Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Let’s try and picture the scene here as we come to a close on chapter 3. Jesus is in Capernaum.

He had been there since midway through chapter 1, he departed for a short time to other towns and villages but returns at the beginning of chapter 2 and will be hanging around this city for a couple more chapters.

Capernaum was a city on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.

This really was Jesus’ home base of operations for a season.

As we’ll see in the coming chapters, he’ll cross over the Sea of Galilee a couple times to continue ministry in other villages and to probably get a break from the crowds, but it was in Capernaum where Jesus lived, it’s where he gathered many of his disciples, taught extensively, it’s where he performed many miracles.

So, here’s the scene, picture it with me.

He’s here in Capernaum, most likely he’s at Peter’s mother-in-law’s home where he had healed her back in chapter 1.

He probably did a lot of his teaching here with people and crowds packing in to be near him, to be healed, to listen to what he was teaching.

Another crowd is gathering near Jesus.

Peter’s mother-in-law is probably hoping nobody’s going to tear another hole in her roof.

We have crammed in this home a mixture of desperate people.

Sitting closest to Jesus were his disciples.

Surrounding them is most likely people who are curious about what Jesus will say next.

He just got done lambasting the Scribes in the preceding verses for accusing him of being controlled by the Devil.

There’s going to certainly be many in that room who are hurting, whether it be physically or emotionally and they’ve come to Jesus to find relief.

Mixed among the crowd as well would have been those Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus had just gone after.

They were always around looking for ways to try and trip him up and accuse him of being a false teacher.

Accusing him of blasphemy.

At this point in Jesus’ ministry the Pharisees were looking for ways to destroy him.

They wanted him dead.

But what we also see from the text is Jesus’ family was there.

Mary, and several of his brothers.

However, they weren’t in the home with him.

They weren’t mixed up with the crowd.

They weren’t sitting at his feet with his disciples.

There were at the periphery, on the outskirts, standing nervously and anxiously as this crowd kept getting bigger and bigger.

Well, why weren’t they there with him?

Well, if you remember to last week we read in verse 21 that Jesus’ family thought he was “out of his mind.”

The things he was saying, the things he was doing, how he was stirring up the religious leaders of that day who controlled everything.

They were worried and fearful.

The religious leaders of that day controlled everything and whether or not you were a part of the Jewish community.

They could have you thrown out, exiled for blasphemy.

And to be thrown out of the community would have been the worst thing that could have happened.

And so, here they are in verse 31 getting word to Jesus that they’d like to talk to him, most likely to try and get him home and away from the crowds.

Again, they think he’s lost it.

And so, a message would have been passed from person to person until it got to Jesus.

It’s in verse 32 that people in the crowd begin to tell Jesus, “Hey, your mom and brothers are outside and they want to talk to you.”

Now, this was a very family-centered culture.

The crowd would have no doubt expected Jesus to excuse himself to immediately go to his family.

That would have been expected and seen as the proper and honorable thing to do.

They certainly weren’t expecting Jesus’ response as seen in verse 33.

Mark 3:33, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

In verse 34 he begins to look around the room.

In the gospel of Matthew, it records Jesus as extending his hand and then looking to his disciples, those sitting at his feet learning from him.

And so, he looks at the mixture of the crowd, all those who have gathered near him for a myriad of reasons, and then gestures to his disciples and says, to the shock of all.

Verse 34 and 35.

Mark 3:34 -35, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Now, this is a shocking statement regardless of what culture you live in.

But within the Jewish culture, this was earth-shattering.

I mean, an absolute hush would have come across the crowd in that moment.

“What did he just say?!”

For some, that may have been the last straw.

“I’m not following this guy!”

The pharisees would have been delighted, rubbing their hands together and thinking, “We’ve got him!”

At some point the word would have gotten back to Jesus’ mother and brothers.

Right?

Can you imagine being that messenger?

“He’s not coming, and, oh by the way, he called his disciples his true mother and brothers and sisters.”

This would have no doubt shocked them, perhaps angered them as well.

This really is another hard saying of Jesus.

Skeptics of the Christian faith have actually used this statement as a reason to disavow the person of Jesus.

Ernest Renan, a well-known French scholar of the 19th century wrote in his work, “The Life of Jesus” that this statement of Jesus was “trampling under foot everything that is human - love and blood and country.”

And so, why did Jesus say this knowing how scandalous it would be?

We know from the Scriptures that Jesus was not severing ties with his family.

He loved his family and even on the cross, Jesus thought of his mother and made sure that she would be cared for and take care of.

We know that James, one of Jesus’ brothers, who was here in this moment trying to get Jesus away from the crowds because he thought he was out of his mind would later become a follower of Jesus and end up not only writing the book of James that we have in our Scriptures but would also lead the church in Jerusalem and be killed for following his half-brother Jesus.

What Jesus is doing is making a clear distinction of who truly belongs to the family of God.

What he’s saying is that there is something that runs deeper and is actually more meaningful and significant than just flesh and blood.

He’s saying, there’s a new family, a spiritual family that surpasses the human or earthly family.

And he’s saying, not everyone is a part of this new family of God.

Problem

This here is a problem that we must come face to face with.

Who is a part of the family of God?

And what evidence is there that I belong to this family?

It’s that the question Jesus is ultimately asking in verse 33? “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

“Who belongs to me?”

In saying this he is making clear that not everyone does belong to him.

In our culture, this kind of clear division is a problem for us.

Our culture preaches a message of inclusivity.

Everyone belongs.

Everyone has equal access.

Everyone, regardless of who they are, what they believe, how they live, belongs.

And so, you look at the message of Jesus, and he doesn’t preach a message of inclusivity.

In fact, his message is often one that divides.

We’re seeing that here in the text.

Not all will be a part of the family of God.

Jesus will judge us according to who we followed and believed, how we lived, and where our hope rested.

And so, what gives evidence that we truly do belong to God’s family?

What are often the wrong things we look to that we think gives us acceptance before God?

Big Idea

Not all are part of the family of God but evidence of our belonging to Christ is seen through gospel-driven, Spirit-empowered obedience to the will of God.

Main Aim

The goal this morning is to look from Scripture itself to see who are those who truly belong to Christ.

Body

And so, first, let’s look at what doesn’t connect us to God’s family and then we’ll look at what does connect us.

I have two misconceptions to look at and then we’ll look at two truths.

Misconception number one:

Relational proximity makes you part of the family of God.