Sermons
How many here have close family members that don't know Jesus or are currently prodigals – they have stopped following the Lord and gone their own way?
Super hard – hope deferred makes the heart sick Prov 13:12
Today in Mark we are going to see the struggles with Jesus' own family – his mother and brothers who at this stage of Jesus ministry are not getting it!
Read Mark 3:20-21; 31-35
Look at Mary's faith journey; his brothers and sisters and Jesus and what we can do about our own family members.
Mary
Roman Catholics don't like the plain meaning of these passages – they teach that Mary stayed a virgin, Jesus had no siblings and Mary was perfect and immaculately conceived herself – the last one is daft. Was her granny immaculately conceived…
Plain meaning of Scripture is
1) Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived. Important because it means He can be 100% God and 100% Man without the sinful nature. That means that his death as a substitute can cover everyone.
2) Jesus had brothers and sisters – they are even named James, Joses, Jude, Simon (Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:28)
Matthew and Luke go into the beautiful detail of Mary's carrying of Jesus. Ther are angelic encounters, Holy Spirit activity and she writes a beautiful song about what the Lord has done. She treasured what God had done in her heart.
She is some teenager! A simple Hebrew girl favoured by God for bringing Jesus into the world.
In John 2 – Mary took Jesus to a wedding, where they ran out of wine. She knows who He is and what He can do so asked him to perform His first public miracle.
At the cross Jesus tenderly asks John to look after Mary.
Somewhere in the middle of all this Mary probably influenced by other sons thinks Jesus is out of his mind. We will get to that in a while.
There's 30 years since her amazing encounters with the Lord – an on this day that had slipped from her mind. Kind of tells us that we need fresh revelations of who Jesus is and fresh stories of what he is doing in our lives.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Jesus's love – the height, the width, the length and breadth of it. I need that often and so do you. So perhaps did Mary.
Siblings
Jesus must have been tough to live with. The older brother who is perfect and never does anything wrong. Who was so smart he could debate with the Rabbis at the age of 12.
And when swapping family stories it would have been hard to match a star appearing at your brother's birth!
In John 7:5 we are told they don't yet believe.
I can well believe that once Joseph had most likely died (he's never mentioned) the brothers are looking after mum and seeing their older brother suddenly get so active he forgets to eat and they think he is mad. They too will need revelation of who Jesus is and what he came to do.
Jesus
He's the perfect son of God – 100% human and 100% God in one person. Growing up with brothers who haven't come to faith. Somehow he models perfect prayerful witness for 30 so years.
How much more do we need that model! And know if you are struggling with prodigal children like us, or family members that have never came to faith, an unsaved husband, an unsaved wife, an unsaved partner. JESUS sympathises, no empathises with our every struggle and every weakness. He has been there!
Scene of Mark 3
Jesus is 30 – the age people were considered mature and Rabbis could start.
He suddenly become super busy – preaching and teaching and healing the sick. The crowds are pressing in all the time, so much so that sometimes he doesn't have time to eat.
His family think he is out of his mind. They had got used top him being the carpenter, apprenticed by dad and now probably the main wage earner for the family.
They try to seize him from the situation.
Maybe the brothers are like Joseph's brother – not appreciate the call and the prominence and trying to pull him down a peg or two, but will eventually get it. Perhaps Josephs brother are an OT type of Jesus brothers
In the second part of the reading they are waiting outside and send for him – Jesus doesn't come and makes a statement about them and his spiritual family.
The way it is written the family are still trying to stop him somewhat.
Jesus' point is that family are important, but when they don't share your faith your spiritual family are important.
Eventually at the cross Mary is there, looking on as the prophecy too her is fulfilled. Jesus tenderly in the midst of his pain asks John to care for his mother. She is there too at the Acts 1 prayer meeting, but not mentioned again. She's clearly on fire for the Lord!
After the resurrection at least two of the brothers come to faith. In fact 1 Cor 15 tells us the resurrected Jesus appeared to James – who becomes an elder in the early church and eventually writes the book of James. Jude does to and writes Jude.
The ups and downs of Mary and Jesus siblings give us hope…
• The faith journey has ups and downs.
• Watch out living in the past – of something that happened 30years ago – a church you were in, or the Toronto blessing or what every.
• Keep seeking fresh revelation of Jesus.
• Have hope for yoru prodigals or unsaved family members.
As we think of the role our weak, stumbling witness plays in our family members' unbelief, let's remember Jesus—not even a perfect witness guarantees that loved ones will see and embrace the gospel. We must humble ourselves and repent when we sin. But let's remember that the god of this world and indwelling sin is what blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The story of Jesus' brothers can actually give us hope for our loved ones. At the time his brothers claimed that Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21), it must have appeared very unlikely that they would ever become his disciples. But eventually they did! And not only followers, but leaders and martyrs in the early church.
How do we pray and witness to family members.
Foundations
The Spirit is the one who draws people to Jesus John 6:44
Pray for workers Matt 9:38 – note the bible doesn't say God save the lost – it says pray for workers for the harvest!!!
People have free will – they choose – our prayers won't force it, but they do make a difference!
Live a godly lifestyle – 1 Tim 4:8 – it will pay off!
Don't nag or manipulate – several times I have heard people wanting to contrive scenario. Two temptation – ultra-spiritual (turn off) and overdoing witnessing
1 Peter 3: 1-6 – Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
I think of the story of a woman named Amelia, in England in the year 1849. Her 17-year-old son was spiritually wandering. He kinda walked away from his Christian faith. Maybe you know someone, maybe you have a child or a grandchild who's, who's going through that experience.
And so she was, as a mom, obviously quite concerned about the eternity of her son. And she had to go out of town on a long trip. And while she was on that trip, she felt a, a great compulsion to pray for her son. And I don't mean just throw a casual prayer up to heaven. I mean, she went off by herself and she prayed and she prayed and she prayed for hours and hours and hours for the soul of her son until she felt God in her soul, confirming he had heard the prayer, he was going to take action. And at the same moment that she was praying back there miles away at their home, her son was reading a book. And in that book it talked about how Jesus' death on the cross paid the price for all of the sin of humanity. And the words that jumped out of Him were words on the cross where He says, “It is finished. It is finished. The payment is made for the sins of the world.”
And so this young man said to him, “Well, okay, well if it is finished, then what's there left to do?” And he realized the one thing left to do was for him to receive this forgiveness of Christ, for him to personally receive Jesus as his forgiver and as his leader. He thought of John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” He had to receive. So he got on his knees and in a prayer of repentance and faith, he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And so a couple, uh, weeks later, his mother returns home and she opens the front door of the home to come in and he sees her and he runs over to her and he wants to tell her the good news. But she says to him, “Son, I already know. I already know.”
Well, that young man's name was James Hudson Taylor. And James Hudson Taylor turned out to be one of history's greatest missionaries. He spent 51 years in China. He learned the language; he learned the customs. He travelled all over China, founding schools, founding churches, bringing people to faith in Christ. One historian said this, “More than any other human being, he made the greatest contribution to the cause of world Mission in the 19th century. And people today in China and elsewhere are coming to faith because of the seeds planted through God in the life of Hudson Taylor.” And by the way, when Hudson Taylor was elderly and he could no longer get out of bed, he was bedridden, you know what he did? He had a, a map of China put on the wall next to his bed with pins stuck in it of the major population centres because he wanted to continue to pray specifically for those cities even though he was too ill to get up and do anything else.
So take heart! Don't give up praying for unbelieving family members. Don't take their resistance as the final word. They may yet believe, and be used significantly in the kingdom!
It may have taken 20-30 years of faithful, prayerful witness by the Son of God, but the miracle occurred: his brothers believed. May the Lord of glory grant the same grace to our beloved unbelievers.