pastor steve: The Supremacy of the Gospel – redefining family (Mark 3:31-35)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

The story of Joyce’s dad… adoption into a new family… illustrates the supremacy of the gospel that redefines family as more than based on blood relationship.

As I have mentioned to you last week, I am devoting the month of March to explore God’s vision for our church, Cornerstone Mission Church. In order to understand what God envision for CMC, we must understand the exclusive demand of the gospel to share Jesus’ commitment to God and radically inclusive nature of the gospel

When family is understood as connection built on blood relationship, you will find these definitions for family.

A group of individual living under one roof and usually under one head

A group of persons of common ancestry (clan)… < a people or group of people regarded as deriving from a common stock (race)

The basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children… a single-parent family[1]

But, the supremacy of the gospel taught and lived out by our Lord Jesus envisions family quite differently. There is another dictionary definition of family that is not defined by blood relationship.

A group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation (fellowship)[2]

The gospel envisions family not just as relationship defined by blood relationships. The gospel envisions God’s family beyond the boundaries of the nuclear family ties, extended family ties, beyond clan, tribal, ethnic or racial ties. The gospel envisions radically inclusive family, God’s family based on the exclusive demand to share Jesus’ commitment to God’s will.

The supremacy of the gospel demands exclusively sharing Jesus’ commitment to God

Let’s consider how the supremacy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ redefines family.

Do you know what family values are? Family values are so highly regarded by churches that most of the Christians believe that it is essential and foundational for churches. Wikipedia defines family values as “political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society.”[3] When we as Christians focus so much on the values of building nuclear families, we become desensitized the biblical vision for God’s family, spiritual family.

Paul uses the language of “God’s household” to describe the biblical vision of God’s family.

“God’s household” in Ephesians 2:19, Galatians 6:10, “those who belong to the family of believers,” 1 Timothy 3:15, “God’s household”, 1 Peter 4:17, “the family of God.” Oikos of God.

So, how is the biblical vision of God’s family different from family values?

We can see the clear difference when we consider how Jesus explained about why he came to live with us.

Matthew 10:35f-36, “For I have come to turn “’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law- a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Luke 12:53 reads, “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Jesus is not saying that family isn’t important. Family defined by blood relationship was God’s idea and it is quite important. But, what Jesus is saying is allegiance to family, blood relationships, is only important if it honors Jesus’ commitment to God. The gospel carries the vision of division and strife over family relationship because the gospel demands complete allegiance to Jesus’ commitment to God. Let me illustrates this from the Wall Street Journal article from March 6.

The article is about an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef who is the son of Hamas founder and leader, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Mosab said, “I absolutely know that in anybody’s eyes I was a traitor… To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn’t leave on that I didn’t cross.” He explains his encounter with the British cabbie who gave him an English-Arabic copy of the New Testament. Reading through it, he said, “I found that I was really drawn to the grace, love and humility that Jesus talked about… I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love.”

And, he had some very harsh words to say about Muslim; there will be people who will try to kill him for what he said about Muslim. “At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God… The problem is not in Muslims… The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to.” About these dangerous words that he spoke against the religion of his family, Mosab said, “Palestinians have reason to kill me. Some Israelis may want to kill me. MY goal is not to defeat my enemy. It is to win over my enemy.”

His father Sheikh Yousef issued a statement that he and his family “have completely disowned the man who was our oldest son and who is called Mosab.”

Family values are only good if they serve the greater purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ to advance God’s will. But, if family values demand allegiance to families over Jesus’ commitment to God, he will not compromise, but will bring division and strife.

The supremacy of the gospel envisions inclusive family of God

Let’s consider now the story about Jesus and his family from Mark 3:31-35. What we see leading up to our text is Jesus actively engaging the world beyond the boundaries of social norms. While religious Jews were afraid and refused to associate with anyone beyond their ethnic and religious boundaries, Jesus touched and healed the leper, liberated demon possessed men, healed the sick, dined with social outcasts, and sinners. Jesus was even accused of casting out the demons because he himself was possessed by the prince of demons, named Beelzebul. To which Jesus dismissed their accusation as silly nonsense and sternly warned them of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

And it says in Mark 3:21, “When he his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”” They thought Jesus was going mad. The family believed that Jesus had to be stopped.

To “take charge” is to force. They showed up in order to force Jesus to abandon his madness. When they arrived, they stood outside and send someone in to call him. They were outside looking for Jesus in order to take charge of him, to force him to leave what they considered as craziness.

To this Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brother? …Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Do you get the picture? Jesus’ biological mother Mary and his half brothers were standing outside; they were outsiders because they opposed Jesus and his mission. Those who were inside of Jesus’ family circle were those who did God’s will.

This would have been utter shock to the first century mindset. The family defined by blood was the foundation of society and economy; unlike us, they couldn’t envision their own identities apart from identity that of belonging to a group, their family.[4]

Jesus rejected the priority of biological family relationships; he rejected putting family values first, family values to preserve their family lines, family wealth, family honor…[5]

Jesus rejected the belief in exclusively defined family; instead, he completely redefined family inclusively to include anyone who shares Jesus’ commitment to God. Family defined by Jesus cuts right through the boundaries of class, race, or ethnicity as long as there is the obedience to God’s will.

Only one qualification matters to belong to God’s family… “Do you share Jesus’ commitment to God?” Do you see how Jesus redefined inclusively?

The vision for CMC

Envision family inclusively- We must work towards the vision of inclusivity to expand God’s family beyond the boundaries of ethnicity, race, or social class. This means, we must consider the future of CMC beyond the immediate family relationships many of you have with KCUMC. Will we be able to fulfill effectively the inclusive vision of God’s family as CMC or as a part of Korean church? I believe that we can be much more effective in realizing God’s vision of inclusive family by not defining our church as an ethnic church.

Envision family exclusively -We must focus on sharing Jesus’ commitment to God for this is how the biblical family bond can grow. The biblical family grows through the inclusive vision with the exclusively sharing Jesus’ commitment to God.

“Our shared commitments to God tie us more closely together than biological kinship.”[6]

Envision family beyond nuclear families- We must envision the purpose of nuclear families as the means to realize the biblical vision of spiritual God’s family.

“The French novelist André Gide, in Les nouvelles nourritures, bitterly expressed against the selfishly ingrown nuclear families: “Families! I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessors of happiness.”[7]

Envision family to grow - We must work towards growing the family by diligent and creative evangelism. We have experienced a lot of natural births in our church. Imagine what would be like to share the joy of spiritual new birth and grow church that way! We must become church where people can experience adoption into God’s family.

Envision family to belong - We must become a church where lonely and people of differences can find meaningful family relationship in Christ through doing God’s will together. We must adopt each other as family.

Envision family to restore -We must become a church where healing and restoration is possible for people who have been wounded in their broken and dysfunctional families.

Envision family to love - We must envision the family of God that extends grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and hospitality to each other and also loves enough to confront sins in each other.

[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family

[2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_values