Sermon Study Guides

Jesus-Shaped Family
Bob Rognlien
February 21 / 22, 2026

     There are two major spiritual pandemics in North America today:

  1. Loneliness from isolation and being cut off from relationships, which comes from not being known and not being loved.
  2. Purposelessness, living without a real sense of direction and purpose. Culture taught us that going to school, getting good grades, going to a good college, getting a good job, earning good money, buying a nice car, and living in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, having a nice title will give us meaning in life. But these leave people feeling empty instead.

     The answer to these pandemics is found in following the Way of Jesus.

     John 14:6 tells us that The Way + The Truth = The Life

     Many Christians focus primarily on the Truth of Jesus, but often feel disconnected from the Way of Jesus, from how He actually lived. 

     Jesus modelled patterns and rhythms for: reaching lost people, building spiritual family, and making disciples who can make more disciples.

     Jesus calls people not only to “Believe in me,” but also to “Follow me.” We need both.

     To better understand the Way of Jesus, we also need to know the culture, history, context, and even the archaeology of the Scripture. 

     In Jesus’ time, people lived in an oikos. An oikos is a household where the extended family lived. It included multiple generations and even non-blood relations as a shared life, protection, and family business.

     When Jesus spoke in the synagogue (Luke 4:16), His oikos (family) was with Him. But when people rejected Him (Luke 4:28-30; Mark 6:4), His oikos deserted Him.

     Jesus then went to Capernaum (Luke 4:31), where He already knew Andrew, Simon Peter and John from when He got baptized. Simon Peter invited Jesus to his own oikos, and Jesus demonstrated a new way of being family. Jesus welcomed everyone (Mark 2:1-2), not just a biological family, but a spiritual family. He invited people whether they were Jews or Gentiles, people of all social classes, and even the demon possessed. It’s not just Inward-focused, but OUTward-focused. Jesus redefined family as those living out the mission of God in the world (Mark 3:34-35).

     Jesus’ followers continued His model. In Acts, churches functioned as spiritual families living together (Ephesians 2:19-20).

     This leads to a vision of a Jesus-shaped family:

  • Not choosing between family OR mission
  • Not having both family AND mission separately, often being pulled to one way or the other
  • Not regarding family AS mission, our mission is bigger than just our nuclear family
  • But a family ON mission, as we do God’s mission together as a family.

     A Spiritual Family on Mission is “a houseful of people sharing life together, welcoming lost people, and making disciples.

     “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10

     We’re not meant to do it alone. We’re meant to do it as part of an extended spiritual family.

Study Questions
IN - PURSUE RELATIONSHIP
  1. Who was one of your best teachers? What made that teacher so special?
  2. What weekly or yearly family events and traditions do you celebrate?
  3. Have you ever felt welcomed as a part of a family that wasn't your biological family? What was that experience like? 

UP - PURSUE GOD
  1. Read Luke 4:14-30. How did those in Nazareth’s synagogue initially respond to Jesus' message? Why? Then why did they turn on Him? What were the results?
  2. Read Mark 3:31-35; Luke 4:31-44. When Jesus went to Capernaum, how did He form a new concept of family, an oikos?  

OUT - PURSUE MISSION
  1. What part of a spiritual family encourages you? If you’re a part of a community or a spiritual family, what more can your community do? Explore ideas with your group.
  2. Just as Jesus invites people to His spiritual family, can you invite someone into your family? Take a minute and ask God who He is highlighting. Share with your group and pray for each other. 

Personal Reflection

Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Is reaching out to people who don’t know Jesus yet a part of your daily life? How can you more effectively show compassion and share the love and message of Jesus in your community? What step of faith is the Lord prompting you to take? 

Note: If you’re not part of a Centre Street Church community, talk to your Campus or Community Pastor. You can also check out: Welcome to Community.

The Word (NIV)

Luke 4:14-30 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Mark 3:31-35 31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Luke 4:31-44 31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. 
40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Ephesians 2:19-20 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 

Luke 19:9-10 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This Week's Writers: Sandi Somers, Bruce McKay and Jorel Quemuel