Church – Forever Family

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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Father, thank you so much for that glimpse of the future. Father, would that not just be nice words in our ears, but true hope in our hearts? We pray that as we hear you speak now. And as Clare comes and preaches to us, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

After this, I looked. And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people and language. Standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne. And to the lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and the power and strength be to our God forever and ever.

Amen. Though, as one of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they and where did they come from? I answered, sir, you know.

And he said, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger.

Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Morning. Morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Just give me a minute to change my glasses.

Otherwise I can't see the words. Won't be able to see you, but I'll be able to see the words.

Let's just pray. Father, we thank you for your living word. We thank you that through it you speak to us. We ask, Lord, that you'll not open our ears, but our hearts to hear what you have to say to us today. Amen.

Amen. I right. Our sermon series throughout September has been focusing on church. Can anyone remember what the first one was?

The bride? People were listening to Ben. Good. The second one last week was about the body. Okay, we're talking about then where a place where everyone is valued, where everyone has a role to play, and how important it is to be present to be here.

This week, we're looking at family. A forever family. So my question is, what do you think of when you think of the word family? Now is it the standard married couple with 2.2 children. Thank you for the Christmases because they give a rubbly impression of that at the moment, 2.2 children and a dog, what we refer to as the nuclear family.

Or do you think of an extended family with cousins and grandparents that maybe you see regularly, or even the full family that gets together at weddings or big celebrations? You run around the house trying to find chairs for them all. It may be that for you a family is just yourself and your partner, or it could be that you are on your own, and it could be for any number of reasons. It could be by choice, it could be you've never actually met the right person. It could be bereavement, estrangement, distance, or many, many other reasons.

And of course we have single parent households, two household families where parents are separated and blended families. Families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There is not one size fits all. My second question, instead of what is a family, is what does family mean to you? Now, technically, it's a group of people.

Can we get this right? United by the ties of marriage, blood or by adoption. But if we look past the technical, for most people, the family or family unit means a place of acceptance, of nurturing, of security, where we are loved and supported unconditionally. Sadly, that is not true for everyone, and we have to acknowledge that when we talk about family for some people, it can bring back painful memories.

When we are born, we become part of the human family, part of the human race. You don't have a choice in the matter, and with very few exceptions, we do not have a choice into which individual family we become part of. The big exception to this is the christian church. When you choose to accept Christ, to invite him into your life, you become part of the worldwide church. It's part of the package.

By choosing Christ, by being born again, we become part of his worldwide family. In the baptism service, we use the following liturgy. We welcome you into the fellowship of faith. We are children of the same heavenly Father. We welcome you.

The Bible says it better. Not surprisingly yet, to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. However, we also need to become part of the local expression of that family, the local church. Now, it may not be all saints, it might be another local church, but you need to be in fellowship with other people. And yet, because the church family is made up of human beings who are not yet perfect.

That is, we're caught in the now and they're not yet. There are times when things go wrong, and sadly, on occasion, that can mean that churches can become dysfunctional. There will be times when we let each other down and so seeds of discourse and confusion, so much so that we may not seem like family at all. There will be times when we disagree, but there are issues that, if we allow them, can become divisive, local and nationally. And let's be honest, like any normal family, there are those people whom we may find difficult to like.

But as I used to tell my boys when they were growing up, I may not like you at this particular moment. That did happen quite sometimes. But I will always love you. The solution for the church is to ensure that God, that Christ, is at the centre of our own lives and at the centre of the life of our church or our spiritual family.

John 1334 is the famous commandment from Jesus, a new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. It's not always easy, but thankfully, when we accept Christ and invite him into our lives, it is the spirit of God that enables us to live the life that we are called to live. In our small group discussion this last week, Mel pointed out that there is one gift of the spirit that is manifested in different ways. They're actually on the bosses here.

Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness and self control. But why do we need a church family? Why is it important? Why does it matter that you are not only here physically, but you are part of this family?

Ben spoke to us last week about being the body of Christ, of us all having a crucial role to play and something to offer, even if you don't actually know at this precise moment what that might be. As well as having a special role, we also need a church family to be there to support each other, to encourage each other, to learn from each other, to develop as christians, that is, to grow in the knowledge and love of God. Paul, the great leader and exponent of the gospel in his opening verses in his letter to Rome, said that he was longing to see them so that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. Paul acknowledged that he needed his church family.

So we gather as church to build each other up, to worship together, our heavenly Father together, to share in the good times and sustain and encourage in the bad, to pray together and yes, to admonish and teach. In the next verse of John 13, Jesus went on to say by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

The greatest witness that we can offer for the reality of the gospel is not only the words we say, but the way we live and the way we live as family. Romans says, be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. I'm sure that sadly, we have all experienced churches where as soon as people walk out of the church on the Sunday morning, there would be nothing to suggest that being a Christian made a motive difference to their lives. It's no wonder that much of the world considers us to be hypocrites and a world that is yearning for something real and looking for evidence of that reality that must truly grieve God's heart.

Now I'm sure most of you know it, but it's probably worth reiterating that the love that Paul mentions and which Christ refers to is that agape love which requires faithfulness, commitment and sacrifice without expecting anything in return. Agape love is a love of choice. It's not of attraction, romance, nice as that is, or obligation. It is the love of Christ which was displayed on the cross for us as he took our place for our sin. Imagine what a powerful witness that would make to the world, to Totley, to our own friends and family, if we all exhibited that kind of love for each other as part of his spiritual family.

Hebrews 1211 points out that both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly. I will sing your praises. That really struck me this week as I was preparing this.

Have you ever thought how utterly amazing that is, that you and I may have done things that we are ashamed of, but Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brother or sister and even to sing our praises because we are part of his family. Really, get that into your head, Jesus sings, because you're part of his family, having not only the unconditional love of Christ, but also the love, acceptance, friendship, support, guidance and strengths that come in from having a church family. Amazing. As I actually found out in the last 36 hours, we become who we are meant to be in the living community that is the church. When we are challenged, encouraged to use our gifts, to have people really come alongside us when life is tough and to celebrate when it isn't tough, it is life changing.

We are not made to be alone. We need God, we need our church family. And that's why being part of this church family is so important. The exciting thing, though, is it's not just for this lifetime. Church family is forever.

Our physical families, whatever their makeup may be, do not last forever. But the Bible says your spiritual family will. In Ecclesiastes 311, it states, God has set eternity in the human heart. In every human soul is a God given awareness that there is something more, more than this transient world. And in our passage this morning, we saw a glimpse of what that future might be.

Now, I'm the first to admit that revelation is not an easy book to understand. And if there's any other book I could study instead, I would probably go for it. Even Leviticus in the liturgical calendar, it is rarely used in any of the readings. It was written to the seven churches made up of normal people, not theologians struggling under the roman regime, whose members were being martyred for their faith. And it was written by someone living in political exile because of his own faith.

It's full of images and symbolism that we, in our western culture and 2000 years later, can find clearly quite hard to understand. Some of it's literal, some of it's symbolic, with its seals and trumpets and bowls.

Revelation was not included in the church canon, so we could do some fancy planning of when the world will end. Actually, we're told that no one knows that it is included as a promise of hope to believers to encourage them to continue to the end. As I mentioned to Ben last week, and which he mentioned at the prayer meeting, there's a story of a young man who was a school janitor who was seen reading revelation, and when challenged if he understood it, replied, it's simple. Jesus wins.

The passage we had read this morning comes after the opening of the first six seals, when we read about, amongst others, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. So with bated breaths, this letter. We're waiting to see what the 7th seal will bring. And then John puts this little interlude in. I'm going to read it again after this.

I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. You might want to have the passage in front of you. When John asks who this multitude is, he's told, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in the temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

This multitude, this massive crowd, is made up for people from every nation, tribe, people and language, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham that his heir to be from every nation. And it's a promise which is now for everyone who believes in Christ. It is a vast, multinational, multiracial, multilingual crowd. God's family is huge. It's humongous.

To put it into context, the Wycliffe Bible translators estimate that there are 6800 different languages on earth representing every nation, tribe, background, ethnicity and culture, including ours. Now, in our church today, we've had orders of the service that are in English, Mandarin and Ukraine. That's three. There are literally thousands of other languages on earth, and they are all represented before God. They're all worshipping God.

What a glorious, yet absolutely mind blowing picture.

Note, it says, they are standing before the lambda. In the previous chapter, the question has been asked, who shall stand? That is, who is going to be left after all the horrors and tribulations shown in chapters three to six? And here we have our answer. But it does put me in mind of the question that we've seen in psalms when we hear, if you, Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness that we can, with reverence, serve you.

But another question. How are they there? Well, they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Bit of a contradiction, washing things in blood and making them white. No, they've not been washed white by tears of repentance or any other sacrifice.

That washing white has been made possible because of the sacrifice of Christ. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. These robes are for all faithful believers and symbolise that they have been made cleansed and made righteous.

All believers, you and me, this family, and in this wonderful picture, this multitude are before the throne of God, waving palm branches as a symbol of victory and worship in him. This very God, whom Moses could not look upon, will shelter them with his presence. And Jesus, both lamb and shepherd king, leads them to live in water. It's a direct reference to Isaiah.

If we have accepted Christ, if we have confessed our sin, received his forgiveness and followed him, allowed his spirit to work in and through us, then we will join this great multitude in heaven. One John 217 reads, the world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Our physical family is important. Our spiritual or church family is also important, as they will support and encourage us to live and witness for Jesus. But we live knowing that our eternal family will be in heaven. This is the hope of the gospel of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus and our life here on earth as part of this family, but also for our life to come as part of God's eternal family. Amen.

Thank you so much, Claire, for that. I love that picture that Claire used. Jesus, our brother. Yesterday I was at a wedding, and it was my niece's wedding, so my brother was doing the father of the bride speech, and there are lots of speeches, and some of them went on quite a way. But when Mark stood up, I was tuned in.

I was like, that's my bro. That's my brother. I'm listening to every word. I'm laughing loudly at every joke. Why?

Because that's my brother.

Jesus does that for you. That's my brother. That's my sister. Because we're family. And one day we will delight at an even greater wedding.

And we will sing praise and glory to him. We will cast our crowns before him and he will invite us to join him on his throne. That's my sister. That's my brother. What a beautiful picture.

Our final song this afternoon. It's not been that long. A service this morning is one where we are turning our eyes to Jesus. It includes. It's an old hymn, but it's got some new verses and a chorus, but it includes these.

Turn your eyes to the heavens, our king will return for his own. Every knee will bow and every tongue will shout all glory to Jesus alone. Let's sing together.