Acts 16:31 – So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
If you are familiar with the Bible, then you know that Jesus had many half siblings (Matthew 13:55). And the Bible let’s us know that at least one of those siblings ended up being in ministry: James!
Paul in his letter to the Galatians calls James, the brother of the Lord, an apostle (Galatians 1:19). Therefore, we can say with certainty that Jesus’ brother was in ministry with the apostles. Also, in the next chapter, Paul calls the Lord’s brother a pillar of the church.
I heard Rick Renner teaching last year on the book of James and he shared that Jesus appeared to His brother after His resurrection to establish his faith!
“After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:7). It was probably at this point when James went from just watching his brother to joining his Savior brother in ministry.
And then there is Paul. Not many people realize that Paul had family that was passionate for Jesus, but he did!
Romans 16:7 -‘salute Andronicus and Junias, my kindred, and my fellow-captives, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me.’ YLT
Kindred means “one’s family and relations”; so I used the literal translation because not all versions of the Bible translated the word correctly.
Acts 23:16 tells us of a nephew of Paul’s who overheard the plot of the Jews to not eat anything until they had killed him. So I’m pretty sure that his sister and her family also knew the Lord, because otherwise, they would have wanted Paul dead for blasphemy.
So as you can see, although Paul was not married, he had a family that he was connected to. And they were saved before him, (at least the ones mentioned in Romans). And I believe they were probably responsible for his salvation!!
Which is my point for the blog tonight. All of us have family members who need to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. And some of those family members we may have grown weary praying for. But look at Jesus and Paul.
James and his brothers made fun of Jesus when he first started in ministry. And Paul was putting the Believers in prison. And yet, we find them in ministry with their family. Paul’s kinsmen were noted men of the faith, apostles. And God called Paul into the ministry to work with them. Although he ended up being the one we know the most about.
You may not be in full time ministry or even feel like you are in ministry at all; but if you are a believer in Jesus, then you are in His ministry. And He has called you and He is calling your family.
So if they are still out there doing their own thing, you just keep praying and believing God for them. You have a promise and an example from the Word of God that He saves families.
And if you are in ministry and your family is working with you, don’t allow the devil to try and trick you into believing that is a bad thing! Nope! It’s a God thing! Keep up the good work for the Lord until every last one of them call Him Lord! Wonderful Jesus!!
Wonderful Jesus! 