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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 9
30 July 2006
All Ye Are Brethren
(Message delivered by Pr Hien
Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, July 23, 06)
Text: Matt
23:8-11
We have learnt about our great
privilege and blessing to be our Lord Jesus’ witnesses, disciples and
friends, and we see that our Lord has the same standards, expectations
and requirements for us: obedience to Him and His Word and separation
from sin and worldliness. Today, we are learning how to be Jesus’
brethren and what that brotherhood means to us.
Some of us here may have some
brothers and sisters and some may not. I am sure you will be very proud
of a successful brother with a high position in society. Then surely you
and I want to be brethren of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
The term
“brethren” in the Bible may refer to sons of the same parents, e.g. the
two brothers James and John, Peter and Andrew (Matt 4:21; John 1:40-41),
fellow countrymen, e.g. the Prophet (Jesus Christ) from the Israelites,
the apostle Paul and his kinsmen the Israelites (Deut 18:15; Acts 3:22;
Rom 9:3), human beings in general sense or in the sense of “neighbours,”
e.g. “at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man”
(Gen 9:5; cf. Matt 5:22-24), and members of God’s family (Rom 8:29; Heb
2:11).
Today we
focus on the meaning of brethren in Christ or in the Lord, or in God’s
family (Phil 1:14; Col 1:2). Are you and I Jesus’ brethren and brethren
in God’s family? May the Lord help us appreciate this precious and
blessed brotherhood.
One Father, One Master and
All Brethren
In Matthew
23, our Lord exposed and rebuked the hypocrisy of the scribes (teachers
or doctors of the law) and the Pharisees (separatists but only
outwardly). They were among the religious leaders of the Jews in Jesus’
days. However, their hypocrisy is the same today. They claim to have
authority to interpret and teach the law or God’s Word, but they do not
practise what they preach. They want to perform their religious duties
and good works before the eyes of men to get respect and praise from
men. They appear clean, good, and righteous outwardly, but within they
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And especially, they love to have
honoured positions in the synagogues, in the church, at the feasts and
love to be called and greeted with a highly respected title like
“Rabbi.” Why do they love this title so much? And why our Lord Jesus
commanded His disciples not to be called Rabbi. According to Spiros
Zodhiates (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament), “rhabbí
in Hebrew means a great one, chief, master. This was introduced as a
title into the Jewish schools under a three–fold form, Rab, as the
lowest degree of honor; Rabbi, my master, with higher dignity; and
Rabboni, meaning my great master, the most honorable of all. This was
publicly given to only seven persons, all of the school of Hillel and of
great eminence. In the days of Christ the title was misused by Jewish
teachers in that they used it to require implicit obedience to their
decisions and traditions and words rather than to those of the law and
the prophets. Our Lord charged the Jewish scribes and Pharisees of
being very fond of this presumptuous title, but commands His disciples
not to be called Rabbi in the Jewish acceptance of the word (Matt. 23:7,
8). The title Rabbi was often given to the Lord Jesus because He was in
truth the Teacher sent from God, even that great Prophet who should come
into the world, and of whom the Lord had said by Moses in Deut. 18:18,
19”. Our Lord Jesus was also called Rabboni (my great master) twice by
blind Bartimaeus and Mary Magdalene (Mark 10:51; John 20:16).
Nowadays,
we still see religious leaders who want to be the greatest and love the
honourable titles, even requiring their followers to accept their words,
mindset, beliefs and interpretations over against the Perfect Word of
God, the Holy Scriptures, fully inspired, fully preserved, fully
sufficient, and fully authoritative.
Our Lord
Jesus commands His disciples not to be called “Rabbi” nor “masters”.
There are a few different terms translated “master”, or “lord” or
“teacher,” but the term “Master” here is only used by our Lord Jesus 3
times in Matt 23: 8, 10. It means a guide in the way, a teacher, leader,
equivalent to rhabbi, a title of respectful address to Jewish
teachers (Spiros Zodhiates). Only our Lord Jesus deserves to be our
great Divine Teacher, great Divine Master and great Divine Leader. He is
the Head of the Church. Despite His great honour and glory, our Lord
Jesus humbled Himself to be a servant, obedient to His Father unto
death, and He still challenges His followers, “he that is greatest among
you shall be your servant” (v 11). My dear friends, would you and I like
to be great in the sight of God? May God keep us from loving great
“titles” and help us humble ourselves and exalt our Lord Jesus Christ
and God’s Word alone. Let us follow our Lord Jesus’ example, to serve
and not to be served.
Our Lord
also commands His disciples not to call any man on the earth father of
their spirits or souls as they are all ordinary human beings, created by
God. We have fathers of our flesh and we call them “Dad” or “Daddy” or
“Papa,” and we also have Father of our spirits (Heb 12:9) and we call
Him, “Abba,” “Father.” Truly, we are born again by God Himself, by the
Holy Spirit and by His Word.
Then we
have one spiritual Father in heaven, our living and true God, and one
spiritual Master and Leader, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One,
our great Prophet, our great King and our great High Priest, and all of
us are brethren.
Jesus’ Brethren
Be Born Again
To be Jesus’ brethren, we are
to be born again to be children in God’s family. The Bible says that we
are born again not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God (John 1:13), by the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-8) and
by the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). My dear friends, are you sure that
you are born again? The first basic sign of a newborn baby is his crying
for milk and for his mother. If you are born again, you will need God
Himself and thirst for His Word, and realise that you cannot live
without the Lord and His Word.
Be Obedient
Our Lord Jesus says, “For
whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt 12:50) and
“My mother and my brethren are these which hear the
word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21). My dear friends, obedience
to God’s will and God’s word is the fruit of a truly born-again and
submissive Christian. The Bible confirms that our human nature is
sinful, corrupt, and “enmity against God, not subject to the law of God
neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7). However, through our Lord Jesus Christ
we can overcome this sinful nature to do God’s will. The apostle Paul
shared his experience, saying “O wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord.” (Rom 7:24-25). My dear friends, would you and I rather obey
God and His Word than men and their ideas?
Be Sanctified and
Separated
The Bible says, “For both he
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb 2:11). To be
sanctified means to be separated from sins, lusts, and worldliness, to
be dedicated to the Lord for His own use and to be controlled by the
Lord. A temple is holy only as it is separated from common use,
dedicated to the Lord, and filled with God’s holy presence. It is holy
only because of the holy presence of God. Likewise, we are “holy
brethren” (1 Thess 5:27, Heb 3:1) thanks to God’s holy presence in our
lives, and the Holy God only dwells in us when we are separated unto Him
and dedicated to Him.
In this world of sin and
deception, we are to beware of not only false teachers and false
prophets but also false brethren (2 Cor 11:26; Gal 2:4) and separate
ourselves from them who may claim to be Jesus’ brethren but live an
ungodly life (1 Cor 5:11). We are also to separate from brethren who
walk “disorderly” and not after God’s Word so that they may realise
their wrongs, repent and come back to the Lord and His Word (2 Thess
3:6,15).
My dear friends, are you and I
sanctified by the Lord? Then He is not ashamed to call us His brethren.
Loving and Caring Brethren
After Cain killed his brother
Abel, God appeared to him and asked, “Where is Abel thy brother?” and he
said, “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). My dear
friends, are you and I our brethren’s keepers?
The Bible says, “We know that
we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He
that loveth not his brother abideth in death” (1 John 3:14) and “Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). If we
are truly born again, we will love God and the brethren who are born of
Him (1 John 5:1). My dear friends, only God’s love can constrain us to
love Him and to love one another and care for one another. We know that
the Jews despised the Gentiles and had no dealings with them as unclean
people, but constrained by Christ’s love, the apostle Paul preached the
Gospel to the Gentiles and was willing to spend and be spent for them (2
Cor 12:15). He even called a truly converted Gentile slave, Onesimus, “a
faithful and beloved brother” (Col 4:9). My dear friends, only with
God’s love, we will truly love and respect the brethren in the Lord
without any discrimination, prejudice, or contempt no matter what
backgrounds they may have as long as they are true children of God. Only
with God’s love, we will bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2), pray for
one another, and be caring and considerate of one another to edify one
another (Rom 14) and encourage one another to be faithful to the Lord
and His Word until the end.
Conclusion
“How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Ps 133:1). Only in the
Lord, His truth and His love can we find true unity. The world is also
seeking for unity, but without God’s truth, it is only external and
temporary. It is a great blessing and privilege to be born into God’s
family and be called Jesus’ brethren. May God keep us obedient to Him
and His Word and be sanctified, separated, loving and caring brethren.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, our Divine Brother comes back, we may be
very surprised when He says to us, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me” e.g. care for
the brethren and visit them in their illness and in prison (Matt
25:34-40). “A brother is born for adversity” (Prov 17:17b). Amen.
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