Family Reunion
May 30 2001
Before we look at what is a church family this just came in: ( Read Dough Boy)
What is a Church Family?
Jesus asks the same question! Doesn’t He?
While He was still speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him.
Mat 12:47 And someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You."
Mat 12:48 But He answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"
Mat 12:49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers!
Mat 12:50 "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother."
It is interesting isn’t it that Jesus’ Mother and Brothers wanted to speak to Him, I think fundamentally many of us speak more to Jesus than we listen to Him!
Anyway, I do not want to talk about listening tonight but about Family!
A topic about which I have a great deal of passion and enthusiasm and maybe that is why God made me a family minister here at CCC.
I consider myself a family man both in my immediate household family and in this family God’s family the church.
The questions I want to answer tonight are:
1. Who is my family?
From the text tonight the word brothers is used
As those of us beloved or closely united with another in affection (2 Sam. 1:26; Acts 6:3; 1 Thess. 5:1).
Many scholars who look at this passage tend to spend more time looking at who Jesus’ birth brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters are then they do looking at what Jesus is really saying.
What we need to know is that:
All of us can be in Jesus’ family. Praise God!
None of us are too bad or too Good to be a family member.
2. How do I become a part of that family?
Paul teaches that God, by the manifestation of His grace in Christ, brings men into the relation of sons to Himself, and communicates to them the experience of sonship.
The word sonship applies equally well to the slave who is redeemed from bondage. It applies to the Greek oe the Jew, the male and the female.
Adoption as God’s act is an eternal process of His gracious love, for He “fore-ordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph 1:5).
That’s what we are predestined for! To become sons of God and Family members. Isn’t that WONDERFUL!
12:48 Jesus is not being discourtesy in His reply to either His mother or His brothers. However, Jesus who is forever the teacher did capitalize upon their presence to convey to His hearers the truth that spiritual relationships within the family of God assume greater importance than earthly family ties, even as important as the latter are.
“Each week we rub shoulders with people whom we may barely notice. But if they share a birth in Christ, they are our dearest relatives. How precious is the family of God!’
I love this church family- every single one of you have welcomed us, encouraged us and loved us just like we were born and raised here. And that brothers and sisters is what FAMILY DOES!
And I know Jesus is right, the relationships formed here are more important than any other, because we are His bride, we are a holy nation, we are the priesthood of believers. We belong one to the other and have been placed in this body by God. That is why I counsel people just do not leave the church family unless you are positive God is moving you. Because it is God who made us a family.
That is what He says in:
1 Cor 12:18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
Do you believe that God wants the church family preserved, He wants our unity kept. Unity is not something you build- God has established the unity our job is to maintain it!
Listen to Jesus’ own words about biological family!
Didn’t Jesus say “that because of Him biological families could be divided, would be divided and should be divided?
Mat 10:21 "And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 "And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
Mat 10:34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;
Mat 10:36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.
Mat 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Luke 12:51 "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division;
Luke 12:52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three.
To really be family biological relations must become spiritually related!
But then Jesus makes the world a promise doesn’t He?
He says If you leave your dysfunctional biological family and come to me I will give you another family, bigger and better. A family to love you and meet your needs. That will honor you and respect you, value you and show you what it means to have a real family! A family who will firmly, but gently restore you to godly living.
It is God’s way by design, but we refuse to accept it, our tendency is to hold onto that which we have knit together and not that which God has established.
Mark 10:28-31 Peter began to say to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You. Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
God works through His people and because He promises a family to the world through adoption, then He like wise charges us as Christians (as the church) to make that family offer a reality to all.
You made Cathi, Melissa, Faith and me your FAMILY when we came and now we continue to make that offer to Steve Taylor Richele Clark, Dominick Armignnaco and all the others who will be adopted into God’s family through all of our ministries here at CCC. AMEN?
To the black, to the white, to the poor and the rich-to all penitent people- Murderer, adulterer, divorced or homosexual. God adopts them when they receive Christ and so do we.
3. What does a dysfunctional church look like, well it looks like a country club full of nice people-who want the best that can be offered for themselves and their families. It looks like a corporation with a senior minister as CEO, whose marketing tool is evangelism and stockholders who sit in the pews each week with associate ministers as middle management.
4. That is an organization, not a church that is not a live organism.
5. Organizations will not survive only the Body of Christ will be raised!
6. What a functional church family would look like?
God would not call us into a relationship with Him, with His Son or with each other, without giving us instruction on how to live in that family.
MAKE note of these verses> Tape them on your mirror, your door jambs in your car.
The model is in Acts 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
1. We study the word together and we devote ourselves to it by applying what we have learned to our lives.
2. We fellowship with one another and catch each other on fire for Jesus and Christ-and we live like who we are In Christ!
3. We share meals together like we just did and like the picnic on Sunday. And like we will do this fall in HBF.
4. And we pray together, like tonight and as often as we come together and in the next verse we see the results. Because God’s house is a house of prayer!
Acts 2:43 And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
Acts 2:44 And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common;
1. Do you feel sense of awe, by what God is doing in our midst. Are we eager to see what is He going to do next? I am!
2. We need to be together as often as we can for whatever reasons we can. These verses are the model for HBF starting in August.
3. We need to acknowledge that everything we own is the Lord’s and we hold it in trust for God and for each other.
4. If someone in the family has need we need to do what the early church did:
Acts 2:45 and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
Acts 2:46 And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
Acts 2:47 praising God, and having favor with all the people.
1. And if we will just do it all people in the world will be awe struck like the citizens of Jerusalem and then the Lord will add to their number day by day those who were being saved.
7. What can we do to make the family what God would have us be?
We see the same thing in Acts 4, listen as I read.
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
1. gather together
2. Pray
3. Speak the word with boldness
Acts 4:32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them.
1. Maintain the unity and not break it.
2. Share what we have with those who do not have.
Acts 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
1. Tell people about the resurrection.
2. Live keenly aware of God’s abundant Grace and cease to complain.
What can we expect?
Acts 4:34 For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales,
Acts 4:35 and lay them at the apostles’ feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need.
Acts 4:36 And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means, Son of Encouragement),
Acts 4:37 and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Sounds really radical doesn’t it, I wonder if God would honor us today if we lived like the early church described for us in Acts?
What do you think?
I know this is radical to us today, because the culture has changed, the church has changed, but God has NOT changed.
I admit, this may be too drastic for us, but you need to know that most of the growing cults in the world today are structured like the early church.. People are drawn to cults because they have a need to belong to a family. The effect is that cults are strict and strong, adjectives I believe that God reserved for us, His Family the Church.
My vision is to recapture as many of the principles and dynamics of the early church as we can and expect God to bless us for doing so.
I am not asking all of you to sell your houses and come move in at the church property, but I do ask that you continue to support Sunday school, Sunday nights, Family Reunion and HBF when it starts in the fall.
I want to close by saying that my Central family is awesome, we are a church that is alive and on fire and I believe God’s Grace does abound here. Let us keep up the good work and continue to grow His and our family numerically and spiritually.
Prayer.
