The Father's House

JOHN 14:1-3

INTRODUCTION

The Bible gives us many ways to think about Heaven.

All the descriptions of our Home in Glory are metaphors or images, I think, because it is impossible to describe such a glorious place.

Jesus spoke of a Banquet, where all the righteous would sit down in his kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints.

To the thief on the cross beside him, Jesus promised that today he would be with him in “Paradise.” Paradise is the translation of a word that means a beautiful pleasure garden.

John, in the Revelation wrote of a great throng of people and angels gathered around a throne waving palm branches and praising God.

John also tells us in his Revelation of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, with gates of pearl and streets of gold and walls of precious gems.

But today I want to tell you about how Jesus described our heavenly destination as “The Father’s House.”

This is what Jesus said:

“Let not your hearts be troubled;

believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many dwelling places;

if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and take you to myself,

so that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus says these words to his disciples because he is preparing to leave them.

The disciples he is talking to have left everything to follow him.

They have left their businesses and trades with the expectation that the Kingdom of God is soon to come. They have—as we say—“burned their bridges behind them.”

Jesus knows that what is about to happen will be a shocking experience and a great disappointment.

Their faith will be shattered.

So in this chapter we see Jesus preparing his disciples for his death.

As he says later, as recorded in v29 of this chapter: “And now I have told you this before it takes place, so that when it takes place, you may believe.”

I. Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.”

A. “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

The word translated here “troubled” means to be stirred up, upset, terrified.

Jesus was no stranger to this emotion. In John 12:27 we heard Jesus say, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father glorify thy name.”

And later in the garden, Jesus would say, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death.”

B. Jesus says, “…Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Sometimes faith is hard.

If you have given all to Jesus. doubts will shake you. But you hang on. You decide to believe in spite of your doubts.

When difficult things happen, you may be distressed and wonder if you can keep your faith.

You keep your faith by living “as if” it were true. That sounds crazy, but that’s the best way I can say it.

You tell yourself, “I am going obey God and live for God, whatever the devil whispers into my ear to make me doubt.”

The test of faith is not what goes on in your mind but how you live.

When people say, “I believe in God,” they usually don’t think about what they are saying. They think they are merely expressing an opinion.

But to believe in God is serious business. It means you bet your life that God is real

It means that if there is no God—or if God is someone other than the one Jesus told us about—you are the big loser. You have lived your life for a lie.

II. Now we’ll talk about “The Father’s House.”

A. Jesus tells us that “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.”

You are probably familiar with the old translation: “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”

Today a “mansion” is a big fancy house like Brucemore.

Four hundred  years ago when the King James Bible was translated, “mansion” simply meant a dwelling, any ordinary house.

When Jesus says that in his Father’s house are many “dwelling places” he is simply telling us that when we get to our Father’s “house”—that is, where God lives—there will be plenty of room for everyone.

Jesus is preparing a place for us. He’s getting everything ready for us to move in.

It’s going to be a wonderful place—wonderful beyond our imagining.

B. We will be with Jesus.

When the disciples saw Jesus die on the cross they thought they would never see him again.

But they did see him again. Three days later on Resurrection Sunday they saw him and talked with him and knew that he would never really be taken away from them again, but he would come again and take them to himself, so that where he is they would be also.

The promise Jesus gave to his disciples that day is also for us.

We have said good-bye to many loved ones who Jesus has taken to himself, and someday he will take us too.

It is a comforting thought, isn’t it?

CONCLUSION

I was drafted into the army in 1952, almost a year before the Korean War ended.

After basic training I was sent to Korea into the war.

I had never lived away from home or my mother and father and sisters and brothers for more than a few weeks at a time.

I missed my old friends and family. In Korea I walked guard for four hours every fourth night.

It was dark and lonely. I had a lot of time to think.

And the thing I thought about during those long dark nights was going home.

I used to imagine myself walking up the walk, up to the front porch, opening the door and being greeted by my family.

And the day I was discharged from the army and got on the train to come home from Camp Carson, Colorado, was the happiest day of my life.

But there’s another “home” I’m looking forward to now; that home that is my Father’s house.

It was good to get home from Korea. I got a welcome when I got home.

But that is nothing like the welcome I will get when I arrive at my Father’s house.

Jesus will be there.

Dear friends will be there who have arrived before me, and they will be glad to see me.

It will be a party.

And as the ages of eternity roll on the pleasures will increase: the pleasure of conversing with Jesus, the pleasure of my new resurrected body, the pleasure of the friendship of fellow believers, and the pleasure of worship with the angels.

I can only imagine what it will be like to “enter into the joy of the Lord.”

In an old book I read the saying of an old saint. He said, “Here drops of joy enter into us. There we will enter into joy.”

I have read that on the grave of a Christian named Atticus, buried somewhere in what is now modern Turkey. On the gravestone is carved this epitaph: “My soul dwells in goodness.”

We know nothing else about Atticus. Was he rich? or poor? prominent? or insignificant?

We don’t know. We only know the one thing that’s important. He loved Jesus.

And one who knew Atticus and knew his love for Jesus, wrote this testimony for him on the stone: “My soul dwells in goodness.”

Believe this. Think about it. Pray about it. Imagine it.

If you belong to Jesus, someday you will dwell in goodness.

Someday you will “enter into the joy of the Lord.”

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value

MATTHEW 13:45-46

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).

In Jesus’s time pearls were much more valuable than they are now.

Nowadays we have plastic pearls that you can get at Kmart, and they are hard to tell from real pearls.

You learned in school how real pearls are formed.

By pure chance a grain of sand gets caught in the body of an oyster, and the oyster’s body secretes a material called “nacre” around the grain of sand to protect its delicate body from the irritation of the pearl.

As layer after layer of nacre forms around the pearl, the pearl becomes larger and larger. The cross section of a natural pearl is like an onion, with layer after layer of this valuable material.

Sometimes this process takes years. I read that the largest pearl ever seen was found by a pearl diver in the Philippines. It weighed 14 pounds!

Nowadays people have learned how to induce oysters to make pearls by opening a live oyster and putting in a tiny piece of oyster shell in the body of the oyster. The oyster will then make a pearl around that tiny piece of oyster shell. This is difficult but it is a much easier way to make a pearl than the natural way that is left up to chance.

So these cultured pearls are not so expensive.

But in ancient times pearls were very valuable—like diamonds or rubies.

Pearl divers had to dive many times and bring up many oysters to find one pearl.

Pearl diving was very dangerous. Pearl divers suffered from the pressure of the water in their lungs and from being attacked by underwater creatures. Many pearl divers died in their quest for these valuable gems.

Jesus chose to tell a story about a merchant seeking precious pearls because pearls were so very precious.

Jesus’s parable consists of only one sentence. But we can use our imagination to fill in the details.

I can imagine an antique dealer who got into the business because he loves antiques.

Or a dealer in fine paintings who loves fine paintings.

Or a dealer in fine violins, who is really excited about violins.

Or a dealer in old, rare books, who has a passion for rare books.

This merchant was in the pearl business because he loved fine pearls.

He was always on the lookout for the finest pearl in the world.

Suddenly in his search he found a perfect pearl, a pearl of such a size, and perfect shape, and dazzling color, that it was a dream come true.

In his excitement, he sold his house, his furniture, and his whole stock of pearls, and whatever else he owned so that he could possess it.

I don’t know what he did with this wonderful pearl. Maybe he sold it to a great king and lived happily ever after on the proceeds of the sale.

This parable has two meanings for us.

I. First of all, the parable tells us how valuable we are to God..

A. God is the merchant in search of fine pearls.

The “pearls” God is in search of are you and me.

I found a prayer in an old book that goes like this:

“Why, Lord Jesus Christ, why dost thou so love men and women?

Why are they all thy treasures?

What a wonder is this,

that thou shouldst so esteem them as to die for them!”

It’s wonderful that the God of the universe loves people.

It’s wonderful that God made us—and made a beautiful world for us to live in.

It’s even more wonderful that when our human race fell in to sin and wandered far away from him, he brought us back to himself at the price of the blood of his own Son.

The merchant in the parable gave everything he had so that he could possess this wonderful pearl.

God gave everything, even the life of his Son, so that he could possess you and me—and bring us to his home in glory so that we could be his friends for ever and ever.

Some people think they are worthless.

But no one is worthless. We are each of infinite value to God.

Jesus died for every one of us, as if each of us were the only person in the world.

This is why the symbol of our faith is the cross. The cross represents the cost of our redemption—and the infinite love God has for each of us.

That is why in our churches we often celebrate the Lord’s Supper…or Communion…or the Mass…or whatever your church calls it. When we eat the bread and drink the wine we remember how much God loved us and what Jesus did for us. We remember how much we owe him.

B. Because men and women are so valuable to God, they should also be valuable to us.

If you and I love God as we ought to love him, we must also love other people as God loves them.

I will tell you the rest of the prayer I quoted at the beginning of my message. The whole prayer goes like this:

“Why, Lord Jesus, dost thou so love men and women?

Why are they all thy treasures?

What wonder is this, that thou shouldst so esteem them as to die for them!

Show me the reasons of thy love, that I may love them too

O thou, who art most glorious in goodness,

make me abundant in this goodness like unto thee,

that I may as deeply pity others’ misery and as ardently hope for their happiness as thou dost.

Let the same mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus.

I pray thee, teach me first thy love to me, and then unto mankind.

(Thomas Traherne, 1637-1674, in Centuries)

II. Now I will tell you the second meaning of the parable.

A. The merchant is also you and me.

We go through life searching—searching for happiness…

…for the meaning of life…

…for the satisfaction of knowing that our life has made a difference.

We keep searching—whether we know it or not—searching for God

Because God is the one who gives meaning to life.

God is the one who makes us a blessing to others.

And when we find God, it is like a dream come true.

B. And, like in the story Jesus told, it costs us something.

It costs to have Jesus—our “Pearl of Great Value.”

It costs us our pride, our sins, our self-sufficiency, our good opinion of ourself, our independence.

For some it costs much more.

A friend named Chris told me this story a few weeks ago.

Chris has a friend named Don, with whom he was studying the Bible.

As they studied the Bible, Don felt more and more drawn to God.

One day he said to Chris: “I’ve decided to stop doing drugs. But I’ve got this big stash to get rid of, so I’ve got to sell it.”

Chris said, “Selling it is worse than using it, you know.”

Don said, “I know, but that’s a lot of money.”

Chris said, “You need to throw it out, man. Just flush it down the toilet.”

Don said, “This God thing is scary. It’s like, committing yourself to your Creator is a huge decision, and I’m really afraid.”

Chris said, “The fact that you’re afraid shows me that you’re on the brink of following Jesus.

Don became agitated. He face became flushed, he opened and closed his eyes. Finally he said, “All right, I want to do it?”

“Do what?” asked Chris.

“Follow Jesus,” said Don.

Chris said, “That’s awesome!”

Don beamed and exclaimed, “I feel happy! I feel like a different person!”

Our stories aren’t probably so dramatic. But it’s the same idea. It’s a big decision to follow Jesus.

To follow Jesus is to become a different person.

It’s worth everything we have.

For Don it meant getting rid of his stash of drugs.

For you it might mean letting go of your grudge against someone…

It might mean praying for someone who hates you.

It’s a big decision to follow Jesus.

But Jesus is worth it all. He’s the Pearl of Great Value.

CONCLUSION

The parable of the Pearl of Great Value is the parable of God seeking us and us seeking God.

God is priceless for us—and we are priceless for him.

The King of Heaven is searching for us, and we are searching for the King of Heaven.

And a seeking Savior and a seeking sinner will surely find each other.

Has Jesus found you? Have you found him?

To find Jesus and to be found by him is the greatest thing in life.

Exodus 3:1-17: Moses and the Burning Bush

INTRODUCTION

I graduated from the University of Kansas. The year the university opened its doors in 1866 its first chancellor chose as the great seal of the university a picture of Moses bowed before the burning bush.

The center of the seal is a picture of Moses bowing before the burning bush. The inscription on the seal reads (as translated from the Latin): “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt,” which is from the Bible, Exodus 3:3.

According to promotional material put out by the university, the fire in the burning bush represents knowledge in many myths and stories. The bowed figure of Moses represents the humble attitude of the scholar in his unquenchable pursuit of truth and knowledge.

That seal with Moses and the burning bush is on my diplomas.

In a stained glass window of the university chapel where we were married is a picture of Moses and the burning bush.

Smith Hall, which houses K.U.’s Department of Religious Studies, has a large stained glass window depicting the burning bush and outside the building, facing the window is a huge statue of Moses kneeling before the burning bush.

I think it is interesting that my university uses that image to depict its mission. But that is not really what the story is all about.

Today I want to talk about this famous story, one of the most important in the Bible.

BACKGROUND

You remember the story about how the cruel ruler Pharaoh decreed that all the Hebrew boy babies would be thrown into the Nile for the crocodiles to eat.

When Moses’s mother saw how beautiful her baby boy followed the Pharaoh’s instructions by making a little boat of bulrushes and setting it among the reeds at the water’s edge, so it wouldn’t float away.

When Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to bathe, she saw the little boat, saved baby Moses and raised him in the palace as her own child.

When Moses grew up he was educated. He had prospects for a good life, but he got into trouble.

Moses had learned that he wasn’t an Egyptian but a Hebrew, and the Hebrews were the slaves who built Pharaoh’s building projects.

It so happened that one day Moses was out and about and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. This offended Moses’s sense of justice. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

But now Moses’s life was in danger. So he fled far from Egypt into the land of Midian and sat down by a well.

Then the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water from the well. Moses watched as they filled the trough for the sheep and goats. Then some rough shepherds came and drove the girls away from the water they had drawn so that their sheep could drink it.

We don’t read that Moses beat up the shepherds, but we do read that Moses watered the girls’ flock.

In these two stories we learn that Moses, although he was raised a prince, had sympathy for people who were poor and oppressed.

The father of the girls invited Moses home, put him to work and gave him one of his daughters for his wife.

And so Moses because a shepherd and passed some years keeping the flock of his father-in-law.

Moses no doubt thought that the interesting part of his life was over. He assumed that he would live and die in the wilderness of Midian, as a shepherd.

I. One day when Moses was out with his sheep something really amazing happened. We read about this in Exodus 3.

A. “Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning yet it was not consumed.”

In scripture fire is a symbol of God’s presence and of his holiness. Fire symbolizes God purifying, cleansing, and consuming sin. The writer of Hebrews writes, “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28).

So Moses said to himself, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

And God called out of the bush: “Moses, Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here am I.”

Then God said “Do not come near: put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing in holy ground.”

In those days, it was considered respectful to remove one’s sandals when entering a holy place.

Israel’s priests performed their duties barefoot.

People came into the presence of a king barefoot.

Muslims even today preserve the custom and show their respect for their god by entering their Mosques barefoot.

B. “And God said: ’I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (v6).

Moses knew that he was from the Hebrew people. But he had been raised in Pharaoh’s court.

Perhaps he didn’t know much about the faith of the Hebrew people, but he had evidently heard of his ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

C. Now that God had Moses’s attention, he said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” (3:7-8).

And God told Moses that he would send him to Pharaoh, and he will lead his people out of Egypt.

II. But Moses has a problem. He has been away from the Egypt for years. Why would anyone believe him?

A. Why would Pharaoh listen to him? Even more of a problem: why would the Hebrew elders listen to him?

Moses has grown up in the court of Egypt. He doesn’t even know the name of Israel’s God.

The name of Israel’s God—Yahweh—appears many times in Genesis. (The name “Yahweh” doesn’t appear in our English Bibles because whenever that word appears in Hebrew the translators have substituted the word “The LORD,” written in capitals.)

But we read in Exodus 6:2 that God appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by another name, which means “God Almighty.”

So God gives his name to Moses. He says, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD (that is, Yahweh) the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name for ever.” (The name Yahweh in Hebrew means “I Am.”)

It appears that knowing this name would authenticate Moses’s mission to the elders. Moses had been raised as an Egyptian. Perhaps he didn’t have the knowledge of the faith of Israel that the elders would have had.

In those days, names weren’t just labels. Names revealed character. And this name “I AM” revealed God as the Eternal, Unchanging One. The one who exists in himself, who is all sufficient, and the one who causes everything else to exist.

We change. We sin and we repent and sin again. We learn and grow. We change our minds. We gain wisdom and sometimes become foolish.

But God is always the same. He is always wise and gracious and righteous.

When God says, “I am who I am,” he means, “You can trust me through and through.”

From this point on in the Old Testament God is usually called Yahweh, the word translated in our English Bibles as “The LORD.”

B. So this is the story of how Moses was called by God for the greatest mission so far in history.

Moses will be the greatest leader the Hebrew people will ever have until Jesus comes.

Moses will be God’s instrument to bring about miracles of judgment on Egypt to bring about a change of heart in cruel Pharaoh.

Moses will lead his people out of slavery into the desert of Sinai, where they will become truly a nation.

Moses will receive God’s law including the Ten Commandments, the instructions for the true worship of God, and the laws for the nation of Israel.

Moses will save the nation from destruction when they sin by interceding with God for them.

He will lead them up to the border of the Promised Land—the land flowing with milk and honey that will be their homeland.

APPLICATION

So what is the meaning of the story for us?

We are not Moses.

We have not seen any great vision of God. We have not been given any great mission.

I will tell you why I think this story is so important.

The story of Israel is our story.

The story of the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt is the background for the story of Jesus.

According to the New Testament, we believers are also “Israel.” The story of Israel has become our story.

The early Christians understood Jesus as the Deliverer from the slavery of sin. That is why he is called our Savior. That is why Jesus is called “The Lord,” it’s the name used of God in the Old Testament.

Jesus is “the Lord”; Jesus is also the New Moses. Jesus brings us the law for living in his parables and  in the Sermon on the Mount and his other teachings.

When Jesus’s enemies tried to make fun of the truth of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus used the story of Moses at the burning bush.

He told his enemies these words of God to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

By this, Jesus declares that when God binds a person to himself in the covenant relationship of faith, that bond can never be broken. Even death cannot break that bond. The one whom God has taken to himself he will never let go. Even though we die, we will rise again to live with God.

And Jesus clearly referred to this story when he told his enemies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” His enemies, knowing that in those words, Jesus was claiming to be the LORD of the story of the calling of Moses, took up stones to kill him.

For these reasons, it is important that we know the story of Moses and the Burning Bush.

CONCLUSION

Each of us has a part to play in God’s work in the world.

A few of God’s people have great parts to play, such as Moses did.

Most of us have less important parts in God’s story.

But all of us are to be laborers in God’s vineyard of the world.

All of us have a part in bringing in the Kingdom of God.

When we pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are committing ourselves to participate in that great work of redemption.

We pray, we love, we serve, we give. And so we bear witness to the unbelieving world that God is our Father and Jesus is our Savior.

May God help us to be faithful—as Moses was faithful—to that which he has entrusted to us.

Mark 3:31-35: What It Means to Be a Member of the Family of Jesus

INTRODUCTION

You will remember that during Jesus’s life he was often attacked by those who were out of sympathy with not in sympathy with his message.

Some of his enemies felt threatened because he was associating with notorious sinners, with tax collectors and prostitutes and people who didn’t live according to all the rules of their religion.

Some of his enemies became so alarmed by his teaching and behavior that they said he had a demon.

It is hard enough to be attacked by our enemies.

But there was something even worse for Jesus.

His family also became alarmed. The quiet, responsible Jesus who had lived with them for 30 years, the son and older brother they had depended on after Joseph had died—this son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Juda, and Simon and of sisters also whose names we don’t know—had been acting strange lately.

He had left home and was preaching a kind of message no one had heard before, gathering crowds, and healing people of all kinds of diseases.

He was surrounded by noisy crowds. People were leaving their homes to follow him. He was becoming a controversial figure.

His family, who loved him, became worried that he had become unbalanced—a fanatic—unpredictable—what we would call “mentally ill.”

We read about this in Mark 3:19-22 we read: “…and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons’” (NRSV).

Now let me read the verses we are going to consider today:

And his mother and brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”

And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

I. Some have been offended by what they consider his harsh words about those who were nearest and dearest to him—his mother and brothers and sisters.

A. We know that Jesus had a tender regard for his mother.

We see this in the story of the cross. As Jesus hung dying on the cross, we read, “He saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, and he said to his mother, ‘Woman behold your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27).

In this way, even in the extremity of his pain, he was able to make provision for the care of his grieving mother by committing her to the care of his dearest disciple.

This is one of the so-called “Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross.”

B. We also know that until later his own brothers didn’t believe in him. We read this in John 7.

C. No, Jesus wasn’t rebuffing his family. Jesus was using this situation to teach his disciples—and us—something of the greatest importance.

Jesus often used situations that arose in the course of his life to teach lessons.

These were what teachers call “teachable moments,” opportunities to use an unexpected situation to teach important lessons that his hearers would never forget. For example, a teachable moment may come when a child misbehaves: the teacher stops the lesson he or she is teaching to talk about the more important lesson of courtesy and respect.

Do you remember the story in which James and John came to Jesus and asked to have the privilege of sitting at his right hand and left hand in the Kingdom of God? Jesus took the opportunity to teach his disciples and us wherein true greatness lies: he said (Mark 11:43-45), “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came, not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Do you remember that when parents brought their little children to him to be blessed, and the disciples tried to shoo them away? Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:13-15).

II. When Jesus’s family came to rescue him from the crowds because they thought he was becoming unbalanced was just such a teachable moment.

A. In those days families stayed together. They worked together in the family business or on the family farm.

They lived in the same village and maybe in the same house. They didn’t split up and go far away like families do here and now.

I have a brother in Argentina, another in Florida, and one in Arizona. I have sisters in Kansas and Chicago.

We don’t see each other very often. I feel closer to some of them than to others, but we have grown apart because we see each other so seldom.

It wasn’t so in the Palestine of Jesus’s time. Jesus’s seeming rebuff of his family would have surprised and scandalized those sitting around him more than we can imagine.

And for that reason, the lesson he taught them that day was never forgotten.

B. Notice the lesson Jesus draws from this situation.

We read that he looked around at the people sitting before him. His eyes rested on one and on another—it was a searching look.

These are the ones who have responded to his message.

Among them were people who had left family and friends and jobs to follow him, to learn of him, and to become part of his mission to the world.

As a former teacher, I can tell you how satisfying to have students who are attentive, who want to learn, who hang on every word with a thirst for knowledge.

This pleased Jesus too.

And Jesus said to them: “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

They might have been surprised that they were “doing God’s will” when all they were doing was sitting listening to him talking.

Doing God’s will means, first of all, choosing to be with Jesus when people all around were saying, “Stay away from him.”

You are doing God’s will by being here this afternoon.

Obedience begins with listening to Jesus.

But it doesn’t end there.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me…”

Jesus’s true family—his sisters and brothers and mothers—are those who are obedient to his commands.

They listen to his voice as it comes to them in his Word—as it comes to them in their consciences—as it comes to them in the words faithful believers.

And then we live our lives to please him—by telling the truth when we are tempted to lie, by visiting the sick, by our generosity, by serving the needy, by loving the unlovable, by bearing witness to God.

Many of you have lived your lives like that. And you are still finding opportunities to serve him, even here at Village Ridge.

Jesus made it very clear in his teaching that it isn’t the one who says he or she believes in Jesus who will enter the kingdom of God on the last day; it isn’t even the one who goes to church; it’s the one who makes it his aim in life to do God’s will.

Sometimes it’s a painful sacrifice to obey Jesus, but for the true believer, there’s no other option.

CONCLUSION

An old woman in Scotland said to her pastor: “That was a grand sermon you preached last Lord’s Day.”

Wanting to test the sincerity of her remark, the pastor asked, “Do you remember the text I preached from?”

“Ah minister!” she answered, “I don’t remember the text or the words, but I came home and took the false bottom out of my peck measure.”

A missionary-translator said, “For a long time we were looking for a word for ‘obedience.’ One day as I went home from the village my dog stayed behind. I whistled and he came running after me at top speed. An old man by the roadside said with admiration: ‘Your dog is all ear.’ I got hold of that expression and found in it the perfect word for ‘obedience.’”

The most common Greek word for “obedience” in the New Testament is “hupakoe” which is built on the word “akouo,” which means “to hear.”

A Muslim converted to faith in Christ.

This is his first prayer as a Christian believer: “O God, I am Mustafah the tailor and I work at the shop of Muhammad Ali. The whole day long I sit and pull the needle and the thread through the cloth.

“O God, you are the needle and I am the thread. I am attached to you and I follow you. When the thread tries to slip away from the needle, it becomes tangled and must be cut so that it can be put back in the right place.

“O God, help me to follow you wherever you may lead me. For I am really only Mustafah, the tailor, and I work at the shop of Muhammad Ali on the great square.”

Every morning and every evening let us remind ourselves that we have been called to obey God. Let us pray that we will love to do his will, no matter what the difficulty, and let us pray that we will never flag in our zeal to please him. Let us keep this resolve strong in our hearts until the end of the road.