if you take your Bible and join with me please in the gospel of Matthew and chapter 12 Matthew in chapter 12 last Sunday we were looking at the fellas fellow prisoners fellow soldiers fellow laborers it only seemed right that we give equal time to the ladies so that's why tonight we're looking at my sisters not just my sisters but our sisters how's that okay and Matthew chapter 13 and starting at verse 46 says while he yet talked to the people behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him then one said unto him behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee and he answered and said unto them that told him who is my mother and who are my brethren And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. And I pray and ask you to help us now tonight as we take some time and look into your word. Father, would you give me clarity of thought and speech? And to help us, please, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Sometimes, you know, as we think about the Savior, because He is the Savior, the sinless Son of God, it's kind of a bit of a challenge, isn't it, to think of Him in normal human relationships. Because he's, you know. And yet, Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. He came from a large family. And some of you know what that's like. I don't know what that's like. I had one sister, one brother, both older. So my sister was bossy and my brother was a bully. Okay, that's the perception of the youngest. I don't know if it's the same for all, but that doesn't mean I don't love my siblings. I do, I love them very much. But sometimes it's hard to think about Jesus having brothers and sisters and what that meant. Now, we would presume that, I mean, look at, just go over one chapter chapter 13 and verse 53 Jesus is teaching a bunch of parables verse 54 and when he was coming to his own country he taught them in their synagogue his own country so it's like he's come to his hometown okay everybody knows him he grew up there they knew him when he he was the baby when Mary and Joseph came back from Egypt And he grew up there, worked with his dad, learned to trade. But now he's not working in that trade. He taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and said, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? What happened to little Jesus? I mean, that's what they're saying. Man, is he grown up. Whoa, he sounds so smart. He seems so wise. What happened? And maybe they're partly shocked because their attitude was not very accepting, and we've seen that in other settings, but I want you to notice what they say. Look at verse 55. Is not this the carpenter's son? I mean, that's their perception. He's the son of Joseph. Now, we know he's the son of God. Amen? But Joseph did play the role of human father. And that'd be quite a role to play, wouldn't it, fellas? If your son was born and you knew ahead of time that your son was actually not your son, but he was the son of God, the promised Messiah, and now you have the responsibility as the father. That'd be pretty, it's daunting enough when a child is born and you look at that child's face and you're like, you know, there's, I don't think the ladies do that, but I don't know, I think fellas do that, like, well, what do we do with that? You know, whoa. It's quite an eye opener. But they say, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brother, James and Hosea and Simon and Judas? So at least four brothers. And his sisters. We don't know how many, at least two, because it's plural. Are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? As I was reading, one commentator has the idea that the sisters were the daughters of Joseph from a previous marriage. I don't know where they get that. I mean, lots of weird... I mean, I suppose it's probable he could have been married before and she passed away. That's not an unlikely thing to have happened. And maybe that's why he was looking for a wife, because he needed a mother for his daughters. I don't know. But I thought about that for just a second. I thought, oh, if that is so, the Lord knows what it's like to have a bossy older sister. How many of you ladies are the older sister? Okay, there you go. I imagine if we asked your siblings, they'd say, yep, that's what they are. How many of you are the baby of the family? Okay, would you agree with me? Yeah, see that? That's how it goes, okay? Older sisters are bossy, older brothers are bullies. It's just must be a universal kind of thing that has to happen, I don't know. A little bit of sibling rivalry kind of goes on there. All of that just to say, Jesus had a sister. Sisters. He had that relationship. I would presume that they were younger than him, but on the off chance that maybe that commentator had some kind of special insight, either way he had a sister. He knew what that was all about. The Bible actually has a lot to say about sisters, quite a bit. Let's think for just a moment about sisters in the scripture. I mean, here's one example Jesus had sisters and I think some of those sisters became believers I presume so his brothers did after the resurrection when they realized Jesus was who he claimed to be and Their eyes were opened But there's lots of other sisters in the Bible. Perhaps the most famous set of sisters is in Luke chapter 10 And you might know exactly who I'm talking about and that's Mary and Martha And in chapter Luke 10 38 it says now came to pass as they went then entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha Received him into her house is now. This is quite interesting because it's her house and It's her house. That's unusual because she has a brother. In that culture, the brother would become the patriarch. If the parents are gone, the brother assumes responsibility for the rest of the family and everything passes to him. But it's not his house. Lazarus, I mean, this is Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and they live in Bethany, but specifically, it's Martha's house. So I can't prove it, but I think what that means is she could be married, and we're not introduced to the husband, or she's a widow, in which case it didn't pass to her brother. Her husband's possessions were hers, and she managed them herself. But it's her house, and her sister seems to live with her at her house. verse 39 and she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word but Martha was cumbered about okay we know the story and she comes and complains and rightfully so okay now what this tells me if the universal sibling constant is true is Martha is the oldest sister and that stinking baby sister won't do nothing So she's got to boss her around. She won't obey, so she appeals to a higher authority, which in this case happens to be Jesus. And don't you care? Dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. So we learn some things about these particular ladies, but they're two sisters that live together. And they both love the Lord, and the Lord loves them. We find out in John 11, in the story, when Lazarus passes away, it specifically says that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. There's only a handful of people in the scriptures that it says specifically that Jesus loved them. I mean, he loves everybody, doesn't he? But there's something about that relationship that's at a different level. Because it says specifically that he loved them. They were like family to him. And it is possible that they were cousins or somehow related. Other than just all being Jews, of course. Sisters. In John 19, go over there and let's look at just a few other examples. John 19 and verse 25. And John 19 is the story of the cross, crucifixion, in John's gospel. Verse 25 says, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. There's three Marys standing there. And two of the Marys are sisters. That would be confusing, wouldn't it, if your sister has your same name as you? And mom and dad is calling, Mary, Mary. And we're like, well, which one? It must be her. It's not me. Right? That's what it says. Hmm. Because it says, marry the wife of Cleophas. Now there are some sons, James the Less, and Judas and others, and they're part of his disciples, part of that group with Jesus. So maybe this is his aunt. Well, Mary, the wife of Clovis, certainly would be his aunt, but then her children would be his. There's a lot of family connection is the point. Go to Acts 23. I'm not doing anything phenomenal here. You could get your Strong's Concordance out and look up the word sister And you'd find all these passages and you could do a comparative study on your own Acts 23 verse 16 Paul's been arrested and They want to kill him And it says in verse 16, we actually looked at this verse a while back. We were thinking about his nephew. But it says, and when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul. Now, he's not a, we don't presume that he's a grown man because in verse 17, it says this young man. So he's, I don't know, junior high age, maybe? If he was, you know, 18, 19, he'd be... But here's what I thought, Paul's got a sister. And if that's his nephew, don't you think he told his mom what he heard? That would be normal, wouldn't it? And if Paul's, now I get it, I'm just supposing the probabilities, but I want us to think about that because too often we read our Bible and we do not use our imagination. These are real people with real relationships. And it comes alive when we think about it that way. So if Paul's sister, now Paul's a Pharisee, right? Raised, trained by Gamaliel, Pharisee of the Pharisee, all that kind of business. Man, staunch, he bleeds Judaism, or he did before he got saved. And he becomes the enemy afterwards, doesn't he? That's why he's in jail, because they want to kill him, because he's leading people to trust in Jesus. All right. Well, if Paul's dad was so concerned that Paul become a staunch Orthodox Pharisee that he sends him to Gamaliel, don't you think that man would have raised the rest of his family to be that way? Quite logical. Which means Paul's sister was raised to be that way. We would expect, if she was still that way, she'd be with the crowd to have him killed. It's quite common, when you read the story of individuals who were, you know, rabbis and their kids and others who get saved, what happens to them? That's right, they are ostracized. And they would, if you came from such a family and you went to Christ, they don't care if you die. They would rather you die. They already consider you dead. Now, again, I'm just supposing, because it's his nephew who is a young man. And the Bible takes the time to tell us it's the relationship, though this kid never shows up anywhere else in scripture that we know of. But it's important enough that the Lord tells us this is Paul's nephew, his sister's son. The question comes to my mind, did Paul lead her to the Lord? Now I'm presuming a lot, I understand. But there's been enough of a connection in a relationship between him and his sister that it would seem she has softened if she's not saved She's at least supportive Interesting Paul's sister go to Colossians chapter 4 and and here we are at the end of the book and he's giving his final greetings and so forth and which a lot of times is just lists of names greet you know all these 42 people etc and these 69 people with me all greet you and you know and we might be quick to just kind of oh yeah okay yep great wonderful let's go on but it is God's word right And every, we believe in the plenary verbal inspiration, right? Plenary, all of it, verbal, the words, the very words, all the very words, okay? So even these like final greetings and instructions, God wanted us to have those. So as we're thinking about sisters, look at verse 10. He says, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, this kind of hooks us in with last Sunday night, my fellow prisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom ye received commandments, if he come unto you, receive him. This is that same Barnabas in the book of Acts who sold property and gave the funds to the church. and he was praised for it, which led then to Ananias and Sapphira and their whole conspiracy sort of thing that got them killed. Okay, that's pretty stark, but that's what happened to him. That's the Barnabas. This is the same Barnabas who, after Paul gets saved, and he comes back to Jerusalem, and he wants to kind of reconnect with the apostles, and they're like, we don't want nothing to do with that guy. He's trouble. He's hauled people off to jail. Quite likely he hauled some of their own family members off to jail. People they knew. So that kind of, that becomes a little tender, doesn't it? Barnabas is the one who's the son of consolation, who goes to Paul, he breaches that barrier and pulls Paul in. It's the same Barnabas who later on in Acts at Antioch when the Holy Spirit says separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them. That's this Barnabas. And on that first missionary trip they take somebody with them don't they? And his name is John Mark, who, it's in John Mark's house, Acts 12.12, Acts 15.37 is about the point, but in Acts 12.12, that's where there's the, when Peter's imprisoned, and the church has a prayer meeting for Peter, where do they have the prayer meeting? John Mark's house. Well actually it's not John Mark's house, it's his mom's house. Which means that's Barnabas' sister. And it's that Barnabas who the contention is so sharp they have to part ways. Because John Mark, you know, whatever, in his early days of ministry, if you will, he thought, I didn't sign up for this. I'm out of here. I'm going home to mom's. This is crazy. And, you know, Paul didn't want him to go, and Barnabas did. I mean, he's the uncle, right? He's the son of consolation. He's like, come on, give him a break, Paul. He was young. You know, that was pretty dramatic, what we went through. Give him a break. Nope, I can't afford to give him a break. And, boop, they had to go part ways, right? That's the Marcus that we're talking about right here in Colossians. Someone that's been healed. And in the pastoral epistles, Paul writes about that he's profitable to me for the ministry. I'm drawing your attention to all that because it's Barnabas' sister. It's his sister. And we could find other incidents and descriptions of sisters and so forth in the scripture. Paul in one place says in 1 Corinthians 7 15, don't I have a right to lead about a wife or a sister he's talking about literally his sister who in that culture it would be his responsibility to care for her should should mom and dad pass away and there's she's not married that would be he she became his responsibility his responsibility he said don't he's talking about real sisters the bible says quite a bit about sisters now Let's move from sisters in the scripture to sisters in the spirit. What do I mean about that? Let's go there, back to 1 Corinthians. And just highlight that just shortly. It says, I gave you the wrong scripture earlier. It was 1 Corinthians 9.5. That's leading about his sister. But here in 7.15, this is when he talks about marriage and so forth, okay? And how sometimes people who are married, you know, they're unequally yoked because one got saved, the other one didn't get saved. That leads to contention, et cetera. I want you to notice something. He's not talking about his sister. by blood, but he uses the term sister. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart a brother or a sister. Is he talking about his literal blood, his brother by blood? No. Is he talking about his sister? No. Whose little boy saved him from the prison? No. He's talking about a fellow believer, a Christian. And so the scriptures lift the terminology from the natural relationship that we have, which would bring, we would think, a natural tendency of love, care, etc. And maybe a little conflict from time to time, but we kind of overlook that because they're family. The Scripture pulls that term and applies it to our relationship one to another. As I said this morning, and maybe what I said was a bit harsh about our fellow church members, we love them and we hate them. That sounds very stark and hard, doesn't it? But I just meant sometimes we kind of get a little ruffled Right? Okay, you can agree with me because you know it's true, okay? Different personalities and all of that, cold comes together and then, you know, you get a little sweet-sour mix going on. Yeah, that's kind of what it is, all right? That's how it is in our families. When you go home and you see your brothers and sisters, those of you who have brothers and sisters, is it always rosy? Yeah. Joe, you just had a big family reunion, and a whole bunch of your brothers and sisters were there. Was it like, man, this is the sweetest, most peaceful, harmonious time I've ever had in my life? My family has never had a family reunion. That's just not in our culture. So I think maybe we have more sour than sweet, however that may be. Bridget's side, they do all kinds of that stuff, okay? And I've been to more of her family reunions than to my family reunions. Anyways, what is interesting, the Lord pulls that out so that we recognize that's how I'm supposed to relate to you. Now, you're supposed to relate to me. how we relate one to another. This is my brother. This is my brother. My brother calls me and he needs prayer. And that's true, he does need prayer because he's got this weird vein spasm, whatever thing going on. He's going to Mayo Clinic this week. They're gonna induce a heart attack. Isn't that exciting? For him. And so I'm praying for my brother. Do I always get along with my bully brother? No. It's better now. Because he's shorter than I am. And he's bolder than me. And I can whip him now. So he's not threatening me anymore. I don't know if I could whip my sister. So I've never approached that issue. But they are family, and I love them. And if they need me, I will go to them. I will do whatever I can to help them if they need me. And they ask me because they're family, not because we agree on every jot and every tittle. But they are family. And that's how we're supposed to be to each other. That's the kind of relationship we have. We don't expect to agree with everything. We're gonna disagree about stuff. Now, tonight we're focusing mostly on the ladies, but you are my sisters. And just as I, if my sister called me and said, Walt, I need you to come because Don's in the hospital and I'm having a problem and I can't help mom and dad, because my sister is the primary contact person for mom and dad. They're like, all right, Susie, I'm on my way. I'm on my way. Because they're family. If you called me and said, pastor, please come, I need help, I'm on my way. I'll just say something, take it or leave it. People say, oh, pastor, I didn't want to call you, you're so busy. Don't do that. It's my job. It is my privilege to be there if you need me. Now, if you don't want me, fine. Okay. And yes, people have told me that before, too. As you open the hospital, they're like, you can leave. We don't need you. Oh, well, okay. Have a nice day. Okay. I'm not going to impose on you, but your family. And so there ought to be a willingness and a concern to be there, okay? Notice 1 Timothy chapter 5. And specifically in reference to the ladies, it gives us directions. 1 Timothy 5. Now he's amazed Paul writing to Timothy, but I think every one of us male or female can make the application of the truth Starting at verse 1 rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren the elder women as Mothers the younger as sisters with all purity Okay with all purity in high school Because it was the baby, of course, I didn't have to protect my sister, because she was already married and out of the house by then. My brother had no problem whooping up on me at that point in life. But nobody had better pick on me other than him. It was like I was his kingdom for personal bullying. I got in a fight at school once. It wasn't much of a fight. This kid come down the hall and he was a jerk. High school's filled with jerks. Okay, thank you, okay. I was waiting for Carolyn to chime in there. Hey. Oh, low, low, low. Yeah, high school's got lots of jerks in there, okay. And he was coming down the hall and I thought, that guy's a jerk. So I went to the other side of the hall and, you know, we crossed over again on purpose. So then there's this push and push and push and push, you know how that works. And then he starts wrestling around, he's grabbing, he's trying to throw me to the ground. So I socked him in the chops. And that's when the teacher came around the corner. I got sent to the principal's office and got a suspension. I didn't even start it. That was about the least likely person in high school to start a fight. But I got in trouble. Okay, whatever. My brother heard about it. So the next day, my brother gets out of class. He tells his teacher, I have to take my brother his lunch or his lunch money or, I don't know, he made some excuse up. It was a total lie. I wasn't even in school. He goes down to the classroom, knocks on the door. The teacher says, yeah, I got to give my brother his lunch money. He's right over there. And apparently it must've been in his seat that he could see him, but that kid couldn't see my brother. So the teacher sends him out in the hallway and my brother wails at him, just whoops up on him big. And the teacher comes around the corner. Ooh, did he get in trouble? Well, that was routine for my brother, but see. Why am I telling you? You know, we're supposed to treat each other like family. There ought to be a sense of protection and care. And specifically in reference to the ladies, with all purity. Our behavior ought to be above board, nothing questionable at all. Our sisters in the spirit. Jesus said, for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister. My sister. Lastly, sisters in service. Romans chapter 16. And there's other places, but just for sake of time, we're going to look at this one, Romans chapter 16. And Paul says, I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister. Our sister. which is a servant of the church, which is at Centria. Phoebe's the one who's given the scroll or the booklet or the letter, however it was packaged. She's the one that is given this manuscript to deliver it. She was entrusted with the precious word of God to deliver it. That was quite an honor, wasn't it? Quite an honor. Which is a servant of, I don't know what capacity she served the church at Centria, we're not told. I can tell you what she wasn't. She wasn't the pastor. I mean, I can tell you that, right? She wasn't one of the deacons. But outside of that, we don't know exactly what her role was. But she had a very important role in that church. She was a servant of the church. Now, just go down a little bit. Talks about how, you know, you're the receiver in the Lord, assist her, you're the helper, come alongside, okay? Verse three, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. Isn't it interesting, he lists Priscilla first. At a time when the culture and everything was much more male dominated. He mentions the wife before he mentions the husband. I think that's interesting. Does that mean that he considered Priscilla more important than Aquila as far as who was the bigger help? Maybe. Maybe Aquila's too busy, so intense. He's going to work every day. And she has a little more freedom and so was much more of an assistance. Again, I'm supposing, I know it. But everything in God's Word is written exactly the way it is on purpose. There's a reason. But I want you to notice, and we could look at others, but these two ladies specifically are mentioned who are servants and helpers. They're important to Paul. He gives specific, he says, I commend unto you Phoebe. Because he's sending her. And he says, please greet Priscilla and Aquila. He wants them to be greeted specifically. Now there's more people in this church, and there's more names in this chapter than just those, but there's more people in this church in Rome than he's listed in this chapter. And so the ones he's mentioning by name, he specifically wants a connection with those individuals. and he mentions these two ladies, they're quite important. In Philippians 4, I'm not going to turn there, but you'll read about Iodius and Syntyche, two ladies in that church, that my perception is, you know, There's a little ruffle going on, okay? And he's kind of, like, basically saying, knock it off, okay? Would you just knock it off and work together? And then he talks. He says, my true yoke fellow, that could be a name. Some think that's an excellent name. If it is, it's like he said, Pastor, would you help those ladies, please, so they're a help to you and a help to the Lord? They can be a help to each other. But he mentions them. They're an integral part of that church. Ladies, just because you can't be the pastor or the deacon doesn't mean you're not important. You might be more important than the pastor or the deacons. Because we don't know the pastor of the church in Centuria, but we know Phoebe. The Lord thought it important enough to record her name, but not the pastor's name, not even mention the pastor. Who knows who that guy was? But Phoebe's name is mentioned. Obviously, you are loved, you ought to be valued, and you ought to be cooperated with as you serve the Lord. That which every joint supplies. That's what it says in Ephesians. And all those joints in the body of Christ in the local church are not men. It's men and women. We work together. Everybody has a part to play. And everybody's part is important. Regardless whether it's visible or not visible, it's important. not just the fellows, but the sisters. Father, we thank you for your love and grace. And I pray you might help us, that we would be all that we ought to be for you in this place. We'd be all that we ought to be for each other. This is family. We ought to care and be concerned and lend our hands, if that's what's needed, or other resources that our family would be strong, viable, and functional for your glory. Would you help us please? I pray.