SCRIPTURE: Mark 3:31-35; Matthew 18:15-17, 21-22; Hebrews 3:12-13

Here are the main points from today’s message and the call-outs that were on the screen.

Gospel community is living in intentional relationships built around life and mission with Jesus. Or, as we said, “intentionally-intrusive” relationships with one another. The Holy Spirit uses the interconnected lives of very different people to help us grow strong in faith and in our love for one another. But the fact is, community life is messy. There are no perfect people and, therefore, no perfect communities—no perfect churches. No church is a perfect representation of the Father’s love; only Jesus provides that. So, there will always be conflict in the church. Conflict is inevitable in any and all relationships, but we can move through conflict—IF—we are of “one mind” concerning the “one thing” that matters most, and that is the Gospel. That is why we have to be “intentional” and united around the common goal of pursuing life and mission with Jesus.

In the NT, there are two dominant metaphors for what it means to be the people of God. One is that you are a disciple, a follower of Jesus, the Rabbi. The other is that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. In other words, we are family. God is our Father, and we have become his family through faith in Christ. The fact is, you cannot be in a relationship with your Heavenly Father and not be a part of the Father’s family, or what the NT calls the church. Or let me put it this way: If you are a child of God, you are at the same time a brother or a sister to all other children of God.

So what exactly does it mean that we, as the church, are a family? We’re going to look at three pictures of Gospel community as family and one response to these pictures.

Picture #1 — Jesus’ vision for his church is that we are his family (Mark 3:31-35). Family is the dominant picture of the kind of community Jesus is creating. This picture of Gospel community as family is actually one of Jesus’ most radical teachings. In ancient Jewish culture, the closest family tie was not the marriage relationship between husband and wife—the closest family tie was the blood relationship between brothers and sisters. I’m NOT saying that this way of understanding families is “biblical”—I’m saying—it was “cultural” back in the day. I’m NOT saying that this is a prescriptive blueprint for family relationships today. No, I’m saying that when Jesus referred to his disciples, those who do the will of God, as his brothers and sisters, they heard him saying something radical. His disciples heard him saying that he regarded them as close as his natural, blood relatives. “Family” is the best, clearest picture of what Jesus intends for his church to be. The “church” is not a building. The “church” is not an event that takes place on Sunday mornings. No, the church is Jesus’ family. And in this passage, Jesus is saying, “I commit my highest love and loyalty to those who do the will of God.” He says, “My faith-family takes priority over my natural family.”

Picture #2 — Jesus calls his family to care deeply about these family relationships (Matt 18:15-17; Gal 6:1-2; Matt 18:21-22). When Jesus and the writers of the NT call us to get intentionally involved in each other’s lives, it’s always from the foundational truth that we are family, and we are accountable to each other. If you’ve been around the church for a while, you know that this is the go-to passage on “church discipline” or “the ministry of restoration” as we prefer to call it around here. And, this is something your Elders and Pastors practice when the need arises. Without going into a full-blown exposition of this passage, I just want you to notice one thing. Jesus couches this command in the family language. “If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.” Jesus is telling his family of followers that they need to confront a brother or a sister who has done someone wrong or who is going astray. The apostle Paul echoes Jesus’ words in Matt18 in Galatians 6:1-2. And, if you read on a bit further in Matt18, you also see that Jesus goes on to teach that the family is to forgive and restore a repentant brother or sister to normal family relationships (read 18:21-22). Jesus calls us to care deeply about maintaining our family relationships—to love and care for each other enough to confront a brother or sister who is going astray

Picture #3 — The church is a family that encourages one another to stay faithful to God and God’s family in difficult times (Heb 3:12-13). As disciples, you and I still have hearts that are vulnerable to being led away by the deceitfulness of sin. The process of heart hardening begins long before the hardness becomes obvious. Spiritually blind people are not only blind. They are blind to their own blindness. “Brothers and sisters, come alongside each other, encourage one another every single day. This is your best defense against spiritual blindness and hard hearts.

One Response — Put down roots. Put down roots in Gospel community. Put down roots in this local church. Put down roots in this church family. Put down roots with some people who you commit to doing life with according to Hebrews 3:12-13—where you commit to calling each other up to greater devotion to Christ and when necessary, calling each other out when we forget who we are in Christ or when we minimize sin in our life. Put down roots in each other’s lives so that none of us is taken in by the deceitfulness of sin or the hypocrisy of liars—b/c—all of us are vulnerable. Sin deceives us all. None of us are strong enough to make it through what’s coming alone. We need each other. We are family.