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Acts 4:32-36: The Family of God

Families are complicated. No families in this broken world are perfect. The church’s family is something we see throughout scripture. The Church is God’s family. It sheds a new light on our relationship with God. It brings us closer to other believers. Yet some of the church are not easy to love. Society is becoming more and more individualised. In our secularised society, breaking away from the confines of family and community are encouraged. This moves us away from life together. We are doing more and more things alone. Headphones are used to watch t.v. and movies alone. Decisions are made independently. The Biblical challenge of loving family and church seems radical. Christians we meet in the New Testament are varied in ages, backgrounds and temperament. Each one has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. But that doesn’t mean we can be a lone ranger.

We can sometimes treat church as a social club, stopping if we don’t like it. A church is the family of God and needs sacrifice. You may move away but must always be part of a church family. A church family is of one heart and one soul, a family united around the Lord. In Act 4 we see the people were to serve others. Throughout the pages of the New Testament, we see striving together for God’s people. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ¹⁰ So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9-10).

How can I spot a Christian? John tells us you can tell who is another Christian by how they treat other brothers and sisters in Christ, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:10). A personal, private faith without interacting with other believers is unbiblical.

How do we become part of this family? Are those born to Christian parents, Christians? It is a privilege to be born into a Christian family, but it doesn’t automatically make you part of the family of God. To belong to it, you must be born again. There are two ways of joining a family; you can be born or you can be adopted. Can you imagine Nicodemus’ face when Jesus told him he needed to be born again? Why does Jesus use the picture of new birth? When we become Christians we start afresh. We are born into new circumstances. We have a new heavenly father. Birth isn’t something you can claim credit for. We don’t boast in our birth, it just happens to us. In the same way, we don’t earn our salvation. We are saved by grace and grace alone. It is through Jesus that God becomes our Father.

The process of God becoming our Father is described as adoption. Adoption is a process when someone is helpless, alone, so often in need, is graciously made part of a new family. they are treated as flesh and blood. You may not look like your parents physically, but as you spend more and more time with them, you pick up traits and habits, and act more like them. That’s an incredible picture of what God does to the Christian. God is kind and merciful. We’ve been given this wonderful privilege of adoption – not because of anything we have done, not because we’ve earned it, or there’s anything special about us.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12). It is all submissive language. The Spirit tells us that we are God’s children (Romans 8). The spirit works within our hearts. When we become Christians we trust in Jesus and realise how sinful we are, and that He covers our sin. God sees us as He sees Jesus. God the father is our father.

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He started with those amazing words, “Our Father.” What does that make Jesus? “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:50). He’s a wonderful big brother. We share the gifts He has been given by the Father. A Christian shares a family resemblance. As time goes on you will look more like the heavenly Father and look more and more like your older brother Jesus. We are part of the same family, all over the world. There is a wonderful privilege – how quickly we get on, despite cultural differences. Brothers and sisters. Wonderful!

If we inherit this new, global family of Christians, how do we treat our own family? We have a duty to care and respect for our parents – as we live in their home and as we care for them as they get older. Paul says these strong words, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8). The example of the care we have for our families is seen in Jesus on the cross, as He tells John to take care of His mother Mary as if she was his own mother. In marriage we are to love and honour each other in the same way as Christ loves the church.

Our commitment to truth may lead to division in our families. When a Muslim converts to Christianity he is cut off from his family. Sometimes, the gospel will come between families, but the Lord Jesus must always come first.

10 ways to show love to our Christian family:

1. Come to church.
   A family that never sees each other is still a family, but in name only. They become distant. We need to spend time with each other. Come to bless others, come to encourage fellow believers.
   
2. Pray for each other.
   Commit people around you to God. If you don’t know how to pray for them, ask them. They may say they need prayer for a doctor’s appointment. Pray for this and then the following week ask them how the appointment went.
   
3. Eat together.
   Jesus ate and drank with people with such frequency, people called Him a drunkard and a glutton. We need to bless others with food and good conversation, and be blessed by others.

4. Share.
Whether it be lifts, food, time or in other ways. See that everything you have as a gift from God and you are merely passing on that gift.

5. Bear one another’s burdens.
Celebrate and cry with one another. In family life we will see births and deaths. We will see weddings and funerals, heartbreaks and happiness, people joining the church and people leaving. There will be disappointments and joyful surprises. Jesus was there for the hard times and the good times. He wept with Mary and Martha as they mourned their brother’s death. He celebrated with a new couple in Cana as He turned water into wine. He was filled with joy as He received the children, as He saw faith in the life of the centurion. Be there for the hard times and the good times. Share one another’s burdens as believers.

6. Serve alongside one another.
When we serve in church, when we welcome on the door, share refreshments, do the children’s work, cut the grass, whatever it might be, we grow closer as a church. When we do so, this strengthens and unifies us. We do it because we serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Be competitive.
The Bible encourages this. Show kindness (Romans 12). Jesus says, in the Sermon on the Mount, to go the extra mile. Go and out-do each other in being loving.

8. Encourage one another.
When we fail and when we fall, we need to encourage each other. Do not go and give people empty flattery, point them to Christ. Remind them that they are sons and daughters of the living God.

9. Forgive one another.
In times of hurt and sadness, don’t harbour grudges. Be quick to forgive.

10. Be honest with one another.
True and authentic Christianity requires us to be true authentic, to be willing to be vulnerable with others when things are difficult for ourselves. Also, be willing to ask those uncomfortable questions if it is done in love.

Here are 10 things we can do, there will be many others. Let us be clear, that removed from Jesus there is no point to any of those things. We can only do these things effectively through the work of the Spirit. The Christian faith is extremely practical. The transformation that goes on within the Christian heart will result in outward action. There are 59 specific ‘one anothers’ in the New Testament, which gives us great insight into how the Lord sees us living with each other.

The people sitting next to us must be more than strangers that you share a pew with an hour a week. They are your brothers and sisters. It is a great challenge. Through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been born again. We have been adopted and now have a heavenly Father and a new family. It is all through Christ, not through anything else. Not through church attendance or who our parents are, it’s all through Christ. In Christ alone.