Did Jesus Have Brothers and Sisters?

Did Jesus Have Brothers and Sisters?

Tom: We’re going through the Gospel of John, and our purpose is to learn more about salvation—the salvation we have in Christ. An important aspect of our salvation in Jesus is knowing Him personally, knowing what He’s done for us, and knowing what He wants us to do as we follow Him.

Dave, we pick up with John:2:12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
See All...: “After this, He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brethren and His disciples, and they continued there not many days.”

Well, of course, after this—this is after last week we talked about the wedding feast of Cana, and Jesus was there with His disciples, and now He leaves with His mother and His brethren and His disciples. Who are the brethren?

Dave: Brothers. They’re named for us—again, Tom, and we don’t want to seem to be hammering away on Catholics, for example. We love Catholics, but they have made Mary into someone that she is not in the Bible.

Tom:  Perpetual virgin.

Dave: Perpetual virgin. And the Bible is very clear. For example, Matthew chapter one ends like this: “And he took her as his wife [Joseph] because an angel in a dream said, Don’t be afraid to take Mary your wife. She is with child of the Holy Ghost.” She is still a virgin. She hasn’t been playing around with somebody, but this child is of the Holy Ghost. “And you take her to be your wife.” And then it says, “He knew her not until she brought forth her first-born Son.”

Now, “knew her” is an expression in the Bible for having a sexual relationship between a husband and wife. “Adam knew his wife Eve,” it says, “and she brought forth her son,” and so forth. So, you know what it means. It means he did not have sex with her until she brought forth…” And then it says, “her firstborn son,” not her “only” son, but her firstborn son.

So there were others, the other gospels tell us…the skeptics, the critics, say, “Well, isn’t this Jesus the son of the carpenter? And aren’t his brothers and sisters here? Don’t we know who they are? Don’t we know this family from Nazareth? Of course, we do!” And the Bible even names some of them. It does not name the sisters. It mentions them, but it names the brothers.

So, it’s very straightforward—the scripture is very straightforward, and you would have to have some particular agenda: why must Mary remain a virgin? She was a virgin when she brought forth her firstborn Son, Christ. That’s all that is necessary—that He was not born through normal relations; He is the Son of God! Now, that’s an event that has happened. Now, why must she not have children after that? There’s no explanation for it. The Bible never indicates it. In fact, the Bible indicates the opposite. So, we have to be willing to take the Bible. That’s all. Search the Scriptures daily.

Tom: Dave, well, somebody would say, “Why do they keep quibbling over these little issues? The virgin birth, whether Mary was a perpetual virgin or not, whether Joseph was the foster father or the actual father. Why would we seem to be quibbling over these things?

Dave: Well, it’s not quibbling. We search the Scriptures daily. We take what the Bible says, because this is God’s Word. It’s not your idea or my idea. It’s not the speculations or the new ingenuity of some theologian at some university or seminary. But what does the Bible say? And what the Bible says also is supported by reason, by logic. If this One who hung upon the cross we’ve been talking about, if He is to die for our sins, and not for His own sins, then He must be sinless.

There is no man who is sinless. That would be impossible, because if Jesus were an ordinary man, through a union between Joseph and Mary, and he could be sinless, then other people could be sinless as well. Why would He be unique? “Well, it was because God bestowed some grace upon Him”? as the Catholics say about Mary. They say Mary was sinless because God bestowed some grace upon her. Then why doesn't God bestow that grace upon everyone? Why didn’t He bestow that grace upon Adam and Eve, and then there wouldn’t be sin in this world? So, He could not be an ordinary man. He had to be the Son of God. In fact, He must be God in the flesh. And this is what the Old Testament said.

For example, I don’t know how the Jewish rabbis get around the fact that Isaiah:9:6-7 [6] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. [7] Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
See All... very clearly says, “For unto us a child is born [that’s the babe born in Bethlehem], Unto us a Son is given [that’s the eternal Son of God. He existed before eternity!].” And the Old Testament says it: Psalm 2, for example, says, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish from the way.”

Or, Proverbs 30 says, “The Creator of the Universe—what is His name? What is His Son’s name, if you can tell?” He already existed. In fact, Micah:5:2But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
See All... says, “The one who would be born in Bethlehem, His goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.”

So, the birth of Jesus was not the beginning of His existence. That’s why we can’t call Mary “the Mother of God.” God was around a long time before Mary was here. God is her Creator, but she is the mother of the Body. The scripture says, in the Old Testament, it says, “A body have you prepared Me.” God would become a man.

And so back to Isaiah:9:6-7 [6] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. [7] Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
See All...: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given….” That’s the Son of God, the eternal Son of God: “…the government will be upon His shoulders.” You can’t deny—He’s the Messiah! He’s the one who will establish the kingdom of God on the throne of his father David. The government will be upon His shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor [don’t go to some other counselor. Jesus is the counselor], the Mighty God, The everlasting Father.”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that. The Jewish rabbis deny that. But the prophet said God would become a man. Because all through the Old Testament, Jehovah, Yahweh, says, “There is no savior but Me. If man is to be saved, if sinners are to be redeemed, I, God, am the only one who can do it.” Therefore, for Jesus to be a Savior—we go through the Christmas season, and the angels are singing about “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

Well, if He’s the Savior, then He must be God, because God said that He is the only one who can save the human race, and that He would come as a man. Therefore, He cannot be just an ordinary man.

Now, as to Mary remaining a virgin after that, that does not need to be. That’s not part of the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is finished.

Tom: Yeah. Dave, again, we’re going through this book, the Gospel of John, to get to know Jesus better, and we need to understand these verses—certainly in the context in which we read them, but then in the larger context of the scriptures. And why? It seems to me the reason is to know Jesus better and better is to love Him more and more, and as these things—as we take this things to heart in His Word, we get so excited by seeing how God—we talk about…before, we’ve talked about God’s sovereignty, how He’s put these things together that we could really see Him involved, not just in our lives but in human history.

Dave: Yeah, some months ago you had Peter Jennings’ TV special: “The Search for the Historical Jesus,” you know, for the “real Jesus.” And books have been written and so forth. The Bible is written by eyewitnesses! These are people who were there. We can prove it. I think it’d be wonderful sometime if we did a series on just proofs, evidences, from the Bible…

Tom: I’ll notes for that, Dave!

Dave: Okay. Yeah, we’ll do that.

Tom: Down the line, yeah!

Dave:  But we can absolutely prove the Bible is God’s Word. This is the record that God has given us. This is the record of eyewitnesses. We have four of them: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John right here, telling us the life—of Jesus’s birth and life and death and resurrection, and so forth. So why would you need to search somewhere else? There aren’t other records that are as detailed and that were written as far back as these.

So, here it is! All we want to know is what does God have to say? Who is this One who redeemed us? What…who must He be to redeem us? There’s not question about it. Now, if Jesus was just another man that God somehow put some grace upon, then forget it! He’s not your savior. He can’t save you any more than anyone else could save you, so not only does it all hang together prophetically and factually from eyewitness records, it hangs together logically.

And, Tom, you couldn’t have written a book like this. This was written by 40-some authors, you know, over a period of 1600 years, most of whom didn’t know each other, they lived at different times in different cultures…

Tom: Right.

Dave: I mean, you could go through this and rip this book apart. There would have to be contradictions by the dozens. You can’t find them. It is all consistent. It holds together—prophetically, logically, factually, historically, and so forth.

So, this is what we’re studying here. We have it in our hands, the Word of God, the factual account of who Jesus is, and now it’s beginning to tell us some of the things He did. He’s gathered some disciples, He’s been at this wedding, He’s revealed His power, He’s done the first miracle, and now it’s going to take us from there.

Tom: Yeah. And, Dave, every line is a treat. Every verse is a treat, and (laughing) we’ve treated ourselves to one verse here, but it’s very exciting.

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: But we’ll pick up with verse 13 next week.