Daily Archives: June 19, 2015

Who Are My Mother And Brothers?

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WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS?

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone to call Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they told Him, ‘Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.’ ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ He asked. Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him and said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’ (Mark3: 31-35).

That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Especially since they came all the way from Nazareth to see Him.

As we travel through the Gospel of Mark, we will learn something about Jesus that we should never forget and that it would do well for us to apply in our own lives as well. Jesus always viewed life from the perspective of the Father and never from an earthly viewpoint. As far as He was concerned, the kingdom of God took precedence over earthly considerations.

What was He saying? That He didn’t care about His family or even that He repudiated them, that He did not acknowledge that He had a blood family at all? Had He cut Himself completely loose from them so that they no longer mattered to Him? I don’t think that He meant that at all.

We have to ask, first of all, why they were there. A few verses back we learned that they thought He was crazy. They had come to get Him to take Him home. Why? Was it to protect Him from Himself or to protect Him from the crowd? Perhaps one or both. Why did He need to be protected? Obviously, because He could not look after Himself. He had lost it, so they thought.

What did Jesus mean by His question, ‘Who are my mother and brothers’? He looked beyond mere family ties to a family that He had come to redeem and restore to the Father that was far more important and of lasting value than the ties of human families. Although He belonged to a human family, they had to learn that in the end He headed up a family of people more closely bound together than blood ties because they would become His true “blood” brothers through the shedding of His own blood for them.

His brothers rejected Him and His claims to be the Son of God until after the resurrection. They refused to believe in Him and even taunted Him (John 7: 2-5). The same once-unbelieving family members were together with the other believers when the Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost. Letters from His brothers, James and Jude, were included in the inspired Scriptures. Their faith in Him promoted them from being part of His earthly family to being members of God’s forever family.

How do we know this is so? Mary Magdalene, according to John’s report, was the first to meet Jesus after His resurrection. She was so overjoyed that she wanted to take hold of Him and never let Him go. He remonstrated with her.

Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.’ (John 20:17-18).

Did you get that? He called His disciples, ‘My brothers.’ He had called them servants and friends but never brothers. He put them on the same level as Himself – calling God “my Father and your Father, my God and you God.” Did you get the significance of what He said? Those who sat around Him listening and hanging onto every word that came from His mouth were potentially part of the family of God which spans time and eternity. His death and resurrection sealed the reality of that family.

It was God’s intention, from the beginning, to have a family of sons and daughters who were exactly like His Son. Sin interrupted His plan but He never gave up on it. He sent His Son to reveal His true self to people whose understanding of Him was distorted by the devil’s deception, and to redeem and reconcile mankind to Himself. Through faith in Jesus and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, He works in us to restore and recreate His image in us.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Rom. 8: 28-29).

Can you see, now, why Jesus was not willing that His human family lay exclusive claim to Him? Family He might be, but that was earthly and temporary. His intention to rebuild God’s forever family overshadowed any earthly ties. It was imperative that His mother and brothers get the message as quickly as possible and release Him to fulfil the will of the Father of all fathers.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

Demon-possessed?

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DEMON-POSSESSED?

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples were not even able to eat. When His family heard about this, they went to take charge of Him, for they said, ‘He is out of His mind.’

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons He is driving out demons.’ (Mark 3: 20-22).

Crazy? Demon-possessed? What made people reach this conclusion about Jesus?

Does a demon-possessed man heal the sick and cast out devils? What symptoms did He show that they should call Him “demon-possessed”? Was He raving like a lunatic, cursing and foaming at the mouth? Was He crazy because people followed Him in droves when He brought relief to their suffering? Were they so used to being ill-treated by their religious leaders that anyone who came to them in mercy and treated with compassion was classed as mad?

Anyone with half a brain should have recognised that Jesus was the sanest person who ever lived. If sanity was gauged by the way He treated people, then no one on earth ever was or ever will be more “with it” than Jesus. What prompted His family to think that He has lost it? They had lived with Him for thirty years. His heavenly Father had affirmed Him at His baptism with an audible voice from heaven. Could there be better approval than that? Did His godly life so offend them that they classified Him as “out of His mind”? Even His mother sided with His siblings.

And what of the religious leaders? Wasn’t “possessed by Beelzebub” going a bit far? Of course their logic was illogical, as Jesus pointed out:

So Jesus called them over to Him and began to speak to them in parables. ‘How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.’ (Mark 3: 23-27).

This statement is loaded! Logical, first of all, to show up the foolishness of the so-called educated ones. But also loaded with hints about who He really was, if they were wide awake enough to recognise the clues. What was He saying? Who was the “strong man” of whom He spoke? What was His mission? Of course He was telling them in cryptic language that He was the “strong man” who had come to “tie up” the strong man and plunder his house. Wasn’t He doing that right in front of their eyes? Wasn’t that why they called Him demon-possessed because they had never seen anything like that before?

‘Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.’ He said this because they were saying, ‘He has an impure spirit.’ (Mark 3: 28-30).

These men were skating very close to what Jesus called “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”. What was that? According to Jesus, anyone who attributes the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil is cutting himself off from any possibility of the Holy Spirit’s work in his heart. Such a person is doomed because the Holy Spirit is the only one who can awaken a dead spirit to the things of God. When someone deliberately rejects the work of the Holy Spirit as demonic, he has no recourse to the power and the presence of God.

Believers are sometimes plagued with the fear that they have committed the unpardonable sin when they have done something or other which has driven them into guilt. First of all, the Holy Spirit is not the accuser. That is Satan’s title and Satan’s job. He can say nothing else because he is under divine judgment and he can only speak what he hears. Condemnation is his voice, not God’s voice.

Secondly, God does not tell us what we are as far as our past is concerned. He tells us what we are as far as His work is concerned. He has attributed the righteousness of Jesus to us and that is what we are (2 Cor. 5: 21). The Holy Spirit speaks to us of righteousness (John 16: 10), not of guilt. He does not drive us by guilt or fear. He draws us towards Jesus who is everything we are and everything we need.

To repudiate the work of the Holy Spirit and to speak blasphemy against Him takes a deliberate and considered choice and is a very serious move for anyone to make. Anyone who loves Jesus would never go that far, even in a moment of passion because he is held in the grip of His love.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

Unlikely Ones

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UNLIKELY ONES

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder’), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him (Mark 3: 13-19).

How well did Jesus read these men? Why did He choose men who, from our point of view at least, seem so unsuitable? Why did He include a guy like Matthew – a thief and a sell-out to Rome? What about James and John? They had no idea how to show compassion. Weren’t they the ones who wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village for not offering Jesus hospitality? Of what use where they to Him with an attitude like that?

And Simon the Zealot? He was a political activist – the last kind of person Jesus needed in His band. He had enough trouble trying to convince the rest of them that the kingdom of God was not a restored Davidic kingdom, without having a stirrer in His group. And as for Peter! Jesus didn’t even connect him with Andrew his brother because they were two completely different characters. He was very good at putting his foot in his mouth every time he opened it.

Who was Bartholomew? Was he the Nathaniel of John’s gospel? Thomas? He was famous for his scepticism and pessimism. Philip at least tried to believe, now and then, but his puny efforts didn’t get him very far. James son of Alpheus didn’t even make a blip on the radar. And Judas Iscariot? Was he Jesus’ biggest mistake?

Luke even tells us that Jesus spent the night in prayer before He chose His men. That makes it even worse, doesn’t it? He and the Father were in it together. And of course the Holy Spirit was there because He was the one who was on Him from His baptism, leading and empowering Him to do what He did. So the Trinity were all in agreement that these were the men whom Jesus was to train to be disciples and to take over from where He left off when He had fulfilled His mission on earth.

How did Jesus propose to train them? They were not even schooled in the Beth Talmid – “discipleship school” of their day. They were drop-outs from elementary school because they didn’t have it in them to become rabbis or disciples of rabbis. They were raw labourers of one kind or another. Jesus chose a “hands-on” method of honing these rough guys to become just like Him.

The essence of a disciple was to become a replica of his rabbi – not just learning and teaching what he taught but being like him in every way. He had to stick close by him, day and night, learn his language, and copy his gestures, his actions, his words and even his thoughts and attitudes. That took very close association. It must have been tough for both rabbi and his disciples to be so “joined at the hip” that they could not escape each other. No time out for a breather! Not even a moment to let their hair down and be “normal”.

In those two little words “with Him” lay the key to their mission. Unless they learned the lessons from their association with Him, every moment, every situation, every event, every incident, absorbing His actions and reactions, soaking up His attitudes and emotions, listening to His words and His heartbeat, they would never become true followers. Jesus was to be to them like a fish in a fishbowl, exposed every moment from every side. Not only were they expected to watch and listen to Him – He also invited them to scrutinise Him. What other human being would have the courage to do that – to make himself completely vulnerable knowing that his followers would pounce on every flaw and hold him accountable – because they were supposed to replicate him.

How do the so-called “disciples” of Jesus measure up today? How much time to we take to be “with Him”? If that is the key to being a true copy of our rabbi, how badly do we misrepresent Him because of our pathetically impoverished knowledge and understanding of who Jesus really is? His penetrating question to His disciples was “Who do you say that I am?” That was the crux of their confession. If we are not convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, we may as well pack our bags and go home.

It was exactly because of who He is, that He could choose them (and us), not because of who they were but because of what they would become through Him. No other rabbi could offer them that! That’s why He can be so confident when He calls, “Follow me,” because He knows what can happen if we do just that – stick with Him, listen and learn.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com