Mark 3, verse 31. There came then his brethren
and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling
him. And the multitude sat about him,
and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without
seek for thee. And he answered them, saying,
Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on
them which sat about him, and said, Behold, my mother and my
brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same is my brother and my sister and mother. Now, everything that happened
in our Lord's life, every word He spoke, of course, but not
only that, every circumstance was intricately orchestrated
by Him. And when our Lord's earthly family
here, His earthly mother, And his brothers
came and for whatever reason they interrupted him while he
was teaching. That's what they thought they
were doing anyway. He continued to teach. Even in that interruption. And he taught everyone there.
This lesson that I pray that we will learn today. And a few
a few things will look at. But he taught them what true
family is. And he taught them what's important. They intended this as an interruption,
but he made it part of the message. He orchestrated this to teach
us, so let's by his grace see a few clear, simple, and important
lessons in this brief passage of scripture. Number one, And
these are undeniably taught right here so clearly, so plainly. Like I said to you recently,
we're not trying to learn higher and more lofty concept. We just need to learn the simple
things that we already know. If we just knew what we know,
we'd be doing real good. And number one here, there's
nothing more important in this world than the preaching, and
hearing of the gospel. You see that here? Period. There's nothing more important
in this world. And I'm not just talking about
your church attendance and having a star by your name. I'm talking
about this world. What in this world is important?
What should everything else in our life revolve around? Our
Lord is sitting in a house. We believe it's Peter's house.
He had been there in chapter one, and he came back to the
same place, and it looks like they were meeting together in
the apostle Peter's house, in Andrew's house. He's sitting
there teaching, and we see some of his teachings in the context
before this. And a messenger in the text,
it says, and there's other records of this, it sounds like everybody
said it in this text, but that's clearly not what happened. And
we're reading it wrong. We just look at the surface of
it like that. But he's saying that here, this messenger, he
said, your family's out here and they want to talk to you.
Your mother and your brothers are out here and they want to,
they've got something to say. They need you to stop what you're
doing and come talk to them. And the Lord said, my family's
in here. What are you talking about my family? I'm already
with my family. And we don't know why Mary and
these brothers were not in that house when the Son of God was
speaking. That would have been the place
to be. And they knew who he was. But we know what our Lord said,
and we know what the scriptures teach. In Luke 9, 59, he said
unto another, follow me. The Lord said, follow me. But
he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. And
Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go
thou and preach the kingdom of God. Now what did we just say? There's nothing more important
than the preaching and the hearing of the gospel. Not your most important earthly
business now. And that's what our Lord is illustrating
here. He's given this to this one instance
here of I have to go bury my father. I've got funeral details
to attend to. The one thing that nobody's going
to miss is the funeral of their father or their mother in this
world. But the Lord said, you're fixing to miss it. You're fixing
to miss it because there's something more important than that. And
what he's probably saying here is, let me go spend the last
days that my father has. Father probably wasn't dead yet.
He's saying, let me, I need to be with my father right now until
he dies. And then when I bury him, then I can serve you. The
Lord said, no, no. Let me exhort you again. Now
there's nothing more important. Just a few hours out of all the
hours of our lives spent on this earth. Just a few will be spent
worshiping our Lord and learning of Him, fellowshipping with His
people, enjoying the comfort and edification of the gospel.
Now, why don't we spend way more time than we do worshiping Him?
Because we're so limited. Our attention spans are so short.
We're so foolish, aren't we? Why don't we spend 40 hours a
week worshiping Him? And what do we spend a week worshiping
Him now? Five? four, three, I don't even,
why don't we spend that much working and earning a living?
Well, because there's just not much to us. We can't take much. But our Lord understands that.
He knows that. But my goodness, how can we neglect
the little bit of time that we do, set aside by His instruction
and His grace to worship Him? Just a little bit. Answer me
a question in your heart now this morning, honestly. Does
anything change in the text that I just read? He said, let the
dead bury their dead. Let those who don't know me handle
the less important things and you handle what I gave you to
handle. Is that what he said? Physically dead people aren't
going to bury the dead. He's talking about spiritually
dead people. Let them handle that earthly stuff. We're talking
about the kingdom now. Does anything change if the man
makes any other excuse than what he made? Does it change? The only reason he made that
one is because our Lord orchestrated it in such a way that it would
be something everybody thinks of as really important. If he
would have said, I've got free tickets to a ball game and I'm
just going to go do that and then I'll come. Would that have
changed anything in what our Lord is teaching? It doesn't
matter what you say. You're saying it to the one who
said where just two or three are gathered in my name. I'll
be there in the midst of you. That's who you say it to. That's
what matters, who you say it to. Doesn't matter what you say.
Now think about this with me. Mary in Luke chapter 10, you
know this story. She didn't choose one of the
good parts. The Lord said she chose that good part. Out of
all the other parts and things and considerations in this world,
she chose that good one. That good part. In that passage,
it doesn't speak of one of the things that are needful. It speaks
of the one thing needful. And look at it with me. Let's
look at Luke chapter 10. I want us to see. And again,
we're just learning what we already know this morning. If we could
just learn what we know. Luke chapter 10. Verse 38, Now it came to pass,
as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had
a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard
His word. That's all we know about her.
That's the full account of Mary in this passage. She sat at his
feet and heard his word. She did what these ones in Peter's
house were doing when he was interrupted or they thought he
was interrupting him from doing it. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. And it would be real easy to
take Martha's side in this, wouldn't it? The Lord's at our house.
There's things we need to do. Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many
things. But one thing is needful. And
religion is careful and troubled about many things. If you don't
wear the right clothing, you're not doing it right. If you're
not going through the right rituals, you're not doing it right. What's
important? We've forgotten about what's
important, you guys. This world has anyway. Let's
not. It doesn't matter what you wear.
Of course, wear the best thing you can. We're worshiping the
Lord this morning. But if the best thing you can
have is a pair of blue jeans, what difference does that make?
Where are you sitting this morning? Are you sitting on the fifth
pew from the back? Or are you sitting at Jesus' feet, hearing
his word? Nothing else matters. There's
one thing needful. And we're worried about all the
trappings, the form. One thing is needful and Mary
hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken away from
her. What's she doing? She's just
sitting at His feet, hearing His Word. We need to understand
this now. We know two things about these
people that our Lord calls his family in our text this morning.
You think about this. We know two things about them.
Other than the fact he said, they're my family. Our Lord describes
them as those who are doing his will. We know that about them. He said, these are the ones that
are doing my will. And we know a second thing about
them. They're sitting there listening to him teach the gospel. You
think about that. I know I'm getting emphatic and
loud and all that. It's because I'm telling myself
I'm so stupid. I have to shout it myself. I
understand, secondly here, that the Lord is not being disrespectful
to His mother and His brother, His family. Though there's a
lesson here for His mother as well as everybody else. Our Lord,
when He was on the cross, when He was on the very cross, He
took care of His mother. He said to John, This is your
mother now. And he said to her, behold, I
saw John. He's going to take care of you.
He loved his mother. He honored his mother always.
What he's doing here is just teaching a very simple truth.
And this is number two. The truest sense of the word
family in this world is our spiritual family in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not saying anything negative about them. Our relationship
with our Lord Jesus Christ doesn't make our relationship with our
family anything more or less or different than it already
is. But imagine if my earthly family pulled up out here. This
is not inconceivable. Imagine that they drove up from
Texas, my earthly family. They pulled up outside this morning.
They sent somebody in here to say, we need to talk to you right
now. While I was up here preaching, what do you think I would say?
I'd turn that messenger right back around and I'd say, when
I get done here, I'd be glad to talk with you. This is not
rude or disrespectful. It just is what it is. There's
more important things. Well, wait a minute. You don't
even know what they're going to say. It might be something really
important. It doesn't matter what they say. It's not as important,
does it? There's one thing needful, and
what they're coming to tell me is not it. Now our blood family
relationships, as I said, they're not any more or less or different
than what they are because of our relationship with the Lord,
except that, as I said, when you know Him, as I've told you
before, even your dog is going to benefit from it now. That's
just the truth. We're to honor our Father and
our Mother and to love, we love our brothers and sisters in this
world, of course, just because they're our brothers and sisters.
I may not have any other reason. I may not have any other reason
to love them except just the fact that they're my sibling.
That's reason enough. I love them. But the spiritual
family is just simply more important than that. You're not going to
read this passage of scripture without learning that. At least
in your head. This is the most important business
right here on earth that we do as a family. One thing is needful
and it doesn't matter what they've come to tell me. There's nothing
that comes close. All earthly relationships are
going to end as we know them. We know that from the scripture,
don't we? I think that's worth thinking about here. And it's
important to understand this rightly. A spiritual family,
though, is an eternal family. Even that closest of all earthly
relationships, that of marriage, the only relationship that's
earthly in which the Lord said you're one. You're not two anymore,
you're one. Even that now, it's so close
a bond that our Lord said the twain shall be one flesh. When
we leave this earth, that will be no longer in that sense true. In Matthew 22, the Sadducees
tried to mock our Lord concerning the truth of the resurrection,
and they concocted that story where that woman was married
to seven different men in this life. And they asked Him, Matthew
22, 28, Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the
seven? For they all had her as a wife. And Jesus answered and
said unto them, You do err, not knowing the Scriptures. And if
we don't know the Scriptures, we're going to err too. And you
don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God.
And that's important there too now. For in the resurrection,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
of God in heaven. Well, wait a minute, that's sad.
You know, I'm not going to be married to my wife anymore. It's
not sad. It's going to be better than
that. I guarantee you there won't be nothing sad about it. It may
seem sad until we realize why. It's not because marriage is
a bad thing. God instituted marriage. The marriage of one man and one
woman. And this pictures Christ and
His relationship to His church and it honors Him. But when we
are all with Christ and we're all married to Him in glory,
the picture will be gone and the reality of it will be experienced
and enjoyed. And it doesn't dissolve my relationship
with my wife. I'll still know who she is. It'll
just be better. Whatever our relationship now
is, I guarantee you when we're one with Him and worshiping Him
together, it'll be more than it is now. I don't know exactly
what it'll be. But we won't have any regrets,
whatever it is. I promise you that. Our bond
in Christ is so much greater right now on this earth than
any other bond we have. And when that bond is perfected,
it just makes all others obsolete. Don't think of it as not being
married anymore. Think of it as being a whole
lot more than that, because it is a whole lot more than that. And even now, though we're husband
and wife in every beautiful way that a man and woman can be and
should be husband and wife, we're more than that even now. We're
brother and sister in Christ. That's more than husband and
wife. It supersedes it. We're one in Him. And our Lord
is teaching us this here. That's what's important. Whatever
our earthly relationship is, husband, wife, brother, sister,
father, mother, daughter, or son, though these be precious,
and dear relationships, and they are. The spiritual is more important,
it's more enduring, and it's more to be desired than any other.
Earthly bonds may be dissolved by the spiritual aspect of things,
even here on this earth. We see this in the Word of God,
too. And this is tragic and sad, but it's undeniable. The Lord
said, don't think I'm come to send peace on the earth. I came
not to send peace, but a sword for I've come to set a man at
variance against his father and the daughter against her mother
and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. And we've all experienced
some of that. Most of us. And that is sad. Let me say this, happy and blessed
of God is the person whose earthly family member is also his spiritual
family member. Now that's a blessing. That's
a blessing we ought not to take for granted, but ought to thank
him for now. Is there any greater earthly blessing than a husband
or wife who is also your brother or sister? People don't understand the language
in Song of Solomon where the Lord speaks of my bride, my sister,
my spouse, all in the same. We understand that, don't we? I can say that about my wife,
my sister, my spouse. And thank God for that. John
spoke of his children walking in truth in 3 John 1. Let me read, or you can turn
there with me. 3 John chapter 1, listen to this. Verse 1, The
elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, behold,
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the
brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even
as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy, no greater
joy. Can you say that? My goodness,
can you think of anything better than to hear that my children
walk in the truth of God? What a blessing. I'm pretty sure
this wasn't even an earthly son of John's, but he counted him
his son. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1.1, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior
and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope unto Timothy, my
own son in the faith, Grace, mercy, and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, my son in the faith. My son in
the faith. Oh my. Before my family and I
left Texas and moved here, my pastor Jack Shanks preached from
that passage of scripture right there. And he said during that
message that I was his son in the faith. And it was the truth.
My earthly father was also my brother. And I thank God for
that. But Jack was also my father in
the truest sense of the word. It don't get any truer than that.
And so we see that, we learn that lesson here too, don't we?
There's nothing more blessed and wonderful if our Lord counted
those who did his will What do you mean, Lord? They're sitting
here in my word. They're sitting in here hearing me preach. They're my family. Oh, man, where
are we if we don't consider that to be true this morning? I tell you this, if we're somehow
alienated and on the edges, you know, and somehow just didn't
something ain't right about this, it better get right. You know
what I'm talking about. We're in a bad place if we can't
count God's family as our family in every sense of the word. Love
and respect and honor and cherish and thank God for and do things
with and enjoy being with, enjoy talking to. And everything that
a family is, love one another. If that's just not honestly the
truth about us, then something's dead wrong. And let's learn this
thing, this final and most wonderful, I guess, of all of the things
that we learn here. Our Lord, our Master, the Lord
of Glory, the Son of God, the one Isaiah called the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He calls
us His family. his family. Turn to Hebrews chapter
two. I want us to see the context. You know the verse I'm turning
to, but I want us to see the context of this and all that's
included in this. All that had to happen in order
for this to be true, that he would call us his family. Thou
madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him
with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy
hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet,
for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that
is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but we see him. We see Jesus, who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. We
see God's Son suffering for our sins. crowned with glory and
honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every
man. Now listen carefully to this context. Now this is the
one who calls us his family. And that's right here in the
context. But look at all of it. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things. That's the one who said
these are my family. This is my mother. This is my
brother. This is my sister. The one by whom are all things. and for whom are all things.
In bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed." Because of all of that, He came down here to
do that. This was God's purpose from the
beginning. The reason He exalted Him. The reason He sent Him.
The reason he made him a little lower than the angels, for which
cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. And the context doesn't end there.
Saying, I declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst. Who are your brethren, Lord?
In the midst of the church. I'll sing praise unto thee. Who
is the church now? You got your name on the church
roll somewhere? That's irrelevant. That means absolutely nothing.
It's a piece of paper with some ink on it. The Lord called those
that were sitting there listening to him to that day. This is my
church. You know who's a member of this
church? Right here. The ones that are
here. That's how you become a member
of this church. You come and sit and hear his word. We don't need to write your name
down anywhere. I know who you are. Isn't that what he said there
in our text? Who's your family, Lord? These ones right here.
Today. Right now. These were right here. And we'll
say the same thing next week. The week after that. I will sing
praise unto thee and again I will put my trust in him and again
behold I and the children which God hath given me For as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death, did you hear
that? Because we are his, he became
what we are. That's why he did it. Because
he loved us, because he owned us, because we're his. And since
we our flesh and blood, He became what we are, except without sin. That He might destroy, that through
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil, and deliver them. That's why He did it, to deliver
them who He calls His brethren, who were through fear of death
all their lifetime, subject to bondage, for verily He took not
on Him the nature of angels, He didn't call the angels his
brothers and sisters and mother, but Abraham, a sinner. And you and I were his. Wherefore
all things it behooved him. You think about how this is worded
now. It doesn't say, and I know, and I'm not saying that these
things aren't true. It doesn't say it behooved him
to come and shed his precious blood. Here, although that did,
no question about it, but look at the way he worded this. It
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
shed his precious blood. Isn't that a beautiful way to
say that? The way God said that? It behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be our
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
What for? To make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. How do you do that? He shed His
precious blood. For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted, He's able to secure them that are tempted. All through that passage, you
see how integral our family relationship to Him and what He did for us.
That's why He did it, because of who we are to Him. In this
family relationship, he's our brother, our sister. We're his
brothers and sisters and mother and father. It causes us to consider
the other ways our Lord identifies with us. That's one picture. We're called his church, which
means assembly. We're his assembly. That's what
he was saying that morning there too. These are the ones that
do my will, the ones who are assembled here to get today,
this church. And as such, as his church, we
have his promise to be in our midst. We're his worshipers. What a privilege. We're told
that God purchased his church with his own blood. We're his
sheep. That emphasizes his care of us. David concluded that since the
Lord was his shepherd, that he would never want for anything.
There's a great comfort in that consideration of that relationship
to our Lord. He said, fear not little flock,
for it is your father's good pleasure to give you his kingdom. We're his body, it says in Romans
12, five. So we being many are one body
in Christ and every one members of another. This reminds us also
of our relationship to one another. In our text, There is that word,
whoever. Did you see it? Whosoever. Do
it the will of my father. Every individual. But as the
church were many whosoever's. Anyone who is my Lord's brother
or sister is my brother or sister. And like him, if I have to choose
between them and somebody else. And I usually don't. But if I
do. You know who I'm gonna choose? Let me just put it this way.
If you're not my brother or sister in Christ, then don't make me
choose. We're his bride. Revelation 21, 9. There came
unto me one of the seven angels, which had seven vows, full of
the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither,
and I'll show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city,
the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having
the glory of God. And her light was like unto a
stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear as crystal. She was beautiful with his comeliness. The Lord picked out a beautiful
bride. No, he didn't. He picked out the ugliest, most
repulsive, and most obnoxious bride imaginable. and made her
beautiful through his comeliness. Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. What does this marriage
relationship emphasize? Well, for one thing, we're chosen
by him in love. Isn't that what marriage is?
Somebody chose somebody because they loved him. When I met Vicky, she didn't
come up to me and say, I'm ready to be your wife now. That probably
would have turned me off. It doesn't work like that. And
yet the religion of our generation has it that way. But Vicky and
I don't get married until I say, I choose you. You are my choice. I love you
and I want you to be mine. And of course, in earthly things,
she has to say yes too. Well, that's true in spiritual
things too, but I guarantee you this, in spiritual things, if
the Lord Jesus Christ ever does come to you and say, I chose
you, I love you, you fix him to say yes. My people shall be
willing in the day of my power. And that's just, that's just
the truth now. And the reason I knew that she, how do you know,
you know, maybe some of you young people are thinking, how do you
know who's the right one? How do you know? Maybe you got
so many to choose from you're not sure which one's right. I'll
tell you how I knew. She was getting on a plane one
day to leave me where I was. And I watched her walking away
and I said, I don't ever want to see that again. I can't live
without her. It was just the truth. And that's
what our Lord's talking about. We're his bride. And I know it's condescending
language, but our Lord can't live without us. You just can't
read this book and conclude anything else. He's going to have us. He had
to have me. He would not let me go. It cost
Him everything. And He wouldn't let me go. He
said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold of them
also I must bring them. I must bring them. I'm not going
to leave them out there where they are. He said, Father, I will that
those whom you have given me be with me where I am. Now there's
comfort and warning in our text. His family is precious to him.
He loves them eternally and infinitely and immutably. And you remember
in Matthew 25, 31 through 46, we won't take the time to turn
over there, but he counts anything done or said to the least of
his brethren. And what are we talking about?
He said, these are my brethren. He said, if you've done it to
them, you've done it to me now. And with one final thought here,
let's look at Mark chapter 10. Let's compare our text with Mark
chapter 10, verse 28. Then Peter began to say unto
him, lo, we have left all and followed thee. You think about
the context now in which Peter's saying this. The Lord had just
told that rich young ruler to leave everything and come follow
me. And he said, I can't do it. And the Lord said, well, it's
impossible with men to do that. But with God, all things are
possible. And Peter said, well, we've done it. We've left everything
and followed you. Exactly, Peter. You did the impossible. Because with God, all things
are possible. And he said, We've left all that have followed thee.
And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there
is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father
or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the Gospels. But he shall receive an hundredfold
now in this time. In case you don't understand
what he's talking about. Maybe you think about he's talking
about heaven someday. He's talking about right now. Now in this
time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children
and lands with persecutions and in the world to come, eternal
life. It's going to be wonderful now
and it's just fixing to get better, a lot better. The world has a
saying, life stinks and then you die. Our saying is just the
opposite. Life in Christ is glory and it's
just going to get more glorious. A hundred fold. Have you experienced
that? Have you experienced that? How many brothers and sisters
do you have? How many mothers and fathers do you have? How many houses? How much land? I'd rather be a member of the
Lord's family, the most despised and insignificant member of his
family, than the firstborn son in the
greatest family in this world. Wouldn't you? Thank God. He has every reason
to be ashamed to call us his brethren, but he's not. He's
not.