Mother’s Day 2014
Pastor Bill Woody
Mother's Day • Sermon • Submitted
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Mother’s Day 2014
Text: John 19:25–27 (KJV 1900)
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother,
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
* Now I want you to look with me on a pitiful sight this morning.
* There hung Jesus bleeding, and suffering, on the cross, and all of his male disciples had forsaken Him but John.
* All of the men, including the four brothers of Jesus, had withdrawn from Jesus for fear of the Jews.
* By this time, most Bible scholars believe that Joseph, the husband of Mary had died. The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about what happened to Joseph. We never hear of him again after the story of when they left Jesus behind in the temple when He was 12.
* It is most likely that Jesus brothers were not convinced that Jesus was who He said He was at the time of his death on the cross.
* Turn with men now to
John 7:1–5 (KJV 1900)
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. 4 For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly.
If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.
* Even the brothers of Jesus were skeptical of the miracles which Jesus did.
* While Jesus hung there on the cross, even his own brothers were not sure Jesus was who He claimed to be.
* Later, after the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas became believers and great figures in the early church.
* Jesus brother James became the leader of the church at Jerusalem, and His brother Jude wrote the book of Jude.
* We know from the Scriptures that Jesus had sisters as well as brothers.
* Turn with me now to
Mark 6:1–6 (KJV 1900)
And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. 2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?
* We do not have any record of Jesus’ sisters standing with Him as He hung there on the cross.
* Jesus’ own brothers and sisters, and friends, in the beginning, thought that Jesus was losing touch with reality when the crowds were first attracted to Him.
* Now I want you to see that Jesus himself acknowledged that even his own brothers and sisters did not believe that Jesus was who He said He was.
And they were offended at him. 4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
* Now I want to draw your attention to Jesus mother. Look with me again at verse 25:
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother,
* Imagine this pitiful scene with me- there standing at the foot of the cross stood the mother of Jesus, looking on the bleeding body of her precious son.
* The Bible here says she stood by her son. That is what mother’s do. They stand by their children.
* The apostle John only mentions Mary twice in his gospel. Once at a wedding when Jesus preformed his first miracle, and turned water into wine, and now, at the foot of the cross.
* These two mentions cover the entire ministry of Jesus. Mary had stood by her son’s ministry from the beginning until the very end.
* Now supporting Mary in her grief, there stood by Jesus aunt Salome, and His cousin the Apostle John, (James and John were the sons of Salome, most likely the sister of Jesus mother mary). Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus cast out 7 devils, stood supporting Mary also.
* Now let me draw your attention back to our text in
John 19:25–27 (KJV 1900)
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother,
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
* Now look with me at this tender scene between Jesus and His mother:
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
* Why would Jesus entrust His mother to “the disciple He loved”—the Apostle John—rather than to her husband, Joseph, or to one of Jesus’ brothers?
* We can only presume that Joseph had died by this time and Jesus’ brothers had not yet become His followers.
* It is possible that John was Jesus’ cousin, so they had a biological as well as spiritual relationship.
* In John’s gospel, Mary and her sister are named as witnesses at the crucifixion. John didn’t name Mary’s sister, but Mark says that Salome was among the women present.
* Salome was the mother of Zebedee’s sons, James and John and that would make James and John the cousins of Jesus. (Mk 15:40).
* The point I want you to see is this: The last thing that Jesus in His earthly life was to honor his mother and care for her needs. This he did, even in death.
* Since Jesus honored his own mother, it is only fitting this morning that we honor our mothers here this morning on this mother’s day.
Introduction:
History of Mother’s Day
* Mother’s Day, in one form or another, has been around a long time. In ancient Greece, a celebration honoring mothers occurred every Spring.
* In the Middle Ages, a custom called Mothering Sunday began when children, who often left home early to learn a trade or become apprentices, would be released from work every year on the forth Sunday of Lent to attend church with their families.
* As they returned home, they often took cakes or little gifts to their mothers. This was termed “going a-mothering.”
* To this day, Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
* In 1872 a woman named Julia Ward Howe (author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic) suggested the idea of Mother’s Day in the United States.
* The cause was taken up by Anna Jarvis, daughter of a Methodist pastor.
* Anna Jarvis felt the scars of the Civil War could be healed by mothers—and by honoring mothers.
* She died in 1905 before her dream of establishing a holiday could be fulfilled. But her daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, took up the crusade.
* Anna had been deeply influenced by her mother, and she often recalled hearing her mother say that she hoped someone would one day establish a memorial for all mothers, living and dead.
* Anna had been particularly touched at age twelve while listening to her mother teach a Sunday school class on the subject “Mothers in the Bible.”
* Mrs. Jarvis closed the lesson with a prayer to this effect: I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.
* Anna never forgot that moment, and at their mother’s graveside service, Anna’s brother Claude heard her say “… by the grace of God, you shall have that Mother’s Day.”
* Anna thus began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. She and her supporters began to write a constant stream of letters to ministers, businessmen, politicians and newspaper editors. She spent a fortune trying to attract attention to her idea, and took every opportunity to give speeches, send telegrams, or write articles promoting her cause.
* On the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 12, 1907, Anna led a small tribute to her mother at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Gafton, West Virginia.
* She donated five hundred white carnations, her mother’s favorite flower, to be worn by everyone in attendance.
* On this first Mother’s Day service, the pastor used the text, “Woman, behold thy son; Son, behold thy mother.” (John 19:26)
* That same day a special service was held at the Wannamaker Auditorium in Philadelphia, which could seat no more than a third of the fifteen thousand people who showed up.
* After that, things begin to take off. Various states jumped on the bandwagon, officially proclaiming a Mother’s Day each year, and, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially established Mother’s Day a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.
* But having succeeded at last, Anna Jarvis soon became embittered by the commercialization of the holiday and turned against it, actually filing a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother’s Day festival.
* She was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a mother’s convention where women sold white carnations.
“This is not what I intended,” Jarvis growled. “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!”
“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world,” she said on another occasion. “And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”
* Shortly before her death in 1948, Anna Jarvis, living in a nursing home, received Mother’s Day cards from all around the world. But she told a reporter she was sorry she had ever started the whole thing.
Body:
* I would like to talk to you for a moment about what a mother that pleases God looks like from the Bible.
* Turn with me now to the book of Wisdom, the book of Proverbs chapter 31.
* Mothers are so important in the Bible that Proverbs, the Book of God’s wisdom, ends with a celebration of what a faithful reverent mother should look like.
* Whenever we read any Scripture, it’s always important to see the context for it.
* Verse 1 of Proverbs 31 tells us this is an oracle, which is a communication or revelation given to a person directly from God.
* God gave this revelation directly to King Lemuel’s mother to be recorded in the Bible.
* Look with me at verse on of chapter 31:
Proverbs 31:1 (KJV 1900)
The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
* Do you remember who King Lemuel was? No? Neither do I. Lemuel is not listed in either 1 or 2 Kings or 1 or 2 Chronicles, where all the records of all the Hebrew kings are listed.
* Is Lemuel some ruler from some other country? That’s not very likely either.
*The Jewis rabbis point out that the name Lemuel means “devoted to God.”
* They saw it as a nickname for Solomon himself. After all, Solomon, who was blessed with God’s wisdom, was unlikely to let someone else have the last word in his book!
* Instead, if the rabbis are correct, he would have reserved the last word for his own mother, Bathsheba.
* Seeing this as the wisdom of Queen Bathsheba, written down by her son Solomon, certainly puts an interesting perspective on Proverbs chapter 31.
* Bathsheba, the woman stolen away from her Hittite husband by Solomon’s dad, David, was made an adulteress by order of king David, Solomon’s father.
* You can read the account of what happened to Bathsheba in 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12.
* If the Jewish rabbis are right, that would explain the really passionate tone of Queen Bathsheba’s advice.
* What Bathsheba is saying is “Son, don’t do what your dad did.”
* What’s did Solomon’s dad do?
* Verse 3 tells us: Don’t associate with a bunch of loose women or, as in David’s case, collect many wives, because promiscuous sexual relationships distract and destroy men.
* Just as surely as any other addiction does, the addiction to loose women will ruin your life as well. That’s what Bathsheba is saying to her son Solomon.
* Verses 4-7 point this out. Having many wives certainly destroyed David’s rule.
Proverbs 31:1–9 (KJV 1900)
3 Give not thy strength unto women, Nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes strong drink:
5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, And pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
6 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, And wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.
8 Open thy mouth for the dumb In the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.
* Bathsheba is saying in verses 8 and 9, “Look, your calling as king is to lead righteously, to concentrate your energy on being champion of the downtrodden, uplifting the poor, judging righteously, and defending the rights of the poor, needy, the marginal, and the disenfranchised.”
* “What you need,” says Solomon’s mom, “is one solid, capable wife to be the mother of your children.
* That is exactly what any married man needs if he’s going to amount to anything in life: a wife and mother of his children who is devoted to looking out for the well-being of her husband and her children, not a debilitating distraction.
* Solomon’s mother Bathsheba gave him a description of what kind of wife and mother he should find.
Proverbs 31:10–27 (KJV 1900)
10 Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, So that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil All the days of her life.
* You know what that means? It means that a good wife and mother does not go around dissing and putting down her man.
* She doesn’t not slice and dice her husband up with her tongue to anybody else- or to him either for that matter!- that’s what that means!
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, And worketh willingly with her hands.
* That means that she doesn’t gripe and complain because she has to wash dishes and do laundry and cook for her family. That’s what that means!
14 She is like the merchants’ ships; She bringeth her food from afar.
* That means that a good mother will do whatever it takes to make sure there is food in the cabinets for her family to eat!
15 She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth meat to her household, And a portion to her maidens.
* That means that a good mother will get up early and cook for here family. She does whatever it takes to put food on the table to make sure her husband and children are fed well before the day starts. That’s what that means.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
* That means she uses financial wisdom and helps her husband provide for her children financially. That means that she is willing to work outside the home if her husband is not able to make enough money to take care of the family’s needs by himself.
* Where did you ever get the idea that it is just your husband’s job to provide for your children? Those are your kids too, you are just as responsible that there needs are met as you husband is.
* God never intended for mothers to sit on their butts and collect child support.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, And strengtheneth her arms.
* That means that you are not a princess! No mother wants her son to marry a princess or a Diva! A man does not need a fragile little flower, powder puff for a wife and a mother, he needs a woman with heart!
* Children and husbands need a mother who is strong and has the grit and determination to provide for her family’s needs. That what that means!
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: Her candle goeth not out by night.
* A good mother will work late into the night to care for the needs of her family. She doesn’t lay around in bed half the day.
* I can tell you right now no man wants to come home in the middle of the day and find his wife with her hair all over her head, dark circles under her eyes, and still in her pajamas, watching soap operas and letting the dog lick the dishes clean in the kitchen!
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, And her hands hold the distaff.
* The distaff speaks of the instrument of discipline. A good mother is willing to discipline here children. She doesn’t leave all the discipline to the father.
“You better stop swinging from that ceiling fan! You gona git it when your father gets home!”- Woman just shut up and bust his little asprin!
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
* A good mother should not be selfish. There is no room for selfishness in the life of a wife and a mother. Putting others needs before her own, putting other’s rights and privileges before her own, is the essence of being a mother!
* A mother serves here family first, and if there is nothing left, she says she is not hungry. That’s the kind of mother I had growing up, and no doubt you did too! Not so with this generation of young women I’m afraid!
* We can’t even get women of this generation to stop killing their babies in the womb because they are an inconvenience!
* Why a baby might get in the way of them jumping in the sack with someone different when they don’t get what they want out of a relationship!
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
* A good mother makes sure her children and husbands clothes are kept clean and presentable. She irons here husband’s shirts, makes sure here kid’s socks match,
she tells her husband “oh don’t wear that, this would look much better!
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; Her clothing is silk and purple.
* A good wife and mother provides a house that is neat, organized and clean and decorated for her children and husband.
* Children with a good mother never have to be ashamed to have their friends over because:
- There are dog turds in the floor
- three weeks’ worth of dust on the furniture
- Stuff piled on the every flat surface in the house
- Clothes piled up everywhere
- Dishes piled up in the sink
- Bathrooms with mold and mildew growing like weeds
-Toilets that look like the came out of the corner service station
and mom is sitting on the couch watching the tv wile licking the pots in the kitchen!
* A good wife looks good for her husband!
* When a guy marries a gal, all he has ever seen was here looing her best! Man she always looked hot while they were dating!
* Boy does that change when she gets married!
* This reminds me of a verse from a song that Archie Campbell and Buck Owens used to sing on He Haw:
Archie Campbell/Buck Owens/Hee Haw
Down here on the farm the weather gets messy
Laying around with nothin' to do
When you went away, you took my cow Bessie
I miss her darling, more than I miss you
You took off your leg, your wig and your eye glass
And you shoud've seen the look on my face
I wanted to kiss, I wanted to hug you
But you were scattered all over the place
Chorus:
Where, where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over,
And thought I found true love.
You met another and
Phht! you were gone.
If her husband tells her “I like your hair long that way, she doesn’t run out and get it cut off!
23 Her husband is known in the gates, When he sitteth among the elders of the land.
* A man and children with a good wife and mother are well spoken of in the community because their mother makes them look good!
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; And delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
* A good wife and mother will be willing to work from home if she needs to.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; And she shall rejoice in time to come.
* A good wife and mother is a honorable woman. She is not a woman of bad character, or of a bad reputation.
* If a woman is not a good wife, or a good mother, she need not look for any honor or praise.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And in her tongue is the law of kindness.
* A good mother is wise, she doesn’t go around to the bars, and is not a partying kind of girl. She acts with maturity and wisdom.
* There are some young mothers who insist on acting like bar files and tramps, and want to be considered good mothers. Well I’ve got news for you- your’e not fooling anybody but yourself. You’re not a good mother unless you act with wisdom and maturity!
* A good mother has a good attitude.
* A good mother and wife is not one who is constantly yelling and nagging at her husband and children. She learns to hold here sharp tongue and speak with tenderness to her family instead of yelling and nagging.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, And eateth not the bread of idleness.
* If you are truly a good mother this morning, then you will not have time to be idle. You will be too busy!
Conclusion:
* Solomon’s mother ends here advice with a most important admonishment for her son- When he finds such a woman, a precious ruby, to honor her.
* This is what we strive to do on this mother’s day as we honor our mothers.
* Write your mother a personal letter today and praise here for everything that she has done for you!
Proverbs 31:28–31 (KJV 1900)
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, But thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; And let her own works praise her in the gates.