Sermon Transcript:

Winston Churchill once said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues are created, strengthened, and maintained.” Most people, throughout history would agree. Family has frequently been recognized as the basic building block of society and of civilization itself. Even in a highly individualistic culture like ours, most people still consider family as one of the most important aspects of their lives.

But in the ancient Mediterranean world, family was more than important. It established your identity. Family determined your place in society, your occupation, where you lived, who you married,  and usually your religion. Loyalty to family was woven into every decision. No major life decision would be made without considering how it would impact your parents and your brothers and sisters, and in many cases your father would have input and represent their interests. The individual existed for the good of the family, not the other way around. 

Back then, if you wanted to know who a person was, you asked who their father was. This is why the Bible pays so much attention to genealogies. Many of the things we think of as shaping our identity, like schools, universities, companies, and even nation-states, didn’t exist. Israel was a man. The tribes of Israel were descended from and named after his sons. To be an Israelite wasn’t a political identity. Countries as we know them would not exist for another 1600 years. To be Jewish was to be part of an extended family with shared history, language, and values.

How any individual fit into that family depended on their relationship to their father and the oldest living male of his line. Life was organized around your household, your extended family, your clan, and your tribe. Even if you were in your 40s with your own children or grandchildren, you were still under the head of the family, who had a voice in your life decisions.  

This is very different from the modern western view of family, but it is critical that we get this if we want to understand much of what we read in the Bible. Once we do, we will see the gospel with fresh eyes. The teaching of Jesus was radical then and it is radical now. The ancient world made the earthly family supreme. The modern world makes the “Self” and our individual desires supreme. The gospel replaces both with something greater: our identity in Christ and the family of God.

What I hope you will see today is that the Gospel is not just about being forgiven. It calls us to die to our old identity and to be born again with a new identity and a new community. It brings a new life with new loyalties. This is the main point of the message today:

In Christ, we are given a new Father, a new family, and a new identity.

As we come to our text this morning, Jesus is still arguing with the Pharisees. The background for what happens in our passage today is the confrontation we have been looking at the past few weeks. Verse 46 says,

46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 

His family is not simply looking to deliver a message. Notice His whole family has come to talk to Him. Keep the scene in mind. Jesus has attracted enormous attention. He has been publicly rebuking the crowds and engaging in a heated confrontation with the religious leaders. When they hear about this, they come to talk to Him, but there are so many people there, they end up waiting outside and ask the people to get a message to Him that they want to talk to Him.

Matthew does not tell us why they came, but Mark gives us additional insight. Mark 3:20–21 says,

20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”   

He is causing quite a stir, publicly rebuking the crowds, making increasingly extraordinary claims, and condemning the religious leaders. They are concerned about Him, and probably for the reputation of the family as well. He is drawing a lot of negative attention and John’s gospel tells us at that time His brothers did not believe in Him.

So, here is Jesus, pulling no punches and telling the crowd and the Pharisees the truth about their blindness and hypocrisy and someone says to Jesus, your mother is looking for you. Remember when we were kids and someone would say “your mom is calling you?” 

That was like an official summons. When mom calls, you have to stop whatever you are doing and go. Every kid knows that. Well, in the 1st century, that wasn’t just for little children. The crowd would have expected Him to respond to His mother. 

48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”

Unphased, Jesus turns even this interruption into an illustration of the Kingdom. To say this publicly was utterly scandalous in that culture. Especially if Mary’s husband Joseph is dead, and he probably is, because we never see or hear from him during Jesus' adult ministry. 

If that is the case, the responsibility to protect, provide, and care for Mary and her other children fell to Jesus, who was the eldest son. For Him to publicly disregard an appeal from His mother and siblings would be considered a shameful abandonment of His family responsibilities. 

But Jesus does not conform to the expectations of the world. He will not remove the offense of the gospel to please men. He is willing to bear the scandal and reproach for the sake of the Kingdom. He challenges the religious, political, economic, and social assumptions of that culture, and ours. His devotion and loyalty is first and always to the Kingdom of God. 

Despite what they may think, He isn’t trying to be disrespectful. He is making a point. No earthly concern, no matter how important, will keep Him from being obedient to the will of the Father. Family is very important, but faithfulness to God is even more so. He has come to proclaim and establish the Kingdom, which is what He is doing. No other priority takes precedence over this. He is putting into practice the same thing He has demanded of others. 

In chapter 8, He told a man who wished to bury his father to let the dead bury the dead, that the Kingdom was more important. In Chapter 10, He says that anyone who loves their father or mother or son or daughter more than Him is not worthy of Him. The Kingdom of God comes first, and obedience to God’s will is always the first priority.

Jesus is not attacking the family or minimizing our responsibilities to it. Not at all. Some misunderstand His words as a criticism of the ancient understanding of family life, but He certainly isn’t advocating for the kind of individualism we have now. In fact, the point He is making is built on the understanding of family assumed in Jewish culture at the time. He is not saying earthly family matters less, but that the family of God matters even more.

He is not diminishing the importance of the family at all. Throughout His ministry, He consistently upholds it. He condemns the Pharisees for using religious excuses to avoid caring for their parents. He rebukes those who dishonor their father and mother. Even as He hangs on the cross, He makes sure His mother will be cared for after His death. 

The Bible is clear that our families are of great importance and we must fulfill our responsibilities to them. The apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts it bluntly 1 Timothy 5:8,

8 …if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

We cannot claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ and dismiss the needs of our families. God says, that kind of sinfulness is something even unbelievers find unacceptable. Paul says to neglect our families is to deny the faith.

That means fulfilling our family obligations is part of glorifying God in our lives. We all want to pursue our own desires. We want our careers, entertainment, recreation. We all have hobbies and interests and dreams. Those things are not themselves sinful, but the world lies to us when it says that our happiness trumps everything else.

The Bible gives us a very different perspective. To come to Christ is to die to self. It is to put the needs of others ahead of our own. To follow Christ is to serve. As we grow in faith, we find that our greatest joy is found in Christ, not in any of these other things. So, we serve others with joy, knowing He is glorified in it. One of the places we are all called to serve faithfully is in our earthly families. 

Anything that causes us to neglect those responsibilities has become an idol. That could be video games, golf, hunting, fishing, social media, sports, hobbies, entertainment, or even excessive work. The issue is not the activity itself. The issue is whether we are neglecting the people God has entrusted to us.

God has created us not only as individuals, but as members of a family for our good, their good, and to point us to the truth of the gospel. Marriage is a picture of the gospel and family is a picture of the Kingdom. Jesus is not lowering the bar on how we relate to our families. He is taking one of the most important relationships in human life and using it to reveal something even greater in what it means to follow Him.

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.”      

Jesus answers His own question. He points to His followers and says, these are my family. The word translated “here are” in Greek is actually the word “look” or “behold.” It is used for emphasis and alerts us to pay close attention to what follows. Jesus is saying, “listen to me… these here are my mother and brothers,” you can identify them because they do the will of my Father.

Those who follow Jesus have been made into a new family not formed through flesh and blood relations, but by the grace of God. Allegiances and identities are being transitioned from one group to another. What defined who we are and framed all of our loyalties has changed. Believers no longer walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Jesus says “whoever” walks in obedience has God for their Father. This means that whoever believes, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich and poor have been brought into the family of God. We have been adopted by one Father in heaven, and it is made evident who those people are because they walk in faithful obedience to the Father. 

It isn’t those who have the greatest works, but to those who were faithful and repentant that have God for their Father. He is not saying we make ourselves children of God by doing works of obedience, but that our obedience shows that we have been born again, not of the flesh, but by the Spirit of God. John 1:12–13 makes this clear when it says,

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.      

Our obedience to God identifies us as members of His family. Just as a loving son honors his father, not to become his son, but because he is his son, so those who have been adopted by God learn to love and obey their heavenly Father. We do not earn our place in His family by our obedience. Our obedience simply makes plain whose family we belong to. We listen to Him because He is our Father, and the family likeness is seen in those who hear His voice and follow Him. 1 John 3:9 says,

9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

Jesus said, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. We were sons and daughters of Adam, inheriting his sinful nature, sharing in his rebellion and under a curse. We were spiritual orphans and beggars without any heavenly home. 

But by grace, God has brought us into His family, invited us to His table, and made us His own. What we once were no longer defines us. We have been cleansed by the water of the Word through the blood of Jesus. Our filthy rags have been replaced with the robes of Christ's own righteousness. We have been given a new name, the name of our adopted Father.

Jesus stood before the Father in judgment as though He were me, so that I may stand before the Father in love as though I were Him. The perfect Son was forsaken, so that we who were far off might be brought into the family of God as sons and daughters. Christ purchased our adoption with His own blood.

Sometimes people have children unexpectedly, but no one adopts a child unintentionally. Every adopted child is chosen. Believer, God chose you, paid a great price to bring you into His family, and delights to call you His child. You do not need to earn His love, you already have it. 

Brothers and sisters, we need to chain our hearts to this truth. How much fear and anxiety do we wrestle with because we do not rest in the finished work of Christ? How much of our obedience is still an attempt to earn what the Father has already given us rather than an expression of our joy that we are His? 

We are His children, so we follow Him and grow in obedience without fear that we will be rejected or abandoned. Romans 5:8 says,

8 …God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Father loved us and sent His Son to die for us while we were still sinners. Christ went to the cross knowing every sin we had committed and every sin we ever would commit, and yet He willingly gave Himself for us. If God loved us when we were His enemies, we can be certain He will not cast us away now that we are His children. He did not make us His own because we were worthy, but because He loved us. Romans 5:10 says,

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Do you see the logic here? He loved us when we were His enemies, do you really think He will abandon us now, when we are His children? 

God created mankind to bear His image, reflecting His character as we lived in fellowship with Him under His loving rule. But we rebelled against Him. The Bible calls this sin. Instead of living for God, we lived for ourselves, becoming His enemies and falling under His just condemnation. Since God is holy and just, this rebellion had to be dealt with. Even if we were sorry, we had no way to pay for the sins we had already committed. But God made a way.

He did not simply call us to come home. He sent His obedient Son into this fallen world to find us and bring us home. Jesus came to rescue those enslaved to sin, paying our debt with His own blood. He alone lived the perfect life we failed to live, then bore the judgment we deserved on the cross. Rising again in victory over sin and death, He now forgives, reconciles, and adopts into God's family all who repent and believe in Him.

Those who belong to Christ are no longer identified with Adam, the son who sinned, but with Jesus Christ, the perfect Son. We who were once strangers and rebels have become sons and daughters of God. Remember our main point.

In Christ, we are given a new Father, a new family, and a new identity.

Jesus has now answered the question He Himself raised: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Those who trust and obey His Father. But if that is true, He has not merely offered us forgiveness or given us a new moral code to live by. He has given us an entirely new identity and a new family.

Not family as we often think of it today, but family as it was understood in the first century. We belong to a household. God is our Father, and His wisdom guides our lives. We look to Him for provision, protection, and instruction. We do not make decisions as isolated individuals pursuing our own interests. We live as members of a family. What we do reflects upon our Father, affects our brothers and sisters, and either honors or dishonors the family name. We no longer merely seek our own good, but the good of the family and the honor of our Father.

Through faith in Jesus, we are no longer separated from God, but have been brought into an intimate relationship with Him. He is our protector and provider. We are under His shelter and care. Romans 8:14–15 says,  

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!”

Because we now have God as our Father, we also have a new family. First and most importantly, Jesus is not only our Lord and Savior, but is also our brother. Since we have become partakers in the same Spirit, Hebrews says, "He is not ashamed to call us brothers." Paul says that God has made Him "the firstborn among many brothers." As the firstborn Son, He represents the Father and bears the responsibility of leading the household. He is the one who sets the example for us, our teacher, and our helper.

And since each believer now has God as Father and the Son of God as a brother, that means we have each become brothers and sisters to one another. In Matthew 23:8, Jesus says,

8 …you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Once we understand what family meant in the first century, we realize that when the New Testament calls believers brothers and sisters, it is not a sentimental expression. It is a profound statement about who we are. The implication is that we should do nothing without considering how it affects each other. It means that we are all under the same Father, and are called to use the resources of His household to care for one another.

I meet a lot of people who say they don’t want anything to do with “organized” religion. Well, what do they mean? It is sadly true that sinful men abuse and distort the work of God, but God is the one who created the organization. He hasn’t established a corporation with bosses or a country with rulers. 

He made a family. A loving community of people bound together through their relationship to Him, under His leadership. He doesn’t give us managers or governors to guide the church, but elder brothers to care for, protect, and watch over the younger ones in the faith. Just as parents often entrust the oldest sibling with caring for the household, these elder brothers exercise only the authority entrusted to them. They instruct and guide us according to the will of the Father as expressed in His Word.

It was incomprehensible in ancient Israel to claim love for a father while separating oneself from the mutual life of the family. To separate yourself in a way that prevents you from fulfilling your responsibilities to your brothers and sisters, and keeps them from fulfilling theirs to you, would be scandalous. 

For a person to be in need and neglected by their family would bring shame upon the Father. Even more so, if the Father had provided for the family and instructed them to meet the need and a brother or sister ignored that, it would bring even greater shame on them.

Friends, the scripture repeatedly calls on us to bear each other's burdens, to meet each other's needs, and to care for, protect, and comfort each other. The Father has provided the family with the resources to do all of this. He has delegated authority to ensure it happens. This is His command, and it reflects His goodness to His children. If this is what people mean by "organized religion," then what they are really rejecting is God’s design for His family. 

We don’t need to be concerned about giving generously of our time and treasures to our brothers and sisters because since God has become our Father, we also have a new inheritance. 1 Peter 1:3–5 says,

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

By faith, we are united to Christ and made heirs with Him of the Kingdom. We are free then, by the Spirit, to put to death the selfishness in our hearts and live and love generously without fear about what tomorrow might bring. Think about what it means that we are heirs of God. The whole world and the fullness of it all belongs to Him. Nothing can steal this great promise of blessing from us. It is guarded by the power of God.

This should change the way we think about everything we have. I hear people, even believers, say, "If I had the kind of money Elon Musk has, I would do so much good. I would be generous beyond measure." But that isn't true. I know it isn't true because every believer is already far richer than Elon Musk. In fact, we are richer by an infinite margin than Musk, Bezos, Gates, and every billionaire who has ever lived. God has already made us heirs of an inheritance beyond anything this world can offer. Our future is so glorious that the Bible says no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.

And yet, how often we lose sight of this. Often believers are more generous to the waiter who serves them for an hour than to the brothers and sisters God has given them for eternity. Why? Because we forget who we are. We become consumed with the cares of this world and begin living as though everything depends on us. We cling to what cannot last, instead of resting in the Father's love and joyfully using what He has entrusted to us for His family and His kingdom. We keep living like orphans instead of sons and daughters of God Almighty.

Let’s encourage each other brothers and sisters to not lose sight of these things. May, by God’s grace, we love each other and encourage each other, and that our faith and our place in the family of God would be evident because that love overflows from us in devotion and obedience to God. That we be on guard that nothing else, no matter how good it is, takes such a place in our hearts that we allow it to define who we are. Let our lives be a testimony to the goodness of our Father in Heaven, to the glory of Christ, our Lord, Savior, and brother.

 I want to finish with 1 John 3. In light of everything I have said, I want you to meditate on the hope and glory of these verses. Beginning in  verse 1, John says,

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 

He continues a few verses later, and we will end with this.

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.