Sermon: The Family of Christ

In last Sunday’s sermon, Jason taught us from Matthew 12:43-50, showed us the enormous difference between a partial and full reformation of the person, and gave us 7 glorious truths about our being united to Christ. 

1  PARTIAL REFORMATION (v.43-45). In this parable, Jesus describes an evil spirit that, once it has gone out of a person, finds no place to rest. Meanwhile the house is swept and clean, and when the spirit comes back it brings seven with it. Here we see a partial inward transformation: the cleaning of the house is the work of mere moralism. 

Like the person in the parable the pharisees have put their house in order but did not fill it again with Christ. The pharisees are moralists, and here Jesus is warning us that the moralist is in even greater danger than the prostitutes and tax collectors. 

Christ is no ethics teacher; He is a savior. The Samaritan woman at the well learned this. She was drawing the water of men, hoping it would satisfy, but she needed the living water. And when she drank she was transformed. 

2  FULL REFORMATION (v.46-50). Jesus’ family has come to put a stop to his madness. They believe they have a right to do this by their genetic connection to him. But Jesus has a different standard: The Kingdom comes first, and the physical family exists for the sake of the Kingdom. 

The Jews would never have called God their father, but Jesus knew this to be true. More than that, in uniting us to himself, Jesus makes God our father too. In answer to his earthly family’s demands, he turns to his disciples and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers!” 

This is the gospel, and the only way to full reformation of the person. The Father decreed it, the Son came to secure it, and the Holy Spirit ministers it to us. United to the triune God, we are made SONS of God. Not in gender but in position and in inheritance and in all the blessings implied in being a son.  

7 TAKE-AWAYS…

1  Fill the void with Christ. All else is a fool’s errand.

2  Don’t think you’re excluded from the family. All who believe are united to Christ.

3  This is a gift, not a result of effort. Walking in obedience is an effect of salvation, not a cause. 

4  When we come to Him, we do the will of the Father. Followers of Christ are not moralists, but they are moral. There is a family ethic: Be holy as I am holy.

5  Know that Christ is yours, and you are His.

6  Know that this is an eternal bond. Now, by covenant, nothing belongs to me but God himself!

7  Recognize how treasured you are by Jesus Christ – more than anything else in creation, because we are united to Him and are part of His family.