Words from the Bible are in " Maroon " Words of Jesus Christ are in " Red " Greek words are in " Purple " Text in " Dark Blue " are hightlighted points
" So many times we have read the above verses but for some reason it just doesn't seem to sink in ..... " I pray that in this article we can explore it's full meaning and move forward toward loving our " family " that our Lord has given us in a way that is much more apparent to the outside world ! There are " only two special holy relationships " that our Lord told us about when it comes to " family " and we are told to recognize them and act on them as He has instructed. But for some reason ..... we sometimes act as if He never gave us these instructions for our lives. And when we don't act on or treat them as we should ..... we are losing untold blessings.  I pray that you will recognize the first one:
Jesus here, noting " Have ye not read ", was repeating the message that God the Father had given us in Genesis 2:24 concerning the relationship between husband and wife and how the two will become " one flesh ". What a beautiful relationship he gave to us as " Christians " to know that we, husbands and wives, become " one flesh " after our marriage ! If more of those that call themselves " Christians " understood and treated this beautiful relationship the way that God intended ..... so many more lives would be blessed as would the church as a whole. Many have heard this relationship, between husbands and wives, preached on "many" times from the pulpit of their local churches ... I hope to write another article on that relationship soon ... However, in this article we will discuss the " Second Holy Relationship " that is referenced in Matthew 12:46-50 shown above. This second relationship is " very rarely " preached and I feel that if it had been talked about more ..... our churches would be a stronger influence in our society and many, many, more of the lost would have come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior !  Jesus had been preaching on the Sabbath when his family came to visit. Because of the multitude of people surrounding Him they could not get close to enough to see Him. He was told " Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. " Now Jesus knew that his "family" had come, evidently, because they had a motive ..... but that is for another later article as well. But it was our Lord's answer that just has to blow you away ! Today we would think that He was somehow almost ignoring His earthly family, and in a way He was. He wanted to get out the knowledge of this " Second Holy Relationship ", He wanted His disciples to understand who their family really was on this earth.  He said simply this:
Let that thought sink in with the Holy Spirit's guidance ..... and If you must ..... read it a few times and listen to it's very important message. Let it raise the question in your very soul about who your brothers, sisters, and mothers are ..... " Are they the brothers and sisters of your earthly parents ? " Are they the people who, in more modern language, share your DNA ever so closely, i.e. your " Physical Family ? " " No ..... " that is not what He is saying at all. He couldn't have made it any clearer ! When we except Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior those who have done the same become " our brothers, our sisters, our mothers ". That is you now have a " Physical Family ? " and a separate " Spirtual Family ". We must realize that the man or women sitting next to us in church who we quite possibly only met a few years, months, weeks or even days before ... has been now made, by the word and power of our Lord Jesus Christ " Your Brother or Sister " - i.e. your " Spirtual Family " !  Do you remember the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 ?
In this story we see Nicodemus, a Pharisees and a ruler of the Jews, coming to Jesus during the night. There is, of course, a reason that he came at night ..... " he didn't want any of the other Jews to see him coming and talking with this radical man named Jesus since that would have given Jesus credibility as a rabbi. " Since we know that Nicodemus was " a ruler of the Jews " we also know that he was very well versed in the Jewish religion. That is, he knew the promises of God and came to find out basically two things. One, he wanted to know if Jesus was possibly the coming messiah fortold in the Old Testament and secondly, if he was the messiah, how does one get into heaven, " The Kingdom of God ". Jesus, of course, knew why Nicodemus was there even without Nicodemus asking his question. Jesus immediately got right to the point and responded to him and said " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. " Nicodemus, shaken since Jesus already knew his question, immediately responded with the question " How can a man be born when he is old ? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ? " Nicodemus was basically saying, " Are you crazy or what ..... I can't go back into my mother's womb now and be born again. What are you talking about Jesus ? ". Jesus responded and said: " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ". That is, when we are born the first time we are born of the flesh ( our mom's and dad's - our "physical family" ) as are any siblings that we have. Jesus here is trying to explain to Nicodemus that when he said " Except a man be born again " he wasn't talking about entering into your mother's womb again. He wasn't talking about being born of our parents. What Jesus was saying was that there is a " second birth " that we all must go through if we want to be part of the " Kingdom of Heaven ". That is we " must be born again ".
If we compare these two statements of Jesus we can see the relationship between them:
We must begin to realize that our brothers and sisters in Christ, our " Spiritual Family " should be oh so very important to us. However, so many times in todays church we don't see that at all. Our Lord " stressed " this love for our brothers and sisters in Him " so many " times in the bible:
Many time we need to look at the church we are attending. Quite possibly what you think is a " Christian " church may indeed be something more than meets the eye.
 I was talking to a brother in Christ in the church parking lot one day. Now we had seen each other and exchanged " good morning's " however I really didn't know anything about him nor he about me. This was the first time that we had ever really talked. It was during the summer and I asked what he was planning for the day and he said, " Well, they have been driving me crazy at work and I plan on just relaxing for the rest of the day. and you ? " I told him that my air conditioning wasn't really working too well at home and I hope to see if I could do anything with it. I noted that I thought it probably needed freon but wasn't really sure since I didn't know that much about air conditioners. I also told him that my cash flow was a little low but hopefully if I couldn't fix it I'd be able to call someone to service it within a few weeks. He responded, " Hey thats the type of work that I do ... where do you live. I can come over in a little while and see whats up with it ? " I, of course, told him he didn't have to do that ..... but he insisted so I told him where I lived and in a few hours he was there. After working on it for about fifteen minutes he told me what the problem was and that he could fix it in a jiffy, which he did. When he was done I asked him how much I owed him for his time and he responded, " I'm not going to charge a brother in need ... don't worry about it. " I reached into my pocket and had about twenty dollars which I offered to him ..... he declined to take it. I said, " My brother you have given me a gift ..... now please take this gift that I offer you. " He took the twenty, thanked me and I him, and left for his home.  I saw another brother in Christ years ago that actually went to another local church while I was out one day. I had something that I " really " needed done at my home ASAP. The job was definately not a " one man " job so I couldn't do it by myself. I thought that since he did this kind of work and since I was " completely " in the dark about exactly how to do it I would ask him for some advice or possibly even help. I let him know that my finances were " very low " but I knew I had to get this done or face other problems that would eventually cost more. I let him know as well that I was able to help with the work but just couldn't do it alone. I also knew that at the time he was out of work and figured ..... if I can help him a little maybe he can help me a little. He agreed to take a look and followed me home. After looking at the situation he said, " I'll go home and work up a good price for you and even give you a big discount. " Now I knew, of course, that the supplies would be about $250.00 so I figured in my head that he would come back with a price of maybe $1,000.00 or maybe $1,250.00 which I couldn't really afford but was willing to pay even though it would wipeout my savings and most of my checking account at the time. That way he could make about $1,000.00 for about a 2 day project and that would help him pay his bills also. When this unemployed man called with his discounted price it was .... " $ 3,500.00 !" I was " stunned " to say the least. I told him that I would need to take a loan out just to pay him that much. He responded, " Well, its a good price if you want me to do the work. " I let him know that I'd be doing the best to handle the situation myself. ( I eventually got the job done with another brother in Christ that I knew ). The " truely sad part of this story " is that I'd given this brother a lot of money over the years ..... for food, electric, his mortgage, etc. The vast majority of which, of course, was never paid back. ( I eventually got the job done with another brother in Christ that I knew ). I would hope that from these two stories it is easy for you to pick out which brother is following his Lord and which is in question.
Sometimes it truely seems that the Amish have discovered a secret that we have all missed. In the Amish society if someone, a brother or sister in Christ, needs help ..... they do exactly that. For a short time I worked in the construction field. While there I had the opportunity to make friends with one of the local Amish men. I asked him one day if he had ever been part of a barn or house raising within his community. He responded with " Of course ". I asked him why ..... he responded with " Christ said that if we have love one for another then we will help each other." In this modern world we seem to have time for our " Physical Families " .,,.. but oh so many times neglect our " Spirtual Families " that God has given us. I'm not suggesting that you not help out your physical brothers and sisters ..... heaven forbid. If you are blessed then your physical brothers and sisters are also part of your " Spirtual Family ". But we must remember that once we are " born again " we now have, as Jesus Christ has told us, " new brothers, sisters, and mothers ". Remember our Lords words the next time you ask yourself ..... " Who are truely my brothers and sisters ? "
 Basic Training Send E-mail to Pastor Russ: webslave for Christ " or " ( russpickde@comcast.net )
This Article Last modified: " Monday, January 3, 2022 "
|
