The Real Family of Jesus

One day when Jesus was staying in the little village of Capernaum He was talking to the usual crowd of people when someone relayed a message to Him. The messenger said, your family is outside and they want to talk to you. Now, because Jesus had come to earth to establish the spiritual Kingdom of God we might think that His reply was cold. Here is what happened that day: Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they want to speak to you.” Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!” Matt 12:47-50 (NLT) On this special day Jesus did not claim His physical mother as His real family. Jesus made it plain that His disciples were the people that He chose for a family.

We may think that this is a harsh story but it was necessary for Jesus to confirm the reality of the new Kingdom. We want to be part of this spiritual Kingdom because Jesus chose it as His eternal family. Remember Jesus did tell us that a Christian must be willing to leave their own physical family in order to be a member of His Eternal Kingdom. Our families must become second on our list of priorities. Christians know that everything in this life is meaningless when compared with Eternity. We are here on earth to learn about God and to make our decision to serve God. It is an eternal failure when we chose to live life by using our free-will. Anyone that does not commit their life to the work of God is not a member of God’s Kingdom. As the real members of this spiritual kingdom have been added, one by one, the predetermined capacity will be reached. This means when the final number of saints is in the Kingdom, it will mark the beginning of judgment for Satan. He cannot be happy about his coming judgment.

The spiritual domain of God extends over everything. But God is doing a new work by establishing a kingdom of eternal righteousness over which His Son is reigning. The building of this Kingdom is the backdrop for the entire ministry of Christ. Everything Jesus did was preparing to build the greatest Kingdom that has ever been commissioned by God. Jesus read this Scripture at the beginning of His ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. ” Luke 4:18-19 (NLT) This is the family of faith that Jesus is looking for in order to lavish His favor upon. Most of us think that our personal salvation was the reason the Savior came but “The Kingdom” is the actual goal of the entire plan of God. Real Christians are in the development stage of this “family Kingdom”. Of course, Jesus is the foundation of the family which will soon become the Kingdom of God.

 Many people have a difficult time understanding the Kingdom because it is invisible to the human eye. Paul told us: For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 (NLT) Because the Holy Spirit is the part of the Kingdom that lives in our heart there is no way for us to see it. However, it is great to know that someday the Kingdom will move to the physical place of our new home. In the mean time Jesus gave us some of the principles of His Kingdom. If we want to be a good member of the family we must pay attention to His teaching. On the same day that Jesus claimed the Kingdom as His real family, He proceeded to teach kingdom truth by some parables. The first one is about the farmer’s seed falling on different kinds of soil. He explains that the people of the world will all believe the news of the Kingdom differently. The conclusion of the story says: The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Matt 13:23 (NLT) The real family of Jesus will produce a harvest.

The next parable is about the wheat and the weeds. Jesus said that the enemy had planted weeds among His good seeds. This means that many people who claim to be Christian are harmful to the harvest. Jesus said: Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, Matt 13:30. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. Matt 13:38-39 (NLT) On Judgment day, people who don’t really have the Spirit in them will join the Devil in the burning Lake of Fire. It is important to be honest with ourselves and the Savior. A real Christian does not have their mind on this earth. Paul said; Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Col 3:1-3 (NLT) People who are dead do not care about this world.

The real family of God will be finalized in one great event. Here is the description that Jesus gave: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand all these things? Matt 13:47-51 (NLT) Every righteous person with the help of the Spirit must judge themselves. The Spirit must help us because we always want to excuse ourselves. For example, one preacher used this text: Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matt 19:21 (NLT) But one preacher explained that Jesus knew this man’s heart so the instruction was only for him but not for us. Surely Jesus can know our heart today and He may ask us to give up our money. It should not be a problem because if we are dead to this world, it’s not difficult to give up our money.

It is not possible to explain how wonderful eternity with God will be. But we can, by faith, do what Peter recommended: We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. 2 Peter 3:13-14 God’s new world is worth anything that we might give up. Jesus said that: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it! Matt 13:44-46 (NLT) We cannot imagine the value of Jesus. When Jesus said that His real family was the people who follow Him it changed our history forever. Because He has identified with humans we can now have the most fantastic future with God. The Kingdom is something worth seeking with all our life.

This invisible Kingdom is available to people who will humble themselves to its King. God has been building this Kingdom: from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it. Matt 11:12 John introduced us to the Savior and when Jesus began to teach He said: if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. Matt 12:28 (NLT) We know that Jesus cast out many demons therefore the Kingdom has come and it has great power. When we become saved this Kingdom is something we are part of. We can see it by faith: I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. John 3:3 Only Christians can see the Kingdom: You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. Matt 13:11-12 Paul explained the real family this way: For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 (NLT) Why doesn’t everybody want into the family of Jesus?

Why Were We Created?

Thousands of years ago God displayed His power by creating the universe. At a later time He created the highest form of life in all of eternity: humans. And they were given their birthplace as a temporary home. God wanted a special creature of flesh made in His image. We humans have the unbelievable advantage of being designed with the capacity to look like God. Interestingly enough our reason for existence has been lost as the years rolled by. The average American today is not even interested in our eternal purpose. Occasionally some poet or philosopher will bring up the subject of our existence with very little understanding of it. They don’t know that the secret of our life is contained in the word “Image”. There is absolutely nothing that our unlimited God could create to have a meaning any higher than His own image. He actually created people so that they could partake of His perfection. Because God is a Spirit, He decided long ago to display many of His attributes through creatures made in His image. Wow, can we see how plainly America has missed the actual meaning of life?

Today it may be difficult to accept that we can be a display of God’s own attributes. The reason we struggle with our image problem goes back to that terrible day when Adam decided to disobey God. Every time a human does what they want, rather than obey God, the “fall of man” is being reenacted. Some people want to know the meaning of “the fall”. Simply put, every human will fall out of God’s perfect image into a wretchedness of our own making. Jesus said; You don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.  So I advise you to buy gold from me. Rev 3:17-18 (NLT) The average American continues to live in their wretchedness when, all the while, they possess the opportunity of returning to God and being shaped into the image of His perfection. The reality is that God would love to place all His goodness into our life. This would allow His image to be reflected to everything that exist anywhere. We can actually become a mirror that reflects God to our entire universe and beyond. However, the path of our return to God’s image will require the path of humility.

Most people do not think of God as humble, but there is no pride in Him. We know that Jesus was the exact image of His Father and has His characteristics. The Bible says: When he (Jesus) appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor Phil 2:7-9 (NLT) There is no way God could have allowed people to do all the things they did to Him if He were not humble. Knowing why we were created should help us see that our path to glory is the path of humility. Humans lost the way of humility during Adams insubordination. The disobedience of Adam gave every one of us a nature of pride. Evil absolutely thrives in our pride. When Jesus redeems our soul it is a reversal of what Adam did to our nature. We do not have the power to throw the Devil and his evil ways out of our life. But when the Spirit of Jesus lives in us His power can change our nature. Humility must become the basis of our new life if we want to live in the image of God.

Realizing that the plan of God operates out of humility should clear up some of our thinking. For example, Jesus is asking us: If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Luke 9:23-24 (NLT) Jesus needed humility to find meaning and victory on His cross then it is certain that we will need humility for our cross. It is now becomes obvious why we must become an empty vessel. Our potential to be the image of God depends on our old life being wiped clean. The only meaningful life is to return to the purpose of our creation. We must reflect the image of God’s perfection. Living in Jesus Christ is our only chance. Many believers made a start with the Savior but have fallen by the wayside. This is because they would not continue to learn from the revelation of God. His revelation gives a Christian their strength. God created all of us to be totally dependent on Him. Our new humble live will not survive if we don’t maintain a continual dependence on His power, God must constantly project His image into our humble, clean life.

Every Christian must maintain the correct attitude if we hope to honor the restoration work that God has done on our behalf. Actually, if we can see it, our fallen nature is a sign to us that we really need to find the path of humility. Having humility is a kind of “stamp of deliverance” that the Lord now allows us to have fellowship with Him. As reasonable creatures we should find our proper place and gladly wait for His next command so that we may obey Him. It sounds odd, but when we find our correct sense of nothingness, life can begin to take on true nobility. The entire family of God suffers when our leaders fail to teach the Church the humility that our new life is based on. Understanding the meaning of life allows people to accept their correct place so that God can make them part of His life forever. Our pride of life must die so that the grace of God may come through Christ and into our new life. The most meaningful life is obviously one that pleases God and brings glory to His Almighty presence.

The Old Serpent was cast out for his pride. Every human lost their fellowship because of pride. Pride is the reason we make wrong choices and we must allow it to be taken out of our life. The secret of life is knowing our proper place with the creator. Then with the help of God we can live a life that is pleasing to Him and in His image. Humans have the unbelievable privilege of choosing to walk in pride of in humility. Of course we can only find humility in the Savior. Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Luke 16:13 (NLT) When we freely chose to serve God, in humility, we can bring honor to Him. My friends, we were created to reflect the image of the Almighty as we serve others. This is how we can be of value to our Savior. The believers in our church must humble themselves and crucify themselves or face judgment for our pride. We do have a choice.