God's Family

Series Intro

This is the beginning of my last teaching series at NCF, and there is some stuff that I want to share with you

This is big picture stuff. And I am just going to title this series the name of my favorite book and that is called “The Divine Conspiracy” Because I think its the greatest phrase for what God is doing in history right now…And I think that it describes so perfectly what God’s church is....Its God’s conspiracy that is afoot in the world to rid this world of evil...

You are a member of God’s conspiracy to bring about good on earth and to renew all of creation…Did you know that?

But before we get into all that I want to say today...

Why do you come here?

Why do any of us come to church?

Why have I given over my whole life to leading in the church?

There are 4 things that I want you to know as I close out my time as your pastor

And the first one is this

1. The church is the most revolutionary family in the world , with the most revolutionary mission of all time.

There are a lot of groups that gather together, groups of similar interest

You can go join community service organizations and go do good things

You can join a political group and go advocate for your side with like minded people

You can join a sports club and exercise with people that do the same sports as you...

And Unfortunately this is the way that some people see the church

Its just a bunch of people who are interested in religion and who gather together to sing songs and pray...

And maybe this is what church has become for you…You’ve become a spiritual consumer. You just want the next chunk of bible teaching, you want the best music…You want to feel good…and go home and just try to be a better person!

Essentially the church has become about you doing better in life! Rather than what it actually is

But what we actually are is part of is the family of God, a divine revolution on this earth

This family of God that he is building in Jesus ....People much smarter than me like Dallas Willard call it “The Divine Conspiracy”

God’s family has been this ever growing group through history that has been overturning structures of evil and bringing about God’s good purposes

Always inviting people into God’s family...

It is a conspiracy to overturn the evil that is so pervasive in the human heart, to bring people back into the family of God.

You and I are part of God’s conspiracy …He is constantly transforming us into the kind of people who can bring about His good purposes for this earth.

So indulge me for a couple of minutes…Because I want to do a broad sweep over the Bible to look at how Jesus is re-uniting the family of God under himself.

The making of God’s Family

Now when I became a dad everyone said

“Emma looks just like you” or they said

“She is a spitting image of her mom”

This is something we all do when people have kids, we look at them and naturally wonder who it is they look like.

Why? Because Who it is we look like, speaks to the family that we belong to...

Did you catch that???

Who it is we look like, reveals the family that we belong to

And God’s crown Jewel of creation was people…So he made us after his own image...

So lets look at this tiny Hebrew poem

Genesis 1:27

English Standard Version Chapter 1

27  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Hebrew Poetry has a standard form. It is intentionally similar but not exactly the same. Why? because the intention of it is for you to look at it close enough to find the differences…And in the differences you find the main point...

Line 1: God created (man) or human in his own image: We have to understand that the word “Man” here is all of humanity. So this is a general statement that both humanity as a whole and individual people bear the image of God.

Line 2: It takes the 4 key words of the first line and messes with the order so that the third line can match the word order of the second line…But also it says in the image of God he created “him” That is because this is a masculine Noun in Hebrew

Line 3: So in the poetic structure, the phrase “male and female” is in the space for “image of God” from the second line…So this third line comes along to clarify that the image of God is not male specifically, but the image of God is both Male and Female.

So what is my point? ALL of HUMANITY IS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. That is the original intention of scripture.

God created the earth and when he made all of humanity…That is his family

We are all bound together in the image of God

In other-words, just like your kids are the spitting image of you. You were made to be the spitting image of your father in heaven.

You have heard me say this over and over again. Why? Why does this matter so much?

Because we all build or buy into false identities. Maybe we want to fall into the identity wealth is all that matters…maybe we buy into the status identities

Maybe we buy into the identity that it is our intellect that defines us.

But the reality is that none of that stuff is what gives you and me a sense of identity.

On page one of the Bible, great pains are made to tell you that you are a part of God’s family. You look like your father in heaven

Built for relationship with him

Built for relationship with others

Built because and for love

So the next line is God blessing his image

Genesis 1:28

English Standard Version Chapter 1

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

The role of the Male and Female is to make more humans and to rule over the earth. And to create more people who image God

So God made this human family and blessed them to make more family

So you probably know the story:

Adam and Eve sin…They are expelled from the garden. And this sin begins to trickle down and the next family repeats the sin

Genesis 4:8-10

English Standard Version Chapter 4

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.

And it only takes one generation before the family of God starts to kill each other

And we are not going to painstakingly go through it, but if you look at all of the genealogies from Genesis 5-10 you will see how the family of God from that point on began to split off and began to have problem after problem

As you read Genesis 5-10 your brain might go forward to Israel and all of their enemies and you would realize…oh they are all listed in Genesis 5-10

Its just God’s family going deeper into sin…and deeper into division!

But wait…The humans have an idea of how to fix this all…How can all of the families on earth unite?

And I’ve told you this sort a hundred times but I want you to see it in a new angle today

Babel, The Human Family Gone Wrong

Genesis 11:1-4

English Standard Version (Chapter 11)

11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

So the human family has this idea…They are going to go “east”…Away from the garden....away from God

They are going to build this huge tower…with its “Top in the heavens”

In Hebrew, this reads…They are going to build a tower with its “head in the heavens” And they are going to build a name for themselves

So all of the sudden the family of God just had this inclination to unite…Which is a great inclination. But it is to unite around human power and ingenuity rather than the power of God.

By the way, this is the same problem with false unity today…We unite around human power, human ideas and celebrity rather than the things of God.

Literally they are going to unite under the “head” of a human made civilization…THIS BECOMES SO KEY LATER ON…DO NOT FORGET THIS POINT

So even though, God gave the humans His image, even though God’s purpose was to make his name great through his human family

The humans did what they always do…They cut God out, and tried to take the glory for themselves

Babel is the human attempt to create a human family apart from God!

So God confuses everything ....and out of it, calls a husband and wife out of Babel to do something new

A Called out Family

Genesis 12:1-3

English Standard Version Chapter 12

12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So do you get what is happening here?

Abraham is Going to create a family that will bless all of the other families, in complete opposition to Babel!

Abraham’s family will eventually be Israel and it is supposed to bless the whole world

Now Abraham and his family are totally screwed up. They do everything wrong

Two times Abraham goes to foreign places and tells them his wife is his sister so that he wouldn’t be killed

This is not great marriage advice.

Hagar and Abraham try and force God’s hand and make the promise of God come to pass by their own power

So this is by no means the perfect family. but that is impotrant because it is a family that will bless all other families

Somehow the family of God…Which is divided and scattered all over the world....would be united again...

But not like Babel

Where they united under human made power and ingenuity

But there will be a new member of the family ...

Matthew 1:1

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Jesus becomes this new family member in the line of Abraham…

And if we were to really take the time which we will not today and look at the genealogy of Jesus we would see that there were 4 women in this genealogy who were not from the family of Abraham

So we have Jesus who in his own family makeup is both a child of Abraham but has all of these great grandmothers who are from “The nations”

With mothers in his line such a Tamar the Canaanite, Rahab the Canaanite prostitute, Ruth, the Moabite, Bathsheba the Hitite

So do you get it....Jesus is the Son of God, he is in the line of Abraham…But also has these mothers in his line who are from “the nations”

Jesus is coming to do some serious work with the family of God ....

In the person of Jesus we will see some major re-uniting of God’s family

And we see this all over in Jesus’ ministry:

Here is a great example

Matthew 10:5

English Standard Version Chapter 10

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel

When Jesus sends the 12 out…He sends them just to the lost sheep of Israel!?

Why? Because Jesus needed the family of Abraham to get back on their original mission.

He is trying to recover their purpose as the family of God that will reach all other families of the earth

I mean come on, it is why he has 12 disciples! Replicating the 12 tribes

Jesus here even says go nowhere among the gentiles.

There is a lot of confusion about this word gentiles. Gentiles is the word Ethnos…It is translated in other places as “the nations”

So Jesus is like…hey...Let’s recover the family of God first! Let’s get Abraham’s family together

So there are a bunch of other stories but one of them that is so key is this one:

Let’s look at Matthew 15:21-28 for a second...

Matthew 15:21-28

English Standard Version Chapter 15

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

So we have to remember that in Jesus’ own lineage he has at least two Canaanite women as his great grandmothers. We have to remember that the Canaanite people are perceived to be way out of the family of God…They are considered unclean!

So Jesus is doing something here…What is he doing?

1. He tells them that his mission is to the lost sheep of Israel …So he clarifies…Hey I’ve got to fix the family of Abraham before I fix everyone else

But this woman showed even more faith than the family of Abraham...

1. She recognizes him as the messiah…She calls him, “Lord, Son of David” which is more than the Jews are doing…its a recognition that he is the promised messiah!

And then Jesus says something that to our ears sounds really insulting. He said…Hey its not right to give the children’s bread to the dogs

Jesus is making an illustration about his mission...His mission was to God’s family…

He had to go to Abraham’s family first

But then this woman shows such huge faith because she is basically saying, the Children of Israel might need full pieces of bread, but just a crumb of your power would work for us…We will take what we can get

So Jesus see’s this faith of this woman and gives her a crumb of his power and heals this woman’s daughter instantly

I mean…This is crazy…Do you see what is happening?

Jesus the Child of Abraham is laser focused on the family of Abraham. Why? Because they are supposed to be a blessing to the rest of the world

But in the same breath, he goes out to the this woman who is a part of the “nations” and she gets a dose of grace

Jesus just recovered the original purpose of the family of Abraham....He was a blessing to the nations

See Israel turned inward and stopped its mission to be a light to the rest of the world! They stopped the mission to re-unite the rest of God’s family together!

So Jesus lived it out...

Clarity & Recap:

All of this to say:

God intended for all people to be his family

Sin Ruined it

Humanity rebelled and found a false unity making a name for itself,

They united around the “head” of their civilization as their own ingenuity and cleverness

Abraham’s family became this chosen family by God to re-unite all other families

Jesus went on a mission to Abraham’s family

Then he actually did what Abraham’s family failed to do…He was a light to the other nations...

And what does it mean for us today?

Why am I talking about this in one of my final messages to NCF? We will get there in a second...

The Apostle Paul says it this way:

The Headship of Jesus

Colossians 1:18

English Standard Version Chapter 1

18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent

The Apostle Paul describes Jesus as the “head” of the church five times in all of his writing ....

So Just as all of humanity assembled under the head of the tower of Babel in this idea that they were building a false human family…God scattered that…He rejected their false unity built on their own power

But in the church God invites us to gather around another “Head” and that is the head of Jesus Christ.

We gather around Jesus on a weekly basis, to worship to learn

And then we leave in the same purpose of Abraham’s family…To be a blessing to the world!

We are the family of God, “Adopted” into his family through the blood of Jesus...

God calls us to go out into the world and re-unite other family around himself!

And we are called to be a revolution on the face of this earth because by Jesus own call to each one of us he says this:

Matthew 28:18-20

English Standard Version Chapter 28

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Go to all nations! That word nations is Ethnos, in other places it is the word Gentiles in the Bible...

Jesus is saying…Hey what Israel failed to do, being a blessing to all nations, church that is now your job.

jesus is saying…Hey you who are my family

I want to have a family reunion but I need you to go be a light to my lost family members

Invite them to follow Jesus and to find true unity in the church where we unite around the head of Jesus!

he tells them to go to all the nations and to replicate the community that is found in the trinity.

Church: We are family.

For 9.5 years God has called me to lead this family.

Often times I knew first when one of you was in the hospital or hurting.

Often times I knew first when you lost a job or got a job

I was there at deaths and births of children

You welcomed me into your family as we are all family in the church.

For a little bit of time you will be pastor-less here. And that is nothing to fear because you are family

I am not trying to compare myself to Jesus at all but when he was on the cross, about to leave the disciples one of the things that he said was a radical re-orientation of family

John 19:26

English Standard Version Chapter 19

26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

Jesus looked to his own earthly mother, and the apostle John…And said, woman behold your son...

Family is no longer limited by blood, but family is formed in the cross!

Family is what happens under the shadow of the cross together.

So I am moving to Sacramento…

And what I want you to know is that if you have said yes to Jesus. Then you are part of a revolutionary family. One that stretches all the way back to the family of Abraham.

So what would just be amazing is if as I step down from the head of this family, that you all start loving each other with a love that only Jesus can give

What would be amazing is if as I leave, you don’t look at this as an excuse to go church shopping, but that you lean in to the church family that God has given you

What would be amazing, is that as I leave, you lean into the mission of reuniting God’s lost family with him.

I am convinced that

The church is the hope of the world, its job is to re-unite the family of God under the headship and lordship of Jesus