Title: Following Jesus, Our Greatest Giver
Facebook live: Following Jesus in Loving care for family
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Following Jesus in Loving care for family
Here's a question for you: “What is the best gift God has given you?”
I suppose just about all of you are thinking,
“Well, that's easy; it's Jesus and His salvation.”
Or, “It's everlasting life in Jesus Christ.”
Hopefully we're all agreed on that. But let me ask another:
“Following the obvious one, Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, what would you say is the next best gift God has given you?”
I'm guessing many of you, probably most of you, are thinking about your family.
Unless some terrible and painful thing has happened to ruin relationships in your family, or some other extraordinary circumstances have disrupted things, you likely love your family members more than anyone else besides the Lord Himself.
And that's not a bad thing.
The Lord teaches us to love Him most of all, and then to love our neighbor as ourselves. And our family members are, after all, our closest neighbors. So, it is good and right and natural for us to love our family
This, of course, is exactly what our Lord Jesus was doing as He spoke to His mother and the beloved disciple from the cross.
Our Lord was showing loving care for His family – most directly for His mother, yet also for His entire extended family, as well.
Even in the midst of the anguish of His crucifixion, Jesus was concerned about the wellbeing of others, including His mother.
“Woman, behold, your son!” Mary was to regard this disciple, whom we understand to be John Zebedee, as her own son. Then He says to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” So, John was to regard Mary as his own mother.
Jesus said these things because He was concerned for the proper care of His mother after His death, resurrection, and ascension.
You see, as the oldest son of the family, it was His responsibility to care for her.
So, Jesus designated John to take His place in this, so as to assure she would have someone reliable to protect her and provide for her bodily and spiritual needs in the years to come.
Of course, He could have made provision for one of His half brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, or Judah, to care for Mary. But at that point they did not believe in Him. (Jn. 7:5)
Now, thankfully, Jesus' death and resurrection made the difference, and at some point, before Pentecost His brothers became part of the company of believers (Acts 1:14).
Yet Jesus knew the beloved disciple was the best choice to take care of her in body and soul.
So that's what John did.
“From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”
John undoubtedly took good care of Mary, and she surely treated him with kind and grateful devotion as a loving adopted mother. Jesus made sure all would turn out for the blessing of both Mary and John
He also made sure all would turn out for our blessing, as well.
For our Lord's loving care for His mother was part of what we call His active obedience for us.
In other words, as Jesus kept the Fourth Commandment perfectly, honoring His mother as all of us should honor our parents, He did so as our Substitute, on our behalf. And His obedience counts for us. God gives us credit for what His Son did in loving care for Mary.
Yet in addition to that, as Jesus hung on the cross and lovingly cared for His family even in the midst of great suffering, He extended His supreme love to all of us. For Jesus chose to remain on that cross and bear the punishment for all our sin.
Jesus took the full penalty of sin in our place so that we do not have to endure it.
Because He hung on the cross and died for us, we are fully forgiven.
The guilt of our sin is entirely removed, so that God regards us as pure and clean and holy in His sight.
For the sake of Jesus' atoning passion, God now accepts all of us who trust in Him as His own dear children. We “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:26
And if God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children, that gives us the status of brothers and sisters of Christ.
Jesus Himself said as much:
“Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:50)
And we know our Father's will is that we believe in His Son and receive His gift of everlasting life! (Jn. 6:40)
And Jesus continues His loving care for us and all His family to this day.
He is constantly by our side.
He provides for all our needs of body and soul.
He protects us. He forgives us.
He guides us in His ways by His word. Jesus calms our fears and dries our tears. He comforts and cheers us and fills us with hope.
He hears our prayers and answers them for our good.
Every moment of every day Jesus loves us unconditionally as His own dear family
And we all know our Lord Jesus wants us to follow His example in loving care for our families.
When I asked you before about God's best gifts, I mentioned that, after Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, many of us would name our family as the next best gift.
And our family really is a gift from God, isn't it?
You didn't choose your parents or siblings. God gave them to you, and you to them.
And even though God may have used you as instruments in the creation of your children, you didn't make them. God made them, and He entrusted them to you to take care of them for a little while.
This is especially obvious in the case of adopted children.
In the same way, your spouse is a gift from God.
Of course, we give our willing consent when God joins us together as husband and wife, but He is the One who provided that husband or wife for us, and united us as one.
Because God has given us our family, He expects us to take good care of them.
That's why He gave the Fourth Commandment:
“Honor your father and your mother,”
which not only includes obedience, service, and respect while children are young and living at home, but also loving respect and service to parents when they are older and in need of help, just as our Lord did for His mother.
We heard that in our reading from 1 Timothy 5, that we are to repay our parents and grandparents for what they did for us, by caring for them in their senior years, and that we are to provide for those in our own household.
All this is practicing good stewardship of the families God has entrusted to us.
The Ruth narrative gives us some good examples.
Ruth cared for Naomi, her widowed mother-in-law, and was loving and loyal to her by remaining with her when she returned to her home.
Naomi for her part cared for Ruth, who was also a widow, and helped her get a good husband.
Boaz married Ruth and took good care of her.
They all showed what it looks like to provide loving care to family.
So, when we provide for the bodily needs of our family members; when we are loyal to them and protect them; when we give them proper honor and respect, actually listen to them, and speak to them kindly;
when we are concerned for their emotional wellbeing;
when we teach and lovingly discipline children;
when we guide and encourage them in the Lord, pray with them and for them, and attend the services of the Lord's house together;
when we work and play with them, and spend time together –
when we care for our families like this, we are following our Lord Jesus.
Now, if we love our families the way we think we do, it shouldn't be that hard to care for them the way our Lord wants us to.
Yet we often have trouble with this, don't we?
Sometimes we're rude or short-tempered or even negligent. And we know the reason why – because of our inborn sinfulness, which is always selfish.
Yet in the Lord Jesus, we can do what He calls us to do.
So, friends let no selfishness or personal ambition keep you from this.
Let no grudge from past hurts or offenses, no laziness, no misplaced priorities of worldliness or materialism prevent you from serving your family in keeping with God's word.
Rather, learn from Jesus, and, by the power of His forgiving grace, follow His example of loving care for your family
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
Text: John 19:25-27
Facebook live: Following Jesus in Loving care for family
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Following Jesus in Loving care for family
Here's a question for you: “What is the best gift God has given you?”
I suppose just about all of you are thinking,
“Well, that's easy; it's Jesus and His salvation.”
Or, “It's everlasting life in Jesus Christ.”
Hopefully we're all agreed on that. But let me ask another:
“Following the obvious one, Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, what would you say is the next best gift God has given you?”
I'm guessing many of you, probably most of you, are thinking about your family.
Unless some terrible and painful thing has happened to ruin relationships in your family, or some other extraordinary circumstances have disrupted things, you likely love your family members more than anyone else besides the Lord Himself.
And that's not a bad thing.
The Lord teaches us to love Him most of all, and then to love our neighbor as ourselves. And our family members are, after all, our closest neighbors. So, it is good and right and natural for us to love our family
This, of course, is exactly what our Lord Jesus was doing as He spoke to His mother and the beloved disciple from the cross.
Our Lord was showing loving care for His family – most directly for His mother, yet also for His entire extended family, as well.
Even in the midst of the anguish of His crucifixion, Jesus was concerned about the wellbeing of others, including His mother.
“Woman, behold, your son!” Mary was to regard this disciple, whom we understand to be John Zebedee, as her own son. Then He says to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” So, John was to regard Mary as his own mother.
Jesus said these things because He was concerned for the proper care of His mother after His death, resurrection, and ascension.
You see, as the oldest son of the family, it was His responsibility to care for her.
So, Jesus designated John to take His place in this, so as to assure she would have someone reliable to protect her and provide for her bodily and spiritual needs in the years to come.
Of course, He could have made provision for one of His half brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, or Judah, to care for Mary. But at that point they did not believe in Him. (Jn. 7:5)
Now, thankfully, Jesus' death and resurrection made the difference, and at some point, before Pentecost His brothers became part of the company of believers (Acts 1:14).
Yet Jesus knew the beloved disciple was the best choice to take care of her in body and soul.
So that's what John did.
“From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”
John undoubtedly took good care of Mary, and she surely treated him with kind and grateful devotion as a loving adopted mother. Jesus made sure all would turn out for the blessing of both Mary and John
He also made sure all would turn out for our blessing, as well.
For our Lord's loving care for His mother was part of what we call His active obedience for us.
In other words, as Jesus kept the Fourth Commandment perfectly, honoring His mother as all of us should honor our parents, He did so as our Substitute, on our behalf. And His obedience counts for us. God gives us credit for what His Son did in loving care for Mary.
Yet in addition to that, as Jesus hung on the cross and lovingly cared for His family even in the midst of great suffering, He extended His supreme love to all of us. For Jesus chose to remain on that cross and bear the punishment for all our sin.
Jesus took the full penalty of sin in our place so that we do not have to endure it.
Because He hung on the cross and died for us, we are fully forgiven.
The guilt of our sin is entirely removed, so that God regards us as pure and clean and holy in His sight.
For the sake of Jesus' atoning passion, God now accepts all of us who trust in Him as His own dear children. We “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:26
And if God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children, that gives us the status of brothers and sisters of Christ.
Jesus Himself said as much:
“Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:50)
And we know our Father's will is that we believe in His Son and receive His gift of everlasting life! (Jn. 6:40)
And Jesus continues His loving care for us and all His family to this day.
He is constantly by our side.
He provides for all our needs of body and soul.
He protects us. He forgives us.
He guides us in His ways by His word. Jesus calms our fears and dries our tears. He comforts and cheers us and fills us with hope.
He hears our prayers and answers them for our good.
Every moment of every day Jesus loves us unconditionally as His own dear family
And we all know our Lord Jesus wants us to follow His example in loving care for our families.
When I asked you before about God's best gifts, I mentioned that, after Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, many of us would name our family as the next best gift.
And our family really is a gift from God, isn't it?
You didn't choose your parents or siblings. God gave them to you, and you to them.
And even though God may have used you as instruments in the creation of your children, you didn't make them. God made them, and He entrusted them to you to take care of them for a little while.
This is especially obvious in the case of adopted children.
In the same way, your spouse is a gift from God.
Of course, we give our willing consent when God joins us together as husband and wife, but He is the One who provided that husband or wife for us, and united us as one.
Because God has given us our family, He expects us to take good care of them.
That's why He gave the Fourth Commandment:
“Honor your father and your mother,”
which not only includes obedience, service, and respect while children are young and living at home, but also loving respect and service to parents when they are older and in need of help, just as our Lord did for His mother.
We heard that in our reading from 1 Timothy 5, that we are to repay our parents and grandparents for what they did for us, by caring for them in their senior years, and that we are to provide for those in our own household.
All this is practicing good stewardship of the families God has entrusted to us.
The Ruth narrative gives us some good examples.
Ruth cared for Naomi, her widowed mother-in-law, and was loving and loyal to her by remaining with her when she returned to her home.
Naomi for her part cared for Ruth, who was also a widow, and helped her get a good husband.
Boaz married Ruth and took good care of her.
They all showed what it looks like to provide loving care to family.
So, when we provide for the bodily needs of our family members; when we are loyal to them and protect them; when we give them proper honor and respect, actually listen to them, and speak to them kindly;
when we are concerned for their emotional wellbeing;
when we teach and lovingly discipline children;
when we guide and encourage them in the Lord, pray with them and for them, and attend the services of the Lord's house together;
when we work and play with them, and spend time together –
when we care for our families like this, we are following our Lord Jesus.
Now, if we love our families the way we think we do, it shouldn't be that hard to care for them the way our Lord wants us to.
Yet we often have trouble with this, don't we?
Sometimes we're rude or short-tempered or even negligent. And we know the reason why – because of our inborn sinfulness, which is always selfish.
Yet in the Lord Jesus, we can do what He calls us to do.
So, friends let no selfishness or personal ambition keep you from this.
Let no grudge from past hurts or offenses, no laziness, no misplaced priorities of worldliness or materialism prevent you from serving your family in keeping with God's word.
Rather, learn from Jesus, and, by the power of His forgiving grace, follow His example of loving care for your family
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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