19 through 21. If you're using a copy of the Church Bible, you'll find that on page 865. And as usual, I know that you're going to find it helpful to have your own copy of Scripture open and to be reading along with me this morning. Let me again just very briefly pray and ask for the Lord's blessing on His Word, knowing that He must work it in us by His Spirit. Let's pray. Father in heaven, again, we as your people come before you and we come to hear, we come to listen, we come to believe, and we come to keep your word. And so we pray, our God, that you would do a great work among us and in us. We pray that you would give us wisdom and understanding from your word. We pray that you would give us a clear sight of Jesus Christ with the eyes of faith We pray that you would shine the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus into our hearts this morning. We pray that you would renew us and build us up and carry us on our way to glory. We pray, oh God, that you would accomplish your purposes among us and that you would be glorified even as we are instructed and edified and satisfied in Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Luke chapter eight, beginning in verse 19. And now Luke says, then his mother and brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God. and do it. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God endures forever." Well, in 1974, my father left what would have been a lucrative career. He had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania from the Wharton School of Business, had gotten his first job in personnel working for the government. had decided to go to seminary, and he left what would have been his moving forward onto a successful career in the business world to pursue what he believed to be a calling in at least looking at pursuing gospel ministry. When he went to tell my grandfather, who at that time was not a Christian, what he was doing and going to seminary, my grandfather said to him, have you lost your mind? My dad, when he was recounting this to me recently, I heard it quite a lot as a boy. But as he recounted it, he said, to be fair, my father was a very frugal man. And he knew what going into the ministry would mean. But there was behind that something else he didn't understand. My grandfather did not understand what would motivate someone to leave behind worldly success in order to pursue the gospel ministry. Many years later, my grandfather on his deathbed, I believe, was converted by my dad's own ministry to him, many years after that. But that is a story that is not all that uncommon in the lives of those who decide that they are going to trust the Savior. When we decide to trust the Savior, we often have to leave behind, in some sense, both former lifestyles and perhaps even career choices, but there is a sense in which we also have to leave our family ties. There's a sense Oftentimes, for people who say, I am going to follow the Savior, I am going to give my life to Christ, I'm going to live for Christ, I'm going to do what Christ has redeemed me to do and be what he has redeemed me to be, that there is a radical shift in the relationship that they have with family members. Now, that is not something that is uncommon in the scriptures. In fact, it was something in Jesus' own experience that he had to experience and endure. Remember, Jesus had begun his ministry at 30. Prior to that, he had no doubt from 12 to 30, lived in the home with his mother and his brothers and sisters in Nazareth. He had probably worked as a carpenter all those years, following in the footsteps of his earthly father, his adopted father, Joseph. And yet, when he began his earthly ministry, Jesus, in one very real sense, had to sever family ties in order to follow the call that his father had given him in coming as the Redeemer and in bringing the kingdom of God. Now, we are gonna see here this morning two things. First, we're gonna consider the family of God defined, and secondly, we're gonna consider the family of God identified in this very short passage. Now, Jesus has been giving those kingdom parables, and most recently he has said to The crowds that were gathering around him take heed how you hear. There were many that would hear the word and yet they would be like the first soil. They would go away and they would immediately forget what they heard. They wouldn't have any understanding. They would walk away and it was like they were just totally oblivious to whatever they heard. And then there was that second group, remember, they were those who seemed to receive the word of God here from the very lips of the Savior, and they would receive the word of God from the very mouth of Jesus and for a time. seemed to believe, and yet they had no root in themselves. It was the stony ground, and they would spring up, and the sun would come, persecution would come, and they would immediately fall away because they had no root. And then there was that third group of those that heard, and they were the ones, remember, where the seed of God's word fell into the ground, and yet the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things sprung up, like thorns around it, The thorny ground choked out the word so that they became unfruitful. And then, remember, Jesus said there would be those that heard, and the seed of God's word would fall on a noble and good heart, something none of us have by nature, and yet something God would give by regeneration, and they would hold on to the word, understand the word, keep the word, put the word into practice in their lives, and they would bear fruit with patience. And then Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the lamp under the bushel, and nobody hides a lamp, so take heed how you hear, take heed what you do with what you hear with God's word, and very naturally this account follows. Now remember, Jesus is in a house, he is teaching to a very large crowd, and now all of a sudden his mother and his brothers come to see him. Now, if you were just reading through Luke's gospel, you might say, okay, I'm not really sure what all we're going to get out of here because Luke doesn't give us all the details that the other gospel writers give us. If this is indeed the same account as that which we find in Matthew 12, and I believe that it is, It's the same account that we find recorded in Mark 3, verses 20 and 21, and I believe that it is. Jesus's mother and brothers are coming to him on a mission to rescue their son from what he is doing. If you went back to Mark chapter three, verse 20, Mark says that the crowds were gathering so they could not even eat. And when his family, when Jesus's family heard it, they went out to seize him. So listen very carefully. They went out to seize him for they were saying, he is out of his mind. Have you lost your mind? So Jesus's own flesh and blood family think he's crazy. It's presumable, it is altogether likely Jesus never did a miracle in his home or at any point prior to his baptism in the Jordan and going out to start his public ministry. And now his family is hearing about these miracles. They're hearing about his teaching. He is garnering huge crowds and some people are loving that and other people are hating it. And Jesus is the most popular and the most successful person in Israel right now. And Mark tells us, and I think Luke is giving us the same account, that Jesus's mother and brothers are worried about him. You can imagine the discussions that were going on in the home. William still says, we can imagine these discussions as to what to do about him since he left home. It must have been agreed within the family that they would make the journey to Galilee to appeal to Jesus, at least to be careful about what he was saying. Nonetheless, they would surely have been impressed with the number of cures that he brought around Galilee, especially when this was something entirely new in his day. Jesus, from 12 to 30, 18 years, had presumably lived with them in Nazareth, and as far as we know, it showed no signs whatsoever of supernatural powers. Now, I think that this concept of the concern of Jesus's family about him is heightened when we read in John chapter seven that Jesus is, at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, not going up to the festival and the feast. And his brothers say to him, quite snarkily, they say, why aren't you going up there to show everybody who you are? They're not saying that because they're supportive. They're saying, hey, Jesus, if you're really who you think you are, why don't you go up there and why don't you show everybody who you are? Now, we know from the scripture that Jesus had four half-brothers and three sisters. We also know from scripture that his brothers did not believe in him, John tells us in John 7. They did not believe, that's a word to us. if the very siblings of the Redeemer who grew up side by side with Him every day for 30 years didn't believe in Him until after the resurrection, that's a word to us. They did not believe in Him. They were mocking Him. They were disdaining Him. And it seems that maybe even Mary has fallen into this trap. Now, I don't think it would be right for us to say that Mary was mocking her son. her precious firstborn. This is the one that God had miraculously knit together in her womb, overshadowing her by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the the son of promise. This is the one the angel came to her and said, you're going to bear a son and he's going to be the most high son of the living God. That you of all women on earth are going to have the son of the most high. He's going to be great. And he's going to sit forever on the throne of David. Mary had all that knowledge. And remember, Mary had all the knowledge about Jesus when they went up to the temple to circumcise Jesus on the eighth day. And remember, Simeon and Anna took him up in their arms and they prophesied about him. This is the light to the world, that wherever there are Gentiles and people and nations, this is the savior in that poor beggar baby. And Mary is tucking these things away in her heart, Luke says. She is processing them. But it's possible that as Mary hears the children that she would go on to have with Joseph, and presumably Joseph has passed away for quite some time, now he's been deceased because Jesus doesn't mention him. He doesn't say, my mother, your mother and father and brothers, these are my mother and father and brothers. That's probably one reason why we can conclude that Joseph is deceased, but as Mary is hearing The conversation in the home as she's hearing what Jesus's siblings think about him, she might be swayed to fall into the same trap that John the Baptist fell into when he was in prison. Remember, we saw that not long ago. John was in prison and he started to doubt, are you the coming one or do we look for another? Jesus wasn't measuring up to the anticipation. that John had about him, he wasn't acting in a way commensurate with what John thought he should be doing, and so John began to doubt. And remember, Jesus took those doubts up, and he restored John, he said, go tell John the things you've seen here, the lame, walk, the deaf, speak, the dead are raised, the lepers are cleansed, and blessed is he who's not offended because of me. Now, here, however, Jesus does something that might be said to be one of the riskiest things Jesus ever did. He doesn't take up his own mother's concern. He doesn't lovingly restore his flesh and blood siblings. You see here in the text that his mother and brothers come to see him. They're pressing in around the crowd. They can't get to him. They're telling people, listen, we're his family. We're here to get him. We've got this under control. We'll take care of this. I mean, I imagine this is the conversation. You can imagine Jesus's brothers talking to people in that crowd as they're there, and we're really sorry about this. Listen, we don't know. This is not his normal behavior. We are not used to him acting this way. We're a little bit embarrassed, too. So we're here. It's gonna be okay, but they're trying to get through. and somebody comes hurriedly to Jesus and that person says to Jesus, notice your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. You get a little sense that whoever this is relaying this message is wanting Jesus to listen to his mother and brothers. Your family's here, it's gonna be okay. Please go talk to your mother and brothers. There are writers who will dig into this text and they will say there are profound manifestations of unbelief in these details and these nuances. Jesus has been talking about the blessing of being one who hears his word, understands it, and keeps it. And here there is a push against that and there is the flesh and blood family of Jesus working against the very purposes of God. Now there is a minor word there for us. And that minor word is that our families and our family members can work against the purposes of God in our lives, just as Jesus was experiencing in his. That is not an uncommon thing. It's not an uncommon thing to hear the objections or the sophisticated responses telling you, well, don't go too crazy with this. Don't go too far with religion. Don't get too committed to the Lord. Don't give yourself too fully, you know, too much religion is a bad thing. And we need to be balanced people and the 50 other ways that those things can come in and Satan and the flesh can latch onto them and try to pull us back from giving ourselves to the Lord and to the work of his kingdom. And Jesus felt that temptation. You know, this is heightened, and I don't want this to be missed this morning. This is heightened by the fact that if you were a Jew in Jesus's day, your biological family was everything. I mean, the Jews prided themselves on being able to trace their lineage back as far as they could to the very tribes of Israel, to the very grandchildren of Abraham. They prided themselves on that, and the Pharisees and the scribes, depending on who your family was and what your pedigree was, they had sort of bolstered and promoted the idea of a spiritual aristocracy, that if you came from the right family, if you came from the right parentage, if your father was, if I could say this, a minister in Israel, and a famous minister, and if his father was, and on and on and on, then therefore, you were something better than others, and you had more favor with God, and God looked on you more favorably, and God thought more of you, then you had a better standing with God because of the family that you came from. And Jesus just obliterates that with his own family. You know, that's a very subtle thing. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people in the South say, yeah, you know, my granddaddy was a Baptist, Deacon and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Same thing. There is a subtle legalism that wants to latch on to family relations in order to think that somehow, because of them, we have a better standing before the Lord. And Jesus just blows that idea out of the water. And this is risky. I mean, here's the covenant Lord of Israel, Jesus. He's the one that came up with the whole idea of the tribes. He's Yahweh. He called Abraham. Before Abraham was, I am. This is Yahweh. This is the covenant Lord. This is the God that works in families and in homes. This is the God who said, I will be a God to you and your descendants after you. And now he's standing there and his mother and his brothers are there. And he says, well, they're not really my mother and my brothers. He teaches us how to define what true family is. There's an old saying, your friends are God's apology to your family. I don't know if you ever heard that. Jesus is in one very real sense saying, my real family are those who are with me. We're going to talk about that in a minute. I've thought about this saying over the years. I think it's incredibly helpful, incredibly helpful. As blood is thicker than water, spirit is thicker than both. He's teaching us very, very important principles, very important doctrinal truths about what the family of God really is, who the family of God really is, how we are to view the family that we have. You know, when the disciples left, they left their fathers, they left fishing industries, they left the tax collector's office, they left political involvement, Simon the Zealot. You had all of these men engaged and women who left their reputations. We just saw that recently. One of the women supporting Jesus, remember, her husband was the head steward for Herod, and they're leaving that to follow Jesus. And the disciples say to Jesus, when they go to leave everything, Lord, we left everything. What do we get? And Jesus will say later in the Gospels to Peter, he says, there is no one who has left father and mother and houses and lands and brothers and sisters in order to follow me who will not in this life receive a hundredfold fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and houses and lands. He's talking about the church, more mothers, more fathers, more brothers, more sisters, a better family, a bigger family, a truer family. with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. So Jesus is teaching the principle of adoption. You know, we had the privilege this morning of baptizing one of our covenant children who also just happens to be adopted into the family in which he now lives. Russell Moore makes the very important point in his little book on adoption that there was this idea in the Jewish mindset that physical descent was everything. We are the children of Abraham. We are the children of Abraham. And Jesus actually said, no, you're the children of your father, the devil. But they made the big deal. We have Abraham as our father. That's what's really important. That's why God accepts us. That's why we're in the family of God. That's why we are better than other people. And they made that big deal about it. And it was true that the physical descendants of Abraham had covenant nurture and promises and privileges. But the principle of adoption in the Son of God trumps that. And Russell Moore points out that actually being adopted makes you more a child of God than physical descent, because you could be a physical descendant of Abraham and go to hell, but if you're adopted into God's family by faith in Jesus Christ, you are a son of Abraham forever, because you have the faith of Abraham. It's a massively important point. It's the point Jesus is teaching here. When he teaches us to define the family of God, he's not saying family is unimportant. You know, Jesus is actually running the risk of looking like he's violating the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. He is running the risk. I told you a minute ago, this is one of the riskiest things Jesus ever does. I mean that. He is walking up to the line of showing himself to be a rebellious son, saying, I don't care about my mother and my fleshly brothers. Now we know he cares, because when he hangs on the cross, he'll provide a home for Mary, won't he? He'll say to John, son, behold your mother, and to Mary, mother, behold your son. And he even obeyed that commandment when he was hanging on the cross. No one honored his father and mother the way Jesus did. And yet he's walking up to that line in order to make that all important point about defining the family of God. You know. Jesus's main concern here is not. on the one hand for his biological mother or father, nor is it, and you have to listen carefully, nor is it his main concern to honor his disciples. He said, wait a minute, that's everything in the text. His mother and brothers are outside. He's got his faithful disciples side by side with him, the women who were supporting him and caring for him, and who were, in a very real sense, spiritual mothers and sisters to him. And yet his main concern is neither of those groups. His main concern is that he is doing the will of his Father in heaven. Remember, it's in Luke's gospel when Jesus is 12, and he's in the temple, and he's pulled away from that group that were going up from the temple back home, and he stayed behind, and he's listening to the scribes and the teachers, and he's asking these questions, and Luke says he's astonishing them with his understanding and his answers. He knows the scriptures better than the scribes and the teachers do at 12, because he has given himself to listening to the scriptures and having his ear awoken morning by morning by his father. And when his mother comes and she says to him anxiously, look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. He says to them, why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? You see, at the end of the day, it's God, the father who determines who is part of his family. And it's God, the father who is supremely important as the one over the children of God. It is the father to whose family we belong, and it is the father's will and likeness and image together with the son that he once worked out in his family. I was recently reading in 1 John, and when I think about 1 John, I often think about the incarnation because it opens with that great truth about Jesus that which was from the beginning which we've seen which we've heard which we have looked upon concerning the word of life the life was Manifest and we've seen and heard and bear witness to you that eternal life. That's Christ But then John says who is with the father And was manifest to us That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ And then John will go on to say in the next chapter, I write to you little children because you have known the father. It was, I believe, J.I. Packer who said, if you want to know what someone makes about Christianity, find out how much they think about God as their father. You see, Jesus is always motivated by his relationship to God the Father. He is doing the will of his Father. He is about his Father's business. He is defining all things in light of what his Father is doing. We desperately need to learn that. Jesus here is sacrificing even his earthly relationship for higher ones. Let me say this before we look at the identifying marks of the children of God. I think this is a point we have to come to, especially if you grew up in a Christian home. You know, I think it's actually harder for those who have grown up in Christian homes, perhaps, because there can be a tendency not to feel like you have to sacrifice anything, especially if you had godly parents. It felt a lot bigger, in a sense, for my dad and for those that have to walk away from family that say, are you out of your mind? It feels a lot bigger. But when we grow up in Christian homes, and we have the nurture, and we have the godly examples, and we have the privileges, we can sometimes forget we, too, are called to leave, to some extent, earthly relationships for higher ones. The Proverbs will talk about better is a friend close by than a brother far away. Spirit is thicker than blood. and seeing our place in the family of God is of the utmost importance. Now, I do think that it's true, and I wanna read this quote to you, because I found this very helpful. William Still said, when we put Christ first, all other persons and all other things have a way of arranging themselves behind him in the most perfectly graduated order. So when you really put Christ first, your job is not gonna be first, your spouse is not gonna be first, your children are not gonna be first, Your success is not gonna be first. Your parents are not gonna be first. Your career is not going to be first. Christ is gonna be first. And if we put Christ first, everything else will fall in its proper order. You'll love your parents the way you should. You'll love your spouse the way you should. You'll love your children the way you should. You'll love your work the way you should. You'll view those things properly. You know, a hundred, I'm going to tell you this this morning, a hundred out of a hundred failed marriages are because Christ was not first in the marriage. A hundred out of a hundred. I was just speaking with someone who's going through a divorce and was complaining to me about their spouse. And as I listened to this person, and I listened to this person go on about how they felt like their spouse wasn't spiritually minded, wasn't committed to God, and I'm hearing this person, and they're telling me, you know, for the first time in my life, I'm starting to try to commit myself to the Lord, and yet wasn't taking ownership of the fact that they had not helped their spouse keep Christ at the center of the marriage. There was culpability. When Christ is at the center of the marriage, William still says, everything else has a way of arranging itself behind him in the most perfectly graduated order. Put him first and everyone and everything else settles into its due place. I think that's very true. If you put your spouse first, everything will fall apart at some point. If you put Christ first, everyone and everything else will settle into its due place. Well, notice that the second thing is that Jesus is identifying. Well, how do I know? How do I know if someone is indeed a member of the family of God? How do I know that I'm a member of the family of God? Because at the end of the day, that is the biggest question. And notice Jesus doesn't say, well, a member of the family of God is someone that's been baptized. He doesn't say a member of the family of God is someone who professes faith in Jesus. He doesn't say a member of the family of God is someone who's grown up in a Christian home, who's grown up on the mission field, or any other number of things. Notice what Jesus says. He answered them when they came, and he said, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Let me say this at the outset of our consideration of the identifying marks. Jesus is not saying, here's how you become a member of the family of God. There's a subtle legalism in our hearts that wants to look back over our track record and say, have I done enough for God to accept me? There is that in all of our hearts. looking for identifying marks so that God will accept me. And yet the scriptures are explicit that God only accepts us by faith in Jesus Christ. God only accepts us by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is not teaching, get to work and you'll become part of the family of God. He is actually speaking in the context of those who have trusted in him, those who are supporting him, those that are following him, those who have given up their own families and their livelihoods, those who have made those sacrifices to follow Jesus. And notice he says, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Now, here's what I don't want you to do this morning. I don't want you to say, oh, great, done it. I've trusted Jesus, that's it. Great. Because that's not all Jesus says. He says, is your life characterized by someone who loves to hear the word of God, not fancy stories for 30 minutes in a big church that makes you laugh? Oh, please let me say that this morning. Please hear that. Are you hearing the word of God? Do you love to hear the word of God? Are you that fourth soil that receives the word and wants to keep it and bear fruit? And are you seeking to put it in practice in your life? He's not saying perfectly. He's not saying, are you doing good enough? And then you are part of the family of God. He's saying that members of the family of God are those who are marked by a joyful reception of God's word and desire to put it into practice in their life. And that means that everything from loving the Lord, loving the Lord's day, loving his worship, loving his people, loving serving others, honoring your father and mother, not giving into lust, not giving into greed, not giving into covetousness, that those are things that we love even though we fail. And hearing the word of God and doing it includes confessing our sin to the Lord when we recognize that we have sinned against him, keeping short accounts with our brothers and sisters in Christ, going to them when we've offended them, extending forgiveness to them when they come to us. Now, I want to say this this morning because There's something that, and I've mentioned this to just a couple of close friends over the years, something that has saddened me as a Christian. I've been a Christian 16 years, I've been converted 16 years. And please don't hear me as saying I'm looking out for this. Please know, before I say this, that my desire is my relationship with the Lord and with others and keeping my accounts right with the Lord and with others. But I can count on two hands the number of times people have come to me and said, will you forgive me for something? Jesus said, if your brother comes to you 70 times 7, you are to forgive them. So when I think about how rare it is for believers to ask other believers for forgiveness, and I hear Jesus saying, bless for those who hear my word and keep it, and that a crucial part of hearing his word and doing it is living in light of extending forgiveness and seeking forgiveness. And that is a rare thing in the church. We have a problem. There's a problem. That's part of hearing the word and keeping it. So I don't want you to think of what Jesus is saying here legally. I don't want us to slide into some legalism, but we really have to ask ourselves, is my life marked by a fact that I love God's word and I want to put it in practice in my life? Trust and obey. Not obey and trust. Trust and obey. You know, if you can look at yourself and you say, you know, I see all the imperfections, all the sin, all the failure, but I do love the Lord. I do love his word. I do love his people. I do want to put it in practice in my life more. I want my life to be marked by a desire to do those things that are pleasing to him. That is a good thing. That is a good thing, that is an identifying mark. Now let me say this as we close. The chief thing that God's word holds out to us and the chief thing he wants us to do is to be abiding in Christ and coming into him. Jesus is gonna go to the cross to make us children. It's nothing we do. He's gonna go to the cross. He's gonna make us children. The Father has given his people to the Son. I love that verse in Hebrews 2 where the writer of Hebrews draws out of Isaiah 8 and Christ says, here am I and the children God has given me. Jesus marched to the cross to take the sins of his people to make us children. He rose from the dead so that he could stand in the midst of his people and he could say, here am I and the children God has given me. This is my family. It's what he says about you if you're in him this morning. He says, you are my mother and my brothers and my sister. He is the elder brother. He is the firstborn son. We are the children of God if we're in him by faith. Let me ask you this morning, if you've never come to Christ, if you've never gone to him, if you are holding on to family or career or any of those other fleshly things that can't last, know the mark, by the way, the mark of what Jesus is saying is if something can perish, It's not the truest and realest thing. If something can perish, it's not the realest and the truest thing. Jesus is saying there is the eternal purpose of God. And whoever comes to me, I will make you a son and a daughter forever. The divine family forever from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. Gathered before the throne in the lamb, and he says this is my family. These are my blood-bought people Let him who has ears to hear this morning. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the church Let me pray for us father in heaven We do pray that you would give us eyes to see these truths and we pray that you'd give us hearts that love the truth of your word we pray that you'd help us to understand what it is and to belong to your family. We pray that you would give us the ability to examine our own hearts as to whether we have ever been adopted into your family. We pray, our God, that you would give us a sense of the great privilege that you've given those of us who have been adopted into your family. We pray that you would help us to live with the identifying marks and the image and the likeness of the Son of God. And so we pray that you'd help us to that end. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.