The sermon titled 'Jesus's Relatives' explores the concept of Jesus' physical and spiritual family, emphasizing the importance of hearing and acting upon the Word of God. It ties to the parable of the sower, where the Word falls on various types of soil, representing different human responses. The speaker highlights the danger of not acting on divine truth and the significance of spiritual kinship with Jesus, who considers those who follow the Word as his true family. The sermon also addresses the enduring importance of physical family relationships while asserting the supremacy of spiritual ties in Christ. It stresses that genuine faith invariably produces fruit and that spiritual kinship with Jesus transcends physical lineage.

The title of the message this morning is Jesus's relatives. We meet two kinds of Jesus's relatives, his physical relatives, his mother who gave birth to him and his brothers who grew up in the same house with him. And then we meet his spiritual brethren, those who hear the word of God and do it. This week's text is really just a continuation on a theme. We started two weeks ago with the parable of the sower.

A sower goes out to sow and he sows the word of God. And this word of God falls on different kinds of soils, representing different kinds of people. And you get very different results. Many of them seem to be the same, exactly the same at first, but over time and circumstances you find out what's what. In fact, the last two sermons have been called, All That Glitters Is Not Gold.

Things aren't always what they appear to be on the purpose. So the theme of two weeks ago and then again last week and now again this week is simply this. What a person does with the Word of God. Sometimes it's nothing. Sometimes people do exactly nothing with the Word of God.

Sometimes people do tremendous things with the Word of God. And there's a hundred-fold fruitfulness. And last week's text ended with this warning about Taking heed how you hear Because it's important when God gives you light to work by to walk by that you actually walk by it you take steps and do things with the revelation of truth that God gives to you. So that's what all this has been about, that's what this is about again today. Even with Jesus' relatives, Jesus is going to say at the most fundamental level, my relatives are the one who hear the Word of God and actually do something with it.

So let's pray. God, I thank you for this three-week block that has us considering how dangerous it is to have truth revealed to us, how important it is that we actually do something with the revelation of truth that you've so freely given to us. Most of us have so many Bibles in our homes, so much truth at our fingertips. I pray God that we wouldn't find ourselves in great danger because you've given us a lot of truth, but that we would always be doing things with the truth that you give to us, always be walking by the light that you have given to us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, there's not much, there's just three verses here, so I'm going to keep the first two verses together. Please follow along as I reread Luke chapter 8, verses 19 and 20. Then his, Jesus's, mother and brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd. It was told him by some who said, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you. Here in these two verses, we have simply Jesus's mother and brothers and their desire to see him.

Now, let's start by reviewing what we know about these people in the text from the gospel account. So let's bring together the gospels and what we know about Jesus' mother and his brothers. There's not a better place to start really than just remembering what we were studying in Luke chapter 1. It's so glorious. This angel is sent by God.

We know his name. His name is Gabriel. And he comes to this very young woman. It's possible she was so young that she was in her late teen years. However old she was, Gabriel, the angel, comes from God to her to tell her that that God is going to do wonderful things in her life that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon her and she will become pregnant and she will give birth to the Son of God.

But these were difficult things for her too. These were things not without difficulties that will come into her life. Then she visits her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist. Even when Mary comes into the room, This baby in her cousin Elizabeth's womb, John the Baptist, leaps in her womb for joy. And Elizabeth, this other mother, calls Mary the mother of her Lord.

In other words, the baby in Mary's womb is the Lord of Elizabeth, even though he hasn't even been born yet. Can you imagine these things? Mary hears these things and then we get what's known as the song of Mary. There's no proof or evidence from the text that it was actually a song, but it's a wonderful section of Mary praising God. She ends up saying in Luke chapter 1 to Gabriel, behold the made sermon of the Lord, may it be to me according to your word." So we have this woman who is full of faith in God and totally accepting of even hard, difficult things, but wonderful things that God is bringing into her life.

God consistent with this is John chapter 2. John chapter 2 is the wedding at Cana. Jesus' mother is invited to a wedding. Jesus is invited to. He goes to that wedding with his disciples.

They run out of wine, but Mary knows that's not a problem because of who her son is. And she says, go to Jesus and do whatever he tells you. And he ends up making this tremendous quantity of wine that's better than any other wine that they had served in the wedding before they ran out. All this new wine that Jesus makes out of water is better than all of that wine. But you see again, a mother understanding who her son is and embracing it and rejoicing in it really.

Turn to Matthew 13. So we already know a lot from Luke chapter 1, John chapter 2 about Mary and her faith in God, her faithfulness to God. Now about his brothers. Matthew 13 and I'm gonna be reading, you know what? That's not it.

Yeah, Matthew 13. Sorry, I was just in the wrong place. Matthew 13, I'll be reading verses 54 through 57. Follow along as I read them. When he, Jesus, had come to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" So they were offended at him.

You've heard the phrase, familiarity breeds contempt. That's what had happened to these people. We know your mom and dad. We know your brothers. We can name four of your brothers and here are your sisters." And because they knew the family, they couldn't believe that Jesus could teach with such authority.

So his teaching, though it was wonderful, was offensive to them. So we're actually in Matthew 13 given the names of four of his brothers and told that he had sisters too. Now there's a controversy over this and the use of this Greek term that's translated brothers here the Greek word is Adelphos and Because it's sometimes used figuratively people who come to these texts with a pre commitment to Mary having remained a virgin Say that no no, this is a figurative sense. So it's cousins or it is stepchildren because Joseph had children from a previous marriage. There's not a hint of evidence in the scripture from any of these things.

The truth about that Greek word is the context makes it obvious everywhere and to have it to take it in a figurative sense and not just a brother or a sister like we always know a brother or a sister you would have to have an indicator in the text that gives you a compelling reason to use it in a figurative sense and there's never any such thing. Jesus had real live brothers and sisters. Of course, they were half brothers and sisters in the sense that God was Jesus' real father and Joseph was these brothers and sisters' actual physical father. But they were real half brothers to Jesus. Of that word Adelphos, Strongs gives us the literal meaning which means from the same womb.

From the same womb. So in Matthew 13 we know that he had these brothers and were given four names and he had sisters also. Turn to John chapter 7. For now, this will be the end of the New Testament data about his brothers and sisters, but John chapter 7 is very interesting and very important. I'll be reading John chapter 7 verses 1 through 5.

This about Jesus' brothers. John chapter 7 verse 1, after these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you were doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even his brothers did not believe in him." So at least as of John chapter 7, though Mary is a woman of faith and a faithful woman, his brothers don't believe in him and they're actually saying to Jesus, challenging him, If these things are real, go do them in the capital city. Go do them in front of the leaders of our nation. No one seeking to be known openly does these things in secret. Go up to the feast and do these things, and the reason is given.

They did not believe in Him. So that is the data from the Gospel accounts up to this point in time. I'm going to give you more data later, but up to this point in time, this is what the gospel has to say about Mary, her faith, her faithfulness, and his brothers in their unbelief and that is probably the state of things here in Luke chapter 8. Now Jesus is Inside somewhere, we know that because verse 20 says that his mother and brothers were standing outside. You can only stand outside if there's an inside that Jesus is in.

So Jesus is inside either a home or the synagogue or somewhere to be inside with people and his mothers and brothers are standing outside. There's a tremendous crowd of people inside with Jesus. They're packed in so tight that no one can get through. So this is a crowd so dense that there's no way for Jesus' mother and brothers to get inside near Jesus to see him. The parallel texts in Matthew 12, so Matthew 12 and Mark 3, both give us the history of this same set of events, But they're given in these other two Gospels and there are some minor differences in them.

But they're actually very, very largely the same. In Matthew 12 it says that Jesus was still talking to the multitudes. So he's inside with this dense crowd that no one can penetrate. It's wall to wall and then some, standing room only and then some. And he's still talking to the multitudes while his mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to him.

So it's not that there's nothing going on. Jesus is teaching, still teaching, these multitudes that are packed inside wherever this is. And no one is about to give up his or her spot. So there's too many people for the space, but no one's leaving. No one's about to leave.

Jesus is still teaching and no one will give up their spot. Here's my question. Would you give up your spot? I wouldn't give up mine. Hey, someone wants to come through.

Too bad, I'm here, Jesus is teaching, I'm not giving up my spot. I don't think you'd give up yours. At least some people pass along to Jesus that his mothers and brothers are outside wanting to see him. So they might not give up their spot, but they'll at least pass the word that Jesus' mother and brothers are outside, desiring to see him. Now where is Joseph?

Mary's husband and the man people naturally assume is Jesus' father. God is actually Jesus' father. The Holy Spirit, she was conceived, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit. But Joseph is the head of this household and he's living in this household and Joseph is married to his mother so people naturally assume that he's his father. Where is this man?

The text doesn't say, but he's most likely dead. The last time we hear of Joseph in the gospel accounts is when Jesus was 12 years old, now he's more than 30. And in the public ministry of Jesus, Joseph is never mentioned except for in the past tense that Jesus is the carpenter's son. So he's most likely dead because he never appears in Jesus'—in the histories of Jesus' public ministry. In John 19, when Jesus is on the cross, Jesus from the cross places his mother, Mary, into a home for her care after his death.

So clearly Joseph is not alive at that point. What do Mary and his brothers want to see Jesus about is very unhelpful to speculate because there's not even a hint of why they came to see him, what they want to see him about in the text. So there's no way to even make an educated guess, which means that you can only make a guess and why would we even do that if God wanted us to know he would at least give us a hint in the text and there's no such thing. So that is verses 19 and 20, Jesus' mother and brothers and their desire to see Him. Now back to Luke 8, follow along as I reread the final verse of our section, verse 21.

But he, Jesus, answered and said to them, My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. So he's in this house and he says that his mother and his brothers are these who hear the Word of God and do it. They hear truth revealed from heaven and they do something with it. In this verse, Jesus is teaching us about the new and enduring family. In the parallel text that I've already referenced in Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus asks a question and then answers it.

Luke simply summarizes by giving us the answer. So Luke just gives us the answer. In the other parallel text, Jesus asks a question and then this is the answer of it. In Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus asks this question, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And the answer is these who hear the word of God and do it.

They hear, but they don't just hear. They also do. In Matthew 12 and Mark 3, Jesus says, Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." So it's not just the twelve, it's whoever hears and does, are his close relatives. And the Word of God is the revelation of the will of God, meaning I'm taking these two texts, Luke 8, and I'm putting them side by side with the parallel text, Matthew 12 and Mark 3, and seeing what they say, and because of what they say, it must be true that the Word of God is the revelation of the will of God. People wanna know the will of God so bad.

We should read our Bibles more. If you want to know what the will of God is, here it is. I know there's some specific things in our life that are the will of God that might not have a chapter in verse, but in comparing these parallel texts, it's clear that the Word of God is the revelation of the will of God. Here in Luke 8, It is those who hear the word of God and do it. And in Matthew 12 and Mark 3, it is those who do the will of God.

So you have to put those things together because that's what Jesus is saying. By comparing, those are two ways of saying the same thing. Now, what is Jesus actually teaching? He's teaching this. My spiritual state is even more fundamental than my physical state.

I am the physical son of Linus and Carol Dome. They're very nice. You should meet them sometime. That's my dad. That's my mom.

I'm the product of their marriage, their union. I literally have their DNA. If I'd have been separated at birth, whisked away from the nursery at the hospital, brought up on the other side of the world and you did a DNA test, they could tell you with absolute certainty this is your mom and dad. But when I am saved by genuine faith in the person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ, Jesus becomes the head of my new family. I was born in Adam.

When I was born, and you trace all the way up to the head of that family, all the way upstream till there's no more upstream, you find Adam. But that's a problem because Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and passed down this corruption and this inclination towards all sorts of things that dishonor God and a backwardness towards all sorts of things that honor God, so that this is a family of death. You were born into a family of death. Gary likes to say you were born on death row. That really is true.

You were born on death row and so was I. But then I was saved into the family of Jesus. Adam's no longer the head of my family. So I'm not defined by the corruptions that he brought into the nature of our Race I'm actually part of a new race that has a new family head and Jesus is that family head because I trust in him and he has no sins and corruptions. Now does that mean that Linus Dome is no longer my dad?

Does that mean that Carol Dome is no longer my mom? No, of course not. And the Bible still defines those relationships for me and gives me commands to govern those relationships. So this is not the invalidating of your physical relationship to your family tree, your blood relatives, but it's saying that there is something more fundamental, more important even than that. So what are those commands that define my relationship with my mother and father?

Well, when I lived under their roof, Under their authority, it meant that I was bound by the Word of God, bound by the will of God to obey them, to do what they said. And even now that I'm no longer directly under their authority and I don't live in their home, I'm bound even after they're both alive, but even after they're dead, I'll be bound to honor them. Not even death, we'll finish that. And we've actually seen that in Jesus' life. In Jesus' life, it didn't break the bounds of physical, genealogical, family tree, blood relationships.

Jesus actually submitted Himself When he was 12 years old, when his parents found him in the temple, astonishing the teachers there, he went home with them and submitted himself to their authority. He obeyed them. But it does mean that those relationships are less fundamental. The most fundamental, most defining, Most important relationship is my relationship to and with Jesus. It defines me way more than bloodlines ever could define me.

Being a dome is secondary to being a Christian. I'm more Christian than I am dome. You're more Christian than you are goss. If you're in the faith, if you have trusted in Jesus savingly. Now does less fundamental mean unimportant?

Your bloodlines are less important, excuse me, less fundamental. Does that mean that they're unimportant? Does that mean that they no longer matter? No way, Of course they matter. To say that it's less fundamental isn't to say that it's not important at all.

It does not have to mean that. And it does not mean that if you study what the scripture says about family relationships. Let's look at a passage that unfolds all this for us. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10.

I'll be reading Matthew 10 verses 34 through 39. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those of his own household.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me he who finds his life will lose it And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. This is another place that is teaching the same thing. The most fundamental relationship in your life is your relationship to and with Jesus Christ. And that may force a choice.

So we don't see that very often because we've grown up with a lot of Christianity around us and many of us are not first-generation Christians. Some of the first-generation Christians can teach us about how the gospel sometimes forces you to choose between Jesus or your family. But understand this. In many places of the world, it might not be an exaggeration to say, in most places in the world, embracing the gospel or desiring to embrace the gospel forces a choice between Jesus or your family. You cannot have both.

So what will it be if you have to choose not because you no longer like your parents but because your parents cannot accept you rejecting the way they brought you up in order to embrace Jesus they cannot and will not accept that your brothers and sisters cannot and will not accept that. What will it be? Jesus or them? You cannot have both. Jesus is teaching us that the gospel often makes you have to choose.

If you can't have both, will you be saved by faith in Jesus or will you not be saved? That really is the choice that you're making. It's not that the believing heart no longer has affection for the parents, it's that, or their children, okay, can either go upstream or downstream, it is That the heart of the unbelieving parents or the unbelieving children can no longer accept you anymore because of your allegiance to the gospel and your affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot live with that and they will not live with that. Seems strange to us, but in human history, this is everywhere in human history.

Listen to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Verses 10 through 12. Hebrews 2, 10 through 12. For it was fitting for him, speaking of God the Father, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, To make the captain of their salvation, Jesus, the captain of our salvation, perfect through sufferings.

So far, what the author of Hebrews says, it was fitting for God the Father to make the captain of our salvation Jesus perfect through suffering. Verse 11, for both he who sanctifies God who pulls out of people for himself, sets apart a people to himself for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified, believers who are being pulled out of the world to belong to God, those who are being sanctified, who are being set apart, are all of one. For which reason, he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praises to you. This is a quote from Psalm 22, I will declare my name to your brethren.

The author of Hebrews is saying, that's Jesus laying claim to his believing people and calling them his brethren and saying, he will lead in the praises of his father among these brethren that he's made his nearest dearest relations by the shedding of his blood. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Why? Because we're good. Is that how he found us?

No way. He found us full of sin and pride and self-sufficiency and arrogance and pretty much every kind of filth. But God was setting apart to Himself a people claiming us for Himself, even when we were sinners, He claimed us for Himself, and He made us clean. And He is not ashamed to call us His brothers. He knew all that about us and He saved us anyway, that's what it means to save us.

And he delights to call us his brethren. It was such a privilege on Tuesday night to be preaching at the nursing home out of Revelation 5 where Jesus presents himself as a lamb as if he were slain. And the point I was drawing out of that is how much Jesus loves to save sinners How he wants to reveal himself in heaven? Even though he's the lion of the tribe of Judah He reveals himself in heaven as a lamb as if it were slain because he loves that work. He delights in saving sinners.

He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He delights to make us brethren. These are precious things that those who hear the will of God and do it are his nearest, dearest relationships are precious things and means that he loves to save sinners. He delights in it. He takes delight in these things.

Friends, this is so profound and important and ultimate that in John 19, as Jesus was on the cross, I said I would come back to this, when Jesus was on the cross, Jesus entrusted his mother to the care of a believing disciple, John, rather than one of his blood brothers. This is so defining that when it was time to entrust the care of his believing mother to someone, he entrusted this believing mother to a believing disciple rather than a blood brother. So you see that Jesus didn't just teach these things, He lived these things out. John MacArthur says this in his study Bible. This is a note from the MacArthur Study Bible.

Jesus was not repudiating his earthly family, rather he was emphasizing the supremacy and eternality of spiritual relationships. So are our bloodline family relationships important? Yes, the Bible says that they are, but what is supreme and eternal are not those. What is supreme and eternal is our relationships among those who Jesus has bought with his blood, starting with Jesus himself. He is the head of this body.

We are more fundamentally brothers and sisters than you are with your own blood brothers and sisters. That is true. We should live like it's true. We should cultivate these relationships like it's true. Just Listen to Jesus on the cross in John 19.

I'll just read that text. John 19 verses 26 and 27. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, so he is hanging on the cross here, seeing his mother there as he's crucified. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples whom he loved standing by he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Son by blood?

No. This is his disciple John. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. She became a member of his household.

So Jesus taught this and Jesus lived this. Applications, let me give you four. Number one, there is nothing more important than your relationship to and with Jesus. Above all other things is what this text is teaching. If you're in relationship with Jesus by faith in Him, genuine saving faith with Him, you have everything.

If you are not in relationship with Jesus by genuine saving faith, you have nothing. It's just that simple. To be in relationship with Him by saving faith gives you everything and you are deprived of anything if you don't have that. There is nothing more important than your relationship to and with Jesus. Number two.

It is very, very precious when these things aren't either or. What do I mean? I mean you've got the physical family and you've got the spiritual family and it's wonderful when it's not either or it's both and when your physical family also are part of your family of faith. Double sweet! So that all of the normal affections and entanglements in a good way with physical family overlap with and join together with spiritual life in Christ.

When your mother and father are also in the faith, when your sons and daughters are also in the faith, when your brothers and sisters are also in the faith. And this is actually the case in time with Jesus. I just want to read you. I told you I would give you some more data from the Gospels and also outside the Gospels, but New Testament data about Jesus' family. Listen to this.

Acts chapter 1 verse 14. Acts chapter 1, Jesus has already been resurrected from the dead, he's already ascended into heaven and he's told his disciples wait in Jerusalem until this giving of the spirit till the day of Which happens of the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 so that has not happened yet. They're in Jerusalem They're waiting and they're making good use of the time by praying. Listen to Acts 1-14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

So in Acts chapter 1 they're waiting for the giving of the Spirit and they're praying and it's the disciples, followers of Jesus, and women who had been followers of Jesus, and Mary, his mother is there praying with them, and his brothers, his brothers are in Jerusalem praying with them. It seems to me like his brothers were saved between the cross and Pentecost. That's 50 days. That's what it seems like to me. That's at least an educated guess.

You can at least draw upon some things in the New Testament. It's not important, but it seems like that. First Corinthians 9 verse 5, listen to this. Paul writes this in First Corinthians 9 verse 5. Do we have no right to take along a believing wife?

As do other apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas. So Paul is talking about other people who are going and doing the work of the Lord in different places and they're taking along believing wives with them and on that list of people who are traveling and advancing the kingdom of God are Jesus's brothers. Paul says we ought to be able to do what Jesus's brothers are doing, taking along a believing wife as they advance the kingdom of God. Or Galatians 1 verse 19, Listen to Galatians chapter 1 verse 19. Paul writes this to the Galatians, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

So in Galatians 1 he's talking about after he had received the gospel going to Jerusalem after that and in Jerusalem interacting with the leaders in the church in Jerusalem and one of them is James, not John's brother, but Jesus's brother. There are a couple of James's in the New Testament. Jesus is identified here in Galatians 1 19 as Jesus's brother, one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem. The book of James and the book of Jude are broadly understood to have been written by these brothers of Jesus. They're authors in the New Testament.

So that was number two. It's very, very precious when these things aren't either or, but these two kinds of relations merge together and your physical relatives are also your spiritual relatives. How sweet when God gives you that. Number three, Jesus is not teaching works based salvation. So if you just look at our today's text in isolation, you could come away thinking You do the works and you get to be Jesus' relative.

You can work your way into the family. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Okay, so if I do the word of God, then I get to be Jesus' relative. I can work my way into the family. You could take it that way.

Jesus is actually teaching that saving faith always transforms and bears fruit. That's what he's actually teaching. Saving faith always transforms and bears fruit. So not do the works, work your way into the family, but when you become Jesus's relative through saving faith, you begin to do works. It's the other way around.

Those works do not save you, but they are the evidence that you have really been saved. Here's what Robert Stein says of this whole section, actually backing up all the way to week one in this three week series about what you do with the Word of God. He starts with the parable of the sower. Robert Stein says this, to have heard God's Word is of no value unless accompanied by faith. You've heard a thousand sermons but you don't trust Christ.

This is of no value to you. That's what he's saying. Yet that Faith is of no value unless it is a faith that puts God's Word into practice. The Gospel must be responded to in faith, but saving faith is more than mere intellectual assent. True faith endures.

It perseveres. It puts into practice the teachings of that faith. Luke believed that we are indeed saved by faith alone, but that the faith that saves is never alone." Yes! That's what Luke believed as he's writing this gospel. That we're saved by faith alone.

It's only a gift. You don't work to deserve it. You don't earn it. You don't deserve it at all. It's actually the opposite of what you deserve.

So you're saved by faith alone, but that saving faith is never alone. It always bears fruit. Yes, That's what our gospel writer is teaching based on Jesus' teaching. Number four, finally. This one's just for our comfort and encouragement.

You wanna end with comfort and encouragement? Let's do that. Give the last word to J.C. Ryle. J.C.

Ryle says this. Let them, he's talking about genuine believers, let genuine believers remember that the Son of God himself regards them as his own near relations. Let them not heed the laughter and mockery and persecution of this world. The woman of whom Christ says, she is my mother, and the man of whom Christ says, He is my brother, have no cause to be ashamed. Amen.

Jesus considers you His nearest and dearest relations. You will never have any cause to be ashamed. God, thank you for the precious truths that are here. I pray that we would see that we are the nearest and dearest to the Lord Jesus. That our relationship to Him and with him would define us.

To be his near kin spiritually and to walk with him and actually know him and have fellowship with him would be the defining marks of our lives. Thank you that this is possible and that these truths are laid before us in our text. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.