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The sermon text for today comes from the Gospel reading about the teachers of the Church accusing Jesus that he has a devil spirit in him. But before we proceed, it should be noted through the parallel text in Matthew that while Jesus was in Capernaum, the people "brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’" Jesus had just cast out demons from a possessed man and it was witnessed by many. What the people had just seen was not questioned in the text, but how he healed the man is questioned. The people were amazed and astonished. They knew what they had seen and were trying to see Jesus! Scripture tells us: "Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. Notice how they prevented Jesus and his disciples from eating! They wanted to see Jesus!

The text goes on to mention that Jesus’ family gets involved, but they are concerned about Jesus. His family knows what they saw and they heard and they think that Jesus has gone off the deep in. They are ready to have him committed to the funny farm. Listen to the Scripture: When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." So now there are the crowds of people, along with Mama and his brothers! As if that were not enough, here come the teachers of the Law (Pharisees) down from Jerusalem to attack Jesus with questions. Jesus is being attacked by three fronts: 1) the crowd that had just witnessed the casting out of the demons, 2) Mamma and family, and 3) the Pharisees. There is however a fourth group and that is Jesus disciples and believers.

Now I ask the first question, Who is Jesus’ real family? Is his real family his birth family? Now I cannot speak for all families, but in most families—brothers and sisters will protect one another. Oh, there is plenty of fighting that goes on in families: brother against brother, sister against sister, brother against sister or sister against brother. Kids know that they fight and they know it is wrong. They can be madder than a hornet towards their brother or sister… until some outsider says something wrong and the fighting kids or teenagers immediately go on the offense toward the outsider. There is no longer any anger towards each other, but a bond as strong as concrete and they are ready to fight for one another rather than against one another. This is how families work in this fallen world. I say "fallen world" because if the world had not suffered the fall from Adam and Eve, there would be no fighting, no disagreements, no arguing, and no sins. It would be a sinless world and we all would be living in the constant presence of God like Adam and Eve. We no longer live in that world.

Now back to the question, Who is Jesus’ Real Family? Is it his birth family? They are the ones coming in to "take charge" or "lay hold" of him. They are the ones claiming He is out of his mind. It is His family that is coming to take Jesus by force and to remove him from the scene. Families will do that you know. A father, mother, brother or sister, will step in and rescue a family member from danger. Whether Mary thought Jesus was crazy or whether she was just caught up in the moment with the crowds, she was there with the family to get Jesus. They were there to grab him by the arms and to get him out of there. It must be noted that Jesus’ brothers were not all believers at this time. So was the family helping him or hurting him. Was the family carrying their will or God’s will?

What about in our lives today, do we carry out the Lord’s will or do we carry out "Our Will"? I think that for all of us, it is both! Our will can be different than the Lord’s will. Every time we sin, we are following "Our Will" and not God’s Will. God does not make us sin. God is not the author of EVIL. GOD DOES NOT SIN AND HE DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SIN. We sin because we deviate from God’s will and follow the ways of the world… and we do a really … good … job… at it! We all fall short of the glory of God because we are sinners. It is easy for me to look at the family trying to take charge of Jesus (for His own good) and I see Peter either defending Jesus with the sword and cutting off the guards ear in the Garden just before His crucifixion. We fall short just like Jesus’ family. They had good intentions to "rescue" Jesus, but Jesus was carrying out a much greater mission.

Now going back to the original question, "Who is Jesus Real Family?" Was it Satan’s family? The Pharisee’s, the teachers of the Law, came down from Jerusalem and accused Jesus of casting out the demons in the name of Beelzebub! What does that mean. For many of us, that can be like a comedy scene in a movie where they are about to attack someone and that person calls the attacker a name that he doesn’t understand. The attacker may turn around with a grimace and ask what did he just call me? Was it good or bad? Well Beelzebub means literally "lord of the flies", except they twisted the ending in the word in Greek and made a play on words by saying Beelzeboul, which means lord of dung. Not only were they accusing him of casting out demons in the name of a false god, the devil, but the added insult to Satan and gave him the title lord of dung.

Well, Jesus uses their logic against them and said, "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." This is good logic. Jesus is stating "Did I cast out Satan in the name of Satan?" NO! Satan was cast out in the name of Jesus Christ! Division does not strengthen Satan, but division brings destruction. Division in the church does NOT build up a church, but destroys it! Our country has never fully recovered from the Civil War. The Civil war did not bring strength, but damaged this country.

Jesus speaks in a parable and explains "no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house." Think about it, if you were a burglar, would you break into Mike Tyson’s house without first making certain he was gone or at least tied up! NO! The strong man is Satan and Jesus is the one who has entered Satan’s house and bound the strong man. Jesus has already overcome Satan and freed us from our bondage to Satan. This was accomplished not on the cross but in Genesis 3:15.

Going back to the original question "Who is Jesus Real family", it is not his birth family and it is not Satan’s family, it is his adoptive family. Jesus family came back to the house as Scripture reads: "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." Jesus responds to them: "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 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." This is the fourth group I mentioned at the beginning consisting of the disciples and believers. When Jesus says to them "Here are my brothers, sisters and my mother", he is speaking of the Church. We today, those of us who have received faith in Christ and not rejected it, … We are Christ’s family! Who is Christ’s Real Family? It is the Church. We are the Real Family. What is the Gospel? It is stated in verse 28 by Jesus.. "I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them." The Gospel is God’s gift to us; it is the Forgiveness of Sins. Today, we share and grow in faith through hearing the Word of God and receiving His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is the Gospel. What do we receive from the Lord’s Supper? Christ’s words answers the question "take, eat; this is the true body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, given into death for your sins. …. Take, drink; this is the true blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, shed for the forgiveness of your sins." … Christ real family are those who do not reject Christ’s forgiveness. Today you have received the forgiveness of Christ. Amen.