In Him: We Belong To God's Family
In his book Feels like Home, Lee Eclov shares the story
of "How Long-Lost Brothers and Sisters were discovered." As a child
in California in the 1970s, Jeff wondered who he was. "I never looked like
anybody growing up," he said. Everybody looked like somebody, but I was
the odd man out." Finally, a few years ago, he and his brother took a DNA
test, and, sure enough, they didn't have the same father.
A couple of years later, a woman named Julie, an amateur
genealogist, was trying to learn more about her roots and had her DNA analyzed.
There was no match with anyone in the genealogy company's database, so she put
the whole business aside. Some months later, she rechecked the database, and
there was a match this time. She was apparently closely related to a guy who'd
also had his DNA tested. She looked at his photo and remembers thinking, "He
looked exactly like my father." She emailed the man, and five minutes
later, she had Jeff's reply.
The DNA database also showed that Jeff had another
unknown sister, Beth, whose birth father was the same as his. The three of them
arranged a reunion. Julie remembers, "It is kind of weird finding a
brother when you're in your fifties and he's just a dead ringer for our
father-the way he walks and his laugh and some of the expressions on his face."
More time passed. A
San Diego man, Brandon, who knew he'd been adopted, decided to get a DNA
test, too. Lo and behold, he also matched Jeff, Julie, and Beth. "It's
wonderful, Brandon said, of rediscovering of his birth family. "My
adoptive parents had passed on; my adoptive brother had passed on. I thought I
was a party of one, and now I'm a party of 110."[1]
That's our kind of story! As Christians, when we think we are on our own, a
party of one, we will be pleasantly surprised to discover hundreds of other
brothers and sisters we never met before.
In our sermon series, In
Him, we are learning about the incredible riches found in Christ alone through
the writings of the Apostle Paul to the Colossian believers. Paul reminded the
Colossians that their first identity was God's Holy People, or People who
belonged to God.
Once we were alienated
from God because of our sin, but Christ died for our sins, so that In Him now
we can be reconciled back to God. That is the Good News. Belonging to God opens
up this vast and beautiful opportunity to belong to God's BIG family, where we
will meet hundreds of our brothers and sisters. In Him: We Belong to God's
Family. Colossians 1:1-8
1. We Are Brothers and
Sisters in a Local Church.
Colossians 1:2, "To
God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. The
Church in Colossae comprised Jews and Gentiles of various ethnicities and
backgrounds. Yet Paul calls them Faithful brothers and sisters. How could that
be possible?
Those four reunited
siblings in the story shared family resemblances. What do the Colossians and
all other believers have in common? We all have the same Heavenly Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. As siblings, we share family resemblances. What is our distinguishing
resemblance among Christians? In other words, how can people know that we
belong to Christ? John 13:35, "By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another." Our new family resemblance is our
love for one another and all God's people.
Colossian believers not
only belong to God but also to God's family in a local Church. How does this
impact us today? In Hope Church, no matter who you are, once you have accepted
Christ's forgiveness of sins, you are not alone; you are adopted into God's
family. This local Church becomes your newfound home, where you will find love,
healing, and wholeness. In this family, you have brothers and sisters in
Christ, you never thought you had them before. Do you know all their names? Let's
get to know, love, and build each other in the Hope Church family.
Christians in the New
Testament are referred to as brothers and sisters 139 times. A Greek word, adelphoi,
appears repeatedly and relates to believers, both men and women, as part of
God's family. Eclov notes, "Regarding one another as brothers and sisters
was far more radical than we realize. In our culture, we're used to speaking of
people outside our family as brothers and sisters. A 'band of brothers'
describes a tight-knit military unit. Sometimes athletic teams will use the
terms, as do good friends. But that almost never happened in the language of
New Testament times. No one called someone a brother or sister who wasn't a
blood relative. The entire perspective on family in that culture was
dramatically different from ours."[2]
Joseph Heller explains in his book, "When
the Church was a Family, "that we cannot simply import our American idea
of being a brother or sister into our interpretation of the New Testament.
"Brother meant immeasurable more than a strong group to the authors of the
Bible than the word means to you and me—it was their most crucial family
relationship."[3]
By reading these
explanations, we can perhaps for the first time properly appreciate what the
early Christians meant when they referred to one another as brothers and
sisters in Christ. Who created space for this spiritual kinship in the first
place? Who introduced this radical concept of calling someone outside of your
family a brother or sister?
Once, his family came to where he was teaching.
Someone brought a word to Jesus, saying, "Your mother and brothers are
outside looking for you. Then Jesus pronounced this: "Who are my mother
and my brothers? Looking around, those in the circle said, "Here are my
mother and brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and
mother." Mark 3:33-35. Let this sink in! If you do God's will, we become a
part of God's family, and Jesus becomes our brother. This circle of brotherly
and sisterly relationships expands beyond a local Church.
II. In
Christ, we belong to God's Worldwide Family
Colossians
1: 5-6, "the
faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in Heaven and
about which you have already heard in the true message of the Gospel that has come to you. In
the same way, the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole
World, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly
understood God's grace."
The Apostle Paul had to
open the eyes of the Colossian believers from their self-centered and inward
focus to a broader family of God beyond the confines of their local Church. He
reminded them that as the Gospel came to them, it spread to the whole World and
bore fruit. As a result, now they have brothers and sisters who belong to God's
Worldwide Family.
How does this truth of
belonging to God's family in Christ impact us today? At Hope Church, all those
committed to following Christ become part of God's local family in Sharon. If
you think you are alone, look around; you have over 40 brothers and sisters,
perhaps you never thought you had them. You have many more brothers and sisters
in our online community.
Though we are a small
church, we are very diverse, coming from various countries and backgrounds, yet
we all have something in common: We have the same Heavenly Father and share the
same Spiritual DNA of Christ. We also have brothers and sisters beyond Sharon,
infact, all over the World, as the Gospel is bearing fruit and more and more
people getting saved every day. God's family is enormous and continues to get
even bigger by the day.
What should be our
commitment toward our brothers and sisters at Hope Church and those who belong
to God's Worldwide Family? It all begins by thanking God and praying for them. Make
a list of our brothers and sisters, both locally and globally.
Like Epaphras, the
founder of the Colossian Church, let us wrestle with God in prayer for our
brothers and sisters so that they may stand firm, in all the will of God,
become mature and fully assured.
