Key Verse:
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, Ephesians 3:14-17
Aim Of The Study
To understand what families are on earth and then what families mean in the Kingdom of God. To know how we fit into this heavenly kingdom now and to be released under our heavenly father to establish His Kingdom on earth through families.
Key Questions
· What is a family here on earth?
· What does a family look like in the Kingdom of God?
· How did God create us to live?
· How does God use families?
· Who is the head of our family?
1. Definition of Family
Family in Strong’s is #3965 Patria (pat-ree-ah) which means paternal descent, ie: a group of families or whole race (nation).
Patria, primarily 'an ancestry linage' signifies in the NT a' family or tribe'. It is used
1. Of the 'family' of David Lk 2:4 'Lineage.
2. In the wider sense of 'nationalities, races. Acts 3:25 'kindreds.
3. In Eph 3:15, 'the whole family,' the reference being to all those who are spiritually related to God the Father. He being the author of their spiritual relationship to Him as His children, they being united to one another in 'family' fellowship.
Family in Dictionary.com means:
· A basic social unit which consists of parents and their children.
· A social unit that consists of one or more adults with the children they care for.
· People who are descended from the same linage.
· A group of people who form a household under one head and includes parents, children and servants.
2. God created us to live in family and expand as a family. And more!
First, we were made in His image.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26
Even though we may not be linked to a family on earth, the spiritual reality is that God is linking us together in His spiritual kingdom.
6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Psalm 68:6
Next, we in marriage become one with each other.
8 and the two shall become one flesh’; [a] so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Mark 10:8
30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Ephesians 5:30
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23
But the model works only when God is central to the union.
12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12
We are only able to walk in strength as a body of family when we walk together, working together and submitting to the head which is Jesus the Christ.
5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Romans 12:5
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— Ephesians 4:15
We can walk in strength when we submit to Christ as wives submit to husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27
3. We have a family in the Kingdom of God. This is because we are a family.
We who believe move from being subject to the King to being children who grow up in maturity to become sons.
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; Ephesians 4:13
In God’s plan we are predestined to be part of His Kingdom family.
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, Ephesians 1:5
As a body of Christ, we are joined with the body
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Eph 4:16
4. God uses us as families in His Kingdom.
God started by showing how all the family of God is established through faith. The earthly family of God was established through Abraham by faith, through which all the nations of earth would be blessed.
12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
When Jesus came he was the fulfilment of this blessing. This blessing was then to usher in the start of a new family established through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This new family is based on the entry of the Kingdom of God through faith. This means we walk in newness of life.
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4
In Genesis God initially told the family Fill the earth and subdue it. Our role is to fill and subdue the earth. (See also Genesis 9:1)
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28
We are also shown in Habakkuk 2:14 that this filling of the earth is not just about people but filling the earth with the knowledge of the Glory of God.
14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
5. Jesus the Christ is the head of the family of God.
We submit to the head of the family who is the father of our Lord Jesus the Christ in whom we have access to his amazing blessings. This is all established in faith and outworked in love.
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,[a] 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, Ephesians 3:14-17
Conclusion
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, Ephesians 3:14-17
God is calling us not only to establish physical families on the earth but we now being established as an eternal family in the Kingdom of God. We have been made to live in a physical family which is established through marriage and our union with God. As God’s people we are predestined to become part of the Kingdom family which is called the body of Christ. We can only be an effective member of the body of Christ of the 'Family' of God when we are first filled with the Spirit and then are connected to the family of God which He is using to fill the Earth with His glory.