In a sense, I didn’t need to be reminded this morning in my daily readings, that the church is a family. That’s been the topic of our Equipping Hour (formerly our Adult Sunday School class) for the past few weeks. We’ve been talking about family matters and considering why family matters. But that believers are called to be the family of God and that, as such, they are to regard themselves as a family, hit home afresh this morning as I read Acts 15 and observed two words used repeatedly.

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.” . . . And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. . . . And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” . . . but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.   (Acts 15:22-23, 32-33, 36, 40 ESV)

There was debate amongst the early church. Given that, initially, the gospel had gone to the house of Israel and that the first believers were Jewish, when God, through Peter, showed that the good news was for all people, even Gentiles, it created a bit of stir. Those outside the law given through Moses were receiving and believing the message concerning the Messiah . . . they were, by faith, acknowledging Christ as Savior and Lord . . . they were being saved . . . they were receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit . . . they were in.

But they weren’t circumcised “according to the custom of Moses” . . . so how “in” where they really? Thus, the council meeting at Jerusalem. Thus, the determination by the apostles, through the discernment given by the Holy Spirit, that requiring the yoke of the law to be placed on the neck of the Gentiles, which the Jews themselves were unable to bear, was not part of the salvation deal. Thus the affirmation that salvation is through the grace of the Lord Jesus alone (15:11) . . . end of story.

And so, “the brothers,” those of Jewish background, wrote a letter to “the brothers,” Gentiles, formerly referred to as “the dogs” (Matt 15:26-27). And so, leading men of the church in Jerusalem went and “encouraged and strengthened the brothers” in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. And so, the brothers who were formerly “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12), sent off in peace the brothers with whom they had now been reconciled into one family through the cross of Christ. And so Paul determined to visit the Gentile brothers and were commended by the Jewish brothers to the task and “to the grace of the Lord.”

Jew and Gentile . . . one in Christ. Circumcision and non-circumcision united as children of God.

The church is a brotherhood. More than congregants, we are a family. More than members on a roll, we are brothers and sisters on a journey.

Thank God for the brothers . . . and the sisters.

To Him be glory in the church . . .