Jesus and Family

If you have a Bible, go ahead and open up with me to Mark 10:1-16 and what we are going to talk about tonight are 2 subjects that maybe at your age you aren’t really thinking about: Marriage and family. Now just because you guys are teenagers and aren’t married and don’t have kids, doesn’t mean that this isn’t something that you guys should know about and be thinking about at this age. Part of the reason is because of how the world talks about issues like marriage, sexuality, divorce, and the life of the unborn. You may have even heard people say that, “Jesus never talks about homosexuality or about marriage” so why do Christians need to be so uppity about the topic. Shouldn’t people be able to do what feels good and whatever they want with their bodies? I know that us talking about these subjects has the potential to be a very sensitive conversation. I know that there are people in this room who have been in homes that have very happy marriages and there are people in this room that have lived in homes with unhappy marriages. We’re aware of that possibility and I want to go ahead and encourage you by saying that even in small groups, we aren’t going to force you into a conversation that you aren’t open to having. We are incredibly open to talk about whatever you may want to talk about though. My hope is that when we look at marriage, when we look at parenthood, when we look at children, we see something beautiful that is created by God and is loved by God. Let me tell you how we are going to divide things up tonight: Jesus and Marriage and Jesus and the Family. Just 2 things but we’ve got a lot to get through so let’s open up in prayer and then we’ll read Mark 10:1-12

Mark 10:1–12 NASB95

Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them. Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

What Does God say about Marriage and Divorce?

Looking at these verses, we see that Jesus is continuing to travel and in verse 1, Mark includes this detail: that it is Jesus’ custom to teach to the crowds that gathered to Him. I think that it’s important to remember that Jesus did not come solely to be a miracle worker, that He came with a message that was to be taught to the people, that His priority was on the spiritual lives of the people. The Pharisees that are there ask Jesus about whether or not it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife. As is almost always the case with the Pharisees, they are asking this question, not because they have this deep longing for knowledge but because they are hoping to trap Jesus in an answer. Divorce was a sensitive topic then, maybe even more than it is now and the hope was that however Jesus would answer, that some part of the crowd would turn against Him. At this time, there were basically two crowds when it came to the issue of divorce. One crowd wasn’t too much unlike the world today and they taught and believed that you could get divorced for any reason you wanted. The second group said that divorce was allowed but only on the grounds of adultery. So the Pharisees are hoping that Jesus will answer and offend one of these two groups. But Jesus knows what they are up to so He asks them, “What did Moses command you?” They reply, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” What these Pharisees are saying is that what is allowed in the Law is all that is required of the man is to write a certificate and he can send her away. The passage in question is Deuteronomy 24:1-4. What’s the answer then to the Pharisee’s question on divorce? How does Jesus, for lack of a better phrase, get out of these tug of war that He is in between these two competing mindsets. He says that the only reason that this was included was because of the hardness and sinfulness of the human heart. Here’s how R.C. Sproul explains it: “Jesus declared that Moses’ words about divorce were not a command or even an enumerated liberty, but a divine concession because of human hardness of heart.” God does not want divorce, He hates divorce. Marriage is to be a lifelong commitment but there are times where it does happen. One could say that the Bible recognizes the reality of divorce, but it does not condone or approve of divorce. It is the difference between allowing something and approving of something. If every husband loved their wife exactly as the Lord commands and if every wife served and honored their husband as the Lord commands, you would see the divorce rate go to 0. Unfortunately, no one does this perfectly. What is marriage supposed to be like? Or maybe a better question for now, where did marriage come from? It came from God. Man didn’t create marriage; God did. That’s why Jesus in His reply goes back to Genesis 1 and 2. What did Jesus believe about marriage? He believed that it was God-given. He believed that marriage was solely between one man and one woman. Jesus emphasized that there are 2 genders: male and female. There aren’t 72 of them like some would like to argue and Jesus knows this because Jesus created the 2 genders. If we look at what Paul says in Colossians 1:16 that by Jesus all things came into being. In what we’ve read tonight, we see that Jesus does not leave gender in question and He does not leave marriage in question, He is the author and designer of both. Marriage is from the Lord and Scripture gives us the recipe for healthy marriages. We won’t look at it tonight but Ephesians 5:22-33 tells us exactly what a healthy, Christian marriage should look like. A wife should submit to her husband and the husband must sacrifice and love His wife. What is marriage supposed to look like? Paul says in Ephesians 5:28-29 that a husband should love his wife as Christ loves the Church. Perfectly, sacrificially, righteously. When marriages look like God intended them, you have some great marriages. But we don’t always do it right. I know I don’t love my wife like Christ loves the Church. I want to, but I know I’ve got a long ways to go. When the time comes for you to get married, find yourself a Godly man or a Godly woman that wants to live for Jesus and live like Jesus. Marriage is important and Jesus is very clear about the subject. J.C. Ryle back in the 1800’s said this: “The importance of the whole subject, on which our Lord here pronounces judgment, can hardly be overrated. We ought to be very thankful that we have so clear and full an exposition of his mind upon it. The marriage relation lies at the very root of the social system of nations. The public morality of a people, and the private happiness of the families which compose a people, are deeply involved in the whole question of the law of marriage… It is a fact clearly ascertained, that polygamy, and permission to obtain divorce on slight grounds, have a direct tendency to promote immorality. In short, the nearer a nation’s laws about marriage approach to the law of Christ, the higher has the moral tone of that nation always proved to be.” We need strong Christian marriages and we need strong Christian families. What this also means is that we need young believers that recognize the importance of teaching Biblical sexuality and marriage. What I want to do for just a minute is talk about how the church responds to LGBTQ issues. What I say to people, because I’ve been asked this by students for probably a decade now is that throughout the centuries, there are moments where the church latches on to certain sins and sort of zeroes in on them as this unforgivable sin and incapable of being restored. And right now, LGBTQ sins seem to be fitting that mold. What the Church has not done well as of late is talk about these issues with a hand of grace. I’m not saying that no one in the church has but for the most part, from what I’ve observed, we haven’t handled this well. What I mean is that we either show no grace or we show no wisdom. We know the verses about LGBTQ and homosexuality but we don’t have the wisdom to explain them properly. Or we just hate on them. The Bible is clear that salvation is solely through Christ and nothing unclean can come into the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 is what we need to turn to. Paul says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” So what we emphasize in that is that no sinner can inherit the Kingdom. So can a gay person go to Heaven? No. Can an adulterous person go to Heaven? No sinner can go to heaven. That’s why it is so important for Paul to say, “Such were some of you but you were washed, sanctified, justified in the name of Jesus.” What we cannot do as the church is look at this sin issue and say, “There’s no forgiveness or hope for you.” But we also cannot say that it is not a sin because it clearly is but we still offer grace. The Christians is someone that will still struggle with sin but they are not enslaved to sin. This is why you can’t be a homosexual Christian, just like you can’t be a murderous Christian or an adulterous Christian because a Christian is someone that is not enslaved to sin any longer. They are a servant of Christ; not of sin. We need to keep moving forward but this is something that we can talk about more in small group if you want.

The Importance of Family

With the few minutes we have, let’s go ahead and read verses 13-16.

Mark 10:13–16 NASB95

And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

What do I want us to see in this? 2 things: Jesus loves the little children, just like the old song says, and there is only one attitude for us to have in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. What does the Bible say about children. It says that they are a gift from God. It says that children are a blessing, that they are made in the image of God, and that they are stitched together by God in the hand of their mother. Long before parents ever know the name of their children, God already knows them by name. Life is precious at all ages. Christians should be at the forefront of the battle in fighting for the rights and life of the unborn because those are children that God has created, that bear His image. What we see happening here in Mark 10 is that Jesus isn’t put off by children. We don’t know the exact age of the children that are coming to Him at this point but regardless of the age, He welcomes them. The disciples are rebuking these parents that are bringing their children to Jesus and Jesus rebukes the disciples because who are they to decide who has access to Jesus? If children are important to Jesus, obviously they should be important to us. What this means too is that regardless of how old you are, Jesus welcomes you, Jesus loves you, Jesus values you. One of the worst things that a person can do is try to prevent a child from seeing and savoring Jesus. What this means is that if a parent tells you to do something that is clearly a sin, clearly not from Scripture, your responsibility is to Jesus first. You honor your parent, you love your parent, but Christ must be first and I pray that you never find yourself in that situation where you have to choose between Christ and mom and dad because I know what a difficult situation that can become. Last thing and then we will be done. What does Jesus mean when He says, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all”? It’s not the childish that receive the Kingdom, it’s the childlike. What it means to be childlike means that the person who enters into the Kingdom of God is the person that is totally dependent upon their Heavenly Father for life. B.B. Warfield said,

Faith and Life Chapter 7: Childlikeness

The Kingdom of God, it asserts, is made up, not of children, but of the childlike. And that concerns directly you and me. The Kingdom of God, our text asserts, is made up of people like these children whom our Lord took in His arms and blessed. And that being so, we are warned that no one can enter that Kingdom who does not receive it “like a little child.” This is as much as to say, not only that childlikeness characterizes the recipients of that Kingdom, but that childlikeness is the indispensable prerequisite to entrance into it. It certainly behoves you and me who wish to be members of the Kingdom of God to know what this childlikeness means

Another way to look at this is to look at the Beatitudes. There have been people that have said, if you want to get to Heaven, just live out the Sermon on the Mount and if you’ve actually read the Sermon on the Mount, you would recognize that that is an impossible task to do. The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount really is to say, you can’t do it like this, that’s why you need grace, that’s why you need mercy, that’s why you need Christ! The very first beatitude that Christ mentions in Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? This doesn’t mean that those that are wealthy have no access to the Kingdom. What it does mean is that the only way to have it is to recognize that you can’t. “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling” the old hymn says. That’s what it means to be poor in Spirit. To be poor in spirit means that God has revealed to us and we recognize the fact that we are totally dependent upon God to get in. We are totally dependent upon what He has done and not what we can do in order to get in. Those that receive the Kingdom are those that recognize their spiritual poverty. We are spiritually bankrupt. The only way in is through Him. If you don’t go through Christ in total desperation, total dependence, with a spirit of humbleness, you’ll never get there. Let’s pray.