Matthew 12:46-50 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to speak with you. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brothers? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brothers! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Luke 8:19-21 Then came to him his mother and his brothers, and could not reach him for the crowd. And it was told him by some who said, Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.
When I teach about “understanding the will of God,” I’d like to talk about a story that is told in all the synoptic gospels, except that Luke’s account gives a significant nuance. (Many skeptical Bible “critics” point out differences in the gospels to argue that they can’t be reliable — yet it’s actually the differences that support the validity of these accounts because they reveal that the events recorded were simply experienced and told from slightly different viewpoints, a very common circumstance when people are telling a story.)
The gospels of Matthew and Mark give an account of the Lord’s mother and brothers arriving to see Him and wanting to speak with Him, though they were hindered because there were so many people around Him. Yeshua (Jesus) takes this opportunity to define a broad new “family” principle when He says, “… whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” But Luke’s account adds something, “those who hear the word of God and do it!”
The word of God is going out across the whole world, and many are hearing it. Those who are acting on what it says are defined as the true family of Yeshua!
Here, then, is another simple approach to living in the will of God. Read His Word — and don’t be a hearer only — but be a doer who acts according to what he hears or reads. If you do, you reveal that you are a close relative of the Son of God, and that’s a relationship better than any other in the world!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]In the Book of Kings, when King Solomon began his reign, God asked him, “What shall I give you?” He replied, “I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in” (1 Kings 3:7). Such a phrase seems curious, yet it holds deep significance. It is echoed throughout Scripture, revealing a principle that intimacy with God leads to victory!
When Yeshua (Jesus) went into the synagogue in Nazareth and was handed the scroll of Isaiah to read [Luke 4:18], He opened it to the passage we know of as Isaiah 61, a powerful Messianic proclamation filled with hope and promise and fresh with the joyful good news of His arrival. After reading the passage He immediately declared that it was fulfilled in the hearing of those present. The first response was amazement and wonder that the carpenter’s son was so gracious a communicator. But this did not last, as Yeshua immediately challenged his audience with a prophetic expectation…that they would reject Him, which they immediately did…nevertheless…
F.B. Meyer once said, “The education of our faith is incomplete [till] we learn that God’s providence works through loss…that there’s a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things. The dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives.
Most people reading this passage tend to focus in on the fruit that is produced. Okay…But a closer look will reveal that the Lord is really focusing on the tree. The fruit merely demonstrates the quality of the tree. We have all encountered this: there are trees whose fruit is healthy and delicious, and there are trees whose fruit is scarcely edible, or even useless.
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on in every person. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’. One is evil — it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good…
There’s an interesting story about the great English actor, Macready. A respected preacher once asked him, “I wish you would explain something to me.”
We live in a day and age that everywhere we turn, there’s a “self-help” theory. Books, videos and dvds, websites, world-renown speakers, you name it — all dedicated to helping us “feel good about ourselves”. Yet somehow, still many of us struggle with self-consciousness, even as Christians!