Welcome to week 24 of our restored Bible study series and I really do hope God's restoring all things to you and that already what I'm going to share with you about today has been happening in your life and that is that you're discovering the joy and beauty of being part of an eternal family. We were all born into a family of sorts, some of us somewhat dysfunctional, some of us really dysfunctional, some of us don't even know who our biological mother and father was but as we've looked at through this series we have now been reconnected with our father who is in heaven and because of that we also got a family. Bonus, we now have brothers and sisters.
We have actually what God designed to be the family of our dreams. This is why when Jesus told his disciples to go out and fulfill their great commission he said baptize them in the name of the father the son and the Holy Spirit. The name of the father son and Holy Spirit. So we now carry the name of the family who's named in heaven. That's really who we are. When he taught us to pray he taught us to pray not my father who art in heaven our father who art in heaven. So we didn't just get a father we got a family and as you've probably noticed already when you read through the letters of the New Testament they're always using family terminology.
We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have those that the Bible refers to as spiritual mothers and fathers. We know that God's our father. Jesus is a brother to us. Isn't that amazing that Jesus could be considered a brother and and this family that we've come into is part of the plan and purpose of God to help us to grow. It is I'm going to say this very strongly now. It's impossible for us to grow into the fullness of who Jesus called us to be when he when we were born again without the family of God.
We just cannot do it on our own. He on purpose designed this walk with him to be mutually dependent on other brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of whom have gifts that build us up and strengthen us and equip us in our ministries and in our lives. Some of whom are there to pick us up when we fall down. Some of whom are there so that we could pick them up when they fall down and find our use and our purpose in living as to be around other people and express the love of God through Christ. So 1 John 1 in verse 3 he says it like this what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you.
In other words John saying everything that we learn from Jesus we're just telling all of what he taught us because Jesus built a family out of those disciples. They lived together for three three and a half years as they walked the roads together and ministered together and everything that the first church knew to do the apostles church that they built they built based on what they'd learned from Jesus. They put into practice the things they'd learned and we find with all of the record and I hope you'll read the book of Acts sometime soon it's the record of the early church what the church in Jerusalem did and then what the apostles did when they went out to the nations to the furthest ends of the earth that were known in that time with the good news.
So John's saying look we saw some things we heard some things we proclaim those to you. Why? So that you too may have fellowship with us. In other words we want you to partake and be a part of this thing that Jesus brought us into and we're sharing all of these truths with you because we want you to be part of the family. There is no limit to the size of God's house. You can never have too many kids in the family of God and John's saying we want you to have fellowship with us and indeed here's the truth our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ.
So we're united in Christ. We are one in Christ because we have the same dad period. That's the only reason why we have fellowship. This beautiful thing that the church is as the scriptures put it made up of every tribe, tongue, and nation. How do all of the nations get along in one place? What kind of a kingdom or what kind of a family can have such diversity of culture and language and history including history where there used to be violence between and still are in some cases violence between nations even holding other nations as slaves and so on? What kind of miracle will it take for us to experience that diversity of people coming together in one?
It's called the family of God. Our dad knows how to bring together a foster care home, if you will, an adoption agency and bring us in together. One of my favorite joys of being a pastor is to look around on a Sunday morning and behold with my own eyes people from such wildly different backgrounds talking with one another as if they've known each other all their lives. This man over here who was a broken homeless drug addict and just completely destitute having communion fellowship with this man who is a fourth generation Christian a man of means and wealth a successful businessman who really seems to have it all together although as we've learned nobody does without Jesus.
And seeing the two of them come together as if they've been lifelong friends. It's just a beautiful thing to behold the family of God, the body of Christ which is another picture of the family of God. The entire purpose behind his death was so that we could be united. Jesus said, I came to gather the lost sheep. First the lost sheep of Israel and then the lost sheep of many other places all around the world and bring them into one. That was his entire purpose. And so the early church learned this.
The apostles, so Peter, James, and John being preeminent among them, were leading the church in Jerusalem. And that was the first church. They were persecuted almost from the beginning. It really got intense when Saul began to persecute them. That was about three years in. But right out of the gate, there were people from all around the world there for the day of Pentecost. This happened in Acts chapter 2. There were people from at least eight different nations named from everywhere, all over the place. They spoke, they maybe had a common language of Hebrew, but they spoke foreign languages also.
They had foreign cultures that they'd adopted after they moved away from Israel. And they were in one place and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit got poured out on the upper room. They went out and preached the gospel and it says 3,000 people came to Christ that day and were baptized into Christ. Then we have these pictures of the early church community and they're found in Acts chapter 2, 3, 4, and 5. And they're just beautiful, beautiful expressions. And it says this, that they continued in the apostles' doctrine, which was the script. Well, now we have those in scriptures.
The apostles' doctrine is in written form. It's the New Testament. What they taught the first church, we can read now. So they continued. They listened to the apostles' doctrine at that point, because it wasn't in writing yet. They continued in fellowship. Fellowship means a sharing of something in common. It means, somebody said it like this, it's two fellows in the same ship. We're all in the same boat together, in other words, and we're sharing, partaking of one thing, which is Christ. That's what we have in common. The church has divided so many times over the centuries because we disagree about a certain doctrinal point or a way of doing church, as we say it.
And we have thousands of denominations, one of the most heartbreaking things, I'm sure, to the Father's heart. How many different names we've added, just to separate ourselves from those with whom we don't see eye to eye on certain things. When it comes down to it, what matters is that we share a common Christ with one another. Yes, there are teachings that are absolutely out there, and people have reinvented many different kinds of Christ. The one we're talking about is the one revealed in the scriptures, and the Father that we know is the Father revealed in the scriptures. Fellowship means we're coming together because we have common union with Christ. You know the word communion?
Common union is how we can break that word down. We're one because we're one in Christ. That's fellowship. We're sharing life together. And the breaking of bread, that was the third practice they did. I'll talk in a supplemental teaching about we're going to share communion together in a short video that I'll do to follow up on this with you. But they broke bread together. They shared the Lord's presence in the practice that Jesus instituted at the Lord's Supper. And then they continued on in prayers. Those are four things that the church did and why there was such an amazing church.
That church, although persecuted, brought the gospel to the ends of the earth. We're here today in Christ because of what they did. How did they keep it all together? I would propose to you that fellowship is the glue that holds the family of God together. When we actually learn to live as family with those from whom we've got such different backgrounds and how we came to Christ. And it's just a miracle of God. Jesus prayed a prayer in John chapter 17. And I encourage you to join with me in partaking and being an answer to Jesus's prayer.
The unity of the body of Christ is an answer to Jesus' prayer. His longest prayer, by the way, is in John chapter 17. And he prayed this at the Last Supper, some of his last words and some of the last things that he offered up to the Father before he went to the cross. And he probably prayed this in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went off and prayed on his own. And here's what he prayed. He said, for their sakes, I sanctify myself. This is starting in verse 19. I sanctify myself so that they themselves will also be sanctified in truth.
I don't ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who will believe in me through their words. So just in case there was any question, Jesus wasn't just praying for his apostles. He was praying for all of us who came to believe through their word. And that includes us today. So that they may be one. That's his prayer. I pray for them that they may be one. Can you hear the cry of Jesus and his heart? I just want my kids to get along. I want my kids to have the joyful laughter and sound.
My favorite noise of all the sounds that happen on a church gathering on a Sunday morning. Don't get me wrong. I love the worship. I love praise. I love the sound of good preaching, most especially when it's someone else that I get to listen to. I love the sound of prophecy. I love the sound of prayer. My favorite sound of all is when when our official gathering is finished and people just begin to gather in groups around the sanctuary. The roar of fellowship, the laughter, the conversation. Sometimes there's a group over here and they're praying and somebody's crying.
Sometimes there's a group of guys over here and they're just raucously laughing together because they love one another. And again, looking around the circle to see these guys would have nothing in common if it weren't for Jesus Christ. So Jesus prayed that they would all be one, even as you father are in me and I also are in you so that they also may be in us. We've been invited into the fellowship of Jesus and the father. That is as intimate as it gets. Why? Because Jesus was the fullness of God in bodily form.
They are one. There's no distinction between them. And he said, I want to invite you into that fellowship that I have with the father. That's what the family of God is. That's the reason, by the way, why we have no option of living disconnected from one another. It's just not Jesus to say, I love Jesus, but I can't love my brother. More on that next week when we talk about reconciliation. So we're invited into this beautiful union of the father, son, and Holy Spirit. We've been invited into Jesus and the father.
That's what fellowship is. And that's what the family of God is all about. And here's what's at stake. He said that they would also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. What's at stake? All the words of our mouth and all the greatest preaching of Christ that we can offer pales in comparison to having a family that the world will look at and say, that's where I belong. That's a community of people that seems to have life together. They understand what love really looks like.
Oh, how they love one another. May that be the testimony of the church. That's, that's something that you now in Christ have been invited into. There's no cliques in the church. Sure, there are people that hang out with each other because they get along or they share other common interests with one another. But the body of Christ is like a family. Everybody's a brother. Everybody's a sister. There are no outcasts here. There are only family members and there are only those to love and to be loved. He goes on and he prays, the glory which you have given me, I give to them so that they may be one just as we are one.
You want to see the glory of God? Behold it in the fellowship of the saints. Watch what Jesus does when his family all gets together and the presence of God is rich in the midst among the people who love one another, absolutely would lay down their lives for one another without hesitation. I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity. How do we perfect this unity? Make sure that Christ is in us. That's what we've talked about throughout this entire series. How to live the life where we're active and recognize I'm carrying Jesus on the inside of me.
The living God lives in me. And so I've got a new life and I live by the strength of that new life. I in them and you in me. So the Father's in Jesus, Jesus is in us, and that's what makes us one. That they may be perfected in unity. And here it is again. So that the world may know that you sent me and love them just as you have loved me. How does the world know that God loves his people? Because they see his people loving on his people.
They see the way that we interact with one another. And we're looking at an other focus. As we'll look at in our very last lesson, the goal of all of our growth in Christ, the goal of this course, the goal of our discipleship for the rest of our days is to become perfected in love. And there's no better place to test love. I mean, actual, real, nitty-gritty love, which is a verb in this case, is among the family of God. I'm sure that you've already experienced a few hurts. You've experienced a few rude comments.
Maybe people who have done things that rub you the wrong way in the body of Christ, like I say, is welcome to the family. We're all in process and everybody in the family of God is working through all of those strongholds that we talked about a couple weeks ago. Working through what it means to build righteous strongholds. We're perfecting, our lives are being perfected rather, in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which take time to grow. And some take more time than others to really begin to manifest. It's the best place in the world to test our love. If you want to know that you really know how to love, you can't go and live all on your own and just think in your mind how much you love everybody.
You got to get in there and actually try it. I used to think I was the most unselfish human being on the planet until I got married. And then I realized that every day I'm being tested. Will I sacrifice my needs, my desires, my will for the sake of this woman that I love? And I had no idea how hard it was going to be to do that day after day after day. It's a proving ground so that we could grow in love, which really is the entire purpose of life. And the entire purpose of being in community is to learn how to love and to be loved by a group of people who all have the same Father.
He finally closes out, Father, I desire that they also with whom you've given me will be with me where I am so they'll see the glory you've given me because you loved me from the foundation of the earth. That's what we're going to see as we grow. Our love for one another is the best testimony that we could ever have. Remember back to the prodigal son story. I forget which lesson it was, which week that we walked through that story. But remember how the older brother, he had a kind of a hissy fit because the father invited the son, the younger son back in the house through a party for him because he was so excited that he came back home.
There's the three characters in that parable that Jesus told. There's the father who represents the father in heaven. There's the older son who represents the religious spirit. And then there's the younger son who represents the one who walks away and squanders his inheritance. I'd suggest that there's a character missing from that story. Jesus himself was not in that story because he wasn't like the older brother. He wasn't tied up with that religion thing the Pharisees were. He wasn't like the younger son because Jesus never sinned. And he wasn't in the earth in the form of the father.
He was in the earth as the form of the son. If we could add another character to that parable, I'd suggest that would be another son who said, hey dad, I think the younger son's in trouble. Do you mind if I go get him? I miss him. I feel like our family's missing something without him here in the house. His room is empty and the house just feels empty without him. Will you give me permission and leave to go and try to bring that son back home, my brother back home?
That's who you and I are now in Christ. We're the ones who gather the family back to the father. That's what Jesus' entire ministry was all about. In Ephesians 2 verse 18, it says it like this, for through him we both have access to one spirit and one spirit to the father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens of heaven and you are of God's household. And then he goes on and he says, in Christ in whom you are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the spirit. We are of God's household.
This is Jesus' entire ministry through Christ. We're now being gathered together and we have access to God through the father. And he's building us up together to be a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Now you know already that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that you and me, we carry Christ in us and we're the place where Holy Spirit lives. Miracle of miracles that he would take somebody who was sinful, wash him and make him clean and say, this is where I'm going to live now for the rest of eternity. That's a miracle in itself. But the real temple of God that's being built is us together in love, being built up together to be like a temple in the earth.
So there's aspects of God's presence and there's aspects of God's work in us that he will not allow us to access except through the people of God. There are going to be certain things that will not happen in our lives if we don't open up and allow the body of Christ to minister to us and release ourselves to minister to the body of Christ. It's not enough to say, I have Jesus and I have all that I need. That is so true. In Christ we've been given everything pertaining to life and godliness, right? We looked at that in 2 Peter 1. But giving us everything that we need in life and godliness includes giving us the rest of the body of Christ.
So if you'll open your Bible with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I just kind of want to walk you through. This is a really good and important passage to understand in terms of who you are and how you relate with the family of God. This family is so intimate that we're actually like one body. We're not just separate bodies walking around living together in a house. We're actually one body in Christ and each of us is a member of that body. So we all have a role to play. We all have to give and we have to receive.
If you think of your body, how much is going on in the inside of you right now? All the interconnection between the organs and the limbs and everything that makes you you. There is so much happening. There are hundreds upon thousands of reactions happening in the body to make life possible and to make us able to do all that we do. So it is with the body of Christ. It's so complex. Only a God in heaven, only a master planner could possibly bring it all together. So we didn't get born again into an organization of sorts.
We didn't join a club. We didn't join a special interest group or something like that. We actually joined a family that's like a body. We're so intertwined with each other. So in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, he says, he's going to give a picture now. And I won't read the whole chapter. You can do that when we finish. Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though there are many, are one body, so is Christ. In other words, we got fingers, hands, arms, legs, stomachs, brains, eyes, all of those things.
They're separate parts. You can look at them individually. And that's a beautiful thing about you and about me, is that we're unique in some way. There's something about you that without you, the body is missing something. And I'm going to urge you when we close out here to put whatever you are to use in the body of Christ because they need you. I won't go on into that right now. So we're one body. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we drank of one spirit.
So when we were baptized in the spirit and we were baptized in water, we got baptized into the body of Christ. We are the living, breathing representation of Jesus in the earth. No one human being embodies everything about what Jesus is. But every human being in the body of Christ demonstrates or manifests something about what Christ is. There's spiritual gifts, and this chapter talks about some of those gifts. I won't get into that at this point. But you have certain things that you have an inability to do that others can't do.
And so that's what makes us each valuable. So going down to verse 25, the purpose of these gifts, the purpose of us being together and us saying, we don't say, I have no need of you. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Of course the eye needs the hand. The eye could see that baseball coming, but without the hand, you got nothing to hold the bat to swing it. So the body parts work together. It seems so obvious, doesn't it? And that's why this analogy is perfect.
And this metaphor is beautiful because it's not as obvious spiritually sometimes. There might be somebody who is sick in the body of Christ, and somebody over here has a gift of healing. And this person's crying out to God, God, would you heal me? God, would you heal me? This person over here has a gift of healing. And I pray in God's sovereignty that he brings them together. But if this one never says, I need healing right now, or this one says, I'm intimidated, and so I won't offer that gift of healing and pray for that sick person, then this person might stay sick a lot longer than they need to, because God intends for us to learn to live as a body with one another.
So verse 25, he says, he did all of these so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. In other words, we've been given these gifts and a role and a part in the body of Christ so that we can have a way to care for one another. Not just to say, hey, I'm with you in that struggle you're in, but to say, hey, I have the means to help you with that struggle, and I care enough about you that I'll sacrifice my time, my substance, my gifts, whatever you need to help build you up and help you through that thing you're struggling with.
And if one member suffers, we all suffer with it. Similarly, if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. So if somebody is suffering, and they're part of the community of saints that we're connected to, we're suffering until that part is right. If you've ever had an injury, you know exactly what this is talking about, because you can hurt your toe, for example. It's such a small, almost insignificant part of the body. But if you stub your big toe and that thing's swollen and hurting, you're going to know about it with every step you take. And so it ought to be in the body of Christ.
And when one member is suffering, all of us together are saying, we're with you. How can we help heal that thing that's hurting? You're Christ's body, and you're individually members of it. Every single one of us, all of us have a part to play. And that's why when one part is honored, when somebody is celebrated because of something they did, they laid hands on somebody, or they brought a meal over for somebody, we ought to celebrate that. Hey, way to go. Thank you. You helped somebody today. You built up a fellow member of the body of Christ, which in one way builds ourselves up.
Because the stronger our family is, the stronger each of us is. Like they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. And so it is when we walk together in that kind of unity with one another. So let me give you five things in closing to do that really are included in living in the family of God and the body of Christ. Five things that we really need to do. One is prioritizing growing in community. Prioritize getting together with saints. You've already been doing that with whoever you're walking with in this series.
But I'd encourage you to grow a community around you. Find the people that you really connect with. I believe every believer should have three to five people with whom you're transparent. You can just share. You have a heart tie with them. You love being together with them. And you'll find it may not always be the people you used to be friends with and the personalities you used to like. There's going to be a variety to it you never had before because you have something in Christ together. Prioritize being together with them.
Make sure you have people around you that point your mind and heart toward the Lord at all times. If your fellowship group or the people you hang out with take you down, make fun of you, they turn your attention to carnal things or turn your heart away from the Lord, that's not your group yet. Find the people that build you up in Christ. In that group then and with the congregation that you gather with on a Sunday say or the church community, you're a part of sharing your life and share all that you have with one another. Consider the things that you have not just to be yours. If God blesses you, it may not just be for you. The first question we ought to ask is, God, you blessed me with something.
Is this for me or am I to share this with somebody who needs it? That's a great way to live in the community of the saints. Be transparent. Walk in honesty with those around you. If we hide what we have, hide our struggles, hide our things that need to be healed, then there's nobody to stretch out their hand to bring that healing when we need it. We need one another. We need to be able to build one another up. And the only way we're going to know the needs is if they're shared in a transparent atmosphere.
1 John 1 7 says it like this, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In other words, and you could say the opposite is true. If we don't walk in the light as he is in the light, we don't have real fellowship with one another. We're doing something together, but we don't have real fellowship yet. Real fellowship is made up of people who turn off the verbal sensor and are heart to heart, truth speaking truth one to another. Then the blood of Jesus Christ, it goes on to say, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. There's a washing, healing aspect to the body of Christ, just like there's a washing, healing going on in our natural bodies, 24-7-365.
Learn to trust, learn to forgive, and learn to grow with others. I know that using the word family for some is the same as what it was like when I first used the word father way back when we started this series together. Maybe your experience in family hasn't been a great one, and so you're going to need to learn how to walk in that. And all I can encourage you to do is begin to take baby steps out in trust. Start with one person, hopefully the one that you're doing this discipleship series in, and start testing the waters of love. Is it safe for my heart to open back up again? Can I trust again?
Can I love again? The answer is yes, you can, and just take those baby steps and start doing it. And eventually you're going to find by experience that not the whole world's against you, that actually God has surrounded you now with many people who are for you, not against you, just like he is. Finally, find out and use your gifts to build up other people. You're useful in the body of Christ. Some people joke around when they read that chapter of scripture and say, well, I'm just the armpit of the body of Christ, or I'm the heel of the body of Christ. That's kind of funny and cute to say like that, but it's not true.
I mean, I suppose there is an armpit, but that has a purpose to it. You have a part to play. What do people seek you out for? How do you benefit other people? Some of the gifts are going to be spiritual. Some of the gifts are going to be things you've been carrying all of your life, which are also spiritual. God wired you and created you a certain way, and you're very much needed in the body of Christ. Can I just close with that statement? The body of Christ needs you.
The family of God needs you. And that's why God adopted you into this family with us because he saw a lack and there was a hole. There was an empty seat at the table and it belonged to you. And I, for one, am grateful to have you for a brother or for a sister in Christ. God bless you and enjoy your life in the family.