God’s Forever Family
Mark 3:31-35
31 Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.
32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”
33 Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:31-35)
We are often misunderstood in this life. Often as believers seeking to serve God, we are misunderstood. Sometimes we are even opposed by well-intentioned people. Now, when those people are member of our family, it makes it increasingly difficult.
Such was the case with Jesus. His ministry had stirred up the ire of the religious establishment. Radical things were being done, like healing the sick and casting out demons. Traditions of the elders were being openly flouted and Jesus was encountering serious opposition.
He had come back to the house in Capernaum which offered him hospitality. Concerned for His welfare and not understanding His ministry, His mother, brothers and sister had come to take Him home. They thought He was crazy. They didn’t understand In effect, they had come to the point of opposing His ministry. Think of it: Jesus’ own family standing against Him.
Now, we must remember that the average Jew respected the religious establishment which the scribes and Pharisees represented. And no doubt, Jesus’ family did as well. So they were naturally concerned about His behavior, and they were coming to try to bring Him back home.
No doubt, this was motivated by their love for Him. And this must have been difficult for Jesus. He could deal with the impure motives of the scribes. But here, His own family, in essence, was opposing Him out of their misguided love for Him. How would Jesus handle this?
Well, He handled it with sensitivity. And in doing so, taught us a valuable truth concerning the fellowship of believers called the Church.
Following Jesus is no guarantee that those who love you will understand. Sometimes, our own families can stand against us when we make a full-on commitment to follow Jesus. This is especially true when we begin to follow through on that commitment by our actions. It happened to Jesus; and it happens to us as well.
Our text today has several important lessons for us. We see in this passage of Scripture a new reality being presented to us. While our natural families may oppose us, there is a larger, spiritual family to which we belong, We see the Lord Jesus introducing to His disciples the concept of the family of God.
There is an undeniable truth that every believer is a part of God’s forever family. It is a concept which the Church needs to think through. There are implications in this principle which have potential to impact radically the way we live and relate in the Church of Jesus Christ.
As we hold this portion of God’s Holy Word before us, let us consider two important ideas upon which the light of God’s truth may shine. Firstly, the Church as family; and secondly, the family as Church.
The Church As Family
33 Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” (v.33b)
I’m sure when Jesus spoke these words, He had everyone’s attention. They knew His mother and brothers and sister were outside on the edge of the crowd. They knew His family had come for Him. They also knew Jesus did not act in ways they could easily predict. He had said radical things before. What would He say now? I’m sure as these words came forth from Jesus’ lips, the murmuring of the crowd hushed and every ear was attentive to what He would say next.
34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
35 “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (v. 34-35)
Jesus looked around Him at these disciples who were following Him. They were a motley crew. There was Levi, or Matthew, a former tax collector for Rome. There was Simon the Zealot who belonged to a political religious party dedicated to the overthrow of Rome. There were fishermen who educationally stood in marked contrast to the doctors of the law. But this diverse group had one thing in common. They had left their former way of life to follow Jesus.
So Jesus looks on them and say, "Behold, My mother and my brothers." He is saying, "This is My family." They are seeking to do God’s will. "For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother." Jesus says that those who follow Him are His brothers and sister and mother.
What is the illustration Jesus uses here? It is the illustration of family relationships. Those who follow the Lord are part of the family of God. We are His family.
Often when we are joined to a fellowship of believers we found that many people called each other "brother" or “sister” Sometimes people that we have never met. It gave me a sense of belonging, being a part of a family.
Sometimes we forget about our relationship to one another in the family of God, but we are brothers and sisters. We are family. We are kin. We are part of the spiritual family of God – God’s forever family.
This was new to His disciples. They had not heard of such a thing. When Jesus looked around that room and said what He did, they were amazed. This was a new concept in their thinking. But it is a concept which should be emphasized more these days. You see, the Church has lost some of its awareness of this fantastic truth.
Jesus calls up the imagery of the loyalty, caring and commitment of the family to describe the relationship we should have toward one another in the body of Christ. This is something that the church in America needs to be reminded of. The church as family tends to be lost in the hustle and bustle of busy lives.
The Church as family has always been God’s intention. From the beginning. God intended that His people should be a family. Since Creation, when He began with Adam and Eve and joined them into a family, He intended that we should enjoy that relationship as His people. God desires that we be joined together in a deep and abiding covenant commitment with one another where we can belong and grow and be changed.
But man rebelled against God. And now, he is not only estranged from God, but from others as well. The effect of the fall has been to make us keenly self-conscious. We have become aware of our own imperfections and ashamed. We wear our own fig leaves to shield us from the eyes of God and man. We have become very concerned with self-preservation and self-gratification. We have become selfish people.
Jesus came to change all that. Because of His finished work on the Cross of Calvary, we can now enter into a relationship with God and with one another. The death of Christ can release us from that selfish nature which causes us to stand alone. We have been granted the rights of full members of His family.
But, there must be the surrender of the will to Him. Remember Jesus said that those who do the will of God are His family. So, we must surrender to Him first. There can be no Christian growth without the surrender of the will of Jesus.
The family of God is the fellowship of those who are open to the will of God, and therefore, open to one another in Christ. You see, if we are not open to doing the will of God, we will be closed to one another. Jesus said, "This is My commandment, that ye love one another." Loving your brother means obeying God.
God is at work in us to produce the nature of His family in us corporately. We need it and the world needs to see it in us. Jesus said, "By this shall men know that you are My disciples, that you love one another."
John 17:20-24 might be called "The Charter of the Church."
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. One perceptive preacher said, "Jesus was crucified so that our individualistic and separatistic aloofness might die and be crucified and be resurrected to unity and oneness." In this passage we have just read, we see that truth made plain. The Church is to be more than a spiritual supermarket where we come to fill up on those things which we think we need after a long, hard week.
Lloyd John Ogilvie, in his book, Life Without Limits, says something very pertinent.
"The Church is not a channel of inspiration for uninvolved observers, but a communion of involved participants. Our language betrays us. We say we go to church, give to the church, support the cause of the church, attend the church. Not so! We are the Church. But a strange thing has happened over the years of history. The Church is now a programmatical presentation which can be attended. Today, we have become sermon-taster, music appreciators, Bible students, devotees of spiritual leaders, without commitment to a family. It’s possible, actually, to assume that we can have Christ without the family of faith, but that’s realizing only half of the reason for which Christ came."
You see, the Church is not a spiritual supermarket. That is basically a selfish approach to the Church. It makes the Church something which exists only for us, to meet our needs; rather than a place where we can participate in meeting the needs of others. The Church should be a fellowship of people, loving and caring for one another, bound together in a common relationship to Christ. And our attitude toward the Church should be one where we not only receive, but give.
Commitment to Christ must be spelled out in our commitment to a local church. The age-old heresy called "docetism" said that Jesus reconciled the world without ever living in the flesh. Many Christians try to live for Jesus without ever "fleshing" it out in relationships with one another in the local church. It is much the same error. God has called us to be accountable to and participate in a local church. This is our spiritual family.
Christ said that His real family was not just His natural family, but His spiritual family. He was not down-grading, or reducing the importance of His natural family ties. He was up-grading the significance of his spiritual family. He was showing us the importance He placed on the spiritual family. Here, we can find a sense of belonging which we need. It comes as we make the commitment to be active participants in the life of the family.
The Family As Church
By using the illustration of family life to typify the Church, Jesus also set the tone for our relationships with our own natural families.
Our families should be like the Church. The family is to be the Church in miniature. You see, from the experience of the Church as a family of believers in Christ, we see how we ought to relate to each other in our own homes.
Our families ought to be reflective of the love of God as we love Him together. As we draw close to Him as individuals, He draws us closer to one another. As His love liberates us to be who we can be, so we should liberate one another. All that we are required to do toward one another in the body of Christ, the Church, we are required to do in our own homes as well. This is a vitally important truth.
Only as we see our spouse and children as brother or sister in Christ, can we succeed in our homes. It is as we relate to one another as the family of God, that we are more able to appropriately honor and respect one another. Only as we do that will we liberate each other to be who God wants us to be.
"Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love," goes the song. But sometimes there is a lesser love which binds us with other ties – ties of guilt, compulsion, and obligation. In many marriages and homes, we treat one another with a smothering kind of love which seeks to tighten the grip on one another, lest we lose control of the situation. This is the kind of binding which causes severe problems in our relationships.
Around high school age, many of us notice a strange phenomenon. We see guys and girls attracted to people who act like they don’t care at all about them. They treat them like dirt, and yet, the one being treated like dirt sticks to them like glue. And we wonder why there is any attraction at all to that kind of person. On the other hand, we see a relationship where the one clinging seems to drive the other one away. It is as it they are being smothered by love. They feel they must get out, and they generally do. It is a fact of human nature that when we liberate one another, we end up with a closer relationship.
We are to liberate one another to seek the lord and be close to Him. Perhaps we should sing the little chorus, "Blest be the tie that unbinds our hearts in Christian love."
We must recover the truth of the family of God in the Church. And we must live by that rule in the home. In all our dealings with one another, we must esteem one another as brother and sister. And as we do, we will esteem one another as better than ourselves.
We must seek to give honor to one another, liberating one another, to be all we can be in Christ. And above all, we must realize that only as we draw near to Him can we ever draw near to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Whether they be in the assembly or in our homes as husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, or natural brother or sister.
The unequalled bond. Enemies react to Jesus’ all-consuming passion for His ministry of servanthood by aligning Him with the devil. Friends send out an urgent call for His family. Perhaps they can calm Him down and get Him to eat. When the family arrives, they stand on the edge of the crowd and call for Him. Probably one of the disciples intercepts their message and conveys it to Jesus, saying, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You” (v. 32). As a son, husband, father, and grandfather who finds his greatest joy in his family, I struggle with Jesus’ answer, “Who is My mother or My brothers?” (v. 33). At first, His words seem to be unloving and unloyal. Does Jesus have to deny His family in order to love the whole world? Of course not. His answer is appropriate to the situation. Enemies with malicious intent have already accused Him of a Satanic alliance in order to destroy His ministry; now, friends with good intent are using His family to divert Him from His ministry. Strange as it seems, the result will be the same—an end to His ministry of servanthood. In the cooing of the dove, Jesus hears the roar of the lion.
Christians must be “pro-family,” not by making its structure sacred, but by assuring the sacredness of its personal bonds. In our century, the structure has already changed radically. The “extended family” of father, mother, children, grandparents, and other relatives who lived together and worked the farm or family business has all but disappeared. In its place came the “nuclear family” with father, mother, and children living at home, but being employed, schooled, socialized, and entertained elsewhere. Grandmother and grandfather live alone in their own home or in a retirement center and often at a distance. The “typical” family in the last quarter of the twentieth century is radically different from the “typical” family in the first quarter of the century. Today, with social change accelerating at the speed of a downhill racer, we can only anticipate equally radical alterations in the structure of the family and equally radical pressures on our sense of the sacredness of the family. In the church, for instance, we may be headed toward the “communal family,” a spiritual form of the extended family that includes the nuclear family in a love bond with adopted grandmothers and grandfathers, single parents, unmarried and widowed people, and cousins by the dozens. The “family of God,” as defined by church relationships, may be the Christian’s challenge for the future to counter the threat of secular values. If so, Jesus advances the idea long before its time. When He raises the question, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” He is not denying His human family, but affirming the family of God.
Jesus does not leave His question hanging in the air. He goes on to teach two principles for the family of God. Stretching out His arms and sweeping them over the crowd, he says, “Here are My mother and My brothers!” (v. 34). As the Son of Man and Son of God, He identifies His family with all whom He is called to serve. Have you ever heard people who minister to a wide range of people refer to them as “my family?” As a college president who has served thousands of students over more than twenty years, I meet members of “my family” all over the world. While driving through Monte Carlo after the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, for instance, I stopped at a red light on a busy corner. A missionary alumnus with TransWorld Radio who was standing on the opposite corner caught a glimpse of me just as I drove on. Startled with disbelief at the thought of seeing me thousands of miles from home, she called hotel after hotel until she found my name registered at the Holiday Inn. A telephone call, a squeal of delight, an animated conversation, a luncheon engagement—we had an unforgettable “family” reunion on a veranda overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Isn’t Jesus saying the same thing? A ministry of servanthood produces offspring for the “family of God” far beyond the number of our blood relatives.
A second principle for the “family of God” which Jesus sets forth is, “whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (v. 35). Blood relatives are very close, but spiritual relatives can be even closer. Christians who go back to family reunions often find themselves growing farther and farther apart from relatives whose name they share, but with whom they have little in common. Small talk soon evaporates and memories take over. Although memories are precious, the bond they create is limited in depth and range.
The “family of God” has so much more to offer. A network of relationships created by common obedience to the will of God, melted together by love at each intersection, and motivated to a ministry of service, is Jesus’ idea of His family. Is this not also the “typical” Christian family upon which the future will be built?
Jesus has established His relationships as the hero of the masses, leader of the disciples, enemy of Satan, and member of the family of God. Each identity adds credence to Mark’s argument that He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The masses acclaim Him, the disciples follow Him, Satan abhors Him, and all who obey Him become His sisters and brothers. Mark is ready to introduce us to the teaching of Jesus.
