SERIES: The Everyday Gospel
TEXT: Matthew 12:46-50
MESSAGE: “Who Is My Family?”

“Jesus’ earthly family seem not to have understood exactly who he was and what his mission demanded. John tells us that his brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5), and Mark that on one occasion his family (or perhaps his friends) tried to seize him because they thought he was beside himself (Mark 3:20–21). There may well be something of the same attitude here. They were probably moved, not by any spirit of opposition, but by concern; they seem to have wanted to preserve him from unfortunate consequences (as they saw them) of what he had been doing.” — Leon Morris

1. Who was outside? (v.46)

“While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.”

“Although Capernaum had become Jesus’ “own city” during his Galilean ministry (4:13; 9:1), his hometown is Nazareth. Perhaps he responds to a request from his mother and brothers to return home.” — J. I. Packer

2. Who was inside? (v.48-49)

“But he replied to the man who told him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’”

• “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  — Matthew 10:34–39
• ^“…for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. ⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.” — Micah 7:6–7

“Jesus is saying here, by pulling the disciples out like this, that as strong as that bond can be from all that common experience, the experience of the cross is greater. Or put it this way, when you grasp the cross of Jesus Christ, it puts you into an experience. It’s an experience. It’s such a radical identity change that the commonality you feel with anyone else who has had that experience is deeper than the commonality you will feel with someone you were raised with. If the other person who believes in the cross has nothing else in common with you … different race, different income, different politics, different economics … doesn’t matter. You have the basis for a deeper unity with anyone else who has experienced the cross of Jesus Christ than you do with someone you were raised with, and that’s what he’s saying. When you become a Christian, when the cross becomes the center of your life, you will be sealed in, if you come to understand what the cross means, into an intimate family. The second thing Jesus tells us is he gives them a kingdom. The community that’s created by the cross is not just a warm family but an alternate human society. You see, they have this argument, and what does Jesus say? Very, very important. He’s really saying, ‘You are a counterculture.’” — Timothy Keller

3. Who is Jesus’ family? (v.50)

“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” — John 6:40 

“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

TAKEAWAYS: How can we live as a missional family? Remember that…

• Jesus saves you into a family

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community… Let him who is not in community beware of being alone… Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together…because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit Jesus Christ has saved them to doing what he says—and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’s sake.” — Don Carson

• Jesus calls us into His mission

“We need the whole church, taking the whole gospel, to the whole city.” — Bob K.