A Sermon About Family
The Foundation is Established in Genesis
long read - 3200 words
“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mk 3:35
The main topic today is God’s Family.
But we’ll spend quite a bit of time on biological, earthly families before we get into the Family of God, because there are a lot of similarities that we can learn from.
A family is meant to be a safe place from the world. A father’s responsibility is to protect and provide for his family. He disciplines his children because he loves them. A family is a safe and stable environment for the raising of children who will be a benefit to society. A family is meant to be a place full of love and hugs and kisses – a place to come home to for the holidays. A family reunion is meant to be full of joy.
Let’s start at the beginning, to understand better just what we mean by family. Then we’ll talk about what it means to be in the Family of God, and how you can be sure you’re a part of it.
the culture has changed
Our culture has been infiltrated with the teaching of millions of years of evolution . This has been taught for so long that the majority of people around us think that science disproves the bible. But evolution is not proven science; not at all. It’s a religion. There are answers disproving evolution that are at least as scientific as any arguments for it. But we never hear any arguments against evolution in the popular media because they’re suppressed by the public education system and the popular culture.
The traditional, biblical view of family is rejected by the majority in our culture, so today we see acceptance of ideas that are actually opposed to the way sex and marriage and family are presented in the bible.
A few generations ago, great speakers like Billy Graham could persuade thousands to repent of sin and decide to follow Jesus. He was preaching to a culture that generally believed the bible.
Today, most outsiders would have trouble understanding his message. They question God’s existence, and they think the bible is just stories. Since they think we evolved from animals, sin has no meaning to them. They don’t see why they should obey a god who doesn’t exist. They don’t see themselves as sinners, because they’re just doing what comes naturally. So why should they need a savior? They might like the idea of heaven, but they don’t believe in hell. They’re not even sure there’s life after death, so why not live it up and do whatever they feel like?
more groundwork is needed than in Billy Graham’s day
So if we start by telling them that God loves them and that He sent His Son to save us from our sins, they don’t know what we’re talking about. For that reason, we have to start at the beginning, and lay a foundation so that they’ll understand that we were created by God. We have to explain what sin is and why we need a savior and why Jesus had to die to pay that price for us.
And today, if we want to better understand what a family is, we need to go back to Genesis to see the beauty of God’s plan and the purpose of the family.
created by God
if you’re not sure whether you believe the bible is true, perhaps my earlier article will help - “How I Became Convinced the Bible is True”
God created the heavens and the earth. He created all life. Genesis is true history, not a myth. We did not evolve. The world didn’t just pop into existence by some big bang. Life didn’t come from non-living matter – all life was created by God.
Gen.1:27-28a is where marriage and the family start.
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number;”
To be fruitful means to have children
Genesis Ch.2 gives us more detail. God created Adam from dust, and He made Eve from Adam’s rib. This is not a myth or a fairy tale. It is actual history.
We all trace back to Adam, and Eve was the mother of all people.
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth” Acts 17:26a
There is only one race – the human race.
Adam and Eve were married. Eve is described as Adam’s wife. Marriage is the social structure for being fruitful and having children. This is the biblical pattern for a family.
Jesus confirmed this. When He was asked a question about marriage, He answered by quoting from both ch.1 and ch.2 in Genesis:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,..” Mt.19:4-5
The close bond and lifetime commitment between a man and a woman in marriage is a spiritual example for the relationship between Christ and the church, which is called the “Bride of Christ”.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Eph.5:25
One of the purposes of marriage is to provide a stable atmosphere for raising children.
One of the purposes of a family is to raise Godly children, and another way a family stabilizes a society is by passing on a legacy and inheritance to the next generation. Children learn skills from their parents and pass them on to their own children.
God is love, and there is no better way to learn about love than in a family setting.
Love of husband and wife, a mother’s love, a father’s love, brotherly love.
We’ve messed it up, because we’re all sinners, but God intended the family structure to be a beautiful, stable environment for love and training. When we fall short of that, part of learning to love one another is learning to forgive one another.
Mal.2:15 “Has not the one God made you? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.”
Gen.ch.5 gives us the history of the family line that led from Adam to Jesus.
Again, it’s emphasized that God created us as male and female.
“This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them…” Gen. 5:1-2a
3 “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.”
And that phrase is repeated continually throughout ch.5.
There were many other children from these families; there were other sons and daughters, but the text narrows it down to the line that leads to Jesus.
I’ve often wondered how many great great great grandchildren they had and what kind of family reunions they had when they lived 900 years or so.
Children are a blessing from the Lord.
Psa 127:3 “Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.”
Psa.128:3 “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.”
So Genesis is the foundational starting point for understanding what a family is.
It’s really the beginning for all the main doctrines of the bible. Genesis is the beginning of everything.
Even the Gospel has a stronger foundation if Genesis is believed and understood.
I’d like to take a few minutes to explain that sin, death, and sacrifice are introduced in Genesis, and the Gospel has more meaning if you believe every word of Genesis.
Remember, Jesus said “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”
Sin is any thought, action, or attitude that fails to follow the will of God
We all fall short; we’re all guilty
Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God. They ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Disobeying God, ignoring God, not acknowledging God or not giving thanks to Him, is sin, and Romans 1 says it’s without excuse.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Rom.1:20-21
sin and death
God warned Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
When they disobeyed, they incurred the death penalty. Spiritual death is separation from God. They were kicked out of the garden paradise. Physical death was also part of the penalty.
God said from dust you came, and to dust you shall return.
God made clothes for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals.
blood sacrifice
This was the first blood sacrifice to cover sin. Those animal skins couldn’t have come without the shedding of blood and the death of those animals. The death of the animals was a sacrifice; it was a substitute for the death of Adam and Eve, because the penalty for sin is death.
So Genesis lays the groundwork for understanding sin and death and the need for blood sacrifice.
the gospel
The foundation for the gospel is in Genesis. Since we’ve all sinned, we all deserve the death penalty, so we all desperately need a Savior. It took a terrible price, a terrible sacrifice, the death of Jesus, God’s son, the only one who never sinned, as a substitute to pay for our sin.
Rom5:12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned”
My point is that we need to start at the beginning of the Old Testament to better understand the New Testament, whether it’s the gospel or the family.
The nation of Israel started as a family, with a promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his family. Abraham’s family started with a miracle of childbirth. Sarah was barren, and she was way past the age of childbearing. Their son Isaac was the child of the promise, born when Abraham was about 100 and Sarah about 90.
It was part of God’s plan to use Abraham’s family to bring Jesus, the Messiah, our Savior, into the world, just as foretold by the prophets.
Jesus’ birth was another miracle. Never before or since has a virgin given birth. The Holy Spirit made this miracle possible.
Jesus was brought up in a family. God could have just popped him into the world out of nowhere, but no, He placed him in a family. He had brothers and sisters. He grew up going to the synagogue and travelled to Jerusalem for the feasts.
Jesus came into this world to be a light, to show us the way, and then to suffer and die as a sacrifice for our sins. He wouldn’t have done it if He didn’t love us. His desire is for all of us to be with him in heaven forever.
But not everyone accepts it. You can’t be saved if you don’t believe.
Jesus didn’t just come for His people, the children of Israel, the Jews – they had been chosen long before, but not just for themselves. There was an expansion plan in place from the beginning. God’s promise to Abraham was that he would be a blessing to every nation, every nationality, every ethnic group.
After Jesus died on the cross, He appeared to the disciples and over 500 eye witnesses in the next 40 days. Then He rose up into heaven. He sits on the right hand of God the Father. Then a few days later, on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost, He sent the Holy Spirit. Peter preached the first sermon. He explained that this outpouring of the Spirit was a fulfillment of prophecy. Then he showed them with scripture that Jesus, whom they crucified, was the Messiah.
They were shocked when they realized what they had done. They asked Peter what could they do? They believed his message. They had faith, or they wouldn’t have asked what to do next.
He answered “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts2:38-39
see also “A thorough Study of Baptism”
the church began on the Day of Pentecost
This was the start of the church. Another name for the church is the family of God, which brings us to our main topic.. Since Jesus had given Peter the keys to the kingdom, faith and repentance and baptism can be considered the keys to becoming a Christian. The start of the church was equal to the start of the Kingdom of God. So the Family of God, the Church, the Body of Christ, and the Kingdom are all different ways of describing the same thing.
What it means to be in the family of God
Being born into the family of God is spiritual. A sincere acceptance of Jesus as Savior and obedience to Him results in being born of the Spirit. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s all based on faith and grace, and spiritually we become the children of Abraham.
“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” Gal.3:7
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal.3:29
When we believe and repent and are baptized by immersion into Christ, we are joined to the family of God. (The Greek word translated “baptized” means to dip, or to immerse.)
We’re adopted into the family, to become one with all who are true believers. As a family, we are children of God our Father. We are brothers and sisters in the Family of God, and our inheritance is in heaven.
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ...” Rom.8:17a
It’s a huge worldwide family. We can travel the world, and walk into any Christian church that is following the word of God, and immediately sense the presence of the Holy Spirit – even if we don’t know their language. We have thousands of brothers and sisters that we’ve never met. But we’ll all meet some day, in heaven.
And those Christians that we’ve known and loved but have departed this world will be there. What a family reunion that will be!
In our biological families, we give birth to children and they need guidance and training.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Dt.6:6-7
Fathers as the head of the family are responsible to train their children.
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Eph.6:4
“Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” Prov. 22:6
Malachi prophesied about the family nature of the church.
“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents;..” Mal.4:6a
We’re adopted; spiritually children of Abraham -
“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” Eph.1:4-5
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God…” Rom.8:14a
Understanding that Genesis is true history helps us to understand family and that’s where we need to start to share the gospel in today’s culture
Anyone can become a part of God’s family
In the beginning, when God created us male and female, He commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.
God’s spiritual family, the church, was also told to multiply, by telling everyone the Good News.
And just as in our physical families, babies need lots of attention and care and training as they grow up, it’s the same with spiritual babes in the Family of God. We need to reproduce spiritually to help bring people to Jesus, but we mustn’t leave them at their new spiritual birth. They need lots of nurturing and mentoring and teaching to come to maturity in Christ.
An appeal in closing
If you’re not in the Family of God, you won’t be going to heaven when you die – you’ll be going to the other place, and you won’t like it. You can’t earn your way into heaven – we’re saved by grace through faith. The beginning point is Faith. You need to have faith, believing in God as the creator of heaven and earth and all life, you need to understand that Adam sinned by disobeying God in the Garden, and that sin carries with it the penalty of death, and that we’ve all sinned by disobeying God’s commands, or by failing to acknowledge Him or give thanks, or by failing to do what we know is right, or by failing to listen to our conscience when we’re not sure whether something is right or wrong. If we’re not sure, and then we go and do it anyway, we’re violating our own conscience, and that is another form of sin.
Right in the beginning God made a way to roll back sin by blood sacrifice, and finally, He sent us Jesus, the Savior, who shed His own blood for us, even though He was totally innocent. He had to die and shed His blood to pay for our sins. It was a terrible price to pay, but that’s how deadly our sins are. God gave His only son as a sacrifice because that’s how much He loves us and wants us to be with Him in heaven forever.
Believe in Jesus, believe in the Bible’s Truth, believe that Jesus paid the price for our sins, that He raised from the grave and conquered death, that He sits at the right hand of God and is waiting for just the right time to come back.
If you believe, the next step is to repent. That means turn around – make up your mind to stop sinning and start following Jesus.
And then, you need to be immersed.
Maybe you’re a baptized believer but have just been visiting. Do you need to make a commitment to supporting your local congregation?
Maybe you’ve been baptized but have been backsliding. Make up your mind today to recommit your life to Jesus.
I’ll close with what Paul said about baptism in Romans ch.6 -
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Rom.6:3-4
Today is the day! Don’t wait! If you haven’t already submitted your life to Jesus and been baptized into Christ, it’s time. You don’t know how many tomorrows you have. You don’t even know if you have one tomorrow. Jesus is calling you.