The Family of God

John 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

Our church is preparing our hearts (and the hearts of others in our lives) for Resurrection Day (aka Easter) this year with a Sunday sermon series on the “Ministry of Restoration” through the seven statements from the Cross by Jesus, where HE conquered sin and death, and paid the debt for us. God wants to make our crooked, messed up, sinful pasts straight again.

Christ looked out on all humanity with the offer of forgiveness of sin, reconciliation of our relationship separation and restoration back to God in our lives. Pastor JJ is taking a passionate exploration into the deeper meaning behind the last words of the Lord to us, “diving in” for a better understanding of being in God’s family. Family, when functioning “rightly, is a love, togetherness, warmth, trust, tradition, support, rich with closeness and intimacy. A healthy family is a place that we can be comfortable, being “at home”, where we enjoy our time; a place that we can go to be cared for by people that we know care about us, who have our best interests at heart. Jesus makes a warm, caring statement about the value and the nature of “family”. At the heart of what is said on the cross is the Lord’s desire to restore family, because God uses “Family” to bring about His way on this earth, for the Cross was forgiveness and forgiveness is restoration.

John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The family of God is a new structure of brothers and sister in Christ. The church is the “body of Christ”, our family for the child of God. Church, come home to Jesus with a shifted identity from this broken world. The family of God has a biological bond, in communion (Christian fellowship that shares and exchanges ides) tied together by what Christ did on the cross. Jesus looked beyond His pain on that cross, that we may draw closer together and be a part of what God is ding in the world today. Jesus did not ignore His own pain, but, in love, chose to notice the pain of others. It was the great price paid, that we may live. Welcome to the family … a family defined by the Lord.

Romans 8:16-18 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In Christ, Brian