Am I my brother’s keeper?

1. Suppose a mother has two teenage boys; she comes home and finds only one of them.

2. She asks the one she see, “Where is your brother?”

3. The teen says, “Am I a baby sitter?”

4. Such an answer would ring of sarcasm and evasiveness.

5. Mom would probably not be too pleased with her son’s response.

6. A similar thing happened in Genesis 4:9, one of the verses just read, and the basis for tonight’s study.

7. It is in Gen. 4 that we find some famous words from Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

8. A lot of sermons and classes have been preached on this text.

9. Visitation programs have also been based upon this single expression.

10. It appears Cain was trying to deny that he had any responsibility for his brother.

THIS EVENING WE WANT TO SEE WHAT KIND OF LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED FROM CAIN’S QUESTION.

a) You might be surprised, but the word “keeper” is often used in the Bible.

b) Sometimes this word is associated with the “keeping of sheep” or even used to say “prison keepers.”

c) There were keepers of vineyards, baggage keepers, wardrobe keepers, keepers of women and forests.

2) Under the New Testament system, the idea of “keepers” is definitely part of God’s will.

3) Every member and all the elders in a local congregation are in some sense a “keeper.”

4) Gal. 6:2 tells us to “bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.”

a) Bear is a present tense verb; in some parts of the New Testament bear denotes things that are light.

b) We might “bear” (carry) something as light as a paperback book.

c) In other places bear is used to describe heavy objects.

d) By helping bear burdens we essentially become our “brother’s keeper.”

e) A person may have a burden because of transportation, health, emotional or family problems.

f) If we step in to help, we are functioning (serving) as a “keeper.”

g) That’s God’s will; we do not want to be intrusive but we do want to be helpful.

5) As the years go by, we should get better and better at being a brother’s keeper.

6) Our visitation program is one means to be a brother’s keeper.

7) This is a tool to keep abreast of the sick, Christians who are struggling, and those who have fallen.

8) There should be a desire in our hearts to help “keeper” others.

9) We encourage, strengthen, and support fellow members of the church to reach the goal of eternal life.

10) Several passages in the New Testament deal with this particular point by using the word “another.”

11) Rom. 15:7 says we are to “receive one another” (be our brother’s keeper).

12) In the previous chapter (Rom. 14:19) Paul said to “edify one another.”

13) We even “serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

14) Heb. 10:24 tells us to “consider one another.”

15) All Christians have responsibilities in this area, but elders have some extra duties.

16) Heb. 13:17 says elders “watch for our souls.” They are literally “keepers of the flock.”

a) One would think that “watch for our souls” would really say it all.

b) Such an expression denotes authority and the right to “keep the sheep.”

c) There are members of the church who say elders do not have that authority.

d) In some places brethren think elders are to “lead by example.”

e) What people mean by this is “lead only by example.”

f) If elders cannot correct a problem by their example, they have no other resource.

g) This view rally strips elders of almost all authority to “keep the sheep.”

h) Such a view really renders an eldership powerless.

17) In places where elders serve in this manner, elders can’t deal with wayward sheep (Christians).

18) About all they can do with wayward members is say, “please come back.”

19) Elders are not to “Lord it over the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3), but this does not mean they are helpless.

20) Elders are, as far as this earth is concerned, the ultimate keepers of the flock in a local setting.

a) It is for this reason that we have an example of people “joining” themselves to a local congregation.

b) I almost never hear someone refer to “joining the church” as the New Testament uses the term.

c) Most who refer to “joining a church” refer to picking out a religious group and making it “home.”

d) The New Testament does not use the word “join” in this way.

e) We find “joined” in just one sense related to our point, and this passage is Acts 9:26.

f) Luke says Saul sought to “join” himself to the disciples.

g) In the church we sometimes use the expression “place membership.”

h) A person may say “I want to place membership” or “identify” with Goshen/Willowdale, etc.”

i) This is exactly what Saul was trying to do.

j) He could not “join the church” because he had been added to the church by the Lord.

k) We know this because of Acts 2:47.

l) He was already in the church, but he was not associated with a local congregation.

21) Acts 9 tells us he was trying to associate with fellow Christians (join them) in the city of Jerusalem.

22) If we move to another community, Acts 9 gives us an example – we are to seek out Christians in that new city.

23) While this is the divine pattern, not everyone follows it.

24) There are people who are, for the lack of a better term, “floaters.”

a) Such a person (or family) floats (drifts) from congregation.

b) They may be here for worship one week and across town the next.

c) They have no real commitment to a congregation or no true spiritual home.

d) Whatever is the basis for this floating, people never become attached to a local congregation.

e) When this type of thing happens, a person is not really “part of a flock” (local congregation).

f) It is impossible for elders to “keep the sheep” if Christians do not settle down with a local congregation.

25) One responsibility Christians have is to identify with a local group of God’s people.

26) We say, “This is where we will work, worship, and try to make the best impact we can for God.”

27) This allows everyone to really be involved in being a “brother’s keeper.”

WHETHER WE ARE AN ELDER OR NOT, IF WE ARE A CHRISTIAN, WE SHOULD LOOK AT OUR LIVES AND SEE IF WE ARE REALLY TRYING TO BE “OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER.” IF WE DO SOME LOOKING AND THINKING, WE WIL FIND SOME INDICATIONS TO DETERMONE HOW WELL WE ARE DOING IN THIS AREA BOTH INDIVIDUALLY AND CONGREATIONALLY.

a) Let’s take some examples.

b) Suppose as a congregation someone shows up in our midst.

c) This person has no experience with Christianity and becomes a Christian.

d) Or, the person might be a Christian and simply new to the area.

e) Do we reach and strive to make the person feel comfortable—“keep them” or ignore them?

f) Are they made to feel like part of the group or an outsider?

g) If we do not know the names of people, we are not doing a very good of being a keeper.

2) As we think about being a “keeper,” other considerations also merit attention.

3) In Rom. 14:13 Paul spoke of being a “stumbling block” to others.

4) We can create problems that cause fellow members of the church to struggle and even fall.

5) Our actions can hurt and destroy brethren instead of help keep them.

6) It is our responsibility to look at our actions and see if they are hurtful (damaging) to others.

a) We can either be “body builders” in a local congregation or we can be like a cancer.

b) We can strengthen or weaken church members by our words, attitudes, and actions.

c) Paul wrote to Philemon (verse 7) and said he “refreshed hearts” of brethren.

d) Is such also true of us?

7) We all share some level of responsibility in caring for our brethren.

8) Maybe tonight is a good time to remind us of who our “brethren are.”

9) In a broad sense, all people are our “brethren.”

a) One of the sad things from the past and even sometimes now is the unequal treatment of people.

b) All should be treated equally because we have all come from the same source.

c) If you get out your family tree, it reads the same as mine.

d) Your tree is identical to the person who lives in Japan or Africa.

e) When we go back far enough, we all had the same parents (Adam and Eve).

10) Listen to Mal. 2:10 – READ.

11) God was the potter for all and man is the clay, Isa. 64:8.

12) Acts 17:26 affirms the same point.

13) While we have a kinship to every other person through creation, that relationship is limited to this earth.

14) Stated another way, being physically connected does not mean we are spiritually connected.

a) Jesus said His brethren are “those who do the will of the Father” (Mt. 12:50).

b) A lot of people have made fellowship a complicated issue.

c) Fellowship in the spiritual realm is not that difficult.

d) We can understand who is and who is not a Christian.

e) We can know because God has already determined who is a child of God and who Scripture not.

f) There are two categories of people: those who are obeying God’s word and will and those who are not.

g) If a person is complying with the terms of the New Testament, he or she is one of the “brethren.”

h) To this fellow member of the church, we are obligated to help “keep them.”

15) Someone who is selfish says “no, I’m not going to do that.” People should watch out for themselves.

16) If a person cannot keep himself or herself, he or she deserves to perish.

17) That’s is not God’s will, and it certainly does not express the sentiment of the golden rule.