This is the final sermon in the Family Life series. We’ve seen how being single is a good life and how being married is good too. We’ve also seen how we should interact with each other in our families.
This week is the curveball as we see that Jesus is more important than family.
Following Jesus means you may harm some relationships. Being a Christian can strain or even divide families (Matthew 10:34-36). … Not everyone follows Jesus, and that can lead to problems within the family. … This doesn’t make divorce ok. We’ve covered that already in this series. … In much of the world, when someone starts following Jesus, their family looks down upon them and may even disown them. We’re not as likely to see that extreme in our part of the world, but we still may receive disappointment from them. Even Jesus had to deal with this to an extent.
Following Jesus must take priority over family relationships (Matthew 10:37-39; Luke 9:57-62). … Jesus uses some shocking language get this point across. Nothing and nobody should be the center of your life except Jesus. Family is a good thing, but even good things become idols when we put them ahead of Jesus.
Following Jesus means you will gain many new family relationships (Mark 3:31-34; 10:28-31). … We gain brothers and sisters in Christ when we follow Jesus. We may lose some relationships, but we will gain many more. Even if you are alone, have no family, In Christ you have many brothers and sisters. … We may even get the family members that lost back. They may come to accept and follow Jesus too. Jesus’ family wasn’t too supportive of Him for a long time, but they came to follow Him in the end.