Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 93 viewsPeople use the acronym WWJD all of the time and think on how, or, what our Lord would do in a situation, but look at what exactly Jesus did in restoring a brother and its impact on the church!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Open with thanking the WHOLE church for the amazing job they all did with the 4th of July outreach and the plans for next year!
Mention about the number of hot dogs that we served and were eaten.
Ask if anyone ate more than 5 hot dogs? (Then show slide of man eating 72 and breaking record!)
July 4 (UPI) -- Joey Chestnut continued a Fourth of July tradition -- winning Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island's famed Boardwalk in Brooklyn, N.Y. Chestnut, 33, of San Jose, Calif, earned his 10th title Tuesday eating an event-record 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Chestnut, 33, of San Jose, Calif, earned his 10th title Tuesday eating an event-record 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
(Ask if anyone loves chocolate?) Show slide of world’s most expensive chocolate.
Fritz Knipschildt, sometimes known as the Willy Wonka of Connecticut, prepared the La Madeline au Truffe, at the Choclate room in Brooklyn. One of the La Madeline au Truffe's primary ingredients is a rare French Perigord truffle that accounts for its high price. The expensive truffle is then surrounded by a ganache of heavy cream, sugar, truffle oil and vanilla coated in 70% Valrhona dark chocolate and rolled in fine cocoa powder. Each piece of the chocolate is presented on a bed of faux pearls in a silver box tied with a bow and sells for $250 each, or $2,600/pound!!
I would also like to thank all of the men that did, as they always do, an amazing job with the Men’s Breakfast, yesterday morning! (NOTE: To all men that are here, or watching this on Facebook, you are invited to the men’s monthly breakfast! It is a great time of food and praise and worship and a teaching/reading from the Word!)
I would also like to thank all of the men that did, as they always do, an amazing job with the Men’s Breakfast, yesterday morning! (NOTE: To all men that are here, or watching this on Facebook, you are invited to the men’s monthly breakfast! It is a great time of food and praise and worship and a teaching/reading from the Word!)
In line with this, I would also like to thank Trevor Wyatt for doing an awesome job yesterday at the breakfast, with sharing his testimony and faith with all of the men.
God is doing some amazing things in people’s lives all around us! And we, as the church body, should celebrate with those who God is restoring and healing and building up! AMEN?!
, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doin
, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”
We are to become a source of exhortation and encouragement for one another, as we come together to corporately praise and worship His mighty name!!
MAN, I WISH THAT I HAD SOME SAVED FOLK AROUND HERE THIS MORNING THAT COULD GET EXCITED AND HELP ME CELEBRATE WHAT THE WORD IS SAYING!!!!!!
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
This morning, we are going to talk about brothers. Not so much about the general understanding of the word “brothers”, as in the Christian realm, that we are all “brothers” and or “sisters” in Christ; but rather, we are going to talk about some particular, actual brothers that we find in the Bible.
This morning, we are going to talk about brothers. Not so much about the general understanding of the word “brothers”, as in the Christian realm, that we are all “brothers” and or “sisters” in Christ; but rather, we are going to talk about some particular, actual brothers that we find in the Bible.
Throughout the Word of God, we find several prominent and very well known stories that deal with the conflict between brothers and we try to glean some wisdom from these popular sibling rivalries!
Please allow me to just share two or three of these famous brotherhood accounts with you and see what we have learned from each.
The first set of brothers that we come across in the Bible, is found rather early on, in and it is the account of Cain and Abel.
I think that everyone is familiar with this story and the outcome of it. Cain’s offering was not found favorable by God and Abel’s was. Cain deceived his brother by asking him to go out into the field and there he attacked and killed him.
Cain was cursed and banished from the ground where he lived and no longer would the ground yield for him good crops, because of what he did. The famous retort from Cain after God questioned the whereabouts of his brother, that many of us know, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” was given here!
You find God asking Cain an almost identical question that He asked Cain’s mother after the sin in the garden took place, “What have you done?”
In both cases, the question was preceded by someone shirking any responsibility and trying to divert God’s righteous gaze upon them, as they were feeling the weight of shame and sin. (Adam passed the blame to Eve and then God asked her the question and in this story, Cain attempts to dismiss God’s inquiry about his brother, by asking God if it was his job to keep up with Abel!)
The moral for us, is this; each of us are accountable for our own sins and when we try to shirk responsibility and pass the buck, God asks the same question to us, “What have you done?”
The next set of brothers is found, again in Genesis, chapter 25. Can anyone tell me who these two are?
Yes, Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah.
It wasn’t all that long ago that we looked at this Biblical account and of the situation of guarding your birthright as we see so dramatically played out between Jacob and Esau.
If you remember, Esau freely and without coercion or being forced, sold his natural birthright and all of the authority that came with it, to his brother Jacob, all for the bargain basement price of one bowl of bean soup!! WOW!! (An entire future and all of the power and authority that goes with it, for some bean soup!)
The story between these two involved more than just themselves; it also involved their mother who favored one son more than another and aided, by means of deception, in taking the first born son’s blessing from the father, which carried a lot of weight with it.
After more than 20 years, their was some healing and reconciling between them, but Jacob, the younger son, had a destiny and a future that was arranged ahead of time by God for his life.
How many of you know that God has a plan for your life and your future; provided you will yield to His will and walk in the path that He has for you?!
The big lesson here, as I pointed out some time ago, is that you and I, (as children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s), and just like Esau, have been given sonship and rights to the kingdom. We have a spiritual birthright from our Heavenly Father and we would be wise to regard it and to guard it as the valuable thing it is, and not be like Esau and treat it as some flippant and easy come easy go possession.
We should cherish our eternal inheritance and put everything that we have into securing it in heaven, versus trying to store up for ourselves treasures here in this life!
The final question from these two brother’s story that I leave with you is this, “What is going to be for you (the bowl of soup, which is meaningless and temporal, likened to that of the life that you have here on this earth and this world), or the birthright from you Father, (which is your eternal inheritance as a son or as a daughter in the kingdom, outside of this world)?!
“Choose this day, whom you will serve!”
Next in the line of brothers, I give you the story of Joseph and his brothers; once again, found within the book of Genesis.
There were 12 brothers in this story, and they were the sons of Jacob, from the previous brothers account we just looked at.
Jacob, having been a part of a family where one parent favored another child and all of the tragedy that this brings, should have known better than to do the same thing, with his own sons. But, that’s the situation here, in that Jacob loved his younger son Joseph, more than the others and showed him favoritism!
Most of you know the outcome, the brothers, out of jealousy and bitterness, sold their younger brother Joseph into slavery and then lied about it to their father Jacob; saying that Joseph had been killed by an animal.
Joseph, from the time he was sold into slavery, until his rise to power in Egypt, had to wait, some 13 years, as both a servant as well as a prisoner.
There again, God had a plan for Joseph and Joseph had to decide to follow God, or take the quick and seemingly pleasurable route that this world offers!
In the end, Joseph showed mercy on his brothers and allowed for reconciliation to take place.
In the end, one man’s faithfulness to God, became a means of provision and protection and favor for an entire nation, as Israel was brought into the Egypt and protected!
Joseph is a type, a representation, of another man who would come centuries later and who would also serve as a means to provide protection and provisions and allow favor for not just one nation, but for every nation and all peoples around the world and for all times; and just like Joseph, this second man’s fate would stem from His having favor from His Father. This second Joseph would also become a servant, and would be accused wrongly and suffer for that which he hadn’t done. He would also have brothers and they, just as Joseph’s brothers had done, would reject this man as well!
This next man, and the most important man, that I would like to mention and the account of his brothers, is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This next man, and the most important man, that I would like to mention and the account of his brothers, is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, for the sake of consideration of time, I am going to mainstream us towards one particular person in this instance that was a brother of Jesus.
How many people here have read the epistle found in the Bible, called Jude?
Great! It is a massive book in the Bible! I want to encourage you to read it today.
Go home this afternoon and put on something comfortable to wear and then start preparing yourself a nice cup of hot tea and while the tea is steeping, sit down and begin reading this book. About the time your tea has steeped to an acceptable flavor level, you will already be done reading the book of Jude and its amassed 25 verses!
And of the verses written in this epistle to the church, a couple that stand out to me personally, are verses 20-21, which read, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
Now back to the writer, himself. Did you know that Jude was a half-brother of our Lord Jesus?
It’s true. Yet, Jude is not the brother that I am referring to today!
There is another epistle in the New Testament that contains the writings of one who identifies himself as, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
This James, is identified in the opening of Jude’s epistle as Jude’s brother. So, using my amazing skills of deduction, if Jude is listed as a brother of Jesus and James is the brother of Jude, then that means that James is also a brother of ................?
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
Right, Jesus and James were half-brothers!
Now the reason that you keep hearing me say that Jesus was the half-brother of James and Jude, is because Jesus had the same mother in common to both of them; however, they shared a different father.
James and Jude were the sons of their father Joseph and their mother, Mary. Jesus was also a son of Mary, but His Father was a little more well known than Joseph; Jesus’ Father was Yahweh! God, Himself!
So, this is why I refer to them as half- brothers; same mother, but different fathers! (Does this make sense to everyone?)
Can any of you, honestly imagine what it would be like, to be a brother or a sister to Jesus?
Can any of you, honestly imagine what it would be like, to be a brother or a sister to Jesus?
As far as that goes, can any of you that are present this morning and are currently or have ever been in the past, a parent, imagine having Jesus as a child?
They are probably two diametric thoughts, all together! That is, considering that idea of being a sibling to Jesus versus being a parent to Jesus.
From the avenue of being a parent, i would says that it was probably likened to parental heaven on earth!
Think about it; your child never doing anything wrong. Never lying to you, never going behind your back and sneaking things they wanted. Never screaming when they didn’t get their way. Never arguing with you or their siblings! Being exactly where you said and when you said to be there! When the house became extremely quiet, your blood pressure wouldn’t start rising in anticipation of what diabolical scheme they were acting out on!
There are writings about Jesus as a child, that are folklore and with no Biblical accountability, but that, none the less, show Jesus as a young child performing various miracles.
In one case, He brings to life a dried fish!
In another, Jesus is said to have resurrected a child who fell to their death from a roof.
Then, there is a miraculous healing of a man who chopped his foot with an axe.
Stories like Jesus taking contaminated water and purifying it.
There exists stories like Jesus making sparrows out of clay and then speaking like into them and they turn into real birds and flew away.
Jesus supposedly had a single grain of wheat in His hand and from that, He managed to create numerous bushels of wheat!
In another account, Jesus’ father, Joseph, who was a carpenter, was building a piece of furniture for a certain wealthy man and one of the main beams for bed was not the right length and Joseph was perplexed. So, Jesus had Joseph lay the beams out side by side and even at the ends. Then Jesus took the shorter beam and stretched it out until it became equal in length to the other.
In one story, James, the half-brother, was bitten by a viper. Jesus came and breathed upon the bite and instantly the viper burst and James was made whole.
One writer said that the reason that Jesus did these amazing early miracles, was to spice up, the rather boring pedestrian lifestyle of Nazareth!
Yet, the Bible tells us in John’s gospel, that the first of the great signs, or miracles that Jesus performed, was His turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.
Well, I can tell you that I feel pretty confident in taking the Bible’s word, over some apocryphal writings, AMEN?!
There is a comedian that we saw a few years ago at the men’s Main Event function in Nashville and he was speaking about Jesus as a child and pertaining to the parents, he mentioned the account of where Mary and Joseph lost Jesus when He was 12, when they were leaving the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem.
Re-enact the account of Joseph praying to God about losing Jesus!
Then, of course, there is the issue of Jesus actually being your brother!
Wrap your mind around that one for a minute!
You guys in the youth right now, just imagine having a sibling that NEVER does anything wrong. He never, lies never talks back, never argues to make a point. Whenever your parents see that something has been broken, they instantly come after you, because they know that if He had seen it happen or accidentally broken it, he would have instantly went and told them. So, you could never frame him and say that he did it, because they always know he didn’t!
That same comedian talked about this same scenario as well, from the viewpoint of the brother who was right under Jesus in age, JAMES.
He said, can you imagine the pressure that there must have been being the little brother to Jesus? How many would you have to hear, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus, James?”
He said that everyone else assumed that James could do the same things as Jesus, but he couldn’t ,because he was just James........he wasn’t James Christ!
Just like when there was the wedding banquet, and they were running out of wine and Jesus turned the water into wine. They don’t tell you about the next banquet, were Jesus left early and the same thing started happening and everyone turned and looked at James! They are all like, “Man, the last time that this happened, your brother made some wine. Are you gonna do something....anything? Are you just gonna stand there in your sandals and do nothing? Can you make some Koolaid or something man?
You know that James had problems, ‘cause its hard to be a little brother, especially to Jesus. Everywhere that the big brother goes, the little brother follows (that’s just what little brothers do, they follow the big brother around). So, everywhere Jesus went, James was right there following Him. I bet one time, James, almost drowned! (EXPLAIN- Jesus walked and water and James followed Him but he couldn’t and he started to drown.....)
James had problems, you know and he would go to his parents for help or advice, and they would be like, “Well, what would Jesus do?” Then, they finally gave him a bracelet, you know. He finally started selling those bracelets! What would be cool you know, is if you had that bracelet, but with a different meaning; instead, it meant, “What Would James Do?”the same initials, WWJD, but different meaning. (COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEANING!) It would be like, you’re driving down the interstate and someone cuts you off in traffic and you fuss at ‘em real good and make a big stink. And your preacher is sitting next to you and he’s like, “Man, you’ve got a What Would Jesus Do bracelet on!” And you’re all like, “Oh no, huh uh, that’s a, What Would James Do bracelet!!”
Look, here’s the thing, Jesus went through exactly the same things as you and I. From the time he was an infant, to toddler, to an adolescent and to a teen and up into his young adult life.
He had to face every temptation that is common to man and yet He, never sinned! He walked through each phase in a human’s life and did it without sin.
,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
That is hard to rap your mind around. (That means no begrudging thoughts, no little white lies, no bitterness when someone slanders you, no impure thoughts, no coveting what others had and so on.)
But to a sibling, that could become damaging to your relationship! “Oh great, here comes Mr. Perfect. himself!”
Of course, once jealousy and envy set in, there is damage to a relationship; any relationship that has those things wedged in it will suffer! (There is a very good chance that Jesus’ siblings had feelings like these!)
We know from the scriptures, that Jesus had brothers and sisters, noted in ,
We know from the scriptures, that Jesus had brothers and sisters, noted in ,
Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.
Jesus came from a full family, typical of a Jewish household. And he lived there up until He started His earthly ministry at 30 years of age. (This is the one kid that you don’t mind staying at home, because they are so good!)
All this time spent with His siblings and having never done any wrong by them or to them, and yet, they would still end up rejecting Him and even saying that He was mad, for what He was doing!’
Look at ,
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
Jesus, Himself, would acknowledge that His own house didn’t accept who He was, as we see in ,
for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”
“In his own house”, Jesus’ siblings, rejected the truth and did not honor Him as the true son of God and their Messiah!
The Bible doesn’t give us any background information that would explain the younger brothers and sister rejection of Jesus, but can you imagine the disconnect that would have developed by them, from hearing for years, “Why can’t you be more like your brother, Jesus?”
James, being the first child listed, was probably the oldest of the other siblings and the closest to Jesus in age.
Because of this, there is a good chance that he had heard and felt the comparisons the longest between himself and his big brother, Jesus!
Also, when Jesus left, there is a good chance that James, the next oldest, became the man in charge of the house and the spokesperson for the family.
There is a good chance that Joseph, the father, died earlier on. (As we know that he is not around by the time that Jesus goes to the cross and subsequently Jesus elects His disciple John, to take over the care of Mary.)
So, Jesus, from His own mouth, said that His own house didn’t believe in who He was, the Bible records that His brothers didn’t believe in who He was and had thus rejected Him, ,
For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
And with James being closest to Jesus in age and position within the household, his thoughts and decisions, may have carried more weight and led to the overall rejection of Jesus, his brother, by the other siblings.
We have a fairly decent understanding that Jesus’ siblings completely rejected the truth of who He was, as noted by the fact that they were no where to be found, on the day of His crucifixion. Only Mary was present. (They were out of the picture.)
So what happens that makes this amazing change in James and the other siblings? A change that ultimately leads to James and Jude writing two of the epistles and testifying to the very one they had denied?
So what happens that makes this amazing change in James and the other siblings? A change that ultimately leads to James and Jude writing two of the epistles and testifying to the very one they had denied?
Look at ,
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Just as Jesus had made a special provision to reinstate Peter as His apostle, so Jesus also made a special visit to James, His brother, after His resurrection, to bring reconciliation and life and hope to him and his other siblings as well!’
It is known that the reconciliation between James and Jesus (as well as the other siblings), happened quickly and effectively, as we find in the upper room account in ,
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
His siblings were counted in the 120 that were in the upper room on the day of Pentecost!
Why? What happened that changed them and brought them from disbelief to belief?
What happened that James, the eldest of the others, did a complete 180 and became a HUGE follower and believer in the same brother, that for years, he had rejected and thought was mad?
THE RESURRECTION HAPPENED! (Don’t you know that seeing your brother walking around after His having been in the grave for 3 days, would be a good motivator!
And here is the kicker, Jesus didn’t have to go out of His way to prove anything to anyone! Yet, look what He did for His brother James?
He sought him out and came after him for the specific objective of changing James’ heart and ultimately saving His entire family!
Then, James was placed upon a path, that just weeks earlier, was non-existent!
James didn’t just receive saving faith and go quietly into the night; far from it.
James, as soon as Pentecost had come, quickly became a force within the newly birthed church.
He, by all rights became the “senior” pastor of the church in Jerusalem!
He, along with his younger brother Jude, wrote an epistle to the church.
And what an epistle he did write!
This letter that James penned to the new church, was probably the earliest of the NT writings with a very timely message to the new and growing body of Christ.
It was penned somewhere in the 40’s, which comes very close to the death and burial and resurrection of his brother Jesus, the Messiah!
The letter of James was crucial to the new Christians then and it is even more so to the church today.
I say this because the enemy had started then and has perfected now, the delusional Christian life, that embraces saving faith and that we all have “saving” faith and yet our lives exist with no WORKS to show that this faith exists!
But the main point here this morning, is that Jesus the Christ had a brother that he went after and saved him and restored him in every way that a human can be saved!
But the main point here this morning, is that Jesus the Christ had a brother that he went after and saved him and restored him in every way that a human can be saved!
Even when His own brother and other family members rejected Him to the point of the Messiah verbally acknowledging the abandonment, Jesus still sought him out specifically and saved him!
My message of hope to you this morning is that Jesus is still doing the same thing today. Through the faithful workings of His body, the church, He is reaching out and His Holy Spirit is drawing you in; just as He did for James, 2,000 years ago!
No matter how many of you have, purposefully or unknowingly, rejected the truth of who He is, He has come after you and is seeking to save you; in every way that a person can be saved!