “set him straight" and save face.
What does this tell us?
Even Mary, Mother of Jesus was not perfect. This shows her humanity, the fact that she was not perfect and that even she who knew He was the messiah since before He was born, at this point misunderstood his mission and did not recognize His authority. This showed that even Mary was in need of a saviour. Now, Mary’s story did not end here she is later found at the foot of the Cross and in the upper room as a faithful disciple of Christ. Jesus’ brothers James and Jude were also eventually faithful followers of Christ.
But how does this observation of the influence of the culture and world on Mary have to do with us today?
Here is the real question.
How can Christians be loyal to Jesus in a world that is in opposition to Him?
In 2015 members of a terrorist organization names ISIS captured 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian man who were working as laborers in Libya.
They were given a choice to deny their faith in Jesus and convert to Islam or face execution.
Video footage shows these men audibly calling out “Ya Rabbi Yasua” which means My Lord Jesus as they were being executed.
These were loyal to Christ in the most pressurized situations.
How? How can Christians be loyal to Jesus in a world that is in opposition to Him?
When you are on the Job and you are asked to do something that is in opposition to how a Christian is to conduct themselves.
When your at school and its not cool to be a Christian and you are tempted to dissociate with Christ to be accepted.
When you are tempted to adopt the philosophies of the world in regards to human sexuality or even perpetuating social injustices to be accepted by the culture, an organization, or a family.
How can we remain Loyal to Jesus?
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
Jesus warns us of the opposition that we will face in life. But he said something that we should be encouraged by. He lets us know that we will be persecuted and hated. But then He lets us know that we were Chosen out of this world and we are His.
We remain loyal to Jesus by recognizing that it is not by our power but By the Power of the Holy Spirit that drew us to Him and sealed us as his, even giving us the Will want to follow Him.
We recognize that we are citizens of Heaven first and we have our allegiance to the King of Kings, Jesus over all others.
We rely on the Word of God as our source of truth and our guide. We live a life where the opinion of God is more important than the opinion of anyone else anywhere else.
We have security and assurance knowing that Christ chose us and he will keep us. Our security remains in His strength and not our own.
Christians are loyal to Jesus even when the world is in opposition to Him because of the sovereign work and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This Loyalty is a symptom of being a follower of Jesus, not a requirement to earn a standing as a follower of Christ. It is by His grace that we are saved.
After Jesus’s family accuses him of being out of His mind. In verse 22 the teachers of the law came down from Jerusalem and accused Jesus of being possessed by the prince of demons and attributed His power to Satan! But Jesus responded with a parable letting them know that they have it all wrong.
In Mark 3:23-29
So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak 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.
And 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 without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.
Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter,
but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
In Jesus’ response He lets the religious rulers know that He does not do miracles and cast out demons by the power of Satan. But His power is of the Holy Spirit which is greater than Satan’s and He represents a Kingdom that overthrows the Kingdom of darkness and brings forth the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ ministry is the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven reclaiming Gods people and expanding His reign and rule.
But then in verse 29 Jesus says whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven and that they are guilty of an eternal sin.
What does it mean to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?
Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is rejecting the Gospel fully and completely. It is seeing the clear work of Christ, seeing the work of the Holy Spirit and attributing this work to Satan. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit to is completely harden your heart and calling the work of the Holy Spirit evil.
Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not a sin of ignorance but it is a willful malice , a deliberate rejection of the truth. It involves seeing the undeniable work of the Spirit and still denying it.
If you are worried that you may have committed this sin, then you have not. The person who has commited this sin does not feel a conviction or a fear of Gods Judgment, they do not have a desire for reconciliation to the Father. Instead they are spiritually indifferent or even proud of their rebellion.
If you are worried about sinning against God, then the spirit is at work in you.
We see the act of Blaspheming the Holy Spirit in the religious rulers who saw that Jesus healed the sick, the heard the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, they witnessed the casting out of demons, forgiveness of sins and making the lame able to walk. But instead of recognizing the Power of God through the Holy Spirit they rejected Him and attributed it to evil!
The reason why this is such a grievous sin is because It is by the Power of the Holy Spirit that we receive salvation.
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
To reject the Holy Spirit in this way is destroy the only method by which we reach repentance.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven is Advanced.
In verse 31, after this encounter with the teachers of the Law then Jesus’ mother and brothers came and it was told to Jesus that they were looking for Him. 32 says Mark 3:31b-35
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.”
Here Jesus redefines family. Here he is speaking of His eternal family, those who are a part of His Kingdom. God’s people, the true family do Gods Will.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Those who do the Will of the father do not do it of their own strength, but it takes the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to give us a mind to want to do His Will.
What rebellion in our own hearts drive us to do our own Will instead of Gods?
We are all born with a fundamental corruption of the heart, this is the sin condition. Sin causes us to desire to be worshiped and to worship things other than God. We are inherently hostile toward God and His Lordship of us and we seek that Lordship for ourselves.
Apart from Christ we are slaves to sin. Meaning we cannot help but to sin because its in our nature to do so.
Instead of placing our Loyalties to Christ above all other things we find other things to cling to.
We place our loyalties to Family and heritage, we choose to elevate political ideology as our idol, we place career and financial security as the thing that we worship. We seek for approval and reputation from others in place of Gods approval. We choose comfort and Autonomy over Jesus.
But all of these things will fail, they will not meet our expectations and they will not give salvation.
When these earthly loyalties fail us, where can we find belonging that actually lasts?
All of these things will fail, but we can find belonging that actually last in Jesus. This is not just a feeling but it is a eternal reality for those who place their faith in Christ. He called us and we belong to Him and in His Kingdom. We also find belonging in the body of Christ, the community of Christ followers who will be with us not only in this life, but for eternity reigning with Christ forever.
Main Principles
Main Principles
Christians must be loyal to Jesus even when the world is in opposition to Him.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Kingdom of Heaven is Advanced.
God’s people, the true family of Christ do God’s Will.
Please Join me in Prayer.
Father God,
Thank you for your Word, help us to stand firm as representatives of your Kingdom In a world that opposes Your truth. Lord allow us to be faithful to you in all areas of our lives. It is not by our might that we can do this, but by your Spirit. Lord allow our lives to Glorify you in all that we do.
In Jesus name.
Amen
