Becoming and Being God's Family

Here are the notes for Sunday, April 29, 2012's adult study on what it means to be and live as Christ's family:

Chapter Three

Becoming and Being God’s Family

For Discussion

·      *What does it mean to be a family?

·      *Theologically, what does it mean to be God’s family?

·      *Practically, what does it mean to be God’s family?

·      *Why do we really need to know what it means to be God’s family?

·      *Thinking back into the history of our church, what comes to your mind as 
        examples for how our church has looked and behaved like a family?

Lesson

Introduction

The body of Christ - informs us how we work and function together

The building-temple of Christ – tells us how we worship together and reveal Christ 
           to the world

The bride of Christ – shows us the love relationship we have with our spouse King Jesus

The family of Christ – to reveal to us how we relate to one another in bond and unity

When Bible speaks of us as family, the emphasis is upon our love 
relationship to God as it affects our love relationship with 
one another in Christ.

What Does God’s Word Say About His (New) Family?

            Read the passages below and then answer the questions under them.

1.         John 3:3-7

            What is this saying?

            What does this mean for me and for us?

             

2. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to 
    become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
    nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:12-13)

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. For you are 
all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.. And if you are Christ's, then you are 
Abraham's seed  (Galatians 3:7, 26, 29)

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be 
called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did 
not know Him.  (1 John 3:1)

            What are these passages telling us?

            What do they mean for me and for us?

3. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did 
    not receive  the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption 
    by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness.  
    (Romans 8:14-16)

            What are these verses saying?

            What do they mean for me and for us?

4.  Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from 
    God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. (John 8:42)

            What is this verse saying?

            What does is mean for me and for us?

5.  Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, 
     but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 7:21)

      Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my 
     Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” 
     (John 14:23)

     But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 
     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.”   (Matthew 12:48-50)

            What are these verses saying?

            What does it mean for me and for us?

            Consider this:

       

          It is imperative to recognize, however, that the way in which Americans 

          do family would have been quite foreign to first-century sensibilities. The 

          early church functioned like an ancient Mediterranean family—not a modern 

          American family.  We need to resist the temptation to read our idea of 

          “brother” or “sister” into the biblical text. Instead, we must learn to grasp 

          the way in which “brother” would resonate with a strong-group person, 

          since the New Testament church family model reflects the relational values 

          and priorities of kinship systems in the first-century world.  

             (Hellerman. When the Church Was a Family. Kindle Locations 823-827)

6.  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 lands, for my sake and for the gospel” 

    (Mark 10:29; Matthew 10:29)  

     

     Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever
     loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  (Matthew 10:37)

          

      If anyone comes to me and does not hate (separate from) his own father and mother 
     and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot
     be my disciple.  (Luke 14:26)

     

            What are these verses saying?

            What do they mean for me and for us?

            Something to consider:

           The loyalty conflict is not about making a choice between God and people. 

           Rather, it is about choosing between one group of people and another —

           between our natural family and our eternal family. Recall from the previous 

           chapter the three central social values of the ancient Mediterranean world: 

           1. In the New Testament world the group took priority over the individual. 

           2. In the New Testament world a person’s most important group was his   

              family. 

           3. In the New Testament world the closest family bond was the bond between

              siblings.  

              (Hellerman; When the Church was a Family. Kindle Locations 1427-1434).

7.  "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD 
      Almighty."   (2 Corinthians 6:18)

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the 
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded 
in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and 
depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be 
filled with all the fullness of God… (Ephesians 3:14-21)        

What are these verses saying?

What do they mean for me and for us?

Some things to think about
We have a common tie because we have a common Father. We are one 
tribe, one clan who share Christ’s surname. “All bear the same name, all 
live upon the same bounty, and are sheltered by the same providence; all 
obey the same authority, are moulded by the same discipline, and are at 
last heirs to the same possessions; while through all these interests run 
the electric current of an instinctive affection, making each member a 
partaker of one common Family life.” Our communion… “does not rest 
upon the accidents of living together in one place, or worshipping together 
in one building, of sitting together under the same ministry…but rests upon 
a common relation sustained to one Head (JC). It is never found except 
with those who have been redeemed by the same sacrifice, who exercise 
the same faith, who have been renewed by the same Spirit, cherish the same 
hopes, and are expectants of the same joy. (We) have substantially the same 
conflicts, are agitated by similar doubts and fears, breathe the same desires
after holiness, engage in the same toils, and look to one heaven as the 
same home.”  - John Alexander

Life-Changing Challenge

Based on what we’ve learned above, use word pictures to describe how we, as 
Christ’s Family, should look like:

Are we truly like this?  In what ways?  Why or why not?

What do we need to believe and do in order to conform to the biblical image 
of Christ’s family?

And what are you going to practice this week?

Next week:  Based on what God says, how do we truly live as Christ’s family?