WWUTT 2013 Who are Jesus’ Brothers and Sisters (Matthew 12:46-50)

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Jesus said, who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters? And stretching his hands to his disciples, he said, here they are, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brothers and my sisters, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ.

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For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www.wtt.com.

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Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky.

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We are in our last section of Chapter 12 here, the Gospel of Matthew.

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And so to recap, I want to read what we looked at yesterday, starting in verse 43, I'll read through verse 50 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

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Hear the word of the Lord.

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Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it.

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Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came.

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And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.

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Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself.

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And they go in and live there.

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And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

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That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.

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While he was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him.

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Now someone said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you.

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But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers.

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For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.

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So yesterday, as we looked at that section about the unclean spirit in 43 to 45, there's a statement there at the conclusion I didn't really dwell upon with Jesus saying, that is the way it will also be with this evil generation.

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So let me come back to that.

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And then we'll look at this, this closing narrative here regarding Jesus saying who is truly his brother and sister and mother.

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And once again, this whole section, which started on Monday in verse 38, with the Pharisees demanding of Jesus that he show them a sign.

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So this section from verses 38 to 50, this is showing us who truly belongs to Christ and who truly does not.

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And those who can show themselves as being pious or religious on the outside, but there's no true transformation of the heart.

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This person does not truly belong to Christ.

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As we read earlier in this chapter, in fact, right before this section we've been looking at this week, Jesus said either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit.

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So what we're reading here in 38 to 50 is embellishing upon that idea.

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The Pharisees want to see a sign and it's as if they are saying, Hey, if you just show us a sign from heaven, we will believe.

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But Jesus says it is a wicked and evil generation who asks for a sign because they don't accept the other signs that they've been shown.

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The sign that they are going to be given is the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

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It's the greatest sign that we could receive.

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For Romans 4.25 tells us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is for our justification.

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His death and resurrection is so that we would be reunited with God.

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There is no greater sign.

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This is, this is our fellowship with God.

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It is our promise that we've been forgiven our sins and we've been given eternal life.

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This is the greatest sign that could be given.

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Only those who truly believe in Christ will believe that sign.

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We'll know that Jesus is the Christ and put their faith and trust in him for the forgiveness of their sins.

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But those who do not believe will reject the sign.

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And so even the Ninevites will come to judge over them.

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That was in verse 41.

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Even the queen of the South who came to hear Solomon's wisdom will stand up and be their judge in the end.

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That was in verse 42.

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So then we had the section we looked at yesterday with the unclean spirit, 43 to 45.

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The unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it.

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Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came, that man that he went out of.

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And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.

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But it's not like the evil spirit looks at that and goes, oh, well, now I have nowhere to live.

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The messy, corrupt place that I was living in previously has now been swept and put in order.

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And so there's nowhere for me to dwell here.

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That is not what the evil spirit thinks at all.

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Because the place is unoccupied by anybody else.

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If that man had been occupied by the Holy Spirit, there would be no place for that evil spirit to dwell.

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Evil spirits cannot dwell in the same place with the Holy Spirit.

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This is not a community of spirits with the good and the bad warring against one another when you're talking about the human heart.

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The human heart is either occupied by the Holy Spirit or is occupied by evil spirits.

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We had considered that a little bit more in depth yesterday.

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So where the Christian believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has been given to him, and we become temples of the Holy Spirit.

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Paul talking about that in 1 Corinthians 6 especially, that's the passage where we see it said most clearly that we are temples of the Holy Spirit who have been given to us from God.

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So if we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, then those other evil spirits cannot dwell there.

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You are either indwelt by the Holy Spirit or you're indwelt by evil spirits.

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So this evil spirit comes back, sees the place has been swept and put in order.

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But all that's demonstrating is that this person has found religion.

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It's not that the religion was real and genuine.

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Scripture does tell us there is a religion that God our Father finds pure and faultless.

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That's talked about in James 1.27, to help orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

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As we had considered that a few weeks ago in a Q&A, I had mentioned to you that that statement there in James 1.27 is really another way of saying, love God, love people.

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To care for orphans and widows in their distress, love people, and to keep oneself unstained by the world, love God.

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So it's love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

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Love your neighbor as yourself.

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James is just putting that a different way.

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But in these two commandments hinge all the law and the prophets.

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So if a person truly believes God, then that's what their true religion is going to demonstrate.

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They will be obedient to God.

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They will love God and they will love the people of God.

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But this evil spirit comes back, finds the place put in order.

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This person found religion, but it wasn't real religion.

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There's nobody else occupying that space.

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If that person had truly found that the answer is Christ and had put trust in him, then the Holy Spirit would be dwelling there.

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But that's not what the evil spirit finds.

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So it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

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So as I illustrated yesterday with this, this is like a person who finds religion, religion that would even be called Christianity, but it's not truly Christianity or the transformation of the heart has not really taken place.

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But this person is fully convinced that that's what they found and that they are saved.

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And it's difficult to convince that person to convince such a person that they truly have Christ, that they haven't really found Christ.

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And so repent of their sin and put their trust truly in Christ and so be saved.

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It is difficult to convince a person who thinks they believe in Jesus that they really don't believe in Jesus.

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They believe in a version of Christ that is of their own making.

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They believe in that Americanized version of Jesus or the chosen Jesus or the Jim Caviezel Jesus or the Mormon Jesus or the Jehovah's Witness Jesus.

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They think they've truly found Christ, but their hearts are really far from him.

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I've lived most of my life living in either the South or the heartland.

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I spent most of the years of my life living in Kansas over 20 years.

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My wife lived her entire life in Kansas, but these are all red states, was born in South Carolina, lived in Kansas, presently live in Texas.

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I lived in Pennsylvania for a little bit of time, so I do have some blue state experience, but most of my life has been lived in red states and especially those parts of the country that are considered the Bible Belt, where you run into Christians all over the place or at least people who call themselves Christians.

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And you have a kind of cultural Christianity that exists here.

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Now granted, as far as a living environment is concerned, I would much rather live in the Bible Belt red state culture than in the blue state culture.

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Just speaking personally, maybe you feel a different way about that.

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I have friends that live in California, live, breathe, and die by that place, and they're not going anywhere.

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No matter how bad it gets, they just love it there.

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Hey, more power to you, and I hope that you are transforming the place where you live with the gospel, no matter where it is, in a blue state or in a red state.

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But I will say this about living in this particular culture, in this particular climate, where most of the people that you encounter are going to call themselves Christians.

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It's really, really hard to convince them that they're not.

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When they just have this cultural kind of Christianity, or what we might term a folk religion.

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There are people that live here in Texas that think they're saved just because they're Texans.

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It's really, really hard to convince that person that they're not.

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And they're actually a sinner headed for hell if they do not repent and truly put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible, according to what the Bible says.

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So this kind of person that has adopted this kind of religion and is convinced by it that they're truly saved, the last state of that person is even worse than the first.

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And so then Jesus says at the end of verse 45, this is the way it will also be with this evil generation.

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Now he's talking about the Jews whom he is standing among at that particular time.

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The Pharisees and those people that have been influenced by their teaching and follow it.

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Most people in Judah and in Jerusalem do not believe that Jesus is the Christ.

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Yeah, there's been whispers of it.

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There have been people who have said as such, as we read earlier in verse 23, all the crowds were astounded by his miracles and saying, can this really be the son of David? But most people did not actually believe that there were many who did, but most of them did not.

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Now you think about Pentecost when it happens in Acts 1 and 2, the disciples go into Jerusalem and they preach the gospel.

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And how many people come to faith in Christ at that declaration of the gospel? About 3,000.

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Now that's astonishing.

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That's amazing.

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That on the first day that the gospel is proclaimed in Jerusalem, 3,000 people come to faith.

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We've got a mega church all of a sudden.

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The first church planted.

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It's a mega church right there in Jerusalem.

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But there were tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more there in Jerusalem who did not believe.

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This was a major festival that was going on at Pentecost, the feast of weeks.

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And so all the Jews had returned there to Jerusalem for the sacrifice and for the celebration.

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The apostles are speaking in different tongues.

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The people are amazed by this.

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Peter proclaims the gospel.

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There are those who are convicted of heart by what he says.

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They are baptized and 3,000 are added to their numbers that day.

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That is a remarkable addition to the church, an incredible revival happening right there in the middle of Jerusalem.

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But again, there's hundreds of thousands more that are there in Jerusalem who don't believe.

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So while it is astonishing that that declaration of the gospel that day led to that many people coming to faith in Christ, there are still many more that don't believe.

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And they believe that they have the favor of God because of the law they follow.

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I'm a keeper of the law.

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We have the law.

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So if we practice the law, then God's favor is upon us.

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But of course, as we know from the scriptures, no one can keep the law.

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And as James says, if you've broken even one law, you're guilty of breaking all of it.

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It is only by faith in Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the requirements of the law, who lived a perfect life, died the death we're supposed to die, rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him, the sins that we've committed as lawbreakers are done away with.

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They are paid for so that in Christ Jesus, we stand before God not owing a debt, but justified.

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The Pharisees and the majority of the Jewish people did not believe that.

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They are convinced that by their laws, by their own system that they are saved.

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How can you convince such a person that they're not? And so they found this religion, even more evil spirits come in than they had before and convince them that they are truly spiritual people that have the favor of God.

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The last date of that man becomes worse than the first.

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And Jesus says that is the way it will also be with this evil generation.

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If they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they reject Christ.

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Their condition is going to be worse than it was before he came.

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So that's what Jesus is demonstrating there, what we considered in verses 43 to 45.

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Now like I said, it is this section that shows who truly belongs to Christ and who truly does not.

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And so that's what we see here in this closing narrative in verses 46 to 50.

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So while Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him.

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His mother, of course, being Mary, his brothers, including James, the author of James, he's the half brother of Christ.

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Jude, who was also known as Judas, the author of Jude, another half brother of Christ.

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Contrary to that false doctrine that claims that Mary was perpetually a virgin, no, she was a virgin when Jesus was conceived in her.

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But it says that Joseph, and we read this previously back in chapter one, Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus.

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And then they consummated their union after that.

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So Mary and Joseph were married and had other children.

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Jesus was not the only one.

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And so here is Mary and Jesus, half brothers and half sisters coming to speak to him.

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Somebody says in verse 47, behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you.

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But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said, who is my mother and who are my brothers? This is a rhetorical question, a rhetorical question, of course, which Jesus is going to answer.

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And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers.

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For whoever does the will of my father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.

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And all Jesus is communicating here, whether there were women among his disciples or not is kind of irrelevant.

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All Jesus is communicating is that these who do the will of my father, they belong to me.

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They belong to my family.

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And we understand Christ being our elder brother, for he is the firstborn from the dead.

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Romans 8, 29, which says, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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So, Jesus is the first to rise from the dead, but there are others that are going to rise from the dead, too, because they will follow Christ, be adopted into the family of God with the son, and so we likewise become sons and daughters of God, Jesus being our elder brother, Jesus being the one who prepared the way for us that we might also become the children of God.

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And that is what we are, as also said in 1 John 3.

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So, the one who does the will of my father, Jesus says, is the one who has been born again into the family of God.

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He is my brother and my sister and my mother.

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Now we had read previously, in Matthew 7, 21, Jesus saying, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter.

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Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, in your name did we not prophesy, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty miracles.

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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

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Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

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So it is the one who does the will of the father, who is in union with Christ.

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Remember once again, the section we're reading in Matthew 12, demonstrating to us who really belongs to Christ and who really does not.

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The one that does not do the will of the father does not belong to him.

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But the one who does do the will of the father has close union with Christ.

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A closer union than even his own flesh and blood, mother, and brothers and sisters had.

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We have closer fellowship with Christ by his spirit that Jesus would call us his brothers.

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Remember the close union that Jesus expressed having with his disciples when he confronted Saul of Tarsus, who at the, you know, this is the man that's going to become Paul the apostle.

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At the time, he's still known as Saul of Tarsus.

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This is in Acts chapter nine.

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On the road to Damascus, as Saul was on his way there to round up Christians and persecute them, Jesus appears to Saul and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

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Saul was persecuting the church.

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Jesus says, it is the same as if you persecute me.

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So those who have faith in Jesus Christ, we are the sons and daughters of God, and we are called his brothers.

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We who do the will of the father can be called Jesus brother or sister with a closer relationship with the savior than he had with his own mother on earth.

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Now keep this in mind because this comes back up again later in the gospel of Matthew.

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I'll come back to referencing it later of Jesus saying who exactly his brothers are.

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They are the ones who do the will of the father who is in heaven.

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So putting this upon you, is your Christianity, is your faith just something that is external? You wear the Christian t-shirt, you go to church, you carry your Bible, you know the Christian language, you can speak Christianese, you know where to drop the good words in there that make it sound like you're a Christian, you know how to give those Sunday school answers, but is your heart truly transformed in Christ to follow after him, to do the will of the father, to not just hear the word, but do what it says.

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For it is only those who are in Christ that are truly united with him and will receive his kingdom.

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On the day of judgment, will you hear from him, depart from me you worker of lawlessness I never knew you, or will you hear from him, well done, my good and faithful servant.

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Now great is your reward.

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Let's conclude with prayer.

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Heavenly father, as we have read and considered these things today, I pray that we would not be just those cultural Christians living in red states, carrying red letter Bibles, but we have read our Bibles and we do what it says.

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We do the will of the father.

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We say that we love you and then we obey you.

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We love one another.

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We love the people of God.

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We keep ourselves holy and pure by your strength, by your guidance, according to your word.

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And so I pray you lead us in those things today and everything that we're going to face today.

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We take our minds, we submit it to Christ.

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We desire to live according to your will.

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And if we do any wrong way, convict our hearts, knowing that we have done something that is not what our father in heaven wants from us.

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In desiring to do the will of the father, show us holiness, that we may live in the righteousness of Christ that we have been clothed in as his brothers and sisters in the Lord.

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It is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray, amen.

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You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hubes.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

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On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.

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Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.