This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on 23rd February 2025 by Navaz. For the audio & video please click here. For the worship please click here. THE CHURCH - A FAMILY
INTRODUCTION
The Bible records many pictures of the church.
We are called the army of God, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the temple of
God, the new Jerusalem, the body of Christ, etc. Which one do you identify with
the most?
Today, let us look at the church as the family
of God.
From the beginning, we see family on display in
the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are perfect in
unity, love, and cooperation. As Christ's followers, we aim to become more
Christlike in who we are and what we do.
GOD AND MAN
Creation -God always wanted to have a relationship with
us. He created the most magnificent creatures and placed them on the Earth.
Then, He made man by His breath and hands to enjoy a loving, intimate
relationship with Him.
He did not just create us but gave us power,
authority and dominion – to govern the earth as he would because Adam and Eve
were His Image bearers.
Corruption -Then sin came in and ruined everything. First is fractured our relationship with God. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. They lost their power, authority, and dominion and, most of all, lost their relationship with God. Where God was once their Father, they are now orphaned. This orphan heart is passed down to all of humanity through Adam. The orphan heart is distrustful, hateful, competitive, selfish, willful, disobedient and everything else evil you can imagine. Darkness, evil, chaos and destruction become the order of the day.
Yet God does not give up on us. He still wants
to carve out special people, a family that will display His glory on earth, as
part of His redemption plan. He calls out Abraham and makes a covenant
with him, saying that he will become a great nation, and all the nations will
be blessed through him.
Fast-forward, and we see God make the nation of
Israel a special people to display His glory. But the rebellion was so
deep-seated in man's heart that they kept breaking that covenant with God.
But God always had an eternal plan. In the
fullness of time, while we were rambling in our rebellion and sin, God sent His
Son on earth to show sinful Adam’s descendants how true humanity ought to live.
He lived a perfect life, and God placed Jesus in a family. He demonstrated what
an obedient son looks like.
The Cross - Jesus fulfilled His mission on the Cross: to
reconcile humanity to the Father. The flaming sword that puts a divide between
us having eternal life is now replaced by sacrifice on a cross that breaks the
barrier and tears the veil separating us. His blood made a way for us to
approach the throne of grace boldly and by which we can now call Him Abba
Father.
We who were once alienated from God and brought
back to him are now Children of God as we put our trust in Him. We have been
adopted into His family. What does that mean?
New Creations -We now have His Divine Nature Activated in
us. We are new creations in Christ.
Our nature, identity, and purpose are restored
to us. We go from orphans to sonship, abandonment to belonging, aimlessness to
purpose, insecurity to security and perfect love in Christ.
All this takes a lifetime to work out as we
submit ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This process is
called restoration or sanctification. We are being changed from one degree of
glory to another. The more we obey, the more we change.
WHO WE ARE AS CHILDREN OF
GOD IN HIS HOUSEHOLD.
What does scripture say about us as a family of
God?
FAMILY FEATURES
·
Every family has a culture.
Culture means a set of beliefs and behaviours that everyone has and does that
are unique to that culture.
The culture of the family of God is simply Kingdom
culture. Do you want to know what that is? Read Matt 5 to 7, the Sermon on
the Mount.
· We are multi-generational
2Tim 3:16
· We all serve – We are not a restaurant where you look to be served, you can
criticise the service, and your focus is on what you get to consume.
In a family, we all serve each other, are sacrificial, give, and look after one another.
GOD IS OUR FATHER
Matt 6: 9, “This, then, is how you should
pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Rom 8:15-16 The Spirit you received does not
make you slaves so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you
received brought your adoption to sonship. And by him
we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The
Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
2 Cor 6:18 And, “I will be a Father to you, And you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
1 John 3:1 See what great love the Father
has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is
what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
CHRIST AS THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY
- Ephesians
5:23 –
“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the
church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
- Colossians
1:18 –
“And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, and in everything, he might be preeminent.”
WE ARE JESUS BROTHER’S And
SISTERS
- Matthew
12:49-50
– “And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my
mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven
is my brother and sister and mother.’”
- Hebrews
2:11 –
“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.
That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
- 1
Peter 3:8
– “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a
tender heart, and a humble mind.”
- Romans
12:10 –
“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.”
HOUSEHOLD
Eph
2: 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but
fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
1
Tim 3:15 If
I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s
household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of
the truth.
Gal
6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,
especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Heb 3:6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
UNITY AND FELLOWSHIP IN THE FAMILY OF GOD
- Acts
2:42-47
– “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
- Colossians
3:13-14
– “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another,
forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must
forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together
in perfect harmony.”
- Ephesians
4:3-6 –
“Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that
belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
- Hebrews
10:24-25
– “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
LOVE AND CARE WITHIN THE CHURCH FAMILY
- John
13:34-35
– “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I
have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will
know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another.”
- Galatians
6:2 –
“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
- 1
Thessalonians 5:11 – “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just
as you are doing.”
- 1 Timothy 5:1-2 – “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”
There are 4 types of people in a family:
· Infants, those who serve, the old, and those who hang around and do nothing. Which one are you?
This
is who we are.
Much more can be said, but this is enough to chew on and think about.
Next
week, we will examine what a family does. Today, we just examined who we are.
CONCLUSION
Where
are you in the family? An infant, one who serves, one who is old or the one
that hangs around and does nothing.
Do
you have a buy-in to this local household of God? Is it evident to the others that you
belong, not that you just attend? If you do not attend the family gathering,
will you be missed?
If you
do not serve and contribute to this local household, think about what you need
to change to make that shift.
Eph 4:11-15 - So Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and
forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and
by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow
to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that
is, Christ.
This is the final goal for all of us – to attain maturity and
reproduce.
We will look more into this next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment