Jesus First

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 129

Scripture Reading: Psalm 133

Psalm 133 ESV

A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

This week I had the privilege (from one point of view) or the seemingly impossible task (from MY point of view) of writing a paper on the intersection of two fundamental Christian beliefs. One is the belief in the trinity, the other is what is known as the doctrine of divine simplicity. I bring this up not to bore you, but to share a quote that I found while doing my research.

I was trying to find a way to introduce the fact that if we do not hold to these beliefs correctly then we are going to be in for a world of trouble, because a lack of care in these doctrines in particular can lead to much heartache. And I found a quote that said that humans are nothing more than the sum of our beliefs, experiences and relationships. Ad while that would not help me with my paper, I found it very telling in regards to what we will be talking about today. For Jesus is going to get to the heart of two of those three things that this author thought were so central to all human life, namely our beliefs and our relationships.

Our text for today is Matthew 12:46-50 this morning and n it Jesus is going to call us to evaluate our beliefs, to look at the relationships and actually dive to the heart of how we evaluate these things. So with that being said lets dive into our text this morning.

Matthew 12:46–50 ESV

While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Lets begin with a word of prayer.

PRAY

One of the things that I think is critically important when you are getting ready to teach a passage to anyone is to ask a simple, yet difficult question: What is this passage all about. The question is simple, but here is what makes it hard, you should be able to say it in one complete and non-run on sentence. Another way to put the heart behind this is to say: if you can’t explain this text to a group of teenagers with a limited attention span, you probably shouldn’t be teaching it to anyone.

SO what is the thought here? Well I would argue that it is really easy actually. the point here is the title of the sermon this week. JESUS FIRST! The story is Jesus family is coming to talk to Jesus, they seem to think that they are important, important enough that they will not go in and listen to him teach, no, Jesus has to come out to be with them. Forget the crowds gathered, forget all that, Jesus, your mother and brothers are calling and they want you.

The issue? they will not put Jesus first, they think (best case scenario) family first. or maybe they are thinking quit embarrassing us first, for when we read this account in Mark we see that the family thought that Jesus has lost his mind. But what Jesus does here is use the picture of the family to say an important message, it is what God demands first.

This is not the first time Jesus has said this exact thought, way back in chapter 8 Jesus told the scribe that wished to follow him that he could, but he would have to give up earthly pleasures and earthy comforts, for Jesus had no place to lay his head, and if you are going to follow him, well you have to put him and his desires first, not care about where you will eve sleep at night. Comfort first? no Jesus first! Then, in that same section the man came to follow jesus and just wanted to bury his dad first. No, jesus said, if you follow me you follow me, leave the dead to bury the dead. Responsibility first? no, Jesus first! Then in chapter 10 in the missions and persecution discourse Jesus told his followers that to follow him meant that you might have some familial trouble (see verses 35-37). In fact, Jesus says, if you want to follow me, this is 10:38-39

Matthew 10:38–39 ESV

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This life first? no, Jesus first.

and what we see in this passage is that even those closest to Jesus didn’t get this. his mother and brothers, those people who knew Jesus better than anyone either would not or could not wrap their minds around the fact that Jesus was the messiah, and he must be followed. So ultimately this passage is a call just to that, to Put Jesus first. do the will of the father! Which here is a short hand way to say come to Jesus, make him Lord of your life, come to him in repentance, for only then can we serve him and please him. Without Christ our best hope is a righteousness that is filthy rags. If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this: you MUST put Jesus first. WE covered that last week and it needs to be said again, half-hearted repentance, coming to Jesus and looking for a quick feel good then on with your life type of thing just will not work. Instead submit to him, become, as Paul puts it in Romans a slave to righteousness as you follow him.

And that is pretty much it. as the ending to the entire narrative section after the missions discourse the point here is as one commentator says: It is possible to be religious like the Pharisees, and still not be part of the kingdom of God. It is possible to be physically related to the Messiah himself, and still not be part of the kingdom of God. Religious practices and religious pedigree are utterly inadequate to bring anybody into the kingdom.

The only thing that gets you in the kingdom is faith in Jesus Christ!

So with that being said, lets say a little bit more on the particulars of this passage. We could ask: OK Jesus first, I get it, but what does that MEAN? and today I would like to look at three different spheres or ways that this impacts out lives. The first is to ask: what does this mean FAMILIALLY.

What does this mean FAMILIALLY

In case you are wondering, my Bible Program does not think this is a word, but google does as does Miriam-Webster, if you want to be a super nerd like me it is the adverbial form of the adjective familial and simply means of, or relating to blood relations.

OK, what does jesus seeming complete renouncing of HIS family mean in terms of me and my family? And while there is a whole whole bunch that I could say here I would like to keep it to just a few main thoughts that I can share here.

One is to note, Part of why this picture of Jesus and his family relation is so important is that it shows that Jesus a) meant what he said in 10:34-37.

Matthew 10:34–37 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

but more importantly that as our savior he can relate. This is a super gross story, but the only one I could think of to drive this point home. My first ever job was at Hastings in Alamogordo. One day my boss came up to me while I was working the register and asked me to follow her to the restroom. and it was DISCUSSTING! I will not get into details, but about everything you could think of that might make a public restroom bad was present and accounted for in this scene. She looked at me and said “you can go back to your register now, but I want you to see this and know I am cleaning it so when I ask you in the future you know I am willing to. and as a young probably 16 year old that made a huge impression on me. My boss wasn’t just going to ask me to do all the gross stuff because she didn’t want to, no, it had to be done, and if that falls to me I should be ready to do it.

Well so too it is with Jesus saying, even family, even what is the most sort of foundational bonds that we have Jesus knows the feeling of the sharp divide that might arise, he knows that pain, he knows your heart, he knows the feeling of having family set against God. So he relates to us. Yet he calls us, to place him above any earthly pleasures and things. no temporary or earthly good gift is better than the God who gives you them, so we must serve him first!

The second thought to make is this: What Jesus is NOT saying is that family is of no importance. What he IS saying is that how we relate to him is more important. family is important, it is baked into the very fabric of scripture.

In Genesis 2:23-24 we have a passage that is often read at weddings

Genesis 2:23–24 ESV

Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

But in reality we should note, what Moses is talking about here is the creation of a new FAMILY. and that family becomes the vehicle for many blessings and many good things. Family is important because it is a god given, god ordained, God blessed thing. The parent child relationship is so important that it makes it into the ten commandments. Honor your father and Mother. In fact Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 that this command is the first with a blessing: “that it will be well with you and you will live long on the earth. In the psalms we read that God has ordained the parent child relationship as one of the greatest vehicles for his blessings

Psalm 127:3–5 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

SO do not think that this is the only thing scripture says about family. It does teach us, however that there is a critical sort of hierarchy of affections in our hearts. And Jesus must be, here we are again, first.

To use a bit of philosophical language, this is not an either/or proposition, that we must love either jesus OR family. It is a both/and, we love both Jesus AND our family, but it must be in that order, Jesus must be given the position of supremacy.

But now I would like to tun our attention to what this means for us VERTICALLY

What this means VERTICALLY

And here by vertically I mean what does this mean in regards to or relationship with God. And here While I do not have anything that is brand new and you have never herd it before, These thoughts bear being said again and again for the encouragement of our souls.

We are brothers and sisters (and mothers… more on that in a little bit), but here we are brothers and sisters of Chrsit, the Only begotten son of God. I want to park here and give us two cross references to dwell on for a second. First, let us turn to 1 John 3. We will be looking at verses 1-3 and, close your ears on this one Lawrence, we will be reading form the NIV.

1 John 3:1–3 (NIV)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

John, who interestingly enough was HERE when Jesus said this whole these are my mother and brothers and sisters thing, in fact, he was one of the ones Jesus “stretched out his hand to” in verse 49. And here he is going to contemplate the weightiness of this thought. and this verse is why I like the NIV. Whereas the ESV has the “love the Father has Given to us” the NIV gets the heart of the verse right with what kind of Love the father has LAVISHED on us. He has given us an overwhelming and beautiful love, given freely, given generously, given freely, and because of that love we are CHILDREN OF GOD. Makes sense if Jesus is our Brother. John Continues

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

There is a familiarity to being a child of God, it gives us access to God, but also an affinity and identity in him. so much so that we become, to quote Peter a second, strangers and aliens here on hearth. Moving on.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Here is the payoff of being a A child of God, in our text for today being a brother and sister of our savior, we will become like him. We are conformed into his image. Those of you with multiple kids might see this phenomenon. Jayden and Willow are ten years apart, so you might think, with that much of a difference there will not be much in common. but you would be wrong in thinking that. Mostly because Willow loves Jayden and anything he does she wants to do. She looks up to him adores him, and so it is natural that she would pick up all sorts of things. some cute and funny, some ridiculous, like seeing a three year old try and fingerboard.

So, purify yourself, because he is pure, live a holy life, because he is holy. Imitate our heavenly brother, the one who intercedes for us, who loves us, who is able to comfort us, the brother who is, we read in scripture closer than a brother. That is our great hope.

the Second cross reference I want us to see is Ephesians 1:3-5

Ephesians 1:3–5 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

note here that the way that our relationship with God works is filtered through the wonderful relations within the Holy Trinity. Blessed be the FATHER our OUR LORD. who has blessed us

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

some people loose a lot of sleep over this one, I did at one time too, here’s the point, before you were in your mothers womb the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth new you, he also, as the next verse tells us, loved you verse 5, and the reason that I wanted to come here this morning.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

His great love for us is what makes even talking about these who vertical relationships possible. and he has adopted us. I think this is beautiful, how can the only begotten son have brothers and sisters? it is because God is in the adoption business. and he adopted you and he adopted me, and now we are children of God according to the purpose of his will. What is that will, you might ask! For his glory and for our good, that was his decreed will. Praise be to God that we are hid in Chrsit, that he is our brother, our Lord and our savior.

But before we move on, I would like to make two small notes on our passage in Matthew. John just talked abut being “children. Paul is very particular (and intentionally very particular I might add, but that is a story for another day). But Paul is particular that we have been adopted AS SONS. But Jesus says “whoever does the will of my father in Heaven are my brother AND sister AND Mother.

While other Rabbis and teachers would only have men as disciples, Jesus is different. as he stretches his had out we read his hand toward his disciples and we subconsciously think: oh… the twelve, but the inclusion of the idea of sisters means that this is not just the twelve, that in the group of people (if we remember back Matthew is keen to draw a distinction between disciples and crowds), but in the group titled disciples there are sisters. this is only a minor note, but one worth making, there is room for brothers and sisters AND it turns out, Mothers.

This one is a little weird and worth a little more time. What does Jesus mean his mother? the brothers and sisters thing is a class, it makes sense, we can join it with not much heart ache, but this idea of here is my mother… whats going on.

There are a few options. the first is to think, Jesus is just saying that because his actual mother was there and he is trying to make a point to all his family. We aren’t REALLY like his mother because that would be weird… just brothers and sisters and then mothers is for dramatic effect.

But I don’t like that, because EVERY word of Jesus is for us, there are no throw away ones, so what could this mother mean? Here I Think we should read the whole context, those who do the will of the Father, so what is the will of the father, it is that we should act in certain ways. Thus as siblings, in support, in love, in various other ways, but also in a sort of motherly way. In care and compassion, towards Jesus yes, but also towards his other brothers and sisters, it has to do with a sort of compassionate love that must be stored up and given out. There is a reason we don't’ usually here about fatherly love, but hear abut motherly love all the time. This is not an authority over Jesus statement, but a love for and care for him, those who will do the Will of the Lord will Love, for the father has loved us, will care for “the least of these” as Jesus would say elsewhere. Which leads us to the last point I would like to make today, which is to understand what this whole “Jesus first” thing means for us HORIZONTALLY

What this means HORIZONTALLY

What Jesus says here is of critical importance for us here on this earth, for it means something about us here. For is Jesus is my brother and he is your brother too, that makes us related! So many times we come to a passage like this and begin to think very individually. This means for ME that I am a brother of Christ, this means for ME that I am a child of God, etc etc. But we should note that this means that we are doing this together. What you and me and us all being brothers and sisters means is that we are family!

And not just family, but here Jesus says the most important sort of family, the family of God. Christians through out history have called each other brother, and sister. Why? It is because we are. WE are called, as believers, to be the family of God. When we gather here at church… Why is it so important that we go to church? this passage tells us why. It is because every time we come on Sunday… I want to push this example a little bit to drive this point home. It is because every time we c=gather as the body of Christ this is a sort of family reunion. And an important part of a family reunion is BEING PRESENT.

I consider myself a bit of an expert having been to not one but two family reunions in the last month. And coming and being at the reunion is important, and the family hurts when those who should be there do not come. and then when those who do come are still not really present, they don’t care about and they are not there fore the family while there, it stands out ad is still wrong. At the reunion you come together, you hold one another burdens, you laugh, you cry, you reminisce, you LIVE YOUR LIFE TOGETHER. If we are going to stand on this passage and many more in Scripture just like it and proclaim that we are the family of God we should live like it.

We should love one another, and not just in word, but in deed. WE should care for one another, bear one another’s burdens, SACRIFICIALLY be there for one another. When one of us is hurting, its not just a little sad, that is your brother or sister, it should cause you some real pain too. When one of us is struggling, it is not just sad, that's you brother and sister, HELP THEM!. how dare we leave them, abandon our family! We should sacrifice, go out of our way to care for one another. even if it means fling across the nation for some party, you go, and though at first you don’t want to do it, can we be honest, sometimes we roll our eyes and think, OK I will do this for my sister, if they were anyone else on the planet would never. But then once we do go there we realize that doing things for our brothers and sisters is the way to joy and peace.

God has given us so much, brought us into THS family, lets live like it!

Pray!