Family Tensions
When we have family members who
have not received the Lord Jesus Christ
as personal Savior, we must not give up
hope regarding their salvation.
Here's Gene:
There are many, many of us who can
identify with that Principle.
We have people in our families that don't know Jesus.
They have rejected Jesus or they will not
respond to the gospel.
We have relatives. We have friends who
have children, relatives--who struggle
with this particular situation.
And so the Principle certainly applies in a
very unique way.
And Jesus understands the question--
He understands this Principle.
In fact, let's take a look at John 7 where
John records--beginning in verse 1
about Jesus' brothers:
After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since
he did not want to travel in Judea
because the Jews were trying to kill him. ...
And you remember the previous chapters leading up.
They were literally trying to kill Him
because He was claiming to be God.
...The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near.
[Sometimes called the Festival of Tabernacles].
So his brothers said to him,
"Leave here...
Now you have to get to the end of the
verses to realize their attitude.
They didn't have a good attitude in this situation.
They were literally accusing Jesus of arrogance.
Notice what happened:
..."Leave here and go to Judea so your
disciples can see your works that you are doing.
For no one does anything in secret while
he's seeking public recognition. ...
I mean, they're saying this about Jesus.
This is His brothers.
...If you do these things, show yourself
to the world. ...
And then John inserts
something here that he wants us to know:
...(For not even his brothers believed in him.)
They were sarcastic.
They did not like what was happening in
the community of Nazareth. Because a
lot of people were rejecting Jesus--
who grew up among them as a carpenter.
And now is claiming to be God in the flesh.
It's creating family pressure.
They're ashamed of what's happening.
They believe that He's losing His mind.
And so you see this very negative
situation in relationship to His brothers.
And let me just simply say at this point:
Yes, Jesus had brothers. He also had sisters.
In fact, let me take you to Matthew 13
where we read these words from those
who are asking this question. Right there
in Nazareth where He grew up as a carpenter:
"Isn't this the carpenter's son?
Isn't his mother called Mary, and his
brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
And his sisters, aren't they all with us?
So where does he get all these things?"
And the reason I'm underscoring this is
that there are some who believe that
Jesus did not have brothers or sisters.
They say these were cousins. They were relatives.
But you really have to twist the Scriptures
because they say this because
they're trying to prove that Mary
never had a sexual relationship with Joseph
before Jesus was born or afterwards.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
She was a human being and she had children.
Joseph and Mary had children.
So it's talking about His brothers.
But here His brothers are rejecting Jesus.
So let's pick up the continuity in verse 6:
Jesus told them--his brothers who are sarcastic.
Jesus told them, "My time has not yet arrived,
but your time is always at hand.
The world cannot hate you, but it does
hate me because I testify about it--
that its works are evil [and they hate me for that].
Go up to the festival yourselves.
I'm not going up to this festival,
because my time has not yet fully come."
And after he had said these things,
he stayed in Galilee.
Now there's not going to be a
contradiction because Jesus does go up.
But He's indicating at this moment,
at this time, He's not going to go up.
And basically, we read on in this basic story
that He did go up to Jerusalem.
I want to say a word, though,
of encouragement in terms of His family members.
And to do that, I'm going to take you to the upper room.
And this is after Jesus Christ has been resurrected.
And He's ascended and the
Holy Spirit is about to come.
And here's what we read in Acts:
Then they returned to Jerusalem from
the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem--
a Sabbath day's journey away.
[And] when they arrived, they went to
the room upstairs where they were staying...
Now notice who was in that room:
...Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip,
Thomas, Bartholomew [probably Nathaniel],
Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. ...
Not Judas Iscariot--he's not there.
...They all were continually united in prayer,
along with the women, including Mary
the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Probably all four of them--who are now
believers that He is indeed the Messiah.
He is indeed the resurrected Christ.
And it's interesting to state basically that
these men--at least two of them--
were very significant in relationship to the
New Testament church and what happened.
For example, James, probably the oldest--
this is the half-brother of Jesus.
When Paul came after his third
missionary journey, went back to Jerusalem. It says:
The following day Paul went in with us to James,
and all the elders were present.
Indicating that James now is the primary
elder and pastor and leader in the church in Jerusalem.
At one point he was an unbeliever,
sarcastic, and denying who Jesus said He really is.
Jude, who also is called Judas, wrote a
little book right before the book of
Revelation in our Bibles.
That was a brother, half-brother of Jesus--wrote a
letter that's included in the Scriptures.
So here's the question for application, and that is:
Though some of our family members
may demonstrate a strong opposition to
the gospel, in what ways can we keep
our hope alive that they will eventually
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
as their personal Savior?
And as I was thinking about the answer
to that question, I thought of some people
that I know whose children were
not believers--several couples.
And they met together for a number of years,
praying for their children who were unsaved.
And in this particular situation it's amazing
because as far as I know, every
one of those children eventually came to
know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Even after they had gone through a
period of rejecting who Jesus really is.
So the point being here, is that prayer is
an incredible tool that God wants us to use--
or function--in relationship to unsaved people.
So let me repeat the Principle,
which Jesus really understands
because He had that experience with
His own brothers and sisters:
When we have family members who
have not received the Lord Jesus Christ
as personal Savior, we must not give up
hope regarding their salvation.