Being the Kingdom Family of Jesus
Last week, we began looking at the need for us in our day and age to spiritually transform from radical individualism to being a part of the Heavenly Kingdom family. Today, we’re looking at what it means to be that Kingdom family of Jesus.
A family isn’t picked, it’s formed.
Jesus picked the disciples, but the disciples didn’t pick each other.
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Luke 6:12-16 NIV
I’m going to quote at large what it looks like to live in a formed community from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.
God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.
When we dream about community, community won’t happen because we think up of the “perfect” utopia, similar to Paris. When we do this and try to live in it, we will be disappointed like those seeking utopia. But when we embrace those around us as a community, we begin to adopt a family that loves Jesus and lives life together chasing after Him. We become the Kingdom of Priests that God promised we could become if we follow Him.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
Exodus 19:5-6 NIV
The opportunity is here for us today, but it means we form together as the Kingdom of Jesus, rather than choosing who will be in our kingdom. And it means doing the hard work of seeking reconciliation and forgiveness when we get it wrong.
A family is reconciled.
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
.Acts 1:12-14 NIV
Two people to note here. Simon the Zealot, before being called by Jesus, was a Jewish freedom fighter willing to use violence to overthrow Rome. Matthew was a tax collector, a Jew who betrayed his own people to make money off of his own people by overcharging taxes while working for the Roman Empire. They were polar opposites, and you can bet Matthew had several enemies among the disciples. But as Skye Jethani writes in his book What If Jesus was serious about the Church? which is a visual guide to becoming the community Jesus intended,
“Jesus called both of these men not only to be His disciples, but He called them to embrace each other as brothers. What united Simon and Matthew wasn’t a common political, cultural, or economic vision. It was Jesus and nothing else. God calling these two men together wasn’t practical, but it was beautiful.”
Skye Jethani, What If Jesus was serious about the Church? Pg. 32
A family lives together.
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:42-47 NIV
A family gathers together. They live together. The early church gathered in community frequently and shared a common way of life to guide them in spiritual flourishing. They learned through Scripture together, they took communion together, and they prayed together. They would have experienced prophetic words together, they would have given until it hurt to make sure everyone had what they needed to get by, and they did it with glad and sincere hearts, giving praise to God alone.
We need each other. When we have each other, we become a community that heals together, carries each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and that grows in love and depth in a time like ours that seeks the opposites of Philippians 2:1-4.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:1-4 NIV
Here’s the Western Culture Translation of verses 3 and 4:
Do everything out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. Rather, in pride value yourself above everyone else looking to your own interests and forgetting the interests of others because they don’t matter.
Philippians 2:3-4 WCT
We often read the first set of verses and like what they say, but when it comes to it, we often act out the truth of the second set of verses. As John Mark Comer writes in Practicing the Way,
“The radical individualism of Western culture is not only a mental health crisis and growing social catastrophe; it’s a death blow to any kind of serious formation into Christlike love.”
And later, which is why we want to live out our trellis or rule of life together:
“A Rule of Life was for a community. It was designed by early adopters, like Saint Augustine and Saint Benedict, to hold a community together around shared rhythms of spiritual formation. To center a community on Jesus. And like most things in life, it just plain works better in community. (Why) We need one another to help us stay on the path and , when we fall, to help us back up.”
John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way Pg. 199
True community is messy. When it’s messy, it’s hard. But you know what? I love it because it means, as a whole, we’re seeking to become the Kingdom of Jesus where we are, not by ourselves, but together.
But what if we did it anyway? What if we embraced the hard? What if we prayed together, learned the Scriptures together, confessed to each other, pointed out each other’s sins in love, communed together, gave to each other who are in need, and formed into the image of Jesus together? Man, we would experience Heaven on Earth. What’s one of the best ways we should do this? By eating. It’s what often brought people together who would have been known as enemies or people who were very different from each other in the Gospels, because Jesus loved to eat with people. On the night of His arrest, during the passover festival, we see Jesus initiating a new covenant with His disciples that extends to all people. The meal He gave them to remember Him by was bread to represent His body broken for us and wine to represent His blood shed for us.
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Mark 14:22-24 NIV
Tish Harrison Warren writes about communion and how it unites us as a family.
“The Eucharist is a profoundly communal meal that reorients us from people who are merely individualistic consumers into people who are, together, capable of imaging Christ into the world.”
A family serves together.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 NIVLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:9-10 NIV
One thing my wife and I have done with our son is that, in opportunities for ministry and serving, he often comes with us. At one of our ministry’s cleaning days, my son was with me outside in his full get-up, using his plastic pliers to clip dandelions. Not long ago, we lost a neighbor who meant a lot to us, and when we say we loved him and he loved us, it was genuine. The family actually asked us if we wanted to sweep through and take anything from the house. And so now, the center area that our little neighborhood owns hasn’t been kept up because that was Leon’s job. Soon after he passed, Isaiah and I took care of about half of it for our friend. But when I think of him, I can’t help but want to do good for others. I want to give money away to others who are in need. I want to be there to go over to a friend’s house in their time of need. I want to be there to resource people who want to learn and grow closer to Jesus. I want to do the hard stuff that comes with community, because as we do, we see the fruit of God’s great love through loving one another.
This is my hope for all of us today,
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:14 NIV
As we live in a real Kingdom community, this will happen, and we will receive the Victor's crown, to enter through the gates into the Garden City and take the fruit from the Tree of Life and embrace the new life we’ve been given forever. And you know what. We don’t experience it alone. We get to experience it together.
