Real Bible Stories - A Bible Study Podcast
Real Bible Stories - A Bible Study Podcast
Ep 74 The Real Story Behind Jesus' Family Dynamics - Navigating Family Ties, Trials, and Faith
Picture the scene: Jesus, God on Earth, yet living with the pressures of earthly family dynamics, just like you and me. This week, my wife Selena and I, along with our teacher Pastor David Squyres, take you on an enlightening journey through the lives of Jesus' family members. We unravel the complexities of familial relationships, the struggle of sharing faith with unbelieving family members, and the significant role Jesus' family played in his ministry and the expansion of the Christian faith.
Ever considered the impact of your family lineage? That's what we'll be doing as we explore Jesus' lineage and his rightful claim as King of Israel. We'll also get personal, sharing stories of the fear parents may have towards their children pursuing creative careers, the pressure of financial stability, and the challenge of maintaining relationships in difficult situations. We even consider how Jesus himself dealt with these issues, putting God first yet always honoring his family commitments. We wrap up this section by looking at the lives of Jesus' family members after his resurrection and the lasting impact they've had on the Christian faith.
Lastly, we'll dive into the early church's struggle with the inclusion of Gentiles in the faith. We share insights on the crucial role James, the brother of Jesus, played at the Jerusalem Council, and the influence this had on the early church's acceptance of Gentiles. As we conclude this enlightening episode, we invite you to reflect on your own family dynamics and how they play into your testimony.
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Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
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How long do we have? Ten minutes.
Pastor David:All right, he has played.
Imran:Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all grown to love. Hello and welcome back to Real Bible Stories. I'm your host, imran Ward, and we're joined by my wife Selina, hello, and Pastor David Squires Hello, how are you doing today? Great, I'm so happy to be back. Yeah, it's been a. I think we had to take last week off for something. You were fixing the truck and breaking it and fixing the truck. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Imran:Last week I spent four days on a four hour walk as you do, but the lift is on the truck and it worked well. We were in Yosemite last weekend and had no issues. But you know, no time elapses on a podcast we just lined them up one after the other.
Imran:Exactly, they don't know that, like I, spent last week suffering yeah, there's time travel I was like oh man, I have to have this done by Friday or I'll miss my lineman appointment, then we can't drive the truck to Yosemite and then it's going to be all downhill for them there. So but we got it done, the trip went, the trip went well, and so now we're back, continuing through the story behind the story, we have something really good. Yeah, this week we're going into the family of Jesus.
Imran:And so if you haven't already started so. This is not the same kind of series like we did in Galatians, where we were going through every single verse, through the entire letter to the Galatian church that Paul wrote. This is more its own, each individual kind of diving into a character out of the Bible and going into Well, who were they? Not just what were they doing in their specific chapter, but like can we, what can we see about their life over the course of scripture? We're doing big pictures. What are you like?
Pastor David:stuff that we string together. You got to go here and here and here and pull those things together and you see the story behind the story but you do it by piecing it together Absolutely. So this is real, deep theological discussion.
Imran:We're going to be jumping around a lot. So if you've got your Bible, just be prepared to you know, pause and jump to those different scriptures. And also the notes are on the upon Baptist Church website as well, so you can jump in there and look at the story behind the story. The family of Jesus, that's the name of these notes. This is a great, a great episode for those of you that you have family.
Pastor David:That man, some of you would say my family is so stressful. I think anybody that's got a family say my family stressful. Some of you go my family. They're hard to please, right? Some of you say my family is really high pressure, or some of you, the reason that your family is difficult is they're unbelievers. You don't even share faith with them.
Imran:Yeah, that's an unfortunate reality too, because you know that it's the most important thing, right, and so what we're going to find is hey, even Jesus dealt with some family difficulties.
Pastor David:Yeah, I think that that's awesome. So the family of Jesus is what we're going to do today.
Imran:How much of a family is there? What are you going?
Selena:to do today.
Imran:How much of the family we're talking like. You mean a family Generationally. How far back we go? We're going to stay with his.
Pastor David:We're not going to go further than his brothers. So what happened to Jesus brothers? Ok is what we're going to raise, that and I guess his brother's grandchildren will go, will go that far down.
Imran:All right, awesome All right. How are we starting this out? Pastor?
Pastor David:Let me tell you a story about a Marine.
Imran:Oh OK.
Pastor David:I've got a friend. He says this is just to show you how messed up family is. He says I pick up my brother at the airport. He gets in the car and he says you know, I'm a United States Marine Marine. I had been enlisted combat Marine. I was enlisted. Then I'm an officer. I pick up my brother at the airport. He gets in the car and immediately punches me. He goes bam, hits me right in the arm as hard as he could. He says I look at what. And he goes I just want you to know, just because you're a Marine, you're still my brother and I can beat you up.
Selena:Oh my gosh.
Pastor David:I said what did you do? He said I just I drove him to the family gathering. Did he apologize? He goes, no, he actually wanted me to know that, just because I'm a Marine he can beat me up.
Imran:I'm going to tell you the reverse of that story. Yeah, because my brother came and stayed with us. This may be a year and a half ago now. He came and stayed with us. It was in this house. It was in this house. Yeah, it was in this house.
Selena:It wasn't San Clemente, but I think he was still in the Navy.
Imran:And, yeah, he was still in the Navy. So my brother went Navy, I went Marine Corps. So sibling rivalry ended of itself on multiple layers, so he came.
Imran:There's some kids football games there, so I, and so I'm the guy that worked out all the time, but my brother got the height, so he's like three or four inches taller than me and but I'm the older one and I'm the, you know, the warrior of the warrior that went to the Marine Corps side, not the Navy side, and all that. But he was talking some kind of trash as we, as we do, and it ended up turning into. I was like all right, let's wrestle it out, because he thought he could take me. He's like you know, you never, I never was able to beat you when we were kids.
Selena:But that's what we were kids because he's like he's like six years younger than me.
Imran:So basically I left for college and he was in middle school and then we didn't really have a lot of time together until he joined the Navy. So now he's, you know, 19 years old, I'm 25, 26, whatever, and he's like I think I can take you now.
Selena:Now he's taller than me, now he thinks he's big and all that.
Imran:I was like, all right, let's go.
Pastor David:So where were you at? We were downstairs. So so, selena, you've got these two, these two guys.
Selena:I just want to happen in your living room. Yeah, you just for drinking coffee Watcher? Yeah, I make sure they're going to bump into. I think I made some space.
Imran:This is a marine wife right here.
Selena:Yeah.
Imran:She was like all right, it's going to happen. And so we took, we took our shirts off and we tapped hands and then we went at it and I think we did like two or three rounds and he was, he was done.
Selena:Yeah, he ended up.
Imran:you know, I don't know if I think I face down on the ground Not moving for a little bit. There you, it was pretty pretty.
Imran:Oh man but it was it was a good time, it was a good tussle, but what I told him is that, like the Marine Corps put this in me, I want it more. That's all they bred in me for the last couple of years is that you just got to want it more than the enemy and I was getting after it. But so kind of it, kind of reverse, that story Siblings right. So we would say, all of you out there.
Pastor David:You don't have to be embarrassed to families Difficult for you. It's not that your family is unholy, it's not that they don't love Jesus. You can love Jesus, be religious, still have difficult family. Want to do this? Let's introduce the family of Jesus. Let me give you an idea. To some of you it's like Jesus just appears on the scene. Oh, and you kind of know who his mom is, because she's she's pretty famous. Yeah, she's well known, probably the most famous mother ever.
Imran:But what Eve is a mother of my kind.
Pastor David:We know that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, so family of David. Yeah, rightfully, joseph, his father, should have been the king of Israel by the birth heritage, but of course politically he's not.
Imran:So, which is absolutely wild in its own right, right yeah we know that they were poor.
Pastor David:By the way, the reason, one of the ways we know that they're poor when they went to offer sacrifices for Jesus birth.
Imran:Hold on. I want to, even before we get too far, because some people are just checking in. And so you're saying that the father of Jesus, who was a carpenter as well? By birth heritage would be the king of Israel. How does that even happen? How do you end up with a whole other tribe being in charge then?
Pastor David:Because Herod was put in power by the Romans and he's not even really in Israel. He's an Edomite, and so they did not follow the kingly heritage. So the kings of Israel, the true kings, are now the poppers. They have nothing. That's wild, and that's how you can trace Jesus from King David and you trace it out, jesus is the rightful king of Israel. Well, that would make his father before him the rightful king.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:And so Joseph should have been the king of Israel, but instead.
Imran:And that's by birth right. But at the same time, Joseph wasn't Jesus's physical father, that's true. He was his parental figure.
Pastor David:It's the reason why Luke takes time to trace out Mary's genealogy. Matthew traces Joseph's genealogy to show from both sides they come from David and as a Mary's line also comes from David as well, yeah.
Imran:OK.
Pastor David:So this family is deep, deep into the lion and lineage of David. They are of the tribe of Judah. That matters when we get to Revelation. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. We know that Mary had a sister named Salome.
Imran:What.
Pastor David:Salome, that was her sister's name, sal OME, so she had a sister. Her husband's name is Zebedee, and they have two kids named James and John the.
Imran:James and John. Where in the text are these different names and stuff?
Pastor David:We can trace them out like you go to Luke, chapter two.
Selena:You'll encounter.
Pastor David:You'll encounter Zebedee. You encounter Salome.
Imran:OK.
Pastor David:The sons James and John, who also later these are, so these would have been Jesus's cousins. They also become disciples of Jesus.
Selena:OK.
Pastor David:That's Mary's sister. Mary has a cousin named Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a husband named Zachariah.
Imran:That's an old name. I actually didn't know Elizabeth was in the Bible. I only think British when I hear that name.
Pastor David:You. You encounter Zechariah also in Luke when he's told that the child is going to be born, is going to be John the Baptist. John the Baptist also would have been a cousin of Jesus.
Imran:Yeah, that's wild.
Pastor David:Right. Joseph appears to have a brother named Cleopas and, unbelievably, a wife named Mary, and it's how we get so many Mary's in the Bible. So Jesus mom is Mary, his aunt is Mary. Mary, michael, everybody yeah because it comes from the Hebrew named Miriam. Moses sister becomes the Greek form Mary.
Imran:Oh, it's a really famous name because it's Moses sister.
Pastor David:In fact I wanted to name a child Mary and realize it was so popular, I went the other direction and named her Miriam. Yeah which is really, which is great.
Imran:Mm, hmm.
Pastor David:I think, a great place to kind of put all it. I like your question. Where do we get this stuff? Mark, chapter six, jesus visits his hometown and we get some name dropping going on right there in the text. It's kind of fun.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:So we'll just lean into the text. It says Jesus came to his hometown His hometown would have been Nazareth and the disciples followed him. On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were astonished. And look what they asked. They go where did he learn these things? Where did he get this wisdom? How does he do these miracles? And look at this. Now they go is this not the carpenter? They're stunned, they're like well wait. So the world knows him as a teacher, they know him as a healer, they know the world knows him as the Messiah, the king. They're like to us he's just the carpenter.
Pastor David:He like where did he get this stuff? He just builds our furniture and he's our repairman.
Imran:How is he really that great? It's like if Bob the Builder just showed up and just started preaching Christ. And he's like wait a minute though. You're Bob the Builder, what are you doing?
Pastor David:They're like, okay, yeah, he can build a good furniture set, but, son of God, that's a bit of a reach.
Imran:How old was he when around he would have been around 30 when he started his ministry. Okay.
Pastor David:About 33 when he died.
Imran:So already by chapter six he's 30. So this isn't his first time preaching in the synagogue, Okay.
Pastor David:It says he's the son of Mary. Notice that Jesus in his hometown is called Son of Mary, not Son of Joseph. That's kind of a hint that because Joseph isn't referenced that Joseph has died. Oh, it's, interesting yeah otherwise in that culture they would have referenced the father, not the mother.
Selena:Interesting.
Pastor David:Oh, okay, and now we're getting.
Imran:Already, by that point Joseph had died.
Pastor David:Yeah, it appears that Mary's a widow.
Imran:And we don't know at all, because I've heard this before that Joseph probably died before the ministry started. Is there anywhere where we know how? Not that I know of. No, that's wild, it's just silent.
Pastor David:One of those silent things, yeah, but Joseph was probably considerably older than Mary. Mary may have been as young as 14, and Joseph could have been well into his 20s or 30s when the birth narrative happened.
Imran:Yeah, and also the. So even the life expectancy then, which I don't think was over A little lower yeah. I don't think it was over 50 or something like that.
Pastor David:But you still get some pretty old people. That's true, yeah, now notice it lists out his brothers for us, and this is where it gets really helpful. It says that he's got a brother named James. His Hebrew name would have been Jacob Joseph, would also be Joseph Judas or also would have been named Judah. Notice, jesus has a brother named Judas, not same Judas as the disciple.
Selena:And.
Pastor David:Simon, or you would have called him Simeon. So his brothers are James, joseph, judas, simon, or in Hebrew we would say Jacob, joseph, judah and Simeon. So there are four brothers plus Jesus. That's five. And now we get another little look into his family. They say and are not his sisters here with us? Sisters implies at least two girls.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:So if you've got five boys, two girls, that's a family with seven children.
Imran:Yeah, that's it. I don't know that's loud.
Pastor David:That's pretty big family.
Imran:Absolutely. How many siblings do you have, Jesus being the first? Oh, I've got three, so four including me. So I've got two sisters, and my brother and my two sisters are in the middle how big is your family, Selena?
Selena:Same four.
Pastor David:Wow.
Selena:Yeah, we have our parents. Both have big family, so they're nine children.
Imran:Yeah, I think. Yeah, on my dad's side, I think it's 10. And my mom's side is either nine or 10, as well. And both my parents are the youngest, so the oldest are like 10 to 15 years older than them.
Pastor David:So Jesus family is described as a family with seven children.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:That's a lot of kids.
Imran:Someone's got to tell this one.
Pastor David:There's some truth to that. I think back then social security was kind of like children. Yeah, the children are going to take care of you in your old age.
Imran:Yeah, we talked about it was one of the more recent episodes that it was a really big deal when the baby made it to the point where they didn't have to be teased anymore and that was like a secondary celebration that you did. That's right. You know that's right Because it was so hard to get a baby to that point back then it says this that they go.
Pastor David:Who is this carpenter, who's this guy? And it says they took offense at him. Notice what Jesus says. This is Mark, chapter 6, verse 4. Jesus said to them a prophet is without honor is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives and his own household. Jesus is going. You're about to miss what God's about to do Because you're stuck with the familiar. Because I grew up here, you think nothing great can happen. So the very place that should be the happiest, the Messiah comes out of Nazareth. You're about to miss it because I grew up here, yeah.
Pastor David:So the very people that should be having the party oh, the Messiah is here. They're like oh, we know you, you're nothing.
Imran:I mean, I could see that, because it's the same kind of doubt we have for people that we grew up with. It's like, if I don't see the progress, like oh. I'll give you an example. One of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps is because my buddy, he joined the Marine Corps band and basically we left for. So he was kind of a chubby dude.
Imran:We were a big guy and we left for a summer and came back and he was like super fit. He was like a lot more cut up, a lot more fit. And I was like what in the world happened to you? You're just a saxophone player, why are you looking all cut up and fit and all that? And he told me he's like oh, I decided to join the Marine Corps and so I started training with them and he was training with them through the summer and he had such a dramatic change at that point that I literally was like take me to where you are going. And he took me to the recruiting station as I started to get and that's how I ended up kind of joining the Marine Corps. But it was like such a dramatic shift in that period that I could not believe.
Imran:Like isn't this just a sax player? How has he so changed Think?
Pastor David:about this family of Jesus. We've count out seven kids. We know that he's a carpenter. His father was a carpenter. You would think if any family should have it together, if you will, it should be Jesus' family.
Imran:If any family should have it together, if anybody should kind of have their act together they're not having fights.
Pastor David:They're singing kumbaya. It should be the family of Jesus. I mean, you think about it? People today make statues of his mom. Right, that's pretty like even you Protestants. You have Joseph and Mary on your mantle every Christmas.
Pastor David:This is the family that there should be no problems in this family. We put you on our mantle. We have statues of your mom. Here's what's wonderful. Jesus was sinless, but he was not born into a sinless family, and so we're gonna get a little microcosm and this is very exciting because you get to watch how a sinless man deals with a sinful family Is what we're gonna see. Max Locato wrote this. He said if your family doesn't appreciate, you take heart. Jesus faced the same thing in his family.
Imran:What does the phrase take heart mean? Be comforted, be encouraged.
Pastor David:It's like if your family doesn't appreciate you and love you A it's okay. Jesus went through the same thing, yeah yeah, One of the things I noticed as a pastor is the amount of prayer cards that I used to get. For what was? Pray for me because I'm sick, pray for my mom because she's sick? I got a lot of we're sick. What I noticed?
Imran:just a few years ago. Was that during COVID time?
Pastor David:No, all of ministry. People were really praying about we're sick. I just noticed and people still turn in hey, I'm sick, pray for that. But I noticed a great increase in the number of people saying would you pray for the family stress I'm under.
Imran:Would you pray? I don't feel wrong with my mom.
Pastor David:One person actually wrote on their prayer card dear pastor, I need a new family.
Imran:It's what they wrote. Pray for me to get a new family. Just put me up to late term adoption.
Pastor David:So can I get adopted at 21?.
Pastor David:Let me show you some maybe frustrations that Jesus might have had with his family. So you go hey, here's a great family you all would have been glad to be born of. Joseph and Mary. Right, like, hey, that's a great family to be born into. I think Jesus probably had a few frustrations. And this is my list. This isn't you know, this is just me reading the Bible. But I noticed his family. They could be pretty high pressure. His mother, remember, they're at a wedding. His mother comes in and goes, hey, they're out of wine and this was even before he really started his ministry.
Pastor David:It is you of his disciples, yeah he's out of wedding with his disciples and she's like they're out and she's kind of putting some pressure on him.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:You just noticed that she's you know, when she leaves the room she says whatever he tells you to do, do it, which is beautiful, but there's still some some pressure there, absolutely. One time his aunt Salome so this would have been Mary's sister, his aunt's the mother of James and John comes, she kneels down in front of him and you're like, wow, what's his aunt gonna want? Mm-hmm, she says, please, let one of these sons sit on my right and one on your left in the kingdom of heaven. What that's high. Please, let, please, let my sons be the greatest of your apostles. I you know that's some high pressure when your aunt comes to you and starts.
Pastor David:And so Jesus starts talking to the boys. He ignores his aunt and he says to them Can you suffer what I'm about to suffer? He uses the word cup. Can you drink from the cup I'm about to drink from? And they was funny. Is they're supposed to go? No, because he's thinking of the cross. Yeah, and they say, oh, yeah. He's like, okay, well, you are gonna suffer, but to give away the place on my right or my left is not for me, it's for my father.
Imran:Yeah, that's kind of high pressure. Absolutely, cuz. That also breeds like acknowledgment, like they know who he is. Yeah, and they're still like I'm gonna ask God if he can give this to my, my sons, and it's like alright.
Pastor David:What one more example of them just being high pressure. We could probably think of more. But one time they came to Jesus and they said, hey, anybody who wants to run the ministry and be known everywhere Doesn't do the ministry the way you're doing it. You should go, you should talk to the crowds, you said, and they kind of give him some advice on how to behave on a holy day. And it's kind of interesting because you realize, hmm, they've had a family meeting about him, they've gotten together like man, jesus has been running the ministry wrong Jesus is and his family is Talking behind his back about how he should be running his ministry.
Imran:Man ain't that familiar.
Pastor David:Hey, you're doing it right. Can you imagine telling Jesus you're running your ministry wrong?
Imran:I can imagine a lot of people doing that.
Pastor David:Another thing about Jesus family.
Imran:I just do that now in their prayers.
Pastor David:I think Jesus family was kind of hard to please, so they they were high pressure. They're hard to please just one example in. Mark chapter 3 the house is crowded. In fact it says it was so crowded that the disciples couldn't eat. I think that's funny, that Peter's like you know what I remember about that day we couldn't even get to the fridge. It says this this is mark 321.
Selena:Are you like?
Pastor David:ember and has a Bible open and the pages are flying. You got it.
Imran:I do have mark mark 3, 321.
Pastor David:Yeah, and.
Imran:When his family heard it they went out to seize him, for they were saying he is out of his mind.
Pastor David:That's hard to please, what? So first they come to me, they go.
Imran:Well, the verse before then. Then he went home in, the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. Okay, that's verse 20, see it. And then that's funny.
Pastor David:So first they're like hey, you're too private, you need to get out there. Then talk about hard to please that the house is so crowded. You're like, oh, he's too popular, he's out of his mind. Yeah, come on one minute. You're telling me get out in the crowd. Now I've run such a crowd that you're saying I'm out of my mind. Some of you have families that are like that. You know that you just couldn't please them. You got sees. They were like you're not trying hard enough. You got bees. They're like you need to study more. You got a's and they were like hey, the teachers these days they're so easy. Like man.
Pastor David:I just can't win with you guys. I love that. Another thing so high pressure, hard to please. I think probably what really broke Jesus heart is His brothers were unbelievers. They did not accept him as the Messiah, and so An unbeliever in the family just connects different then then You're believing family members do no, that's who he does. They don't they just don't understand you. They've got different values, different dreams. John 7 5 says this. It says his own brothers did not believe that's gotta hurt, don't you think like?
Imran:for not even his brothers believed in him.
Pastor David:Yeah, you know I. He came to see can, to save the lost. He came the furthest distance To reach mankind. He said I will go after a lost sheep. I'll go any distance. Then, right there in his own home. There's unbelievers and so he will go any distance to reach people Two feet away.
Imran:That's incredible. His cousin is John the Baptist as well. Yeah cousin immediately recognized.
Pastor David:Oh, that's good.
Imran:That's right, but his own brothers were like Again, familiarity you know yeah it's tough.
Pastor David:It's tough when you've wrestled with somebody and you've you've talked smack and you know You've, they've just, they've just downplayed him. Yeah yeah, sometimes we can, you can kind of Not recognized family members for the some of the stature they do deserve Because they're family the other part is that is even. But Mary believed and Mary knew well, yeah, but if anybody was gonna know if he was a fraud or real, it would be Mary.
Imran:Oh, yeah, she had the. Yeah, she had, she had the. Oh, they call the birth, the, the virgin birth, virgin birth.
Pastor David:So she knew she hadn't had sex.
Imran:Yeah, she's like okay.
Pastor David:I know, and she talked to an angel. That also helps.
Imran:Yeah, you know, that increases your faith. Mm-hmm, you know Joseph. Oh, joseph was also An angel.
Selena:Approach him as well, after Mary told the mother, the father believed the mother.
Imran:That's. That must be painful for them as well, because I could see if With my parents, if none of us believed, that would be heartbreaking for them.
Pastor David:See how they, the brothers, probably always feel downplayed by it, like Jesus has the special status in the family, like no, he was, I was a virgin and I was. And they're like, oh, they always treat him different. He's always the special child. He's yeah, and so it lead to a little bit of I just I don't believe it.
Pastor David:You know, that's don't say that too loud around, mom, but I don't believe it. I have an uncle who's a doctor and a His son. My cousin got hurt and so he's my, my uncle's looking at it, my uncle's the doctor, he's looking at the, at the hurt, and his daughter says, hey, don't you think we should take him to take? Take my. His name is Branton, shouldn't we take Branton to a doctor? And my aunt says, well, your dad is a doctor. And she pauses and she goes Well, yeah, but I mean like, I think that's kind of Jesus family, like okay.
Pastor David:Could we get a real Messiah around here? Because, we know this guy, you know so it's like this guy.
Imran:This guy, you know, trips over the troops going up the stairs. You can't be a doctor.
Pastor David:Wouldn't you say. Probably one of the biggest Hardix in the family is when a family member doesn't believe yeah. Billy Sunday was a preacher. Yesteryear, like before Billy Graham, there was Billy.
Selena:Sunday, he had been a baseball player.
Pastor David:Phenomenal baseball player got saved. Led tent revivals. Huh wow, one doubt. They say he won a million people. The Lord and he was crazy He'd come out, do somersaults.
Selena:Jump up and down preached against booze.
Pastor David:He was just hardcore Jesus.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:But he said the greatest heartache of my life, the greatest failure, is that my own sons don't believe. Wow.
Selena:So I can win million people the.
Pastor David:Lord, yeah, but his sons Rejected the faith that he went out and preached. Oh, it broke his heart, you know. He said I stole a million souls from the devil, but my own sons yeah don't believe. So that hits different right. I I'll bet you guys would just agree with this and everybody out there would agree with this. I can go down a list. We can even make the list longer. High pressure, hard to please unbelievers, but all of us would agree. Just living in a family is complex.
Selena:Right, if you're the Messiah.
Pastor David:It's complex if you're you living in relationships are complex.
Imran:Yeah, people are their own individual souls, own individual purpose and we don't even fully understand our own minds. So it's like someone may Selena may say something to me and I react, and I didn't even know that I would react that way. It's like I didn't know, I felt that way about that topic. You know where that come from right and you have to deal with that within yourself, and then you have to deal with it relationally as well. So it's like people are complex.
Selena:Sorry, I feel like family tends to ask for more favors as well. You had said it's high pressure.
Pastor David:But I was like oh, that's.
Selena:I feel like that's asking for like Murray's, like cake. Hey, can you turn this water to why? Or what was the other example that you gave yeah to me? That just was like okay, can you do this? It's like, ah, I guess, oh, yeah.
Imran:Selena says yes to her family immediately. Yeah, without, without any hesitation. I was like love please my daughter. We have to, we're supposed to talk about this.
Pastor David:I I said to my daughter I wrote a list of things I like about you. Immediately my other daughter, her sister, goes. I've got a list of things I don't like about you.
Imran:Isn't that true?
Pastor David:can you imagine Mary says to judge to Jesus I've got a list of things I like about you. Right away, James goes. I've got a list of things I don't like about you, man, oh man.
Imran:Well, this was you and this was Mary. Which one of the sisters was it? That is, yeah, right, you have three others. Oh man.
Pastor David:I have a friend who was a drill instructor and so she's a DI. And I said to her her.
Selena:Her name is DJ.
Pastor David:Yeah, I said, dj, which was harder being a marine drill instructor or being a mom? She stopped and she just looked right at me. She goes oh, pastor, I could get 60 Female Marines through the showers in eight minutes.
Selena:Yeah if not quicker.
Pastor David:She said I can't get two little girls out of the bathtub in 45 minutes like, yeah, she goes. It is just a different world to try to parent these, these kids. Mm-hmm, so all that which is kind of a long path to take, except it was kind of exciting. It's with Jesus of all. Families are difficult right. All your family can be difficult, my. It's not that family is broken families, just personalities that are difficult.
Imran:Even Jesus own family was no, and I that's that's huge in of itself just kind of going through some of that. I did not know that Jesus's brothers didn't believe that's rough. Yeah, and it does. It ever bring up his sisters again, do you?
Pastor David:know? No, it doesn't. It doesn't mean somebody doesn't have hasn't created some tradition around them, but biblically we don't know anything about him. That's really.
Imran:Yeah, it's really unfortunate in its own right, but like to know that the, that one I didn't know he has some brothers and sisters and then the complexity around Mary having to raise them all with Joseph possible with Joseph possibly dead by that point and and then dealing with I think she was traveling with Jesus most of the time as well and all that complexity with the family. Like that's just, that's just. I never really thought about it. I really can see why I don't know that she traveled with him that much.
Pastor David:But she was that she, she came you know, he came back to his hometown. Quite a bit, that's fair. Just some observations. And so if we just spend the kind of the second half of our time, yeah looking at okay, if his family was broken.
Pastor David:What's exciting is we have we have the son of God living in a family. How did he deal with an imperfect family? Because you all have imperfect families. No, but nobody has a perfect dad. My kids come pretty close, but nobody has you. But you need a plan. You need a plan to deal with your family.
Imran:I spent five minutes in your house watching you interact with your daughters and I was like this is in, sir you were blessed. Those girls, the way they interact us, and then you're just like oh, my I was like oh man, this guy's exhausted.
Pastor David:You have a plan for fire? Safety quietly with the cup, with the coffee. If you've got kids, you've got a homework plan. You've got a savings plan, you've got a retirement plan. What you need also is a plan for your family. Otherwise, if you just react emotionally, you're gonna react wrong. I think Jesus had a plan. So just four words we're gonna hold on to you to build a plan for family.
Pastor David:The word first, the word connect, the word practical and the word spiritual. Okay, so to dive into those, the word first what I noticed, my look at Jesus and dealing with his Family, even though they were high pressure, and all of that he always put, he always put God first. Yeah, everything flowed out of his relationship with the father. So, if you remember, in Luke, chapter 2, Mm-hmm they went to the temple. What happened at the temple? He's a little boy. Well, he's 12 years old. He just starts preaching.
Imran:No, well, I guess he was yeah, yeah they found him to.
Pastor David:They lost him. Yeah, they lost him. And they found him in the city, right and he was, he was teaching. His mother says to him son, you know why? Why did you treat us like this? And and he said said you know, we've been searching, we've been searching everywhere. Jesus said didn't you know? I had to be about my father's work, I had to be in my father's house.
Pastor David:Yeah it's like he says to them look, you have to understand right up front, I'm on mission and I'm not on mission to do my family's will. I'm on mission to do God's will.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:I think one of the most important things that we learn is we are not here to please family, we're here to please God, and so you do not have to live up to your family's expectations. You go oh good, I can lower my expectations. No, you've got a higher expectation. The higher expectation is God's expectation of you, and so it's not for you to do what your parents want you respect them and you honor them but it's for you to do what God wants you to do. That's what Jesus demonstrated to us.
Imran:Yeah, absolutely. And I guess two quick points. One, it's the.
Imran:We just kind of went through the fruit of the spirit, culminating our Galatians series, and one of the things that we talked about with the fruit of the spirit is that all of those things are relational Peace, love, all the things we talked about there. It's relational. So if you're putting God first, if you're putting the fruit of the spirit first, then your relationships will benefit from that, because you're living a life that encompasses all of those points of love that the fruit of the spirit talks about. And then also when you put God first in your relationships, particularly in your personal ones, because work is a little bit more complicated because you have different faith backgrounds and all that stuff and whatever beliefs may be out there in your workplace. But when you have God first in your personal relationships, it makes it a lot easier when you have to do those constant negotiations that you have to do with your spouse or with your kids or with your friends, because you've got a direction you're going, not yourself Exactly, you've got a moral authority you're both are looking towards.
Imran:So when someone says, well, I want to do this this way, and the other person says like well, you shouldn't do it that way, and they say why? And it's like well, I can point to scripture, or my wife will point to scripture, or I can point to scripture with my friends that may say something, it's like no, no, no, we know you shouldn't do that, or we know you should make this decision because God said it and Jesus said it.
Pastor David:It gives weight and helps us kind of look at the situation. It's like having a roadmap where you can be arguing and then you go. Well, wait, wait, this is the direction we're going, and so, both of you agreeing we follow God's word, that that's the authority. It tells you what direction your marriage is going to go, your future is going to go, your decisions are going to go.
Imran:Yeah, so.
Selena:I was going to say we very much experienced that in Yosemite when we were going off-roading.
Imran:It's like this looks like the direction we should go but we look at the map and it's like no, it says over here, it's like all these paths look very similar, but only one of them was the right way. It was counterintuitive yeah exactly it looked like and it was the easier path too. And then we went back and we looked at the path we're supposed to go down and it was dark and tight and difficult terrain and we were like, oh, that's the path. And we went and crawled through that and it seemed like the path was going to be the easy, obvious one, which is interesting.
Pastor David:Obviously. I've seen so many people give their life not just to Jesus but to ministry, and had a friend that was a Marine. Often the response of parents is disappointment when a kid goes into ministry His friend, that's a Marine. He's all fired up for Jesus and he tells his dad him going into ministry. I'm going to be a pastor and instead of celebrating like man that's great, I'm so proud of you, son. His dad said, okay, well, maybe you need a backup plan, like to be a banker or like if that fails what, where are you going to?
Pastor David:because, because you might burn out, or something like that. And he actually when he started a church that's still out here. It's called 180 ministries. His dad became part of that church and was so glad that his son gave his life to ministry. But can you imagine if the first thing he'd listen to was his dad's kind of downing on the ministry?
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:Instead, he became a pastor and all of eternity is different because he put God first.
Imran:I can see that fear, because creativity is complex. You know, being a speaker, an orator, an artist, all that stuff, it makes your financial situation a lot less stable, and so I could see why parents would be very concerned. It's like, you know. It's like, well, you want to be a pastor, but like, how are you going to?
Selena:you know, pay the bills.
Imran:How are you going to support your family? How are you going to? It's like cause that money is such a pressure in our society.
Selena:Being able to sustain yourself is a lot.
Imran:there's a lot of pressure there. It's like I'm getting ready to transition out of the Marine Corps in the next, you know, eight months to a year. And something that I've been slowly fighting through is do I go through what I know that I'm good at and can make me money but I don't love, or do I pursue what I'm talented at, what I know that I love to do, but it's a lot more risky?
Pastor David:Yeah there's risk in it.
Imran:Yeah, there's a lot more risk associated to it cause we don't have kids yet but so I have to take care of my wife. We've got stuff that have to move with us wherever we end up going, but that's like just that pressure of money I could see, you know, being that thing that concerns parents a lot.
Pastor David:The next word we want to hold on to is not just that Jesus put his family first, the word first, but just the word connected. And I noticed that Jesus maintained relationships with his family even though they were difficult. And sometimes we're tempted to go I'm done with my family, my family's so high pressure my family's, so put it out there. Whatever it is my family's so. So give you a great example but just a little bit of story behind the story.
Pastor David:here In Luke, chapter four, it's the beginning of what we call the Galilean ministry. He goes, he visits Nazareth. While he's in Nazareth, they tried to kill him.
Pastor David:They start pushing him because they didn't like what he preached. They start pushing him and they're pushing him to a place that's called the brow. The brow is this cliff that stretches out and they're going to push him over the cliff. So this is his hometown and he just starts walking through them. It doesn't say how, but at some point they lost track of where he was and he just kind of like cause, it's a miracle, excuse me, excuse me, and he just walked through the crowd. I think that's the point where you'd go. I'm never going back to my hometown.
Pastor David:Your hometown tries to kill you like not one or two people, not a couple bad actors.
Imran:They try and take you and throw you off a cliff.
Pastor David:It's amazing to me that when we go to Mark chapter six, which is what we just read they go back there and they're offended by him. That's actually not his first visit there, nor his first confrontation with him, that they're offended by him. He's going back to his home country after his hometown, after they had been difficult. So let me just bring that into us. You may have had a fight last Christmas with your mom and it may have been a big blowout. You may have had some tension with a brother or a brother-in-law. Don't let those relationships stay broken forever. If they could almost push Jesus off a cliff and he go back to that town, you can go back for Thanksgiving.
Imran:You can go back for Christmas, because, ultimately, god creates relationships. God creates a relationship with us. He wants us to have good relationships with our family, with our loved one, with our coworkers, because that's like what we already talked about, that's the fruit. I think that's how you display God's work.
Pastor David:The greatest relational advice is in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, that famous love chapter, verse eight, says love never fails. And so whatever's happening, it's not going to fail to love them.
Imran:You tell me that's not a Hallmark movie.
Pastor David:I would know, because I don't watch them. I haven't even read the titles of them.
Imran:If it's not, it's going to be one.
Pastor David:but Do you watch a lot of Hallmark movies?
Imran:My mom does, so when I go home, you have the 30 Days of Christmas on.
Selena:Hallmark and that's just going. Yeah, their TV is always playing.
Imran:Yeah, this is playing Hallmark. December 1st to December 25th Is it 25 Days of Christmas? That's what it's called. That is a little bit abusive.
Pastor David:Oh, it's fine man.
Selena:I never knew there was so much Christmas movies Exactly I did not know?
Pastor David:They're all the same, aren't they?
Imran:The Hallmark movies are all very similar. I don't know what the new ones are looking like, but growing up ABC Family. Rest in Peace. That channel's gone now it's now at something else, is it really? Yeah, it's called something else. Now ABC Family's gone and the Hallmark and ABC Family were the two that were on all the time.
Pastor David:All right, let's get off of Hallmark Christmas movies. I can't take that. The word first notice. Jesus put God first. Jesus stayed connected with his family. And then I just gave the word practical. I noticed, when I look at Jesus dealing with his family, he honored in particular his mother's practical needs. His dad had died and he took care of his mom. When Jesus died. On the cross there's only seven last words. For instance, he says Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. He says Eloy, eloy, lama Sabaccini. He says so. There's only seven last statements. One of the last things Jesus said from the cross. It says, looking down and seeing the disciple that he loved, john.
Pastor David:He said woman, behold your son and son, behold your mother and what he means is John, you're now gonna take Mary and you're gonna look after her, and it suggests that all along Jesus had been seen to his mother's needs. Now that he's not gonna be on earth, he gives her to the apostle John. It's significant because Jesus has brothers.
Selena:Yeah, it was very yeah.
Pastor David:Why not give Mary to James? Why not give her to Simon? Why not give her to Judah? I've never considered or thought about that. My opinion is that it's because his brothers were not believers.
Selena:At that time, though. Then they became believers when he was rose again.
Pastor David:He would not give his mother, he would not entrust his mother to the care of an unbeliever. So he says to a person he trusts most Well, you take care of my mom. I wanted to say this. Some of you just need to hear this today you have an obligation to your parents to take care of their physical needs, and that includes money. So you care about them physically because, look, when you were little and helpless, they took care of you.
Imran:As they get older and helpless. It's almost a 20 year sacrifice Now we call the healthcare stuff. It might be a 23, 24 year sacrifice, but tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, definitely hundreds to millions of dollars over the 20 years of sacrifice that they have poured into you.
Pastor David:Don't easily discredit that there's a I know you're looking at it, selena there's a verse that was on our hearts. So, when we talk about this, what do we owe our parents? Paul said something rather strong in 1 Timothy, chapter five.
Selena:Yeah, chapter five, verse eight If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than a believer, is it yeah?
Imran:Worse than an unbeliever.
Selena:Yeah.
Pastor David:So the apostle Paul says taking care of your family, even financially, that is not just good human, that's not just being a good human, which it is it's essential to our faith.
Imran:It's the expectation.
Pastor David:It is the expectation of God on us.
Imran:Yeah. So one last thing that I just it kind of really goes towards that other phrase of like love your enemies. You know Cause, if you're really epitomizing, when Paul talks about love your enemies, when he talks about the fruit of the spirit, when he talks about all these things, what love is, I think in 1 Corinthians, then it should be obvious that you're expected to take care of your family.
Imran:Those are the closest relationships. That's where you should be practicing at the most. And if you let those relationships be broken, but you're managing your friendships over here, you're managing your work relationships over here, but you're allowing your household to be broken or your familiar relationships to be broken, then you're missing the point.
Pastor David:Yeah, that's why the Bible is so loud about marriage. Like you are not really that awesome in the workplace if you can't take care of your wife. You're not that awesome anywhere In your life.
Imran:Yeah, you're not that If your most intimate, most intricate, most involved relationship is broken.
Pastor David:Yeah, you are not that great a Christian if you cannot forgive your husband, if you cannot love your wife, if you can't serve this other person, you can't serve anyone. Everything else is fake if you can't take care of your immediate family.
Imran:Yeah, it doesn't matter how much you submit at work or how much you serve at work if you can't submit and serve in the household. It's really true.
Pastor David:One last thing. So I noticed that Jesus and then we'll look at the outcomes Jesus put God first. Jesus stayed connected to his family. Jesus just took care of their practical needs. He cared about them. Last thing is I noticed he cared about them spiritually. He went to great lengths to win his family to the.
Pastor David:Lord. And so we go. What happened to his family? Especially his brothers, like you, were so shocked. They didn't believe. Yeah, and yet two of them wrote books of the New Testament. So what happened? How did James become a believer? We know James becomes really important to the church. How's he become a believer? Check this out, selene, I know you're looking at it. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse three, describes a list of people that Jesus visited after he rose from the dead. So let's just kinda check out that list.
Selena:Yeah, so can I read from like verse three to eight.
Pastor David:That way we can get like the whole passage For what I received.
Selena:I pass on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve After that. He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of them who are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles and, last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.
Pastor David:So in that list he listed, just look back at the names. He lists Peter, he lists the apostles and then one person stands out in particular Paul says he appeared to me like one abnormally born because Jesus' appearance to Paul was not part of the 40-day resurrection appearances.
Pastor David:It was years later, but then he listed James the James. There would be his brother James. Isn't that exciting? So it's an appearance to an unbeliever. Hey, you didn't believe five days ago that I'm the Messiah, but now Jesus comes walking in, raised from the dead. Wouldn't you have loved to have been there for that conversation when James realizes oh, my brother is the son of God Because he rose from the dead.
Pastor David:Yeah, that's intense, one of the greatest evidences of the Christian faith is that Jesus' own brothers believed in him because it would be natural not to believe your brother. No, that's not real that his brothers would believe in him. Something extraordinary happened.
Selena:I do have a question. When I was reading this first, after that at the same time, wait after that the same time most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. I don't understand that, so.
Pastor David:Paul is saying the people that he's writing about, they're still alive to give testimony that they did see Jesus raised from the dead. And so Paul is saying go ask these people, they're alive.
Selena:Then, when he says some of them he goes, okay.
Pastor David:Well, a few of them have already died. We've done a few but he's writing in an era where you can still go interview people, go, did you see Jesus raised from the dead? And they're like, oh yeah, we were at the lake. Oh yeah, they can tell you the places. And so he says these people I'm about to list, they're still alive. Then he pauses and kind of goes. Okay, a few have fallen asleep.
Selena:Yeah, okay, I was like huh.
Pastor David:So it's a watermark of authenticity in your Bible. How do I know the Bible's real? The Bible, like to the first generation of people, is saying go ask. These are real, living people. These aren't made up documents.
Selena:Yeah, it's good. I love that.
Pastor David:Exciting, huh. Well, let's do this. Let's ask what happened to Jesus family? How did it turn out? Because we go okay, we're going to follow a plan and our plan is we're going to put God first, we're going to stay connected, we're going to take care of their practical needs, we're going to care about them spiritually, share the gospel. If you have an unbelieving family, you should be sharing the gospel with them. How did it turn out? Did Jesus plan work? I think it did. Let me kind of just three of them. What happened to Mary, what happened to James and what happened to Jude? With Mary, we know that she continued with great humility. In fact, in Acts, chapter one, verse 14, when the church is gathering, she's with them to pray. We also know that Mary contributed to the gospel of Luke.
Pastor David:You ever know. So the way Luke built his gospel is he went and he did interviews because he was not the first eye, so he's talking to the first hand.
Imran:Yeah, he does it like a reporter.
Pastor David:One of the things interesting is the number of details in Luke about the birth of Jesus. Where would he have gotten those details? How did he know about the night Jesus was born? True, how did he know the song Mary sang? How did he know about only Luke? Concludes the visit of the angel to Mary. I think all of that is Mary's firsthand testimony to Luke. She was telling Luke I talked to this angel. I think the Christmas story is told from Mary's point of view. Mary told all of this to Luke and he just he's just writing this stuff down.
Pastor David:So when you're reading the Christmas story Luke, chapter one and two, you're reading, I think, Mary's memories. In fact from Mary. Twice it says in the book of Luke and Mary treasured these things in her heart.
Selena:Yeah, when.
Pastor David:Luke sat down and Mary started talking. It was like she was opening a treasure chest and she starts sharing her memories of Jesus. Let me tell you about the time an angel appeared. Let me tell you about the night. There was no room, there was nowhere for us to go, and Luke is writing all of this down. I can, I almost picture he's rolling up the scrolls he's done, they're done talking and she's kind of flippantly, goes oh yeah. And then there was that time we almost lost him at the temple. Outcomes the scroll. Outcomes the pins. Wait, what happened? Oh yeah, we had left the temple and we were like where's Jesus? Like you lost him? Yeah, no. I don't know if that's how it happened, but we know that with Mary, she, she was very faithful to the end to her, to her faith.
Imran:No, yeah, I think that's awesome.
Pastor David:Jesus brother. Jude is probably the least to know, so let's talk a little bit about what we do know about Jude. Jude is interesting because he becomes a heretic fighter. He stands up to the heretics in the early church. We know that Jude wrote an epistle, a letter taking a stand against false teachers in the church probably the greatest part. So Jude says I wanted to write to you about our great and glorious salvation. Instead, I need to take a stand against heretics.
Pastor David:I think the greatest portion of the book of Jude this little tiny letter is how he ends and I know you're, I know I see you with it, selena.
Selena:Yeah, okay, so that book of Jude was Jesus brother.
Pastor David:Jesus, brother and watch what he? Says about Jesus.
Selena:Now to him who is able to keep you from falling.
Pastor David:So that would be Jesus.
Selena:Jesus can keep you from falling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory, with great joy to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Pastor David:Look, look back at the words he said to our only now he calls his brother, not my, not my big brother.
Selena:Hmm.
Pastor David:He calls Jesus our God, our Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord. Those are strong titles. Anybody who says Jesus wasn't God, Jesus own brother, would say oh, no, no no, he was God.
Selena:Hmm. Be glory majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever Amen.
Pastor David:Isn't that exciting. He just he gives great glory to Jesus Christ. Here's what is said to have happened James, obvious, or Jude obviously, is a follower of Jesus after the resurrection. Hmm, we know from Eusebius that he had a grandson and that grandson, a couple of grandsons. Those grandsons were actually kind of nominal in the faith, not not deeply, deeply committed, but they were farmers. The Christian church was under persecution by Emperor Domitian and, um, they were accused of uprising among the Jews, things like that. These two, these two grandsons of Jude, were brought in and they were accused of of being part of rebellion against Rome. And the emperor asked to see. They said, hey, we're not. We're not uprising against Rome, we're just simple farmers. And the emperor said, well, let me see your bank accounts.
Selena:Pretty much that we don't have any money and he goes.
Pastor David:let me see your hands and they held up their hands to the emperor and he saw they were just broken farmers hands. They were not these run and he ordered that the Christian persecution be stopped at that point that there was no threat from these farmers.
Imran:Here's what happened.
Pastor David:It said that Jude's grandsons went back and while they may have been kind of nominal in the faith, they were part of the church, but they're farmers, they're second generation Christians, you know. It says that these guys became really serious about their faith after having stood up to emperor Domitian and taken a stand for their faith and that they were part of the reason some of the persecution was called off in that era was because of their testimony before the emperor Nice what happens with James is the most interesting.
Pastor David:So we'll wrap up with James, the brother of Jesus. We know that James became a leader in the church. He's important to me and you, Selena, me and you, Emron, because he taught the church to welcome Gentiles. And what you have to know about James is he's what we would call Mr Jew. He is a hardcore Jew.
Selena:Mm, hmm.
Pastor David:They sometimes called him James the just or James the righteous. They also called him old camel knees because he prayed so much on his knees oh my gosh. But he is a keeper of the law. So if anybody's going to say, no, the Gentiles have to keep the law, you would expect Mr Jew to tell them that the James would be the one that holds the Gentiles out like no, you guys can't come in until you become Jews. He wrote. We're studying this right now. On Sunday mornings he wrote an epistle to the, to the church, to stand firm under suffering.
Pastor David:But I want everybody out there to know this If you're a Gentile, you're not a Jew and you're a Christian, you have been blessed by the brother of Jesus, james, because the fight in the early church we saw fights today in the church.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor David:The fight in the early church was who could be saved and, in particular, they had never considered Can can a Gentile be saved?
Imran:Yeah, and there was an argument in the family.
Pastor David:Yeah and if a Gentile can be saved, do they get saved by keeping the law or do they get saved by grace? Yeah Well, by acts 15,. Peers had a vision about animals coming down. He goes, he wins some Gentiles to the Lord. The whole matter just causes the church to explode. It erupts in anger. The Jews are saying no, the Gentiles coming in. Hey, if Emron and Selena get saved, they need to keep the law, they need to become law abiding. That's how they get saved is by obeying the law. If David Squires is going to get saved, he does it through the law. There's another group Paul Barnabas, there's Peter who are saying no, no, no, we cannot make the Gentiles just be conformed to the law. That was for those of us that are Jews, but the law is going to save no one. There's this massive fight and they bring it in and they give testimony. It's called the Jerusalem Council. The person who presides at the Jerusalem Council, as the head of the council, is Jesus, brother James.
Pastor David:And so picture him at the head and there's this family fighting. There's this massive gathering of the church. The missionaries are there. Paul and Barnabas give testimony. They say, hey, we've been out on the islands, we've been out sharing Jesus. We're seeing Gentiles get saved.
Imran:Does that mean that James was like a pretty prominent in the Jewish faith at the time, like he was like a synagogue leader type of thing?
Pastor David:I don't think he was a, so he was known as just as Godly just back then. It's the same word used for Joseph, the father of Jesus righteous, but it means that he would have been very devout in his Jewish faith. Wow.
Pastor David:Okay, it's the way that they would have brought up that Mary and Joseph would have brought up their sons to be very devout Jews. Now this man sits as the family is fighting. Imagine missionaries like Paul and Barnabas getting up and going. We're seeing people get saved and other people just screaming in the church, going. You cannot forsake the scriptures. You have to make these people obey the scriptures. And then James, just in fact. You can just imagine this. This fight acts 1510. Peter says you know, their hearts have been cleansed by faith. All we're doing, we're just testing God.
Pastor David:We're so we're just testing God because we're all saved by grace. The verdict is ultimately given by James. Who's going to decide? The verdict is given by James in the acts 1519. You see it, selena, it says this James gives the verdict.
Selena:It is my judgment that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Don't put a bunch of stumbling blocks. Don't make them try to obey the whole law.
Pastor David:He says let's hold them to three things. He says you're saved by faith. Look, let's. Let's just ask them not to not to engage in idols that Jesus is their true God not to engage in idols. To refrain from sexual immorality and to not not be eating blood or partaking in blood, because that would be part of paganism. So give up pagan practices, Don't worship idols. These are pretty obvious things if you follow Jesus and just just give yourself holy to to the Lord. Can I read this? Don't be a fault, yeah.
Imran:So 19 through 21. Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality, from and from what has been strangled and from blood, for from ancient generations, moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues. Let me explain that a little bit.
Pastor David:What James said is they will be saved and brought in if they'll give up idols. They'll give up the wicked practices. Repent of your sins, we would say repent and turn to. Jesus, Then he does not throughout the law altogether.
Pastor David:He says Moses is taught every week in the synagogues. His point is this the Bible says that the Lord is taught every week in the synagogues. They're gonna go and they're gonna learn more about what it means to follow the Lord over time, but you cannot expect them to immediately be mature disciples. They're gonna be disciples, so don't put the burdens of discipleship on them. First. Let's bring them into the family, then we'll teach them under grace first but he doesn't throw Moses out.
Pastor David:He says Moses has taught every week in the synagogue Mm-hmm, that. So it is not for us to take the Old Testament and just throw it away. We're supposed to go learn the scriptures, all of them, genesis to Revelation.
Imran:And then you start running into the complexities that are brought up and Part of acts and then galatians of like well, some wanted them kick. Well, rome wanted them to be not under the exception and didn't want them to be pulled into the, into the synagogues, and wanted them to continue to worship the Roman gods, and that was a whole thing in of itself. So go listen to the decoding, go to series, because we dive into that in a huge everybody was confused.
Pastor David:What do we do with the Gentiles that are turning to the Lord? Rome didn't know, the early church didn't know. Thank God for James who stood up and said we're gonna let the Gentile we're in fact is exact words where let's not make it hard. Yeah, I love that what happened to James? We find out from a historian who's very famous named Josephus. Josephus actually was employed by the Roman Empire to to write history for them, to teach them who are these Jews that we, that we have captive.
Imran:Oh it's interesting.
Pastor David:But Josephus tells us a little bit about what happened to James. James was brought before the high priest, and the Sadducees were furious with him, furious with Christians, and they were just looking for a chance to kill them. You see the quote there.
Selena:Ananas was of this disposition. He thought he had now a proper opportunity. So he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, or some of his companions, and when he had formed an Accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.
Pastor David:He took James and they ordered that James be stoned. What is believed to have happened to James is he was taken to the temple and they shoved him off of the high point. There's a point that's like a cliff at the temple. It's believed that Satan to actually taken Jesus there also and told him to throw himself down. That they threw James off of there and then stoned him. Oh, my or chased him off by stoning him. But anyway the two go together, that he is thrown and stoned.
Selena:Well, and this is a temple.
Pastor David:Yeah, that's that, he was that so this is a man the very seriously kept the law. He's a, he's a. He's a heavy hitter in the early truth. And then he welcomes the Gentiles in and we know that he ultimately would give his life for Jesus Christ. Yeah and so imagine again this one of the great Emphasis of the Christian faith. How do we know it's true? Because Jesus own brother was willing to die people that physically saw yeah, the miracles.
Imran:Yeah our we're mostly all killed.
Selena:Can you imagine?
Imran:if all they had to do is denounce it, and they did it if Jesus was a fake, there would have been some Family.
Pastor David:Yaya, that would have been at some point. Maybe Mary would have whispered hey, I just got to tell you I wasn't a virgin.
Pastor David:Yeah, it's like you know you shouldn't die for this. Yeah right, there would be an. The fact that she didn't try to save them, the fact that she believed that her brothers believe. There's no background of family doubt. Suggest that Jesus is real. In in a family where Somebody's making crazy claims, you've got some family members going. He's crazy Jesus. Early on they doubted him as you would expect. After he rose from the dead, they believed yeah, that. All of that gives evidence the fact that this is for real.
Imran:Yeah, and it's a in a lot of ways, that's how it is for us to. If we, if Jesus, didn't die and come back from the dead, christianity would not have grown like it did. Yeah, it's because he, it's because he came back from the dead, proved who he was, shown who he was, that that Christianity grew. So the testimony of those that saw him, the testimony of those that lived among him, with him, is what? That? That's the truth of it. Like truth spreads lies. Don't spread like like truth, because truth Truth is solid.
Pastor David:Yeah, it can endure the test of time. Exactly. I just want to give some encouragement. If I can pull this together this way, I hope that you guys out there that you're praying regularly for family members salvation Instead of being mad at your unbelieving family. Jesus brothers may have looked hopeless to him for a moment, but he never gave up on them.
Selena:Yeah.
Pastor David:I also just want to encourage you stay connected to your family. Don't don't there's some pretty severe situations when I know you have to cut somebody off, but I think we're a little quick to that sometimes. Don't cut your family off so quickly. Go ahead, go to that awkward Thanksgiving, go to that awkward Christmas. So stay connected. But also, I just hope you have some rock solid love In your heart for your family. Maybe you're getting tired and it's getting hard to just keep showing love. Keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it. Some of you need to be reminded that you have an obligation to the practical needs of your family.
Pastor David:Yeah your mom, your dad. Maybe they're getting older. You've got to pay for some extra care. You've got it. You've got to Take some extra steps now to take care of them. I hope, I hope you do the biggest thing it's actually where we started is I hope that you're putting God first, that above your parents you honor your parents. You honor your father and mother, but you obey God.
Imran:Yeah, because it gives you the appropriate lens to look at the world through that's right, that's right yeah.
Imran:Thank you so much, pastor. Before we close out here, I just wanted to kind of give you these two cents. So We've been doing this ever podcast for about a year and a half now, so we've got about 74 75 episodes out by the time this one comes out. The awesome thing is that we went through a lot of really advanced concepts really quickly, but we actually dove into a lot of these concepts already.
Imran:So if you want to go to and learn about, well, what happened on the on the day that Jesus died and rose Sorry, the day that he died and then when he rose again, what actually happened on that day, we did the doubting disciples, particularly talking about doubting Thomas. That's actually episode 14. And then right now, ryan, sorry, pastor David talked briefly about the wedding where Mary asked Jesus to do something about the fact that they had run out of wine. We talked about that at great length in episode 38 how to ask God for help. And if you want to Learn more about, well, what was Mary's testimony to Luke About the birth of Jesus, well, we went into that in our episode 2, in episode 3, where we deep dive the Christmas story, and so please go and take a look at that episode.
Imran:And then I brought up the Fruit of the Spirit a bunch of times and that's episode 70 where we go into well, what is the fruit of the spirit? Because we're not under the law, we're not under Torah. So if we're not under Torah, what are we guided by in our faith? Well, you learn about that when you understand the fruit of the Spirit. So go into episode 70 and and deep dive that material. So I say all that to say that there's a lot of good, deep Bible study here. And if you felt like, oh man, this went really quickly through a lot of stuff. I don't know what they were talking about there, I don't know what they're talking about here, x, y and Z, I hope you wrote it down and I hope you go and dive into some of those other episodes and Learn a little bit more about that history, the cultural context and all that, and then also do your own study to your own Research, and learn more about your faith, learn more about the God that we serve how do people communicate with us?
Pastor David:Tell them how they can. Is there an email? Is there a?
Imran:so we do have a Facebook page, so you can like our Facebook page and communicate it with us on there. Leave us a message real Bible stories.
Imran:Yeah, the real Bible stories Facebook page. You'll see a lot of our ads on there for prior episodes. Just go ahead and comment on there or write us a message. We really appreciate the messages that we've gotten over the last couple months of in the encouragement, and so, um, it's been really awesome to be a part of this journey with you all, and so, um, I hope that you learn something. I hope that that you're encouraged by this discussion about the family of Jesus, especially during this holiday season where we're gonna see a lot of family, and I hope that, as you go through that, that you feel like, well, all the feelings that you're feeling right now, jesus felt them too, but he was playing the long game, and so you should be playing the long game, because God's playing the long game. All right, and with that, I hope you enjoy the rest Of your week. I hope you enjoy your holiday season and we'll see you next week on real Bible stories.
Selena:Thank you for tuning in to real Bible stories. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave a review, share and subscribe to be notified each week when we upload new episodes. Real Bible stories is produced in partnership with Palm Church in 29 Palms, california. If you would like more information or want to check out archive sermons and Bible studies, please check out the church website at palms Baptist church comm or check them out on Facebook, instagram or YouTube. Real Bible stories can be found wherever Podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week.
