Fellowship
Introduction:
Before we begin, what is, exactly, fellowship? The Greek word for fellowship, “koinonia”, comes from a root meaning common or shared. So fellowship means common participation in something either by giving what you have to the other person or receiving what he or she has. Give and take is the essence of fellowship, and give and take must be the way of fellowship in the life of the body of Christ.
This morning we’re going to briefly cover the three areas in the life of the Christian, which need to be saturated with this idea of fellowship.
I. With God and Christ Jesus
1. I Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
2. Fellowship with God is so essential and so foundational for the life of the Christian that I am not sure that I can adequately cover it in just one sitting. This fellowship is a necessary element in you maintaining your faithfulness to Christ.
a. This fellowship is achieved and strengthened in so many ways. Every time that you sit down and study your bible, pray, and worship Him, either in private or in a group, you are working at the goal of establishing this fellowship.
b. But it goes even deeper than that. Your fellowship with your savior is deepened and strengthened when every time you decide to walk your talk. Everywhere you go, and everything you do has to match up with the claims that you make about your faith in God. If not, your fellowship with him suffers.
c. And that fellowship is strengthened every time that you get together with other Christians for the purpose of fellowship.
3. This bonding and communing with your savior, who gave His life for you on the cross at Calvary, is the most intimate, meaningful, and purposeful of all relationships, ahead of even the relationship shared between a man and his wife.
4. Fellowship with God is also a necessary element in one of the most important goals in the life of the Christian, and that is molding yourself into the image of the Savior, and taking on His likeness. More of Him, and less of me.
a. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to THIS world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.”
II. With Non-Believers
1. This has got to be one of the most difficult areas in the life of a Christian. It has to have such a perfect balance in order for us to be able to be effective not only in our personal walk, but also in our evangelistic efforts. Not to mention for us to have a scriptural perspective on the world.
2. Please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6:14-15
3. We need to understand something very important today. Fellowship and friendship are not the same. . . they are 2 different things altogether.
a. Friendship is, of course, being friendly with another person. Friendly gestures, friendly talk, friendly card games, friendly is friendly.
b. But fellowship is something that is shared by a group of people with the common bond that is the blood of Christ. Fellowship includes friendship, but it also includes some things that you can’t “get” anywhere else. Things like, accountability, exhortation, encouragement for you faith, and the big one. . . a commandment and blueprint from God Himself!
4. Another way we should look at it is from the flip side in that from a one aspect, we do need to be nothing more than friends with people of the world, until the time, of course, when they become fellow Christians. A friendship with someone can allow you to be in the world, and not OF it. BUT, if you have fellowship with the world, it not only puts you in the world, but it makes you OF the world too! And that is the reason for the need to find that perfect balance!
5. We can’t forget that we do have an urgent responsibility to non-Believers. That responsibility is laid out for us in the Great Commission, in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. . .“
6. And we need to also keep in mind 2 Peter 3:9, which reads, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for ANY to perish but for ALL to come to repentance.”
a. We cannot become lax in the stand that we take with our non-believing friends, co-workers and family members. Of course it would be easier to just remain comfortable and never bring up the topic of God or salvation, but what good are you doing that person when you do that? NONE! In fact, you’re doing them bad!
b. If they know you are a Christian, and you never talk to them about your faith, then they WILL come to the conclusion that it’s not important. . .not to you, and not to them.
c. We can’t see people like, “I’ll tell them. . . and them. . . but not them.”
7. And one last note on this, we need to be careful with our relationships with those who practice false religion. Those include those who don’t acknowledged God as the only god, and Christ as His Son, the promised Messiah. It also includes those who hold other books than the bible as inspired works of God. It would even go so far as to include those who teach unscriptural ways of attaining salvation.
III. With Other Christians
1. In Acts 2:42 we read, “They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
2. Fellowship was and still is necessary for a Christian to grow in his walk with the Lord.
a. Every Christian needs to be around others, and especially those who are more established in their faith. I think that this is a great way to learn how to “be” a Christian, by imitating those who have been in the Lord for much longer than you have.
b. For those who have been in the Lord for a long time and are established, fellowship is important because you need to set the example for those who are new to the church, and looking for answers on how to do this “Christianity thing”.
3. One important lesson that I learned in my limited number of years as a minister, is that even the teacher is a student, and sometimes the student becomes the teacher. To those of you who teach, I can guarantee to you that your students will learn more than what you say, they will learn what you do too. . . maybe even more so!
4. Either way, we need to remember the Great commission. God gave it to us because he wants His church to make progress and to grow, not only in numbers but also in spiritually.
ILLUS: An old farmer frequently described his Christian experience by saying, “Well, I’m not making much progress, but I’m established!” One spring when he was hauling some logs, his wagon wheels sank down to the axles in mud. Try as he would, he couldn’t get the wagon out. Defeated, he sat atop the logs, viewing the dismal situation. Soon a neighbor who had always felt uncomfortable with the farmer’s worn out testimony came along and greeted him, “Well, brother Jones, I see you’re not making much progress, but you must be content because you’re well-established!”
5. The fellowship with other Christians also provides the needed accountability for you to grow in your faith.
a. The kind of accountability that I’m talking about can ONLY come from another brother or sister in Christ.
ILLUS: The Atlantic Monthly (11/94) told about superstar tenors Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti performing together in Los Angeles. A reporter tried to press the issue of competitiveness between the three men.
“You have to put all of your concentration into opening your heart to the music,” Domingo said. “You can’t be rivals when you’re together making music.”
That’s also true in the church.
b. I think that the biggest downfalls of the church, and this one is probably no exception, is that there isn’t enough accountability going on between Christians. And when this happens, the church suffers greatly. What happens is that we know that a brother or sister is messing up in their walk, whether it’s infidelity, substance abuse, or they start running with the wrong crowd at school or start dating the wrong kind of person; either way, this happens because we say nothing.
c. We say nothing because we’re more concerned with that person getting mad at us than helping them keep up in their walk.
d. And then there are those of us who are the ones messing up, and we take offense, and say things like, “Why don’t you pull the plank out of your OWN eye.” Jesus and Paul make it perfectly clear that we are to admonish one another. Admonition is, “the training by word, whether by encouragement, or, if necessary, by reproof or to reason and plead in protest, all for the sake of keeping another from falling into sin.”
ILLUS: But too often we confuse love with permissiveness. It is not love to fail to dissuade another believer from sin any more than it is love to fail to take a drink away from an alcoholic or matches away from a baby. True fellowship out of love for one another demands accountability.
6. Fellowship with other Christians also establishes teamwork
a. Teamwork, Christianity, and evangelism are inseparable. They are a team effort. Consider this verse, Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
b. What about Acts 12:12, where Peter was let out of prison because a group of Christians were together praying for it. “And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.” The servant girl who answered the door and saw him standing there couldn’t believe her eyes!
7. And finally this morning, Fellowship builds unity.
a. Paul wrote, in Philippians 2:1-4, let’s turn there.
b. Unity happens when we are intent and focussed on our purpose, and glued together in the Spirit and in brotherly love.
i. Like anything else of any value, a lot of HARD WORK is involved in accomplishing this level of fellowship.
ii. But nonetheless, it’s needed for the church to function as it was meant by God to function.
c. Do you want to know what the glue is that holds this unity together? Let’s find by turning over to Colossians 3:12-14
d. LOVE= can’t have unity without it!
e. And you know what? Not only is love necessary for unity, but also for our mission of the church to be effective in this world. I say that because of what Jesus said to His disciples in John 13:35, “By this all men will KNOW you are my disciples, if you have LOVE for one another.”
f. A comedian once said that there could be union without unity: tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline.
CONCLUSION: As we come to a close this morning, I want to encourage and challenge everyone to rethink why they are here. To think outside of the box. To think beyond what is on the surface. And to think past all of the clutter and junk that Satan places in front of us to get our focus off of Christ and His church.
And most importantly this morning, everyone here needs to think about where he or she is, and what they need to do to step it up to the next level. For you is it that you’ve been lazy in your personal disciplines; your study and prayer life? Is it that you haven’t taken the opportunity to BE an active, vibrant Christian?
INVITATION: Or, is it that you have a decision to make, to make Jesus Lord of your life and your personal savior, by being baptized into Him? I say to you the same thing Ananias said to Paul, “Now why do you delay? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”
