What a blessed time already together. Isn’t that wonderful? I don’t know if I can preach after that. That was just, that was Well, as you might come to know more about me, you’ll learn that I come from a family that holds tightly to family bonds. Uh, growing up, I probably did not appreciate this as much as I do now that I have children of my own who are adults. But, um, this is part of our crew here. As you can tell, I was a little younger in that photo. There’s probably another one here I can share with you. Oh yeah. Here we are on a car trip. Now I have a question for you this morning. Who in here has a perfect family? Show of hands? Nobody really. No, we’re not a perfect family either. But, um. You know, one of the things that always struck me as as important growing up as I look back on it, is the fact that even as our family, we’d go apart in our separate ways and do things in life, we, we still would come back together and we would still care for one another. That there was something about family that meant more than other relationships. Now you’re probably wondering, what does family have to do with Jesus on the cross, specifically his last seven words. Weren’t those messages from the cross as Jesus hung there in this excruciating pain, meant to point us towards the fulfillment of prophecy and to remind us of his perfect sacrifice for our sins. Yes, they were. And our sermon series has been titled Final Words, eternal Impact because of the importance of these words. In our lives as we go forward. But yet the important part that we’re gonna talk about today is that that eternal impact begins the moment we become part of the family of Christ. You see, John one 12 says this, that to those who believe in Jesus Christ, he gives the power to be the children of God. We are incorporated into a family upon our belief. So today I wanna look at what happened and the importance of what happened when Jesus enduring an unimaginable amount of suffering, looked down, and he saw his mother and he saw his disciple, whom he loved standing nearby. And, and in a moment that must have been just terribly excruciating. Jesus looked at them and in compassion, thought about them. Now join me in John chapter 19. We’re gonna read just three short verses this morning. We’re gonna begin in verse 25. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary of Co Mary, the wife of Opus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her Woman, here is your son. And to the disciple. Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. This is the word of our Lord. Praise your right. Let us begin in prayer. Holy Spirit, I pray that you come fill this room as you have already, but that you would come open our hearts and our minds to the words that Jesus has for us this morning.

Words from the cross that not only show us the compassion that Jesus has for us, but the inspiration that would give birth to the Christian family. Our church today, let us find peace in these words and hear the truth as we are comforted even today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, this short passage of scripture reveals, as I’ve said already, Christ’s profound compassion for others, and it sets out an example, a powerful example of what Christian family really means. Even as Jesus is dying, he is teaching us to this day how to live now. Today we live in a world that is increasingly characterized by isolation and individualism. Digital rather than physical connections. And yet Jesus casts this compelling vision of what Christian Fellowship and Christian family should look like now, as Jesus hung there in his darkest hour, I want you to remember that he’s already been betrayed by one disciple. He was denied by another and had been abandoned by many of his followers. Christ had been beaten. Mocked and forced to carry a wooden cross that it took all of his strength and now his nails pierced his body. He experienced not only that physical pain, but the spiritual anguish of bearing the sins of the world from eternity before to eternity ahead. And ultimately Christ in this next moment is experiencing separation from God the Father. If you wanna learn more about that, I encourage you to come back Wednesday night and next week. But here in this moment of suffering, Jesus sees two blood figures standing at the foot of the cross. He sees Mary his mother, a woman who has birthed him, who has carried him since infancy. Who has pondered the mystery of Jesus in her own heart. And then there’s John, the disciple who John claims Jesus loved the most, but he was one of the few that had remained faithful even to the end. And Jesus sees their grief. He recognizes the pain that they’re experiencing, and the fact that they will have to go forward without him. And in this act of extraordinary compassion, a true illustration of how compassionate Jesus Christ is for each one of the people who look upon him and call him their savior, he brings them together and he says, woman, this is your son. This is your mother. And so with these few words, Jesus accomplishes several things at once. First, he ensures that his mother would be taken care of. After his death, he gives John a new purpose in life as he would be full of grief going forward. Christ creates a new family bond that is not based on blood, but on a shared love for Jesus that grows out of a shared love that Jesus has for each one of us. And he demonstrates that this community of believers. Would transcend any family structures that we traditionally know. I mean, this is, this is Christ’s compassion on full display in this moment. He was not filled with self pity. He was not full of hatred at his persecutor. He wasn’t even focusing on his own suffering. But we see a genuine concern for the wellbeing of those who love him. And even as his body’s being broken, Jesus’, compassion for us was creating a new community, a Christian family, one that is still important to this day, but for us to understand this, we need to look at the, the kingdom of God as a family. And so I wanna take you back in time for just a moment to appreciate the radical nature that Jesus was setting forth, because in Jewish culture at that time, family was everything. I mean, family was your way of survival. It was your identity, your security, your inheritance, your future. It was important to the point of day-to-day survival.

To be without family meant you were vulnerable in a way that we don’t truly understand today. And yet in this culture, Jesus is transcending and changing the way people understood family. And he begun this earlier in his ministry. If you look in Matthew 12, as Jesus is teaching in this house, there’s people outside that come in and say, Hey, Jesus, your mother and brothers are here. And I, you know, if you remember scripture well, you might remember that Jesus is on. Brothers didn’t really believe until after he was gone. So as Jesus is setting there, teaching his disciples and his followers, someone comes in and says, Hey, your mom and brothers are out here. Jesus replied to them was my mother and my brothers are right here. Those that do the will of my father are my brothers and my sisters and my mother. And Jesus also taught that sometimes that meant meaning leaving traditional family values behind. And Luke 14, he tells us that there might be a come a time in our life where we have to leave behind our family if it makes the difference. And being his disciple or not. And these statements are shocking to us, even to this day. But Jesus isn’t dismissing biological family. He’s expanding what it means to be family, what it means to be children of God, where relationships are based not on blood ties, but on a common faith in a shared mission. So now here in these final moments, we see Jesus putting this teaching into practice. Mary would now become mother to John, and John would be son to Mary, and this Christian community would be their primary FA family. Incidentally, and I was reminded this, uh, between services, Mary lived with John from that moment on until the time she passed and went into eternity.

This was a connection and a bond that was not temporary. It wasn’t this. Jesus looking for a way to care for his mother in the moment. This was a, a new way of thinking about, and it even transcended the early church. In fact, if we look in Acts chapter two, we’re gonna find out exactly what the early church looked like. Luke writes this, he says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship. This is the people sharing their lives together. They’re supporting one another. They’re learning from one another. They’re, they’re learning more about their faith and growing together. They’re praying with and for one another. ’cause the early Christians understood that when Jesus forgives you your sins, he brings you into a new family. And much of this took place in their homes, guys. Now they gathered weekly and larger settings, much like we do on Sunday morning here. The more of their life happened in the more intimate in small groups. In fact, most of the New Testament letters that we read in the Bible are all written to more of a house church setting. And these small communities became the primary means through which Christian Fellowship was experienced as believers were known and could be known. Faith nurtured questions asked and answered. Spiritual gifts were discovered, exercised, and put into practice. And the love of Christ was tangibly, dis demonstrated. This one act from the cross set forth a new wave, a new motion, a new understanding of what it truly meant to be family. And I have to mention this though, our world today needs connection. There’s a real need for community in the world today. I don’t know if you know this or not, but we live in an age that sociologists have called the age of loneliness. Now that sounds encouraging, doesn’t it? Despite unheard of technology connectivity. I mean, I’m speaking right now to people who are tuning in from all across miles untold across the country.

We have the ability to reach out and have communication with people in new ways every day. And still we lack meaningful relationship. We often live in cities that are densely populated, yet don’t even know our neighbor’s names. I’ll be honest, I’ve lived here for four and a half months. I do not know my neighbor’s names. I’m ashamed of this. I know their dog’s name is Toby. Consider this for a moment. These are really sobering statistics, guys. The average American reports having only one close friend to confide in down from three, just a decade ago, loneliness has medically been proven to increase risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, anxiety, even premature death. This doesn’t just affect older people. Young adults now report a higher rate of loneliness than any previous generation. Many people go days and weeks even without a meaningful in-person social interaction. And this isn’t just a social problem, guys. I’m not up here trying to convince you that we should be better Americans or anything like that. This is actually a spiritual crisis, and here’s why. God created us in his image. To be in community with others. God exists in the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. If we go back to Genesis, when God created Adam, he saw that he was alone and he said it’s not good, and he created Eve. We are designed to be known and to know we’re designed to love and be loved, to serve one another and to be served by one another. When we lack meaningful connection, something essential in us, withers the church, not the institution, but you, the church. The body of Christ should be the answer to this crisis, and here’s why. This isn’t the action that we do, but it’s the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because in Christ, he creates new life. He restores from brokenness. He brings about love and care for the individual person with compassion, just as we see as he looks up down from the cross this morning. The gospel isn’t about just individual salvation. It’s about being adopted into a new community of believers, the family of God to those who believe, become children of God. Notice children’s plural, right? And unfortunately though there is the uncomfortable truth that many of our churches today function more as weekly religious rituals than authentic communities. You think about it, we come to church and we sit in rows facing forward. We listen to teaching, we sing songs, and we leave often without having one meaningful conversation with someone who we didn’t arrive with. It is possible to attend church for years and never be truly known. I know this one story from years ago at a church I was in. They had a family who always sat in one pew. You guys aren’t like this. I know, but there’s one family who sat in who always sat in one pew and they didn’t show up one day. Now they’ve been there for years, right? But nobody could remember their names.

Now, I’m not talking about victory guys. This isn’t a self-identity crisis or anything like that, but it is a reminder from the cross itself to remember that we need to be intentional about how we move forward just as Christ saw how important. It was to have authentic family. Keep in mind where we’re at now, we’re talking about Jesus dying on the cross for the salvation of the world, and he saw it to be so important that he took time to establish authentic family. I think we need to be just as vigilant ourselves in doing the same thing. Are we a body of believers that act and function as a family? Does that mean we’re gonna have some arguments and disagreements from time to time? Probably right. I. I had this, uh, friend of mine who was a church planter years ago, and he used to describe church as, uh, being like a pumpkin. Well, he said it’s kinda like a jack of lantern. I said, what? Scary on the outside? He said, no, no, no, no, no. He’s like, but if you cut the top of a pumpkin off and you go to reach inside of it, it’s all gooey and messy inside. Right? He’s like, the church is like that. We’re all gooey and messy on the inside. Well, some of us more than others. But this is where small groups are so essential in church because they provide the, the kind of context, then the intimate fellowship that Jesus was demonstrating. They followed the example that Jesus set. When we take responsibility for others, when we look to others’ welfare, not just our own, and we see John taking Mary into his home. There’s eight times in the New Testament where we’re commanded to be one another for someone. Okay? I’m gonna share with that with you this morning, John 1334 We’re told to love one another. In Galatians six, two. We’re told to bear one another’s burdens. One’s Thessalonians five 11. We’re told to encourage one another. James five 16 we’re told to pray for one another. One Peter four 10 we’re told serve one another. Romans 15, seven we’re told to accept one another. Romans 1514 we’re reminded to instruct one another and of course in Ephesians 5 21 to submit to one another. Guys, these commands can’t be lived out on Sunday morning.

We have beautiful, wonderful worship time together. And this takes nothing away from that. But this kind of one another’s requires that we live in close relationship with regular interaction and shared life. It requires us to know one another, struggles and joys and gifts and needs and genuine community. Every Saturday morning, I get a opportunity to meet with about 20 men in a Saturday morning Bible study. And I reflect upon that. This just this week, we had a couple gentlemen who are going to be heading home. Um, I, I keep saying it’s their summer home. They keep telling me it’s actually where they live and they just winter here, but you know, whatever. But they were sharing how much this group means to them to just spend one hour a week meeting with a group of gentlemen. Sharing life together, studying God’s word, growing in our faith, a safe place to ask questions, to consider our faith, to understand what it means to be called a child of God. I mean, these are the places where single people find family. Elderly members gain sons and daughters, where children can gain adult mentors and grandparents. It’s where. The family, the church becomes whole. So as Jesus hung on that cross sparing the way to the world’s sin, he still had compassion for those who love him. He took time to make sure his mother was cared for, that his friend was loved. Woman. Here is your son. Here is your mother. Just as I say to you today, you are my mother. You are my brother, you are my sister with these words. God. God was working through Jesus to do more than make practical arrangements, but making sure that we take responsibility for one another in a loving and kind way, where we establish family bonds that transcend blood relations, where no one is left in their grief or in their time of need. When we gather in small gatherings or small groups as we call ’em, we share meals and study scripture. We pray together. We take on one another’s burdens. We celebrate each other’s joys. When we do those things, we’re continuing. What Jesus started at the cross when he looked down with compassion, as he said, I got this talking about our salvation, and he says, you two have one another now. We respond to these words of encouragement by living this out every day because Jesus in his dying moment, thought not of himself, but of you, and creating a place for you to be loved. May we go and do likewise. Amen. Let us pray. Father, I thank you for your compassion and your consideration for us even today. And you’re paying Jesus. You look down from the cross and you ensure that even as our salvation was being accounted for, that we would be cared for even in our time. As we await for your coming again, as we await for those times when we see you face to face, we live out our faith in community with one another. Thank you, father, for this compassion that you show us and help us to live this every day. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.