Many of us lack families, are estranged from our families, or live away from our families. We long for connection and we need help with our daily lives. What if I told you that Jesus’ plan for the church is to be our family?
This sermon is on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:1-12. We discuss the practical teaching that Jesus gives for living in the church family. We saw that Jesus taught that:
1. We should not judge our brothers and sisters in the family
2. We should not be hypercritical or hypocritical in the family
3. We should be wise about our boundaries in the family
4. We should trust our heavenly Father
5. The central defining ethic or the family
Links: David Brooks’ NY Times article on family estrangement
Quotes:
These words of Christ do not contain an absolute prohibition from judging, but are intended to cure a disease, which appears to be natural to us all.
– John Calvin
The fall has made all of us sinners. So we are in no position to stand in judgment on our fellow sinners; we are disqualified from the bench.
-John Stott
The knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.
-John Calvin, Institutes 1:1:1
For He who thus made speed to give up His Son to the slaughter, how shall He not freely give us all things?
-St. John Chrysostom, 4th c.
Scripture texts: Romans 14:1-13
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Matthew 7:1-12
“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets
“We Are Family” preached by Rev. Dr. Timothy R. LeCroy. Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 10:00AM. New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY. Come see the beautiful Finger Lakes region, and worship God with us. www.newlifeithaca.org.
Sermon music is from “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” provided by Sandra McCracken and with her permission. www.sandramccracken.com.
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