Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

More amazing, last verse, Acts chapter 1, verse 12. The book of Acts, chapter 1. Jesus has been crucified. Jesus was buried. Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus ascended to heaven.

And by the way, with his family, that changed everything. That changed everything. All the things he, he lived this perfect life for 30 years with them. That didn't convert him. He did his remarkable ministry, feeding 5,000, blind people see, lame people walk. They didn't believe him.

Now he's resurrected from the dead and ascended, and guess what? They believe him.

Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Now, guess where he's at? Nazareth.

And he's teaching in the synagogue, and they go, "What?" Wait a minute. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? And they took an offense at him.

Wow. Notice who they named. Four brothers and sisters. He might have had two, three, four sisters. He's not an only child, she's not a perpetual virgin. He has brothers and sisters. And they're saying, "And we know them. We know that whole family."

Look, we know they're kind of nothing here. Why is this, where does this come from from this guy? They took offense, and Jesus said, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his home town and among his own relatives and in his own household."

What a great statement. We know it differently. Familiarity breeds what? Contempt.

And they're all contempt, have contempt for him. His neighbors, the people in the town, his brothers, his sisters, they all have contempt for him.

Now, because you got to imagine something here. Okay, who did this? I'll be Joseph for Mary. Who, who did this? We don't know. Jesus, he did it. He's the one that did it.

"Well, where were you guys?" "Oh, we went over to see some friend." No, no, they didn't. They were at this place. Jesus doesn't tell lies. He just tells you the truth every time. Just imagine when that's like, and just imagine how unnerving it would be to have a child who never sinned.

I mean, just think how unnerving this is. Everything. You, you have to feel spiritually so inferior to the child.

You know, but Jesus wouldn't be easy to raise. And here's the other thing, sinful people living in the presence of someone holy don't like it. And they don't like him either. And they don't like him. None of them like him. No one in his household likes him and no one in the town likes him. It's kind, kind of an interesting thing.

Now, to show you how different he is, go with me back to Luke now, chapter 2. Luke 2, and verse 41.

Jesus is now 12 years old. And at 12 years old, they're going to do what all families do, they're going to make the pilgrimage from Galilee for about a day, about a two-day, three-day walk for a family, and they're going down to Jerusalem. So it says, and now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, and when he became 12, they went up there according to the custom of the feast. And as they were returning after spending the full number of days, the boy, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of it. But supposed him to be in a caravan and went a day's journey. And when they began looking for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

And they did not find him. And so he says, they returned to Jerusalem. Now remember, they went as a block party. It was like a village went. So everybody's kind of in this long caravan, moving pretty slowly, and they thought Jesus might be with somebody else and all that. So they get out there a day and go, "Did you see Jesus?" No. "Did you see?" No.

So they said, "We better go back and look for him." Another day back. So they go back. Now watch. Then after three days, they go back, it's three days now.

Now, Jerusalem's not very big. Old Jerusalem is pretty small. Many years ago, I said, "Old Jerusalem was about the size from Causeway to Transcontinental, and about from the lake to Vets Boulevard." That'd be old Jerusalem. That's what Jerusalem was. They couldn't find him. You know why they couldn't find him? They never looked for where you'd, they never looked for where he'd be because they looked every place you'd find, would look for a 12-year-old boy.

See, where would you find a 12-year-old? You lost a 12-year-old, where are you looking? No, I'm going to look, my 12-year-old, I'm going to look, he's probably at the church discussing theology with the pastors.

Not likely, huh? No, they couldn't find him because they didn't look there. So ends up what's happening, it says, he says, "After three days, they find him in the temple." He said, "Sitting in the midst of the rabbis, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and answers." Here's this 12-year-old talking to the rabbis.

And asking them a lot of questions. And the rabbis are like, "Who is this? Who 12 years old is like us?" I mean, the average believer, Jewish believer in Israel would not want to talk to a rabbi about theology. They were lifted above everybody of their knowledge. And when they saw him, they were astonished. They never expected him to be there.

And notice his mother said, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you." Don't miss that. Who do you think usually would speak to a son that was gone that long? His father. Not Joseph. Mary.

Do you ever wonder how awkward it would be for Joseph to be his father? We always talk about Mary. What about Joseph? He knows he's not his son. Now he knows, he knows the story and he believes the story. But how awkward would this seem? He's not the one talking. Mary does.

Now notice, after she says that to him, he said to her, "Why is it you're looking for me?" Wow. Do you not know I have to be about my Father's house?

He's only 12. You see what he is saying is, "Look, you're, don't misunderstand this. Our natural relationship is superseded by my spiritual, my spiritual duty to my Father. I'm here to do his will." You see, "Why are you looking at me? Don't question me this way. I know that from a fleshly point of view, this is my family, but I'm my heavenly Father." And he, he'll keep beating that over and over again. Notice, they did not understand the statement which he made to them.

He said, "He went down," and he said, "with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them, and his mother treasured these things in his heart." Mary is still a woman of faith and she's still, I'm trying to figure this out with him. He's just so different. When it comes to things like this, he's just so very different.

We'll move ahead now. Go with me to John, chapter 2. John, chapter 2.

Now we come to, he's in, he's in the ministry now. Joseph apparently has died. So you wonder, was Mary a single mom with a lot of kids? We don't know. But chapter 2 of John is his first miracle. And on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee up north, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "Hey, they have no wine." That's kind of interesting. They, they have no wine.

She knows something, doesn't she? This boy can do anything. They have no wine. Wow. Now watch. And Jesus said to her, and this is his only expression he ever tells her, "Woman."

He never calls her mom in the Bible, ever. He calls her *gune*. It's a sign of respect, not disrespectful, but he never calls her mom or mother. He calls her *gune*.

What does that have to do with us? "My hour is not yet come." You, you call that a rebuke. "Why are you asking this of me? My hour is not yet come. I've just came to the wedding."

Notice, he met, he, she understood it. Notice, his mother said to the servants, "Whatever he says, do it." Whatever he says to do, you just do. And Jesus does the miracle. He turns the water into wine. But notice, this sets up, the way they reacted with each other is kind of an interesting thing. Her concern was social. His concern is spiritual, always the same. It's always to do the Father's will. That's who he is, and that's what he does all the time.

Now, go with me to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 25.

And I'll start in verse 22. Matthew 12:22. I want you to see the context here. It says in verse 22, "Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he healed him. And so that the mute man could speak and saw." And all the crowds were amazed and were saying, "This man cannot be the son of David, can he?" And he is, of course.

"But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, 'This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.'" Beelzebul was the Lord of the Flies, Philistine god, but it means Satan.

Now, this is when the leaders of Israel formally reject Jesus as their Messiah. Right here. They reject him. "We're done with you." "You're not of God, you're of the devil." Notice, knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan cast out Satan, he's divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges."

Now, notice, he said, "I cast out demons by the spirit of God." But the point of it is is he says, "Look, you guys just committed an unpardonable sin. I cannot help you anymore." The unpardonable sin, they rejected that Jesus Christ was from God. And that's when Israel, that's when Jesus, halfway through his ministry, completely changed his perspective. The first half of his ministry, he tries to gather the crowds as large as he can. The last half of his ministry, he tries to thin the herd. Because he knows now Israel is not going to get their kingdom, they're not going to get their Messiah, and the church is going to begin. And so Jesus wants to see, "Are you really committed to me?"

Now, this spread like wildfire. All the spiritual leaders went against Jesus and called him up the devil. So Jesus is now in another place and watch what his family does. Verse 46. "While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds," he's still there talking, "behold, his mother and brothers," and that word brothers means, could mean siblings, and I think it does, it means both. "And brothers are standing outside and they want to speak to him."

Why do you think his brothers want to speak to him? "We got to get him. We got to bring him home." They think, you see, this guy, now the religious leaders have said he's of the devil. I mean, we always knew he's a little bit off, you know, let's go get him. So they go. And someone said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside. They want to speak to you." I love this. Jesus answered and said to the one who was telling him, "Who is my mother and who are my siblings?" Who are you talking about?

Wow. And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Behold, behold," he says, "my mother and my brothers." "For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, my sister, my mother." Jesus makes it clear. The only relationships that matter here are spiritual relationships. That's what this is. Not, not natural relationships. So that, that's a sharp rebuke. He just turned them away. "I will not talk to you. I'm going to do this from this point of view."

You know, one of the sidebars in this is if you had a really difficult time, especially a day like Mother's Day, not all mothers are great mothers. Some have been abusive, some have been neglectful, some have deserted their children. You see, and a lot of times, our natural relationships aren't what they should be. But what Jesus is saying is this, that's okay. Your spiritual relationships take precedence over it.

You see, in the truest sense, I have brothers. Okay, I have brothers, and I have brothers and sisters in here. Jesus is saying, "Bill, this is your family." You see, we always talk about the natural, it's like, "Well, that's more," no, it's not. It's the spiritual things. That's what Jesus is saying. My brothers and sisters, even my mothers, he said, are those who do the will of God. That's the way he runs us and the way he does it.

Now, to make my point, go to Luke chapter 11 and verse 27 with me. Luke 11 and verse 27.

And this should be a direct answer to what we, by not over, not overdoing your reaction to Mary. Verse 27. "While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast on which you nourished!'" That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? She's, she's venerating Mary.

Jesus, on the contrary, on the contrary, "I disagree with that." That's what he's saying. On the contrary, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

You see, it wasn't, he's back to that idea again. You want to know that? You want to know who's blessed? Those who hear the word of God and observe it. Now, he's not saying Mary doesn't. He's just, he's rebuking her for trying to lift Mary up like that. He said, "No, you don't do that."

You see, one of the things Jesus is very much aware of his whole life, and I, I say it over and over again, but I'll say it again right now, there's only one celebrity in all creation. And his name is Jesus Christ. And there aren't others, there aren't other celebrities. There's one. There's no one like him. He's great. He's not like anybody else. He is the God-man. And so consequently, they tried, all she wanted to do was say how wonderful it would be to be his mom. He said, "On the contrary, you want to know what's wonderful is, someone who hears the word of God and does it. That's wonderful."

Now, so, then, I want you to go with me now to John 12, and we go to the cross. John 12, and we're at the cross.

And now it's all come full tilt, and I'm trying to think about, how do you think Mary felt with all this? What do you think this'd be like? She's known him for 30-some years. She knows he's never sinned. She knows what he told he's going to go and do. She knows that it's the will of the Father that he goes to the cross and dies. She knows all that. But that's her boy up there.

He's been flogged by the Romans, you know, beaten, almost beyond belief, then nailed to the cross. And she's standing there looking at this boy. Hmm.

And it says in verse, all right, verse 25, "Therefore the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross was Jesus, where Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister." So apparently her mother wasn't a perpetual virgin either, because she had a sister, Mary had a sister. "And then it said, 'Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.'" Notice there's a lot of Marys at the cross. Several. The reason is, it's the most popular Jewish name. It's Miriam. Miriam is the Jewish name and once it gets to English, we call it Mary.

And when Jesus saw that his mother, saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, "Gune." He didn't say mother. Now watch, he's going to say mother, he won't call her mother. "Gune." And he says, "Behold your son." He's pointing to John. John's right there. He points her, says, "Gune, behold your son." Now you might wonder, why would he do that? There's James, he has other brothers. Why wouldn't they take care of her? Because none of them were believers. Not one of them. Mary is. So he says, "John, you take care of her." Now watch, notice how he changes the words. He says, "Then he said to his disciple, 'Behold your mother.'"

He called her mother there. Not directly, he called her *gune*, but now he says, "John, behold her, you're responsible to her as she's your mother." And he says, "From that hour on, the disciple took her into his own household." And so you see this whole idea happening here, that what happens in this scenario.

Jesus has, these are all the pictures. And now how it ends is even more amazing. Last verse, Acts chapter 1, verse 12. The book of Acts, chapter 1. Jesus has been crucified. Jesus was buried. Jesus rose from the dead and Jesus ascended to heaven.

And by the way, with his family, that changed everything. That changed everything. All the things he, he lived this perfect life for 30 years with him. That didn't convert him. He did his remarkable ministry, feeding 5,000, blind people see, lame people walk. They didn't believe him.

Now he's resurrected from the dead and ascended, and guess what? They believe him. They finally believe him. Notice what happens here. Verse 12. "And they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were straying, were staying. And that is Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, and James the son of Alpheus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James." That's his disciples. They're all there now. These, notice, these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers, or his siblings. They're all there now. Every one of them converted. Because he was raised from the dead.

James, by the way, the next oldest one, I'm sure he's the one that took care of his mother after that. James, not only is a believer, he becomes the elder, chief elder of the church in Jerusalem. And he's the one, the Lord's brother, who wrote the Epistle to James, of James. That's James. He could, so he didn't convert, you know, and it's an interesting thing when you think about it, he didn't convert exactly the way that, you know, you and I would think that he should convert. And I just thought of something, I thought it was kind of amazing here.

And I, let me just read this because I just, a thought just crossed my mind. When James wrote his Epistle, I love the way he starts his Epistle. James says this, "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now what would you say? James, "I was the brother of the Lord. I got stories, I got a lot of things, you know, I was so privileged, I lived my whole life with him." He didn't say that. Notice he calls them *Kurios*. He's my Lord. He's not, I don't just believe my brother died for my sins. My brother is my Lord. That's an amazing thing on James's part. He, that's how complete his conversion really was. So, the most unique mother whoever lived is Mary.

The most unique pregnancy of all time is Mary's. The most unique child that was ever born is Jesus. Hmm. She knows the blessings and the burdens of motherhood. She knows the pleasures and the pain of motherhood.

So how about this Mother's Day, we call Mary what the angel said to Mary. And that is she is *Kato*. She is a recipient of the grace of God. That's why she's blessed. The reason she's blessed is she has received the grace of God. And let me say one more thing. That's exactly why you and I are blessed. You and I are the recipients of the grace of God. You see, we are favored ones in his sight. Let's pray.

Father, I hope this story helps bring some clarity with this idea of Mary. There was so much added to the life of Mary, not a word of it in the Bible. Not a word of it, by the way, of the church fathers of the end of the first century. And then slowly but surely, this whole thing of Maryology grew. I pray, Father, she is protected in heaven from that. I pray that she's not aware of all that. I couldn't imagine the anguish that could cause her.

But Father, we thank you for her. We thank you that of all the billions of women who've been, have been born, the son of God, you picked her. We thank you that this teenager exemplified saving faith. She was a remarkable spiritual being. And Father, we thank you this Mother's Day for the mother of our Lord. Amen.

You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called onplace.com. That's onplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift.

Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 70006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt. Thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.