All right, in John chapter 19,
let me read our text one more time. Jesus hanging from the
cross. Here he is. And he spoke seven
times. And so now we're dealing with
this one time that he spoke to his and of his mother. Verse
26, when Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciples
standing by whom he loved. As I said, most believe this
is the Apostle John. He said unto his mother, woman,
behold thy son. Now that's the first point of
this message. Woman, behold thy son. And then saith he, that's
not the end of that saying, but then the second part of that
saying, he said to the disciple, behold thy mother. And that's
the second point of this message. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home, took her to take care of her. I've
entitled this message, The Word of Fellowship and Love. And you know, when I was preparing
these messages, I'm going to do the seven sayings from the
cross. This is one of them. When I was
preparing this message, I had no thought of saying, well, I'm
gonna preach that on Mother's Day. And I'm sure a lot of preachers,
when they go to preach what they call their Mother's Day messages,
they might go to a portion like this, when Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, speaking to his mother, Mary, and he says, woman,
and notice he didn't say mother. This is not out of any disrespect
or any bad thoughts towards you. But he says, woman, behold thy
son. And he says to John, or whoever
the disciple was, I believe it was John, behold thy mother. So this just happened to fall.
The Bible says that it's not luck, it's not coincidence, the
Lord would have me preach this message. But I'm really not so
much going to talk about motherhood as I am going to talk about the
fellowship of God's people and the love of God's people that
we have for one another. So this is the word of fellowship
and love. And so let me begin the first
point. Christ said to Mary, woman, behold thy son. And then he said
to John, behold thy mother. Now, one of the things that we
never want to do is to ignore or denigrate or not or fail to
appreciate the blessedness of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. What a special woman and what
the scripture tells us about her. But another thing we don't
want to do is we don't want to raise Mary above that which she
was and is, a sinner saved by the grace of God. We don't want
to idolize her. We don't want to make her an
icon or a mediator. The Catholic Church does this,
but that's a false church. The Catholic Church calls Mary
the mother of God. Think about that. Now that's
utter blasphemy. God has no mother. Yes, Christ
is God. But God has no mother. God has
no beginning and no ending. God is eternal. She is not the
mother of God. And when we speak of God, we're
talking about all three persons of the Godhead. Father, Son,
and Spirit. The Godhead has no mother. And
the Catholic Church makes too much of her, claiming that she's
the Queen of Heaven. There's no Queen of Heaven. She
is not the Queen of Heaven. That's blasphemy. That's idolatry. They make Mary a mediator between
God and sinners. She is not a mediator. The Bible
says there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. Mary was the human virgin mother
of the humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God in human
flesh. Look back at Luke chapter one.
Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Well, Mary was the human
instrument, the human vessel. the human mother of the sinless
humanity of Christ. He was conceived in Mary's womb
when she was a virgin, had not known a man. Miraculous conception. That is an immaculate conception.
Mary herself is not the immaculate conception. She's still a sinner
saved by grace. But God didn't look down and
say, well, now I want the woman who's most qualified. No, he
just chose Mary out of his sovereign will. Mary was truly highly favored
of God and blessed among women. Look at Luke 1 26. Listen to this. In the sixth
month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of
Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin. espoused to a man whose name
was Joseph. She wasn't even married yet.
Of the house of David, that's where it comes from. Both Joseph
and Mary were of the tribe of Judah. And the virgin's name
was Mary. And the angel came in unto her
and said, hail thou, hail thou that art highly favored. Now
he's not saying hail Mary as if he's worshiping Mary. People
talk about the Ave Maria, that's hail Mary, like worshiping her.
It's like saying that God has a message here. It's like saying
hello in essence. Thou art highly favored, graciously
accepted. Much graced is what that means. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. The Catholic Church makes Mary
a dispenser of blessings. She is not a dispenser of blessings.
God's people are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Mary is a receiver of blessings. That's what she's doing. She
doesn't dispense them. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his sight, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. That means, for he shall save
his people from their sins. He shall be great, and shall
be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne. of his father David. Mary was
blessed. Mary was not a sinless person. The Catholic Church wants you
to think that she herself was sinless. She was not. Mary was
a sinner saved by grace, washed in the blood of Christ, robed
in the righteousness of Christ. And that was her beauty. She
didn't even remain a virgin. Look at John chapter 7. The Catholic
Church says that she remained a virgin throughout her life.
No, she didn't. Over here in John chapter 7,
listen to this. It says, let me find it here. Here, Christ was walking in Galilee,
the Feast of Tabernacles, and He was preaching, and It makes
note that there were many who did not believe in him, and look
at verse five of John seven. It says, for neither did his
brethren believe in him. His brethren, who's his brethren?
Well now, we're gonna see this in just a moment. Christ identifies
his spiritual brethren as those who do the will of the Father,
those who believe in him. But here, these brethren didn't
believe in him. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about his stepbrothers. Mary and Joseph, after she had
the humanity of Jesus, she and Joseph had relations and had
other children. He had stepbrothers, and they
didn't believe in him. Look at verse six of John seven.
Then Jesus said unto them, my time is not yet come, but your
time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof
are evil. They didn't believe in him. Now we learn later that
some of them did come to believe in him, but that's by the grace
of God. So Mary did not remain a virgin.
She and Joseph had other children. She did not, Mary is not a mediator
between God and men, as I said, one mediator, and that's Christ.
Mary is not a bestower of blessings. In repeating that, I'm just making
this, and here's something else. Turn to John chapter two. Here
we have the incident where the Lord performed his first public
miracle in turning water into wine. And what you might notice
in this is, now I'm sure that in his life, especially growing
up as a young, as a child, as a young son, that he called Mary
his mother. Again, mother of the sinless
humanity of Christ. But throughout his public ministry,
as recorded in the word of God, the Lord himself never spoke
of Mary as his mother, never referred to her as such. And
here he is, he's performing this in the marriage of Cana, verse
one, the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there. You see, God, the Holy Spirit,
inspired John to write down, she's the mother of Jesus. And
both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And
when they waited, when they wanted or lacked wine, the mother of
Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. And Jesus said unto
her, woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet
come. And his mother saith unto the
servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. So he said,
woman, what have I to do with thee? Now, was he showing disrespect
here? No. Lack of love? For his earthly mother, no. We're
commanded to honor and love our fathers and our mothers. Children
are told to respect and obey their parents. Christ kept the
law perfectly. So he didn't deny or denigrate
or disrespect or not love his mother. But when the Lord addresses
her as woman, like over here in our text, woman, woman, behold
thy, Behold thy son. Woman, behold thy son. And son,
behold thy mother. When he addresses her as a woman,
he doesn't mean to denigrate or disrespect her in any way. He was not being unkind. He was
not being mean and cruel or unloving towards her. Now here's what
he was doing. He was making Even back then at the Feast of Canaan,
and now, he was making a very vital and spiritual point concerning
relationships and fellowship of brethren, true brethren, spiritual
brethren in the household and family of God, of which foundation
he was establishing right here on the cross. One writer said this, that in
addressing her as woman, Instead of mother, he was leading Mary
herself, gently, from the natural union that she shared with him
because she was the mother of his human nature, sinless human
nature, to the mystical, spiritual union that all believers share
with him. That's what he was doing. Listen,
our family relationships. Husband, wife, father, mother,
children, sister, brother. Do you know that one day that
relationship here on earth will end? But the relationship that
I have with my brothers and sisters in Christ will go on forever
and ever and ever. And let me show you another passage
here. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. And I want you to listen
to this. This is another passage of scripture
that's telling. He says, look at verse, well
look at verse 46 of Matthew chapter 12. Listen to what's going on
here. While he yet talked to the people, now here he is preaching,
teaching. While he yet talked to the people,
behold his mother and his brethren, that's his mother and his stepbrothers,
stood without desiring to speak with him. And then one said unto
him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring
to speak with thee. In other words, it's like the
fellow saying, now you've got to stop everything because your mom's
here. Your stepbrothers are here. Look at verse 48. But he answered
and said unto him that told him, who is my mother? Who are my
brethren? And he stretched forth his hand,
verse 49, toward his disciples. and said, Behold my mother, behold
my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother. Who is my family? Those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In these words, Christ And in
the words that He spoke from the cross, Behold thy mother.
Woman, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother. In these
words, the Lord shows that His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. His family is a spiritual family,
not earthly. That His spiritual family and
His spiritual relationships and the fellowship that he has with
his spiritual family is greater and more important than earthly
family and earthly relationships. Now I want to tell you something,
that's tough for us to get within our minds. You fathers and you
mothers, you have children and you're responsible for those
children. You're really not responsible
for everybody else's children. Now that doesn't mean we're not
to love our brethren and love our neighbor. and help others. But you have a unique relationship
and responsibility to your earthly children, you husbands to your
wife, you wives to your husbands. And we don't need to lessen that
or denigrate that. In fact, the Bible says that
a man who will not care for his earthly children and take care
of them is worse than an infidel. So we have that. That relationship
in some point in time is going to end. And if you're a believer,
you have a family, a spiritual family that is much greater than
that earthly relationship. And at this time on the cross,
Christ's earthly relationship to Mary as his human mother was
about to end forever. But his spiritual relationship
with his spiritual family, his household of which he is the
head, which included Mary as a sinner saved by grace, would
go on forever and forever and forever. Isn't that right? Now you think about this. This
is important. And here's what we're learning
here. fellowship and the love of brethren. The cross brings
us together. It's not our earthly heritage. It's not our human pedigree.
That doesn't bring us together. It's not our mutual likes and
dislikes. It's the cross that brings God's
people together. We are all chosen of God. If we're brethren, if we're brethren
in Christ, Believers, sinners saved by grace. We all collectively
were chosen. Individually, but we are together. We are chosen before the foundation
of the world in Christ. Our names were written in the
family album. The book, the Lamb's Book of
Life. If you truly believe in Jesus
Christ, Your name's in that album, that family album. Doesn't matter
if you're male, female. Doesn't matter if you're black,
white, or yellow. Doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor.
Your name was written there in that family album, the Lamb's
Book of Life, the Lamb slain. And then you're justified. And
we're all justified the same way. That's the ground of our
familial tie. We are all equally washed in
the blood of Christ. We are all equally righteous
in God's sight, based upon His righteousness imputed. You ever
seen a family of children that wear the same clothes? And you
might notice that they kind of look alike and all. Well, that's
us in Christ. We wear the same clothes. We're
dressed in the robe of His righteousness imputed to us and we stand before
God equally justified. We've all been redeemed. You
know, the price of my redemption is the same as the price of your
redemption. It's the blood of Christ on this
cross. So it brings us together. And
then we're born again. We have a birth. And it's the
same birth. You know, physical birth can
be different. Some women have the baby naturally. Some have it by C-section. It
can be different. But we're all born into the kingdom
the same way by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel, the true gospel, which is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and
the Greek, you see, that believer's Jewishness and this believer
being a Gentile means nothing to the Jew first and the Greek
also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. It's written, the justified shall
live by faith. And that's another thing. We
who are in this spiritual family are brought into this fellowship
of the grace of God. We walk the same way, exactly. Some may walk faster than others,
some may be slower, some may be a little bit farther behind,
some may be ahead, but it doesn't matter. We all live looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We all have the
same ground of salvation, the imputed righteousness of Christ,
the same way of salvation, the grace of God in Christ, the same
goal in salvation, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. over in Ephesians chapter 2.
I quote quite often verses 8, 9,
and 10. And it's speaking of the church
collectively. It's speaking of the fellowship
of the household and family of God in Christ. And here's what
it says. It says, for by grace are you
saved through faith. Now, does that apply to me? But not to you? That's all of us. By grace. There's not one of us who deserved
salvation or earned salvation. And it's through faith and that
not of yourselves. You didn't come the free will
way and then I come the sovereign grace way. The free will way
is a deadly way. None of us. If we have faith,
we have it because God sovereignly gave it to us through Christ.
It's not the reformed way and the Arminian way or the Calvinistic
way. It's all one way through faith
and that not of yourselves. We were all by nature sinners,
dead in trespasses and sins. We were no different than children
of wrath by nature. We were born dead in trespasses.
We all fell in Adam into sin and death. We're all born dead
spiritually. We're all redeemed by the blood
of Christ, and we're all regenerated by the Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel, the word of life. It's the gift of God, he says.
And it's not of works. It's not of your works. It's
not of my works. You see, none of us, if God were to judge us
based on our works, we be damned forever, lest any man should
boast. And then he says, for we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And that applies to both Jew,
believing Jew and believing Gentile. And he says, he says that we're
brought together. Look in Ephesians two and verse
13. He talked about the separation of Jews and Gentiles, but he
says in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off outside are made nigh, brought in, near by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, Jew and Gentile, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh,
that's what he's doing, dying on that cross, his humanity,
suffering, God in human flesh, in his flesh the enmity is abolished,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain, of two, one new man, that's the
church, collectively, so making peace, and verse 16, and that
he might reconcile both, both Jews, God's elect among the Jews,
God's elect among the Gentiles, unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. You see that? The book of 1 John is a primer,
if you will. of true Christian fellowship,
the spiritual family. Christ said, who is my mother?
Who is my brother? Who is my sister? Them that do
the will of my Father. What does that mean? Well, 1
John tells us. And he gives us what I call three
points or three benchmarks of fellowship. The first one is
this, our fellowship is a fellowship of light, that means the truth
of the gospel. He says in verse six of 1 John
1, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. We believe the gospel, the good
news of how God saves his chosen people by his grace through the
blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
keep that our fellowship, our family is founded upon truth. That's the light. We walk in
the light. The light is Christ. Secondly, this is a fellowship
of righteousness. which is the righteousness of
God in Christ. 1 John 2, 29, it says, if you
know that He, Christ, is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of Him. What is it to do righteousness?
It's to look to Christ and to the perfection of righteousness
that we have, we find and have, only in Him. That's what it is. We are all made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was made sin. Our sins were
imputed, charged, accounted to Him. He who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's our fellowship.
We all have the same ground of salvation. The imputed righteousness
of Christ. And then this third benchmark
leads me to the To the second point, you know Christ said from
the cross there, when He spoke to His mother, and He said to her, He said, Woman, behold thy son. This is your spiritual family.
And then He said to the disciple that was with her, He said, Behold
thy mother. She's your spiritual family.
And it says, and from that hour, that disciple took her unto his
home. Well, the third benchmark is it's a fellowship of love. Love. Love in Christ. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons
of God, children of God. He said, a new commandment I
give you that you love one another. And this is the word of Christian
love. When he spoke to his mother, woman, behold thy son, son, behold
thy mother. He tells John to take care of
Mary, take care of her. She's a widow who had no other
support than her Christian family. The Bible says in Galatians 6
and verse 10, as we therefore have opportunity, let us do good
unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith, our brothers and our sisters. James spoke of it in
James 1.27. He said, pure religion and undefiled
before God. And the father is this, to visit
the fatherless. That doesn't mean just go visit
them. And the widows, in this their affliction and to keep
himself unspotted from the world. In other words, you know, Back
then, in those days, those who were usually the destitute were
either widows whose husbands had died and they had no other
family, or children who were left destitute. And he said,
you take care of them. Our love to one another in the
household of faith is the fruit of Christ's love for us and should
reflect his love for us. What did He do for us? Well,
He loved His own unto the end. He died for me. But He didn't
just die for me. He arose again the third day.
I'm justified in Him. But He didn't just justify me.
He sent His Spirit to draw me unto Himself. He gave me life!
Spiritual life. I'm going to live forever! Because
of Him. That's right. He takes care of me. There are
times I sinfully think He's forsaken me, but He didn't. He said, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. He told his disciples in John
13, 34, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another
as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And he
said, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if
you have love one to another. Now that doesn't mean that the
world is going to look at you and admire you for your love.
That means that the world's gonna see, as the Pharisees said to
the disciples over in Acts chapter four, I think you've been with
that guy, Jesus. The world's gonna hate you. The
world won't know you. But to show the love of Christ
to one another begins with loving his truth and standing together
against the world, standing with and helping one another. And
it may be something as simple as giving a thirsty brother or
sister a cold drink of water, clothing them, taking care of
them, but it mainly has to do with standing together in the
fellowship of the truth, the light, the fellowship of righteousness,
the fellowship of love against the world. The world will hate us, it won't
admire us. The world hates the light of
truth when it exposes their false hopes. Let me close by reading
a portion from 1 John 4 and verse 7. It says, beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. This kind of love, it's of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God. You don't have this love
before you're born again. and knoweth God, know him through
Christ. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Who is my brother, my sister? You who believe in Christ. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him. We'll live
forever. And herein is love, not that
we love God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice that
brought satisfaction for our sins. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of God in Christ? And who shall separate us from
each other? Absolutely no one. Absolutely
nothing. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts.