JESUS: His Relationships                                                           10-23-05

Mark 3:13-19 (13)     Audio

Jesus did not live His life in isolation; He lived His life in relationships with other people.  He was not a guru who sat on a mountain top dispensing good advice to all who came crawling up the mountain to Him.  John 1:14 says that The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. “Moved into the neighborhood” – Message.

Today I want us to look at Jesus’ relationships with other people, and then at our relationships with other people.

Jesus’ relationship with His Heavenly Father.

Relationships for Jesus did not begin when He came to this earth.  It’s very interesting to me that God’s very nature is that of relationships.  He did not exist from eternity past as a single unit, wandering the universe, or whatever there was before there was a universe, alone and lonely.  God always has been, is right now, and always will be a fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – relationships!

So when the Bible teaches that man was made in the image of God, it means that we were made for relationships.  Something is wrong with the image of God in a person who does not need other people, who lives in isolation, without any relationships.  That is not what God intended for man to be like.  Jesus’ relationship with His Heavenly Father and with the Holy Spirit shows us that life is intended for relationships.

Why does it say in Luke 5:16 that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Why in Mark 1:35 that Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Why in Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Why did He want to go to the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was betrayed?

Pastor Norm spoke 2 weeks ago on Jesus’ prayer life.  Jesus prayed in order to maintain His relationship with His Heavenly Father.

Jesus’ relationship with His earthly family.

When Jesus came to earth from His eternal existence with His Father and with the Holy Spirit, He did not come floating down out of the clouds. When He comes back again, that’s the way He will come – in clouds of glory as a Conquering King, and every eye will see Him.  As He left this earth in Acts 1 He rose up until He was hidden in the clouds. 

And the angels said to the Disciples: “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (v.11). We will be looking at what the Bible says about Jesus’ second coming several months from now, if He doesn’t come first.

But that’s not the way He came the first time.  He was born as a baby, born into a family with an earthly mother and father, and later brothers and sisters.  There were relationships.

A few weeks back we looked at an incident in Jesus’ childhood where at 12 years of age He accompanied His parents to the Passover Celebration in Jerusalem.  It says in Luke 2 that every year His parents went.  They traveled from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a distance of 70 or 80 miles, all on foot.  They traveled as a large group, it says, family and friends together.

How could they not notice that Jesus was missing when they left Jerusalem and headed back to Nazareth that day when He was 12?  Later, in Mark 6:3, when Jesus had amazed some people in Nazareth with His teachings, they said: Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?

Jesus had 4 brothers, and at least 2 sisters, maybe more.  By the time Jesus was 12, how many of these siblings were there?  It isn’t unreasonable to think that in 12 years Mary could have had 6 more children, maybe more.  And with a tribe like that, you don’t pay as much attention to the oldest; you’re rounding up the little ones and making sure they are all accounted for.  A 12-year old can certainly take care of himself.  Maybe that’s why they didn’t miss Him until they stopped for the night.

Jesus grew up as part of a large family – mom and dad and at least 7 kids – that’s relationships.

There is an interesting exchange between Jesus and His family that is recorded in Mark 3 (20-21, 31-35)

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he & his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind...”

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus’ family did not always understand Him.  His siblings did not believe in Him until after His death and resurrection.  It would be hard growing up with Someone Who is perfect; but still He is your big brother.  He can’t possibly be the Messiah.

Jesus’ reply to those reporting to Him that His family is outside wanting to talk to Him is intriguing to me: He looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

I am part of Jesus family, and so are you – if you are doing the will of God. Brother, sister, mother – a family relationship with Him.  What a privilege we have!

Jesus’ relationship with the crowds.

When Jesus began His public ministry at 30 years of age, there were two sides to that ministry: He preached to the crowds, but He also gathered around Him a small group of men.  We will look at that small group in a few minutes.  Let’s look at the crowds.

He was publicly baptized by His cousin John the Baptist, spent 40 days fasting and praying, and then it says in Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 

Matthew 4:17 says following His baptism From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  A public ministry of preaching and teaching the crowds of people, of performing miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising people from the dead.

As He spoke to the crowds, many put their faith in Him, believing that He was the Christ. They asked: When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs that this man?  Some argued that He was only a prophet, but many believed Him to be the Messiah, the Promised One of God.

At times Jesus withdrew from the crowds, but when they found Him He always ministered to them.  He saw them as sheep without a shepherd and His heart went out to them in compassion.He ministered to crowds.

Jesus’ relationship with His small group.

We come now to our Bible reading for this morning.  In Mark 3 we read of Jesus selecting a small band of men into whom He would invest Himself more fully than He would with the crowd.  Mark for some reason leaves out a fact that Luke records.  Luke says: (6:12-13)

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

His choice of these men was not made casually.  He spent a whole night in consultation with His Father before making the selection.

Read Mark 3:13-19.

Look again at v. 14.  Why did He select these men?  So that they might be with Him.  That was the first reason.  Before they would do anything, they would be with Him.  They would be in close relationship with Him, and then proceeding from that relationship they would go out and make Him known to others.

Jesus does not call us first to do things for Him.  He calls us first to be with Him.  And far too many Christians are trying to do things for Him without first spending time being with Him.

Your value to God does not proceed from what you do. 

If that were the case, then when you can no longer do for the Lord, you are worthless to Him.  Your value to God is first and foremost in your relationship with Him.  Never forget that.

That was so impressed on me this last Thursday morning when one of the pastors I pray with regularly told us that he is resigning today.  His doctor has told him ”I can’t guarantee that if you leave pastoring you will survive, but I can guarantee you that if you don’t, you won’t live long”.

He said: “I’ve been anointed with oil, I have been prayed for by our elders, I have sought God for healing, but it hasn’t come.  Pastoring is too stressful for the kind of diabetes I have, so I’m going to have to do something else.”

Does God see him as useful only if he continues to function as a pastor?  Not at all!  Jesus calls him first and foremost to be with Him.  And when we can no longer do, we can still be.  Jesus delights in our relationship with Him. 

That does not mean that doing is unimportant, that our ministry for Him is unimportant.  But it must be in its proper priority – it must always be second to being, being in relationship with Jesus.

When He was on earth, did Jesus need other people?  That’s one of the questions on our study sheet for this week, a question for you to think about and that we will be discussing in many of our small groups this week.  Did Jesus need other people?  Do you need other people?

And I wondered: Did Jesus call these men just so they could be with Him, or was it also so that He could be with them?

In Mark 9, He went up the mountain and His clothes became dazzling white, when He met there with Moses and Elijah. He was transfigured,  it says.  Why did He take Peter, James, and John with Him?  Was it because there was something in Him that wanted to share that powerful experience with someone else?

And then in Luke 22 there is the Last Supper.  Jesus says: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

It sounds like He wants this to be a shared experience, not just a personal experience.  He eagerly desires that they eat the meal with Him.

Finally we come to the Garden of Gethsemane.  It’s the night when Jesus will be betrayed.  The soldiers and the crowd will come with their clubs and swords.  He will be chained, and beaten, and mocked, and spit upon, and nailed to a cross.  But first it’s time to pray.

He will agonize in prayer, praying so fervently that it says His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.  Matthew records that as they enter the garden, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”  (26:37-38).

Can you hear Jesus’ heart?  He did not need the crowds in that moment.  He was not just needing to talk to His Father.  He needed His men to stand with Him, to pray with Him, to figuratively hold up His hands in prayer during those difficult hours . 

In that moment of deepest sorrow, of agony, Jesus wanted others with Him.

I believe with all my heart that Jesus wants His followers to be in relationships with each other.  I believe that He wants you to be more than a crowd of people who gather on Sunday morning in an impersonal, large meeting to listen to a sermon.

God wants every one of us to have relationships that will encourage us and build us up spiritually.  He wants us to have people who can hold our hands up in prayer during our times of difficulty.  He wants us to live life together the way the early church did, both listening to the apostles’ teaching, and meeting from house to house, eating together, praying together, encouraging each other and living out what they were hearing taught.

I know where we are as a church; I know where God wants us to be as a church.  But I’m struggling with how we get from where we are to where God wants us to be.  The people who have navigated these waters successfully in their church repeatedly give this advice: Pray. Pray. Pray.

The foundation for change, the foundation upon which you build the kind of Church that is pleasing to God and helps people become what God wants them to be, the foundation is much prayer.  Personal prayer. Corporate prayer.  Congregational prayer.

Some of you share the same urging that I am sensing for our church to move in this direction.  Not just a new program of small groups – we could have done that a long time ago.  God is not calling us to a new program, but to being a church of people who are in relationship with Jesus, and because we are, we are living our Christian life in relationships with others.

Some of you are already in small groups where you talk together about the Lord and about His word and about life, and you pray together and encourage each other.  And some of you have talked to me about how blessed you are to be a part of a group like that. 

But that is not yet the culture of our church: that that is what is expected of all of us.  We do not yet believe as a church that to be the kind of healthy, growing Christian that God wants us to be a person has to have those kinds of relationships.  We are not yet opening our hearts and lives to every person who God sends our way and drawing them into relationships with us.

Here is what I would like to ask of you: if you have a desire in your heart to see this happen in our church, would you meet with me next Saturday evening to pray with me about seeing this happen here at Valley Assembly?  I need God’s wisdom; I need God’s direction.  And I need some of you to gather here in this room with me next Saturday at 7 p.m. to help lay the foundation in prayer.

We live in a community filled with people still outside of the Family of God.  I believe that God wants many of them to become part of His Family through the efforts of this church.  But I cannot be content with people coming in and simply sitting here on Sunday mornings to listen to sermons.  And I don’t believe God is content with that as well.

He wants us to BE the church, not just DO church.  And being the church involves living out the Christian life in relationship with others. Write it on your bulletin; mark it on your calendar; come and pray Saturday night for God to help us become the Church He desires for us to be.

PRAY.