A couple of weeks back we opened up the discussion of discipleship @ Cross Pointe Church. In that message, we looked @ how giving and fellowship are important keys in discipleship.
I’d like us to take a closer look at fellowship, specifically Christian Fellowship and how it applies to the believer.
Before we go there, I’d like to share this quote with you, because I think sometimes we have a misconception of what fellowship is:
The fact that we share social activities with other Christians does not of itself imply that we have fellowship with them.
J. I. Packer
We will examine 4 aspects of Christian Fellowship:
• Fellowship with God
• Fellowship with Jesus
• Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
• Fellowship with others
Although we will cover several passages today, the message will be somewhat centered around 1 John 1:1-9.
Let’s begin by a few definitions of and the original Greek of a few words
Fellowship-Fellowship is participation, sharing, and communion around the embrace of the gospel by the people of God.
• Kiononia (koy-no-ne-a) intimate fellowship. It is the same word for communion translated 15 times in the NT. In an unusual sense, the text and context of the word is the same in all 15 passages. Having common ideas, beliefs, activities and interests.
abide: stay; remain; continue
Dwell: to pitch tent, to tabernacle
1John1:1-9 (read from my bible)
Stand with me as we honor God while reading His word together.
Without going into a verse by verse, I’d like to recap and comment on this passage before we go into this message a little deeper.
• I am growing to love John’s epistles. His passion is contagious.
• The point of this opening is to ground the authority of John’s preaching: he has preached what he has seen and heard.
• Those who deny the incarnation deny what they were not there to experience.
• John asserts himself as a counter-witness to the incarnation-deniers, and a better witness: he was there; they were not.
• Furthermore, this verse includes the first purpose statement of the letter:
• John proclaimed this truth so that his readers “may have fellowship with us,” the apostolic witnesses, who are in fellowship with God.
• The issue addressed by the letter, as we discover in 2:19, is that a group who deny the incarnation have left the fellowship of the church.
• John declares his eyewitness authority in order to keep the people in fellowship with him and other orthodox believers because they, not the dissenters, are truly in fellowship with God.
Fellowship with God:
Set up the creation story:
• God created the heavens and earth
• Created Adam and the garden
• Created all the animals
• Created Eve from Adam’s rib
• Genesis 2:25 “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
• They were not ashamed because there was no sin. They were in perfect fellowship or communion with God.
• Right off the bat, we see there are roadblocks to Fellowship with God. Temptation rears his ugly head, and sin entered the world.
• We are warned of this roadblock in 1 John 2:3–4 “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
• The truth is not in Satan, as we see his cunning ways in the Garden of Eden. He is a liar.
• One way we stay in Fellowship with God, is by keeping His commandments.
• We can see throughout David’s life that he desired Fellowship with God. He is lamenting his struggles when he writes
Psalm 51:10–12 NKJV
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
I love what Moses writes about Fellowship with God in Exodus 33:14–17 “And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.””
• Moses is emphatic when He tells the Lord “We don’t want to do this without You”
• That is desiring Fellowship with God. Moses knew he couldn’t and didn’t want to do it without God’s presence.
• How much do you desire Fellowship with God?
• Is it a desperate desire such as Moses or David had?
Easton’s Bible dictionary defines “Fellowship with God” as “consisting in the knowledge of His will; agreement with His designs, mutual affection; enjoyment of His presence; conformity to His image, and participation of His joyfulness”.
Another aspect of Christian Fellowship is:
Fellowship with Jesus
1 John 2:6 “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
• Remember to “abide” is to stay, remain or continue
• John is saying if Jesus is to stay, remain and continue in us, we must walk as He walked.
• Fellowship with Jesus requires us to conform to His image in every way.
• Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 3:16–18 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—”
• Paul is saying when we Fellowship with Jesus we:
• Will be strengthened through the Holy Spirit
• He will dwell (pitch tent with, tabernacle with) us in our hearts
• We will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God
Paul reminds us that God is faithful with these words of encouragement:
1 Corinthians 1:9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Although we are told in Romans 8:38–39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There can be roadblocks to avoid as we seek Fellowship with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”
• Unequally yoked with unbelievers
• Righteousness and lawlessness can’t co-exist
• There can be no communion (that is: sharing, participation or intimate fellowship) between light and darkness
• Paul is not saying have nothing to do with those who don’t believe in Jesus, because we are called to bring the unsaved to Christ.
• We do need to set boundaries because we will not be on the same page when it concerns principles and spiritual matters.
And lastly:
Without Fellowship with Jesus, there can be no Fellowship with God. As born-again believers, our Fellowship begins with Jesus.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
A third aspect of Christian Fellowship is:
Fellowship with Others
If any of you are in positions where you can enjoy Christian fellowship, and you have an opportunity of earning ten times as much money in another position where you must give up that fellowship, do not do it.
Christians Kept From Sin, Volume 53, Sermon #3037 -1 Samuel 25:32, 33
Charles Spurgeon
When we fellowship with other believers, our fellowship must be centered around the gospel.
In true Christian fellowship, we experience growth individually as well as in the body of Christ.
We see it in communion:
• 1 Corinthians 10:16 “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (the intimate fellowship) of the body of Christ?”
• As we observe The Lord’s Supper today, let us also be reminded not only of what Christ did for each of us, but how His sacrifice must be what draws us closer to each other in intimate fellowship. He is our common bond.
• This fellowship helps us sharpen each other as explained in Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
Let’s look at 3 passages in Philippians:
Philippians 1:5 “for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,”
• Our fellowship should be in the gospel of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:19 “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,”
• A primary responsibility towards each other is prayer.
Philippians 2:1–2 “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”
• Any consolation (comfort or encouragement) in Christ
• Any fellowship of the Spirit
• Any affection and mercy (remember that definition of Fellowship with God included mutual affection?)
• Paul is exhorting that they fulfill his joy by being like-minded, having same love, being of one accord and of one mind
Are you devoted to Fellowship with God, Fellowship with Jesus, Fellowship with the Holy Spirit and Fellowship with Others?
Acts 2:42–47 “all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper). Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
• We must be unified in our Fellowship with Others-that entire passage is about unity.
• Here’s evidence of unity in the body of Christ:
• When your presence is felt at church and in the body of Christ, your absence will be felt as well.
• Your being there has an impact
• “I miss you already”- Scene from When Harry met Sally
Last week I said discipleship is work-that 4 letter word.
So if fellowship is part of discipleship
and discipleship is work, then fellowship must be work too, right?
How about this discipleship and fellowship are actually evidence of another 4 letter word-Love
If discipleship is love, and you love what you are doing, it won’t seem like work will it?
Some roadblocks to Fellowship of Others are broken trust or betrayal, which is worse than attack from an enemy.
• David anguishes over a betrayal from a friend in Psalm 55:12–14“For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng.”
• Our Fellowship with Other Believers is precious and we must treat it as such.
I’d like us to go back to 1 John 1:1–9 (read from my bible)
• “We have seen and bear witness”…Few things more powerful than personal witness.
• In this passage John writes about us having Fellowship with the Father
• He also writes about having Fellowship with the Son
• and about Fellowship with Others
• There is no mention of Fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
• We see that in the 3rd chapter. 1st John 3:24
Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
• When we get to 1 John 3:24 “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
• John tells us Jesus gave us Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
• John 14:17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
• The Holy Spirit has pitched a tent in us
• 2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
• Paul addresses the Trinity in this passage:
• Grace of Jesus
• Love of God
• Intimate Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Our Christian Fellowship begins with:
• Fellowship with Jesus
• If we continue to abide in Jesus, He will remain in us
• This will allow,
• Fellowship with God
• Because Jesus restored the perfect fellowship that Adam and Eve lost in the Garden of Eden
• And our Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
• Allows us Fellowship with Others that gives us the conviction to be witnesses of the gospel
Communion with Fellow Christians begins with our union with God.
What happens when God grants the gift of genuine Christian fellowship? Deep, joyful sharing replaces the polite prattle typically exchanged by Christians on Sunday morning. Sisters and brothers begin to discuss the things that really matter to them. They disclose their inner fears, their areas of peculiar temptation, their deepest joys.
Ronald J. Sider
I read this week last and I just have to share it!
Our vertical relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit must be in line in order for our horizontal relationships with other believers to be effective, loving and growing in each other.
I pray that your vertical Fellowship with the Trinity is so strong and intimate that your horizontal Fellowship with Others is undeniable in it’s beauty and power, in Jesus’ name.
