#17 Thicker Than Blood Series

#17 Thicker than Blood

Series: Mark

May 17, 2020

Chuck Sligh

NOTE: PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 3:31.

INTRODUCTION

I’ve heard of some funny things that have happened at weddings.

Illus. – Thom Rainer tells of Fifteen Crazy Things that Happened at Weddings. – I won’t read them all, but let me share a sampling with you…

• One time, the bride fainted during the wedding. Four times!

• Another time an uncle was supposed to read 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love; instead perfect love drives out fear.” But instead of FIRST John 4:18, he read John 4:18 which says, “For you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”

• In another wedding the soloist was singing when a fly flew into her mouth, stopping the solo cold and causing the congregation to erupt in uncontrollable laughter.

• At an outdoor wedding on a farm, the bride and groom were joined in the front by a goat as the vows began.

• Most of these were caused by circumstances beyond their control. One wedding went wrong when the groom’s ex-wife stood in the back of the sanctuary yelling “not” as the pastor read each phrase of 1 Corinthians 13.

Despite all the things that can go wrong in a wedding—and there’s hardly a one that happens without some kind of hitch or blooper—there’s a reason why weddings are such happy affairs: They celebrate the creation of a new family.

Family is important.

• It’s the first institution God created.

• It’s the most important unit of society.

• It’s the formative hotbed, for good or for ill, for all of us.

There’s something about families. Our families can be the source of our greatest joys and deepest heartaches. There’s more emotion attached to our families than any other unit in society. Just watch TV: Almost every show has one or more characters who have unresolved daddy or mommy issues, or marital woes or multiple divorces. This is because family resonates so deeply in the souls of all of us.

So yes, family is important, but today we’ll see that Jesus teaches that there is a relationship deeper than physical family ties and there are more important responsibilities than our duties to our families.

Let’s look at Jesus’ family in Mark 3:31-35:

I. NOTICE FIRST OF ALL IN VERSES 31-32 THAT SOMETIMES FAMILY MEMBERS AND OUR CULTURE TRY TO PULL US AWAY FROM GOD’S WILL AND PLAN.

Verse 31 says, “Then his mother and his brothers came, and, standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.”

Now to understand my point, you have to look at verse 31 in its full context. Verses 20-35 have what several of my commentaries refer to as a “sandwich structure” which is found here and in five other places in Mark. This sandwich structure is where Mark begins a story (the bottom slice of bread), then switches to another story (the middle of the sandwich), and then finishes the original story at the end (the top slice of bread).

So last time we were in Mark we saw in verse 20 that Jesus’ family thought He was insane and set out to take him by force back to His family and village. We saw that they were motivated by love, but they were acting against the plan and will of God because they did not understand His mission and purpose, and most of all, they did not understand that He was God.

Then comes the middle of the sandwich when Mark interrupts the story of Jesus’ family with the story in verses 21-30 of the scribes ascribing to Satan Jesus’ works and Jesus’ response to them, pointing out that their logic was absurd, and that they were in danger of committing the unforgivable sin.

Now in verses 31-35 Mark returns to the original story he introduced in verse 20—the top slice of bread. His family has come to take him home by force to save His life, but when they get there, the crowd is so large and impenetrable that they could not get to Him through the dense crowd. And binding Him and hauling Him off was dangerous in the midst of such a large and intimidating crowd following such a popular leader. So from the outside they called for Jesus on the inside and most commentators surmise that the word spread from person to person until it got to the inner circle of people Jesus was teaching and interacting with.

Family is important, but sometimes families work against God’s purposes. Jesus had a mission and He was following God’s plan. It was inevitable that it would lead to conflict with the authorities and eventually to His execution. From the time He was a child, He set out to do the will of God the Father and His death at the hands of the authorities was part of that plan.