The Family of God

The Family of God.
Ephesians 1: 1 – 14


I. Introduction.


Read Ephesians 1: 1 – 14.

The entire book of Ephesians is about the church…Of course the words “Family of God” do not necessarily appear in this passage…However, the concept is first introduced here…Paul went on in Ephesians chapter 2 & used the image of family…

Read Ephesians 2: 19

When Paul drew an analogy between the church and the physical family, he was drawing on an image that most people would have easily recognized… Throughout the Bible, God is described as “Father.” However, God is NOT Father for all the human race. Neither OT or NT teaches the Universal Fatherhood of God. Rather God is Father, only to those who are Christians, those who are saved. It is through salvation that we become Children of God and thereby members of the Family of God.

Even though Paul used the term “House of God,” the church is NOT a building. Rather, the church is a living breathing organism. We are a house in the sense of a household, or a family. Specifically, we are God’s family.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a child of God. . .I am a child of God, because Jesus is my Lord. . .Therefore, we have the same Father. . .We are now Brothers & Sisters in the same family. You cannot take God as your Father without taking me as your brother. Neither can you take God as your Father without taking the church as your Family.


II. A Place of Grace.
Let’s use Paul’s physical analogy to think through what the church is supposed to be. The physical family is 1st a Place of Grace! There are 2 Ways the Family is a Place of Grace.

1. Beginning (v. 5).
There is something that we all have in common. Those of us here in this room have many things in common. But I mean something that all men & women who have ever lived have in common. Each of us had our beginning in a family… And, like it or not, we can never change that!
We can change our hair color (don’t worry, I don’t have anyone in mind). We can change our eye color. We can even change the shapes of our bodies. But we can never change that place, that family, where we received our beginning.

Of course there are some who have 2 different kinds of beginnings. They were born into one family but adopted by another.

And it does not matter which was your beginning, birth or adoption, you had no choice in the matter…It was not your decision…No one has ever chosen their own family.

To me, this is a picture of Grace. Grace is a gift… Something that we never asked for…Something that we do not deserve…Something that we will NEVER become worthy of.

The Church is a place of beginning because we have received our beginning here. I don’t mean in this physical building. We have received our Spiritual beginning through the Church, because we have been ADOPTED by God in Jesus. We didn’t deserve to be his children…But God has given us the Grace of Beginning as an Adopted Child of God.

2. Belonging (v. 11).
A 2nd way the family is a Place of Grace is that it is a Place of Belonging.

I have learned a lot about Grace through my experiences as a parent. As a parent, I love my children more than I ever thought I would be able to love them. I am committed to love them through thick and thin. And I want to be the person they come to whenever they are in trouble or difficult circumstances. I don’t want them to ever fear that they will be “kicked out” of our family. Of course that does not give them the excuse or the justification to live however they please. There are certain expectations that we have for them. And when those expectations are broken, there are consequences to be faced and discipline to suffer. But my children BELONG in my family, and they will always have a place. And that will never change.

There are some churches that we know about who are not like that. They do not offer a Place of Belonging and a Place of Grace. Rather they are Places of Judgment, Places of Criticism, Etc…

Kenneth Chafin was a prominent pastor in Baptist life and later served as Professor of Evangelism @ The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Many years ago, Dr. Chafin led a conference for Miss. Baptists @ Gulfshore Baptist Assembly. One of the sessions dealt with the fellowship of the church. In that session, Dr. Chafin asked the question, “If you were in trouble, who would you want to be the first to know? If your son were in jail? Or your daughter were pregnant?” He didn’t get the response he was looking for. Rather there was a prolonged silence. Finally a man raised his hand and answered, “I don’t know who I would want to be the first to know. But I would want the people in my church to be the last to know.”

This man had probably experienced the worst that the church has to offer. Sometimes the most critical and judgmental people on earth are in the church. Sometimes the worst gossip and back biting and slander takes place in the name of “Prayer Requests.”

Paul told us that the church is to be a Place of the Grace of Belonging. The Place where we can be “Lavished by the riches of God’s Grace.” The Place where we can be Adopted as Children of God. And the Place where we can receive the Inheritance from our Father.

Did you know you stand to Inherit a fortune? You don’t deserve it. You cannot earn it. But your Father has given you full rights as a child. He already had a Son, Jesus, but he chose to Adopt you and place you on equal footing. You and I know have received the Grace of Belonging, and we know that because our Heavenly Father has given us the Inheritance.



III. A Place of Growth.
A 2nd aspect of a physical family that can give us some insight into the nature of the church. I find it very interesting that Paul used such common illustrations to describe the nature of the church. Body. . .Family. . .Bride. . .Army.

If you will notice something about each of these illustrations. They are all living organisms. (Of course you might question me about an Army as a living organism, but an Army is made up of living soldiers.) Paul never used inanimate objects as illustration for the church. I think this should tell us something. The Church Is ALIVE!!

All living organisms have something in common. They Grow. What do we call a living organism that is not growing? If it is not growing then it must be dying! The same can be said for the church as a living organism.

2 Ways a family can grow…

1. Numbers.
The family is a natural place for children to be born. Therefore a growing family is one that grows in numbers. Of course we could take this illustration too far and say that families who are not having children are not fulfilling their purposes. I believe that God may or may not have planned for you to have children. He may want you to serve him in other ways.
As the Family of God, we are to grow in numbers. This is the missionary aspect of the Family / Church. We are to grow by inviting new Brothers and Sisters into our Adopted Family.


2. Nurture.
Not all physical families are still “having babies.” Some families are raising children and / or grandchildren. But those children have a place in their family where they can grow and be nurtured and have their needs met.

This 2nd aspect of Growth is important to note. There is a danger in both over emphasis and under emphasis. There is a tendency for churches who are aging and declining in their attendance to over emphasize this as a justification. “Well we are a church that focuses on maturing in faith.” “We are happy just resting in God and following what he has for us.” This is nothing more than an excuse for not being missionary and reaching out to unchurched, unsaved and UNADOPTED people!

There is another tendency to under emphasize growth by nutrition. This is found in churches who are so mission minded that they reach out to the UNADOPTED, but provide them with no opportunities to grow and mature in their faith.

About ten years ago, I spoke with the Associate Pastor of one of the Mega Churches in the SBC about some trends in his church before their current pastor came. This is a church that averages over 3000 in their SS attendance. He told me that in the previous year (before the new pastor) the church had baptized over 1000 people. But the average attendance had not changed by 1000. So they traced each name to find out what SS classes they were in. Less than 100 of those baptized were involved in SS one year later.

A church must grow. But it must also balance growth by number and growth by nutrition.



IV. A Place of Gladness.
I want to build on what I have said earlier about the Church as a Place of Grace. The Greek word that we translate “Grace” has its root in the Greek word for “Joy.” This leads many Greek scholars to believe that Grace was actually a development of the concept of Joy. In other words, Grace is a gift that brings about great joy in a person’s life.

If we hope to be a Family in the sense that God has called us to be, not just any family, but God’s Own Family. Then we must be a Family that experiences Joy, Gladness, Laughter, Good Times…Enjoying Our Time Together. But sadly, this is not always the case with churches. . .



V. Conclusion.
It makes me think of a comparison between the Family of God and my own extended family…My Mother and Father were both a part of large families. I have lots of Aunts, Uncles, Cousins.
There were 2 kinds of events (or reunions) that brought all of us together in the same place. Weddings and Funerals. But these 2 family reunions produced 2 completely different moods.

At weddings we celebrated, we laughed, we talked, we joked, we told funny stories. At funerals we mourned, we cried, we talked, we remembered the deceased.

Which one of these brought you here today? Which family reunion did you come to this morning? Did you come to a wedding? Where you Celebrate the Prospect of the Future? Or did you come to a funeral? Where you Grieve and Mourn the Way Things Used to Be.