Luke 8:19-22
The Family Is Important
I can see something of this in my mind. Mary comes with her four
youngest sons, James, Joses, Juda, and Simon. We don’t know why they
came. Joseph was probably deceased by this time. Jesus is the oldest.
Perhaps it was family business or perhaps it was a pleasure call.
Regardless, the crowds were so great that they couldn’t get to Jesus
so they used the human telegraph method to convey a message to Jesus
that they were there. When Jesus received the message, you might
think He would stop what He was doing and receive them; but instead,
He lifted His arms and with an encompassing motion declared, "My
mother and brethren are all of these who hear and do the Word of
God!"
Now, I always miss things. My first impression was that Jesus
devalued His earthly family. (Many unrelated people have tried to get
me or members of my family to call them by a family name i.e. Pawpaw,
Maw maw, Uncle, Aunt.) I never have because I don’t want to devalue
those who are blood related to me. I have never wanted to do that.
But the Lord has showed me two things:
1. Jesus never devalues anyone. He always exalts. Jesus was not
devaluating his mother and family. He was exalting the
believers to the position of family!
2. And God showed me that this was not a lesson about Jesus’
earthly family but His spiritual family. I was one of those
Jesus exalted. I was the stranger to God’s family-not part
of the family. I was not the one seeking an audience, I was
the one who had the audience. While I do not and would not
want another to feel devalued for me, I am blessed and
rejoicing that Jesus was extending that privilege to me.
But this lead me to ask another question. One not really found in the
text. What is God’s purpose in the family?
1. We know God created many ways for a species or kind to receive
a. Some species lay eggs or deposit their offspring then
depart, never even looking back.
b. Other spend some time with their, hatching or nurturing
them for a short time and then departing life.
2. But God put human parents with their offspring for years and
bond is intended to last a life time.
a. Not only so, but the bond is strong, extremely strong and
very emotional.
b. I know some would disagree but I believe God intended the
love between parents and children to be stronger than the
love of any other living being.
3. Why?
a. I believe God has given us an earthly family to help us
understand heavenly truths.
b. Have you ever noticed how many spiritual truths are taught
with the concept of the family?
(1) What do we often call the Person of the Trinity Who
abides in the heavens? Our heavenly FATHER.
(2) When Jesus wanted to teach about salvation, He used
an earthly picture of being born but He called it,
being born again.
(3) New Christians are called BABES that need to GROW
in grace.
(4) What does Jesus call the church while we await our
permanent union with Him? The BRIDE of Christ.
c. All of these concepts would be beyond our understanding
if it were not for terms that originated in the home.
d. Why did God create man to be conceived in love, born as an
infant, grow and taught as a child, forced to grow to
learn responsibility, duty, and love, then require him to
do it all over again?
God did it to teach us spiritual truths, more truths than I have the
intelligence to comprehend or the time to explain but let’s consider
a few.
I. We learn about love in the home.
A. Where else and how else are you going to learn about love
except in the home?
1. We have many examples today of people who DO NOT learn
about love in the home. Most that do not, never learn
it all.
18 Shocking Children and Divorce Statistics
1. Half of all American children will witness the breakup of a
parent’s marriage before 18. Of these, close to half will also see
the breakup of a parent’s second marriage.” (Furstenberg, Peterson,
Nord, and Zill, “Life Course”)
2. One of every 10 children will also live through three or more
marriage breakups. (The Abolition of Marriage, Gallagher)
3. Forty percent of children growing up in America today are being
raised without their fathers. (Wade, Horn and Busy, “Fathers,
Marriage and Welfare Reform” Hudson Institute Executive Briefing,
1997)
4. Studies in the early 1980’s showed that children in repeat
divorces earned lower grades and their peers rated them as less
pleasant to be around. (Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce,
Remarriage-Harvard University Press 1981)
5. Teenagers in single-parent families and in blended families are
three times more likely to need psychological help within a given
year. (Peter Hill “Recent Advances in Selected Aspects of
Adolescent Development” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
1993)
6. Compared to children from homes disrupted by death, children
from divorced homes have more psychological problems. (Robert E.
Emery, Marriage, Divorce and Children’s Adjustment” Sage
Publications, 1988)
The DEATH of a Parent is LESS Devastating to a Child than Divorce.
(Even I wouldn’t believe this if I didn’t see the statistic myself.)
The PHYSICALLY Damaging Children and Divorce
7. Children of divorce are at a greater risk to experience injury,
asthma, headaches and speech defects than children whose parents
have remained married. (Dawson, “Family Structure and Children’s
Health and Well Being” National Health Interview Survey on Child
Health, Journal of Marriage and the Family)
8. Following divorce, children are fifty percent more likely to
develop health problems than two parent families. (Angel, Worobey,
“Single Motherhood and Children’s Health”)
9. Children living with both biological parents are 20 to 35
percent more physically healthy than children from broken
homes. (Dawson, “Family Structure and Children’s Health and
Well-being” Journal of Marriage and the Family)
10. A Child in a female-headed home is 10 times more likely to
be beaten or murdered. (The Legal Beagle, July 1984, from “The
Garbage Generation”)
11. A study of children six years after a parental marriage
breakup revealed that even after all that time, these children
tended to be “lonely, unhappy, anxious and insecure.
(Wallerstein “The Long-Term Effects of Divorce on Children”
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry 1991)
12. Seventy percent of long-term prison inmates grew up in
broken homes. (Horn, Bush, “Fathers, Marriage and Welfare
Reform)
13. Children of divorce are four times more likely to report
problems with peers and friends than children whose parents
have kept their marriages intact. (Tysse, Burnett, “Moral
Dilemmas of Early Adolescents of Divorced and Intact Families.
Journal of Early Adolescence 1993)
14. Children of divorce, particularly boys, tend to be more
aggressive toward others than those children whose parents did
not divorce. (Emery, “Marriage, Divorce and Children’s
Adjustment, 1988)
15. People who come from broken homes are almost twice as
likely to attempt suicide than those who do not come from
broken homes. (Velez-Cohen, “Suicidal Behavior and Ideation in
a Community Sample of Children” Journal of the American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 1988)
16. Children of divorced parents are roughly two times more
likely to drop out of high school than their peers who benefit
from living with parents who did not divorce. (McLanahan,
Sandefur, “Growing Up With a Single Parent: What Hurts, What
Helps” Harvard University Press 1994)
http://www.marriage-success-secrets.com/statistics-about-children-
and-divorce.html
2. I do not give statistics like that to discourage those of
you who are divorced.
3. I do it to challenge you to learn how to love as God
intended.
B. A godly marriage and home is the best chance we have to learn
about love and to teach it to our children.
1. There is no such thing as a perfect home.
a. The possibility of that went out the window with the
fall of the human race.
b. All homes have problems because all homes are
comprised of sinners.
c. But it is inside of that imperfect home with those
imperfect people that our children learn the concept
of love.
2. Words like sacrifice, forgiveness, commitment,
responsibility, humility, and love are all to be
demonstrated—repeatedly—inside the confines of the home
so that our children can see how to love in an imperfect,
sinful world.
C. No matter what kind of a home you have today, commit yourself
to loving the members of it.
D. If you need more information on how to do it, consult the New
Testament.
II. We learn about roles, responsibilities, and relationships in the
home.
A. Each of the family member has a role appointed to him/her by
God.
1. These roles are clearly outlined in the Bible.
2. These roles teach us about God and our relationship with
Him.
B. Earthly children are types of CHRISTIANS.
1. Children are to be able to rely totally on their parents
and they are to learn to do so.
a. Why?
b. Because Christians are to learn to rely totally on
their heavenly Father.
2. Children are to learn obedience to their parents.
3. As Children grow, they are to learn responsibility.
4. Children who do not learn these things in the home are
likely to:
a. Never learn them. Jails and prisons are full proof to
that effect.
b. To be lousy human beings. They are the deadbeats, the
drug heads, the incorrigible.
c. Never be able to submit to God.
5. No parent has ever done his child a favor that did not
teach him the things God designed him to learn in the
home.
Just yesterday, Otto Warmbler, a 22 year old student who had to have
a lot of money and was supposed to be studying abroad passed away. I
am sorry for the family’s loss. I have no doubt that he was murdered
by the brutal treatment he received from the hands of the North
Koreans. But the North Koreans are known worldwide for their
brutality. Whatever possessed a 20 year-old to think it would be
alright for him to run into a sealed section of a building a foreign
country, take down an official flag of any kind, and do insulting
things with it? Where are the parents that should have taught that
man better manners? Someone says, "Maybe he was drunk?" And who
taught him that?
6. Children, you have only a few things to do at this point
in your life.
a. Be saved.
b. Learn wisdom. That can only be learned through
Christ.
c. Get an education so that you can serve Christ the
rest of your life.
7. That is your God-given role. Fulfill it well.
C. Wives are types of Christ.
Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered;
1. Christ is in no way inferior to the Father. He merely
fulfilled a different role than the Father.
2. Yet He LEARNED….
a. TO PLACE HIMSELF in the role of submission.
b. Most ladies are insulted and indignant that God would
expect such a nature from them—especially considering
what so many men get away with.
c. However, God expects women to:
(1) Learn submission.
(2) Complete their mate.
(3) Operate the home.
(4) Rear the children.
3. But let me hasten to say that God also expects the
husbands to do all four of those as well—and much more!
D. Fathers are types of the FATHER.
1. As wives are in no way inferior to the husbands, so
husbands are in no way superior to the wife. They just
fill different roles.
2. As God leads, so the husband and fathers are to lead.
a. God has endowed men with authority over the wife but
not with punishment of the wife.
b. The greatest responsibility that men have in the home
is not to lead it is to love.
(1) The Father is gentle.
(2) The Father is merciful.
(3) The Father is meek.
c. No man has a right to expect his wife to obey as God
commands who does not first love as God commands.
E. All of this is part of God’s plan for us to learn how to work
together in submission and cooperation to have a godly home.
III. We learn about unity in the home.
A. A home is not a battlefield with three or more armies:
husband, wife, and children.
1. It is a unit and together we are all attempting to defeat
sin, the world, and the devil.
2. It is God’s will for everyone to learn oneness from the
home! (By the way, sports may help but sports is NOT
the way God wants our kids to learn about teamwork.)
B. From our family UNITY we learn about our relationship to God.
1. While unity may be somewhat difficult to learn from other
humans, in our heavenly relationship, it should be much
easier.
2. God does all the kindness, forgiving, and hard working.
3. We just reap the benefits.
4. Surely we can share some of the blessings of God and the
hardships of this world among ourselves!
C. By having an earthly family we ought to at least appreciate
it.
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